Help me out before I drown
Save me now before I give up
It’s hard to break from patterns that he had grown accustomed to. Tiptoeing around issues had become as common to him as breathing. It’s easier than tearing down the walls that he’d carefully placed, less painful to hide behind their protection. Still he cannot completely avoid the tremors of tension that seem to ebb and flow between them. Such as now as she looks at him warmly and he’s left to wonder at her choice of words. The dark eye holds her amber gaze as he asks her quietly, “I imagine you can get into all sorts of good trouble.” His intention is to tease but he can’t help the way his gaze seems to darken, the gold flecks only hinting at what his thoughts had turned to.
Surely some light hearted banter couldn’t lead to any harm could it? Justifying his denial and continuing to dance around that flare of light that flickers in the cold hard glass. It dies slightly as her expression seems to cool under his advice. Internally he scolds himself for not thinking more clearly, Oceane was a proud and regal woman. He had not meant any slight to her and he far from thinks she is incapable. A muscle in his jaw tightens slightly as he takes a few steps closer to her. “Forgive me Oceane, it was not my intention to imply that you don’t know what you’re doing.” His muzzle extends to briefly nudge her shoulder, a light touch and nothing more. “I’ll remember to keep my advice to myself unless asked for.” He ends with a slight smile, the mahogany of his gaze searching the sunset of her iris’s in earnest.
They move on from his indiscretion and there’s a moment as his voice, rough and husky, reaches her and something flickers over her expression. It happens so quickly he’s unsure of what it was. All he knows is that it’s a look that makes his stomach twist with apprehension and as she breathes ”For Loess, then.” it leaves a slight ache deep within his branded chest. A wounded feeling, how his pledge to her is easily swept to the side. As if he hadn’t said it for her at all. “For Loess.” He agrees but the words seem strained and his smile fades slightly, lips pressed tight against his humility.
It’s one blow after another, he’s not ready for the gut punch Oceane throws next although he absolutely should have considered it. Should have said something earlier. Now it’s too late. Tephra. She says and there’s a roaring in his ears. "Some of the residents might remember you fondly.” There’s a rush through his veins, the adrenaline kicked into gear as his lungs constrict and his throat tightens. It had taken him days to work up the courage to step on the black sands when he had first returned. Days to merely step close to the border to say his goodbyes to the wind and sea. Because he didn’t know if she still lurked there. He has no idea where Ellyse or Dahmer were and hopes to never find out.
Going back there… The thought of facing them. How can he save his own pride now after offering his help? How can he ask her to send him anywhere but there? The panic rises and breaches like a tidal wave and he is no longer looking at Oceane, his gaze fixed on a point just beyond her shoulder. As if he can see Ellyse there, curled beside her dark lover, a smirk dancing on her traitor’s mouth. He can still hear her speak of Cheri but he cannot focus on this new request, not when the claws from the first have latched so firmly and deeply into him. “Not there.” Is all he finally manages, every muscle coiled beneath the puckered pink scars of his ravaged chestnut coat. The gentle curve of his ears hidden beneath the mass of tangled snowy forelock, a wild look in his metallic fleck eye. “I’m sorry Oceane but I cannot go back there.” A rush of words in a sharp gasp of breath, unable to keep the sound of Ellyse’s broken promises from replaying over and over again in his head or the strong scent of copper (the soft drip of blood hitting sand) from his oversensitive nostrils. Anything but that. Anything.
Ledger
@[Oceane] all aboard the hot mess flirting express!!