we're alone, just like you said, aureus

[basilica]

basilica

“Oh,” she sighs, a soft sound she had not meant to make. But it had sprung up her throat before she even knew it was there, crawled out her mouth before she could stop it.

She could not have anticipated it, the compliment he pays her. Heat pools in her cheeks and she has to avert her gaze as if her lilac eyes might betray the storm of uncertainty brewing beneath the surface. Her grandmother had called her beautiful the first time she’d met her, as had her father, but this is almost certainly the first time anyone has said it without being forced by some sort of familiar obligation. It makes her heart beat funny.

And because she is still young, she will dwell on it long after they part ways again. She will lose sleep wondering what it meant for him to say it.

Her pulse slides sideways through her veins as she drags in a long breath in some attempt to steady herself. Right herself. Kick herself back to center like his calling her beautiful had somehow compromised her equilibrium.

But he gives her something else to focus on and she is grateful for it. She searches his face as the last of the heat drains from her cheeks, searches it for any clue as to what he could have meant. Had he meant that he’d been all right? Or had he simply started a thought and then been unable to finish it?

She swallows thickly and takes one small, shuffling step toward him. She almost reaches for him but stops herself short. “You have been…” she echoes, prompting, with a soft, expectant expression. A brief pause before she asks, “did something happen?”

heaven's gate had
such eloquent graffiti

@[aureus]