the shadow proves the sunshine || wound

[wound]

S he understands. With every fiber of her being she can understand the guilt that plagues him. She is guilty too — perhaps more-so than him — for daring to long after a man with his own wife snuggled in their marriage bed. But he cannot love outside of Tangerine, not to the same level that he cares for her. Wound knows that if she had a husband to warm her sides against she would find herself equally as unwilling to subject her heart to another. They both harbor the types of souls destined to find their one true love and never toss that romance away. She wonders if she’s damned herself. She prays she hasn’t. When her eyes search for his they see instead the tight clench of his jaw. Wound almost chuckles at the sight of it; he often carries his tension in the marrow of his face and the muscle of his shoulders. On any other day her mouth might reach to press the rigidity away, to tenderly soothe his stress until it dissolves for another sunrise to deal with. But the tension carries itself in her own body too, and she merely watches the movement of his mouth as it forms words. Another sigh falls from her mouth, this one carrying less heavy cargo. “You’ve already given me enough, Warrick.” There’s warmth in her voice now. Though Wound still feels the ache of her sorrow like a chill in her bones, she has learned to move past the agony of life in order to reach the bliss. “We have a beautiful, thriving daughter and Tephra is the best home I could ever dream of.” The constellations spiral above their heads and her face tips toward them, searching the skies once more. “One day someone will come along and this will all be a distant memory.” Her voice is quiet, barely heard among the hush of the tropical foliage and the chuckle of the waves against the shoreline. She can’t tell if she’s trying to convince him or herself. “You’ve known all of this, deep inside,” she admits to him. She’s seen it in the depths of his blue eyes, in the fleeting expressions she glimpses of him, in the moments before Tangerine arrives to the kingdom meetings. “I don’t want me saying it out loud to ruin our friendship. You’re one of my closest friends in Tephra and I don’t think I would be happy without your friendship.” While she can’t have him for the love that could blossom, she still wants him for the deep friendship they already have.

credit to nat of adoxography.

@[Warrick]