this time I’m torn, please wake me if I lose that face
search in these eyes: there’s still fire in the darkness
"You keep saying that. But you have no idea just how impossible I am."
She glanced at him with a grin, her eyes sparking and a tease so quickly on her lips. "Ohhh, mysterious." She laughed lightly, feeling the lightest she'd felt in so many years. The holiday festivities were infectious, and his company and humor delighted her further. And his touch when he played with her hair made her shiver. She blushed.
He shrugged at her question and said he'd lived in many places. Then he shook his head and apologized. The cryptic half-answers came to him so naturally, but he tried again.
"I currently don't have a real home. I am watching over my sister in Tephra, and I have loosely given my support to Nerine, but I don't consider either my home." She nodded. He'd never seemed the type to her to stay in one place, which made it confusing why she was so drawn to him. She was so completely his opposite, and gladly would've remained in Ischia for the rest of her life if it wouldn't have guaranteed her family getting infected.
It made her doubt that they would work out, not that he was that interested, and she fell quiet.
"My name is very large and far reaching," she snorted suddenly and smirked, because his name was not the only thing very large and far reaching, "but I only really care about my twin sister." She grinned so hard her cheeks hurt, held her bottom lip under her teeth to try so hard not to burst out laughing.
"What of you, Wallace? I know you live here and previously lived on Ischia and little else."
She tucked away her mirth as tight as she could, her mouth still wide and partly open with a smile. She shrugged. "There is little else to tell," she admitted, though her joy dimmed slightly. She'd not had an easy start in life and it wasn't something she typically shared. She simplified it, brushing aside the struggles and the loss she'd gone through. It was no big deal. She was in a better place now. She was doing well for herself, all on her own and by her own actions.
"My twin and I lost our mother, and then I lost her too. The fairies took care of me in the den until a kind woman adopted me. The world ruptured and I lost her too when everyone had to run to the mountain without their magic. I found my way to Ischia alone, and stayed there. I have lived nowhere else. My children have lived nowhere else."
Ischia was home and they'd return once it was safe again. If whatever ruler was there allowed them and wasn't a complete idiot. She didn't really get along well with many and had a hard time tolerating stupidity.
"Could you ever see yourself settling in one place?" she asked, moving the focus away from her, a little hesitant to hear the answer, but it was one she'd need to know. If she was going to let herself grow fond of the beautiful bastard. Although still, he was at least finding his way into friendship and that didn't require him to stay.
