The world begins to become very, very small the longer that they talk.
There is a feeling dread that creeps through his heart—shadows that squeeze his throat until he feels that he cannot breathe. There is something about the way that she watches him, something about the way that she tilts her head and considers him, like predator may look at prey. He has never much thought of himself as prey—not when the wolves run so wild through is veins—but he cannot help but feel that skittering of nerves on his spine that tell him to not be so sure. He may be out of his league here after all.
Whatever he may have thought was a precursor to friendship fades with the first of her simper and ends with the bomb that she so casually drops. He had heard of Litotes when living in Loess but he had never known the details of it. He had never been able to piece together anything of substance about the other stallion—and, to be honest, he had never really tried. He certainly had no business with the man.
But something about the way that she ties him with Kensa makes his stomach drop.
Something hurt clenches his stomach and then fades into a possessive growl that builds like a roar in the back of his mind. “Why would that matter? Litotes being king?” The question comes before he can stop it and he regrew it the second that it falls from his lips and into the air between them. Regrets it because he thinks he can guess at the answer and doesn’t want to know—can’t know. Can’t know that she belongs to or with someone else. Can’t know that those moments between them were stolen or, worse, lies.
He imagines that she never cared for him or like him at all—that it was just a joke to her.
He was just a passing amusement. A puzzle for her to break.
He nearly chokes on the thoughts that twist up in him and he remains paralyzed before her.
BRIGADE
when I was a man I thought it ended when I knew love's perfect ache
but my peace has always depended on all the ashes in my wake
@[Starsin]