There is only the light of surprise in Lie’s eyes because he forgot over the years they did not speak how truly biting Starsin can be. An endless stream of memories plays behind the quietly perturbed golden gaze. His lips fall into a flat, unimpressed line and he breathes in deeply. This is the dance they have done their entire relationship, from affection to suspicion to exhaustion, one always cuts the other.
But with those years of forgetting, Litotes learned to forgive; and unlike their previous encounters—riddled with casualties—he doesn’t overreact nor even think forgiveness necessary anymore.
Perhaps it is the softness of love or the softness of happiness—perhaps both—that dims the fiery gold of his gaze and loosens the hard line of his mouth. He doesn’t dwell on it.
“We’re still doing this after all these years?” Lie asks with a small smile and lilting laugh. “If we’re still doing this, I could say the same thing about Ophanim.” Were it said in any kind of hostile tone, it might have been a crass retort; but Litotes longs for there to be good will and good company between them, so his voice is only gentle and teasing.
A gripping sadness closes around him in the following seconds, clenching his heart and calling shadows to twirl protectively around him. He’s always been the softer of the two, the one incapable of keeping his heart off his sleeve. That history rears its head and begs for him to not show that sadness now, to bare his neck in crystalline vulnerability; but he denies the instincts, the memories desperate to resurface, as the sadness glimmers clearly in his eyes.
“Truthfully, I, uh—I don’t want to do this—argue, or whatever, with you, so.” Lie stops and clears his throat, straightening to his full height as he does.
“I’d love to just talk, Starsin. But I understand if you don’t want to, and I’ll happily respect that.”
as it softly glides across your back
and i hope you leave right before the sun comes up
so i can watch it alone
@Starsin
