Litotes smiles at Will’s unbridled energy. He relaxes even further, admitting to himself that he enjoys her spunky voice and regal face. She is an oxymoron, confident and proud in appearance but gangly and excited in practice. Deep in his mind, he hopes to know more about her. i don't want your pity, i just want somebody near me
When she tells him she was born here, the territory with mountains and borders, Lie is unsurprised. She almost smells as if she created this land herself (and perhaps she will, her perpetual energy boils dangerously under the surface). Will tells him her birth here was boring, and before he can even think of uttering a word, she is onto the next thing.
Startled and mildly upset, Lie fights the urge to stop walking entirely. His emotions are a candle in the wind, masked as skillfully as a con man masks his giveaway. Memories of Cattail Lake spin behind his eyes at alarming rates. His father (dead), his older brother (missing), his mother (scorned) . . . there was no escaping their eyes once they were in his mind. Litotes had spent a year burying them.
All of this - haggard secrets and repressed emotions - here and gone in an instant. In the sudden, echoing silence in his mind, the haunted man realizes this is why he has hidden for a year.
Litotes believes he cannot face who he was, and now he knows it is confess or die alone.
So caught up in his hurricane thoughts, Lie processes her last sentence a second later than normal. He sighs, padding alongside Will with his eyes to the ground.
“It wasn’t a fear of the not knowing that made it hard to leave, but a fear of knowing exactly what would happen,” he starts, then finishes in an almost silent tone, “I was a fool to live in denial.”
Feeling guilty for being so solemn, Lie forces himself to perk up - something he has not done since he was a child, and something that felt really, really freeing.
“Thank you, Will,” Litotes says with sincerity and a raw smile. He feels so adolescent, so embarrassed - a reminder that he is not the absolute adult he believes he is.
“Now where are these willows you mentioned?” he questions teasingly before breaking into a gallop, hoping to stave off further questions.
guess i'm a coward, i just want to feel all right
@[Warlight] oh my god I am so sorry I write him so dramatically
