05-30-2018, 02:06 PM
He revels in the stories of her skin, the blood that simmers beneath the motley shoulder. The same blood that seethes in his own veins. Her presence is enough to build a brittle bridge over the chasm of insecurities and regret in him. He needs her, he thinks. The eye of the storm – the hearth to his icy darkness. His shadows croon contentedly– a masterpiece of shapes and silhouettes against her skin. She has ever been made to walk in his world.
A breath hitches behind his teeth – he does not think he can get any closer to home than this. But Khaedrik is a spiderweb of cracks and severed hopes. His heart is a barren wasteland and his soul a shaft of monsters and ruin. He is vulnerable now – when night holds him close, and the sweet smell of familiarity slows the beat of his heart, but Khaedrik is a riptide – commander of monsters with unhinged jaws and fanged mouths. How long can he save her from the madness that creeps, serpent-slow, through his mind?
The smile that held dominance over his face fades to memory and myth as she speaks of mother and father. He thinks of mother – who is all that is giddy and unwanted, everything unnoticed save for the lavishes of contempt – spindly legs, small eyes, a coat of dullest brown. And father – regal, proud, and sensible. So different from the likes of him – as though the great palms that had shaped his sister had grown careless at the making of Khaedrik. His shadows twirl around them, as if his sisters’ words have stirred some archaic restlessness in them. He snarls; a low growl from the pit of his stomach – a warning, eldritch and bizarre.
”I will stay as long as I can” he answers (where has he learnt these half-lies?) because it is part truth. He will not part from her so soon, not when they are finally together – when she is the part of him that is benevolent and true. He kisses the tears away from her cheeks, a brotherly gesture, and it almost makes him feel normal. As if he could, in fact, spend the rest of his days here with her.
”I have an old… friend… I need to visit first. In Nerine.” he says; as if the fact that he has friends should somehow surprise her like some great and terrible secret. ”But first I need to meet your family!”
A reassuring bump of his golden nose against her skin, and a tendril of whisper-thin shadow around her neck – ”You know you can always call for me whenever you need me, right?”
@[Kagerus]