With pockets full of stones [Jah-Lilah, Canaan, Any]

[Canaan]

Canaan

And maybe, I'll find out a way to make it back someday.
To watch you, to guide you through the darkest of your days.

  His heart is pounding, hammering against his ribcage while the blood pulsates through his veins, and with every gentle touch and caress of her mouth roving over his own and over the length of his gilded body (touching all that she can along the surface – longing to know that he is real, that he is tangible) and he cannot subdue the crooning from rising from the depth of his throat.

  He, in turn, presses his pale mouth to the gleaming sheen of her vividly colored skin, tasting the salty brine of the sea in the gentle ridge and curve of her hipbone, and along the slope of her spine. There is a desire stirring within him, awakened by the heat of her lips, the urgency of her touch – but he suppresses it. Savoring the warmth of her breath, and the taste of her under his searching mouth, he reminded himself that he would have all of the time in the world to show her how he had missed her – and oh, show her, he would.

  But beneath the mirth and relief of finding him, of finding her, the inevitable had come – the insecurity, the uncertainty frothing thickly, like the forceful and powerful tide lurching onto the pale and sandy shoreline, lapping at the surface of her entire being – threatening to swallow her beneath its depth. He could see the faint staining of tears streaked across her cheek (how can he not? Such a stark and beautiful emerald, his Circinae), but he does not acknowledge it – there is only the pang of guilt and longing left in its wake, yearning to have the time that had been stolen away from them, from their small but beautiful family, though it can never be reclaimed.

  In the very same breath, she has murmured a name (Jah-Lilah, so wild and free) as her feminine body began to wrap around hers, her curves melding perfectly along the deep ridge of her hip. She is pressing herself against her the way a lover might, and it is not lost on Canaan – but his heart does not pine, nor does it fester in jealousy. There is a light flickering within the golden flecks of his gaze, steady upon them both. Stunning, each of them, one leaning into the other with an electricity that is so much more and so much deeper than any power Jah-Lilah wielded – the chemistry is unmistakable, and he can see that Circinae is so very taken with her, and his heart surges – a warm and genuine smile tugging at the corner of his pale mouth.

  ”Jah-Lilah,” he breathes, and nothing more.

   Circinae's laughter is an echo, and when it reaches him, enveloping him in its distinct sound and warmth, he is altogether longing to hear it again – it had been so long, and the stifled emotion of all that he had lost has already begun to surface, flooding him with feeling he had long since buried. When she finally draws away from her striking companion – oh, his gaze had roved over her for a moment, sensing the sheer power and allure in her deep, moving eyes. Jah-Lilah was impossible to miss, with an energy of her own coursing through her veins. He can do little else but offer her the warmth of his smile, a quiet and unspoken expression of gratitude, for giving the wild spirit of his Circinae (of their Circinae, it would seem) all that he could not.

  There would be time later to find where he fit in the dynamic that had been birthed in his absence.

  And when she has returned to him, the glee has faded away from her deep and piercing gaze, and instead, there is grief and sorrow – the very same wretchedness he, himself, had felt for so long in the solitude of his captivity. His lips caress the line of her jaw, trailing soft and pressing kisses across the warmth of her viridescent skin, urging the melancholy remnants of her fragmented heart away (it was not broken, only battered, and bruised – he would mend it, with time – only time could mend the wound that time had created).

  His heart very nearly seizes at the mention of his mother - an unruly blend of anger and tenderness roiling within the pit of his belly at the mention of her - and it clenches painfully within his chest at her soft and forlorn confession, and his mind is elsewhere for a moment, wondering of the sons he had never been able to know himself. She is asking so much of him, and the explanation is bitter and acrid across his tongue. He must collect himself, glancing between his beloved and her companion, with his voice unsteady and treading carefully into an unknown water.

  ”I foolishly fell into a trap. My mother .. she has a spiteful side, and she has made many an enemy over the years,” he says, with an edge of frustration in his voice. He loved her, and his love would never waver, but there is a small tinge of bitterness and ire in his tone. It is foreign, and it tastes of cyanide – poison to the usual calm and serenity of his wild and open heart. ”and unfortunately, I was foolish enough to not question when one of her nemeses came to me, alluding she had been harmed.”

  He pauses then, his gaze flickering to the jagged, dull gray of the precipice lining the shoreline he had been tethered to for what felt like an eternity.

  ”She has some sort of ability to alter what is seen visually, and she disintegrated the tips of my feathers to keep me grounded once she had me beyond the border of Nerine,” he sighed softly, drawing a wing up along his side, glancing to the line of feathers that were still growing – once full and thick, there were not yet enough to provide him the ability to fly. ”and she threatened to disintegrate many other parts of my body to keep me here. More than that, she threatened harm to you, to our boys –“ and that is where the remnants of his anger and frustration lie – the thought of harm befalling any of them had been enough to keep him at bay, biding his time. ”all to make a point to my mother. To keep me here.”

  His gaze is searching hers, now, observing the subtle shift from cobalt to cerulean, his lips brushing away the heavy droplets of tears falling freely, longing to put her at ease. His gaze flickers, observing Jah-Lilah for a moment, and with a faint but heavy nod, he is beckoning her forth. She is no stranger to him if she is so tightly woven around the heart of his beloved.

  ”I would never abandon you, Circinae, nor our boys,” he murmurs, wanting to ask of them, wanting to know every detail he had missed, but there would be time for that. ”I am many things but a deadbeat I am not. I am free now, and we cannot stay here – there is nothing good here in Nerine, and I don’t want to know what will happen if we stay.”

If a great wave shall fall and fall upon us all,
then I hope there's someone out there who can bring me back to you.

@[Jah-Lilah] @[Circinae] omg so sorry for the book. :|