let your fists come undone; lior

[exist]

while collecting the stars, I connected the dots.
I don’t know who I am, but now I know who I’m not.

She is too tired to notice those stone-gray eyes on her while she heals the wounds along his skin, too preoccupied to notice the moment his expression changes, softening enough to let her have a glimpse inside. But she does see it when she is finished and pulls away on unsteady legs, when he leans in with a dark shoulder so that she does not lose her stride.

“Thank you.” Is all she says at first, a quiet voice to a tired face, but then her eyes lift to his and she is both pleased and surprised by the new depth she finds waiting there for her. She smiles gently and touches his neck, an almost uncertain gesture if only because he is still so quiet, so withdrawn, and in a way that she has never been. Then, gently, with eyes that are honest and green and as soft as the feathers on the wings of birds, “you seem surprised by my ability,” a pause as she considered him, “or maybe even the kindness itself.”

But she does not pry despite her question, opting instead to turn from his quiet face and back to the forest that loomed around them. She felt wary of the trees now, wary of the tattered edges of her wings, wary of the sharp edges of shell that now nipped at her spine. It made her miss the softness of the feathers. She turns back to him with a question on her lips but finds instead an answer hummed into the curve of her delicate ear.

“Lior,” she repeats, an echo lost to the trees and their leaves, “my name is Exist.” She is quiet for a long moment, safe in the shadow cast by his dark body, having all but forgotten the question that had been on her tongue only moments ago. But then a twinge along her back reminds her, a sharp and almost inaudible exhalation of pain from dark lips as she turns that delicate face back up to his to catch that stony gaze. “Lior, do you know a way out of the forest?” A pause so she can hide the cringe that darkens her face. Then, just a whisper, “My wings hurt.”

Exist