now and then there's a light in the darkness;
feel around 'til you find where your heart went.
The doubt that lingers within her icy stare is almost enough to unnerve him; he is certain that she can see through the thinly veiled façade and he has never been much of a liar and had little intention of beginning now. Alas, it was easier to push the heavy thoughts from his mind, and it was simpler to omit what was troubling him. He did not need to place the burden on her shoulders, as it was not her weight to carry, but the ease in which he is able to give himself away to her is both cathartic and alarming – and a small ebbing of uncertainty has already begun to crawl inside the tender tissue of his heart, warning him that someone like her could never want someone like him.
He was a wayward spirit; an unshakable enigma. He rarely remained still for long, and he longed for somewhere – anywhere – outside of where he had already been. There is nothing steady or stable about the deeply rooted wanderlust that has consumed him, and yet, there is a small piece of him that would resist the allure of the tightly knit woodland, the starlit sky above, the rolling waves crashing along the jagged shoreline – just to be at her side.
A warmth envelopes the hollow of his cheeks at the thought, inwardly scolding himself for giving weight to the thought – he hardly knew her, and yet – and yet, he felt as if he had always known her. He is drawn away from his reverie by her words. Never loving, never protective. Though he could not imagine it himself, a faint empathetic smile pulls at the pale line of his mouth (he was fiercely protective and affectionate to his own sister; she was knit of the same thread as he – and as such, she was as much a part of him as his own heart).
”Something tells me you are not one that has ever needed protecting, Circy,” a hint of amusement laced in his soft tone. ”and love is something I imagine you are surrounded by.”
And when his confession and the lumbering mass of it has settled in the thin woodland air, his hazel eyes follow the slope of her cheek to her bright, vivid eyes, seeing something hidden away within the icy flecks around the rim. The smile has long since faded away, left with the remnant of a frown as his velvet lips press against the crook of her jawline, where it meets with her long and slender neck.
”It does, doesn’t it?” He muses softly, the golden fragments looming in his own hazel stare observing her for a moment. ”It won’t be with her, though.” A pause, as his brow line furrows in thought. ”She has never felt for me the way I do for her, and I doubt she ever will. Some things are not meant to be.”
It is not a thought he is able to linger on for long, as she emerges to the forefront of their gentle canter, and soon the ache within his chest is forgotten. Her laughter is infectious, and he is smiling again, with a deep chuckle reverberating inside of his throat. I can show you better than I can tell you, and within a single breath, she is suddenly .. a wolf. The carefree simper that moments ago pulled at the corners of his mouth falters slightly as his eyes widen and his heart pounds erratically against the hollow of his breast.
She is small, lined with thick, russet fur and – he cannot help but to take note of the gleaming, sharp teeth protruding from her mouth. A deeply buried instinct urges him to turn, to flee – to leave, at whatever capacity necessary, but a more reasonable and logical piece of him maintains control and he is still. Her soft yip is still every bit as much Circinae as any word she had spoken, and when she is herself again, he cannot restrain the bubbling laughter from within.
”I did not expect that – ah, you were what I was following,” he says as recognition befalls his strong features, a grin now drawing his lips apart. ”you are something else, Circinae. And I mean that in the best way.”
”Come, you’re right - I can hear the waterfall – we’re close.”
