"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
It has been hard, at first, to adjust to the beach sands and the taste of salt in the air. There had been many days when he missed the orange canopy overhead and the towering trees where the rain splashed down every leaf. But he reminds himself it wasn’t Sylva that had ever been special to their family - it had been the memories they’d made. That forest had been where so many of their children took their first steps or chased each other in games of tag. Ophanim realizes that Sylva had only been the backdrop for countless I love you’s and anniversaries and birthdays.
The Cove would be just the same because his love for Starsin is unchanged. The thought of her alone still sends his heart fluttering bashfully in her chest, where ever she is now. He traces the edge of the shore where the tide creeps its way over the sand to barely kiss at his hooves. A long trail of hoof prints maps the path behind him in case their children come searching for him. They argue less and less, and so they rarely require him to referee any of their shouting matches as they grow older, but he likes to be found easily. Ophie still worries they’ll need him, or maybe he just hopes they do.
He feels his wife’s heart knock gently against his ribs. A brilliant smile overcomes his face as he looks over his shoulder and pauses to wait for her. Even as they age and grow, he loves the way she still gets excited to see him too.
Ophanim turns and meets her halfway with a gentle kiss to the corner of her lips. The sun is setting far over the horizon, and he adores the way his halo reflects in the blue of her eyes. He likes to think it matches perfectly with the soft glow of her star-dappled back.
“I met a crab the other day, did I tell you?” he asks as he drapes his wing over her to hold her close to him. “I named her Starsin Junior because she was angry and very cute, and I liked her very much."
Lord, I could never show you anything as beautiful as you.
and let me crawl inside your veins. I'll build a wall, give you a ball and chain.
Her mind has been heavy lately, as much as she tries to pretend that it hasn’t been.
Her anger, though not as quick to spark as it once had been, was still a ferocious thing once unleashed. Ghaul had tested her unreliable patience one too many times, and while on one hand she felt that she acted well within her rights (after all, how could he possibly expect to keep attacking her family and not have her react?), there was also a trace of regret.
She wishes she could have solved the problem without killing her son's half-brother, but the draconic stallion had left her no other options.
Ghaul was not her blood, and she would always, always, choose her family over anyone else.
The Cove was a welcome escape after that. It did not remind her of anywhere else, except maybe for the brief time she and Ophie had spent on Island Resort – and that wasn’t such a bad thing, since the tropical shores had been the setting for the first time they said that they loved each other.
But more importantly, it did not remind her of Loess at all.
She follows the shoreline, letting the lulling sound of the water lapping at the sands become the background to all of her thoughts that race and cross and overlap each other. It's not until she realizes that Ophie is not far ahead of her that her eyes focus and she is once more grounded to the present.
He smiles at her, and the relief that washes over her makes her knees feel weak, and her heart somersaults inside of his chest, while his flutters inside of hers.
She is reminded of why she would kill absolutely anyone that was a threat to those she loves.
Her skin seems to spark where he touches her, and she reaches up to press a delicate kiss of her own to one of the golden streaks that runs down his cheek. She settles in next to him, having always loved the way his wing felt across her back, the weight of it providing the security she always liked to pretend she didn’t need. Her dark blue eyes glance sideways at him when he brings up the crab, and she can't hold back the short laugh that it seems to startle from her tongue. “Does this mean you will stop using that as a name suggestion for our kids?” She reaches over to pull teasingly at his mane, before pressing her side closer into his, and she can feel any lingering tension melt away.
starsin
it’s not like me to be so mean. you’re all I wanted. ( just let me hold you Like a hostage. )
When his life felt more like a hurricane slowly ripping everything apart, she was always the eye of the storm that gave him space to breathe. She puts him back together with just a smile or a laugh. He hopes he does the same for her, as he knows how heavily the past year has weighed on her mind. But he says nothing, never gives voice to the worry brewing in his bones. Ophanim just hugs her a little tighter on the days when her heart hurts and he promises to love her to the very edge of the universe.
The angel boy grins and hums gleefully when she kisses him, the feathers of his wings briefly fluffing with the electricity of her touch. It has always surprised him that every kiss feels like the first with her. He is eager to return the gesture, mapping her cheek with little pecks until she speaks.
A laugh flows golden from his lips at her question. “No, I don’t think I will. I love your name so I’d like another excuse to say it more,” he explains as she pulls at his mane. “Maybe once you give in to Starsin Junior, we can discuss Starsin Two. And Three. And then Five just to catch people off guard.”
He laughs at his own joke and then traces the corner of her jaw with his kiss, always delighted to have his lips pressed up against her skin. Ophie can’t help but wonder how she never gets tired of his constant need for affection with her. Doesn’t it drive her mad, the way he nuzzles his face into her hair when he wakes in the dead of night? But then, he falls in love with her all over again any time she touches him back. Maybe they’ll continue this exponential growth of adoration on into the centuries they’re both alive.
“Anyway, I let her go back to the ocean. There’s a nice Ophie Junior just for her out there somewhere, I think.”
Lord, I could never show you anything as beautiful as you.
and let me crawl inside your veins. I'll build a wall, give you a ball and chain.
He has always been her anchor, the only thing she had to cling to during the worst of storms. She isn’t sure how Ophie sees himself, and she often wonders if he has any idea what he is to her. That he is the unshakable calm to her often mercurial temperament, that even at the peak of her shattering rage he is still the clearest thing that she can see. She does not think she could ever do enough to show him, to remind him daily that he is her everything and the only thing on this earth that she could not be without.
To feel his heart as it beat inside of her own chest is all the reassurance that she needs, though.
To know that it no longer twinges in pain because of her, to know that the moment his eyes find hers it swells and surges stronger than any ocean wave; a reminder that in all the ways that she has failed, she has at least succeeded in this.
Her own heart rushes against the cage of his ribs at the warmth of his lips against her cheek, and she tries to hide her amusement at his newest name suggestions. “You’re planning on us having at least four more kids? I don’t remember agreeing to this.” But the words are spoken around a smile despite her indignant tone, leaning into his touch and pressing closer to him. She had never imagined herself to be the kind of woman that would have as many children as she does, but she doesn’t regret it. Somehow they had managed to create the family that neither of them had had – their children all grew up with their parents and siblings, unlike the two of them growing up with only each other.
“If you named her Starsin Junior, there is definitely an Ophie Junior in the ocean somewhere for her. And it’s a good thing you put her back because Starsins have been known to wreak havoc without Ophies to keep them in line,” she says with a laugh, even though she means every word. She had been destructive enough in her younger years, even with him there; she doesn’t like to think what her lonely fate might have been without him in it.
Her laughter fades, but a faint smile remains when she tilts her head to look up at him. She brushes his pale forelock away from where the coastal breeze had caused it to fall in front of his bright blue eye, and again she trails her lips down the golden streak on his cheek. “And I never get tired of you,” she murmurs, referring to his earlier thoughts. “You do drive me mad, but only in the best way.”
starsin
it’s not like me to be so mean. you’re all I wanted. ( just let me hold you Like a hostage. )
