06-04-2021, 04:13 PM
stifled the choice and the air in my lungs;
better not to breathe than to breathe a lie
He’s surprised at how easily she calls him out, how she paints his regret in shades far lighter than he feels he deserves. Islas doesn’t sound harsh, but her words find his core and wiggle uncomfortably there anyway. Throughout Tiercel’s life, he’s held onto those darker emotions — guilt, jealousy, regret, shame — and it’s no surprise that he would try to do the same now. It’s probably more work than it’s worth, and deep inside he knows that there’s no use trying to feel upset when he’s so thankful that he’s made it home alive.
But he can’t help himself; he wants to feel guilty, and Islas’s soft words remind him that there’s no reason to be.
Tiercel frowns at her question at first, but his face relaxes when she says she’s only ever wanted him here. Whenever he saw her face in his mind’s eye, he’d assumed she’d missed him just as he missed her. He is relieved to know that he was right, that she’s been waiting for him ever since the lake absorbed his spiraling body and placed him on the black clay of the Underworld. Tiercel’s voice matches the gentleness of hers as he says, “That’s all I wanted, too.”
His heart jumps in his chest as Islas admits she would abandon the stars if it meant she could have him. Before the eclipse, Tiercel wouldn’t have understood what such a sentence would truly mean. How could the stars have such an influence on her life? But when they had vanished, he had watched as she faded. Her familiar glow became thin, her steps became heavy and sluggish (and though she was pregnant then, he’d known it was unnatural even still), and black crept up her legs and darkened her face.
To know that she would rather fade than be without him… Tiercel understands that’s as close to saying “I love you” as Islas may manage.
A sigh leaves his chest, and it’s one that replaces the regret with love. The emotion threatens to drown him, to burst the hard shell he’s placed around his heart while he endured the guardian’s horrors, and he feels tears prick at his eyes. What could he say that would amount to what he feels for her? Tiercel thinks there are no words to adequately describe his emotions for Islas.
So instead he amplifies the emotion, wrapping it around them like a blanket to keep away the dark memories that lurk at the edges of his mind. Islas fits perfectly against his side, and her soft, warm curves feel like heaven on his skin. Tiercel pulls her closer, running his mouth down the bend of her neck and the slope of her chest, and he exhales another sigh (this one warmer, with a different intention to it) across her skin. “I thought about you all the time,” he says, and his roughened voice is thick with emotion and heat.
But he can’t help himself; he wants to feel guilty, and Islas’s soft words remind him that there’s no reason to be.
Tiercel frowns at her question at first, but his face relaxes when she says she’s only ever wanted him here. Whenever he saw her face in his mind’s eye, he’d assumed she’d missed him just as he missed her. He is relieved to know that he was right, that she’s been waiting for him ever since the lake absorbed his spiraling body and placed him on the black clay of the Underworld. Tiercel’s voice matches the gentleness of hers as he says, “That’s all I wanted, too.”
His heart jumps in his chest as Islas admits she would abandon the stars if it meant she could have him. Before the eclipse, Tiercel wouldn’t have understood what such a sentence would truly mean. How could the stars have such an influence on her life? But when they had vanished, he had watched as she faded. Her familiar glow became thin, her steps became heavy and sluggish (and though she was pregnant then, he’d known it was unnatural even still), and black crept up her legs and darkened her face.
To know that she would rather fade than be without him… Tiercel understands that’s as close to saying “I love you” as Islas may manage.
A sigh leaves his chest, and it’s one that replaces the regret with love. The emotion threatens to drown him, to burst the hard shell he’s placed around his heart while he endured the guardian’s horrors, and he feels tears prick at his eyes. What could he say that would amount to what he feels for her? Tiercel thinks there are no words to adequately describe his emotions for Islas.
So instead he amplifies the emotion, wrapping it around them like a blanket to keep away the dark memories that lurk at the edges of his mind. Islas fits perfectly against his side, and her soft, warm curves feel like heaven on his skin. Tiercel pulls her closer, running his mouth down the bend of her neck and the slope of her chest, and he exhales another sigh (this one warmer, with a different intention to it) across her skin. “I thought about you all the time,” he says, and his roughened voice is thick with emotion and heat.
tiercel.
@[Islas]