04-01-2023, 06:02 PM
Her smile splinters, dissolving fast around the edges of something considerably darker. (Is that fear he sees? A kind of doe-eyed uncertainty?) His heart constricts, but he does not know how to soothe her. He does not know how to fix this thing he has broken. So, for the space of a breath, the two of them merely stand there reflecting their frowns back at each other.
And then, so softly it’s barely there at all, she offers up a sort of apology all her own and he shakes his head. “No,” he says and then pauses to swallow thickly, painfully. (Has he always been so awkward? At least, in his youth, he had been confident in his awkwardness.
Now, though, now he grapples with his own uncertainty.
Although, he thinks, it is almost certainly compounded by the beauty of the thing looking back at him.)
“You didn’t,” he continues, fumbling for anything that might reassure her, “you didn’t do anything.”
Nothing, he thinks, other than exist. He’s never seen such a glorious thing.
She shifts her focus back to the flowers but he cannot force his attention away from her. Still, he nods. He nods and he says, “they’re beautiful.”
He draws in a breath, takes one shy step closer to her, and asks, “what’s your name?”
And then, so softly it’s barely there at all, she offers up a sort of apology all her own and he shakes his head. “No,” he says and then pauses to swallow thickly, painfully. (Has he always been so awkward? At least, in his youth, he had been confident in his awkwardness.
Now, though, now he grapples with his own uncertainty.
Although, he thinks, it is almost certainly compounded by the beauty of the thing looking back at him.)
“You didn’t,” he continues, fumbling for anything that might reassure her, “you didn’t do anything.”
Nothing, he thinks, other than exist. He’s never seen such a glorious thing.
She shifts her focus back to the flowers but he cannot force his attention away from her. Still, he nods. He nods and he says, “they’re beautiful.”
He draws in a breath, takes one shy step closer to her, and asks, “what’s your name?”
— hadrien