she's smoke; Hestoni

[Hestoni]

you were the lightning and i was the tree He nearly chuckles when her fiery spirit flickers through. Even in their eternal death, she wears the traits of a queen wrapped around her shoulders like a well-worn, thick cloak. She only ever let that cloak fall around him (only ever let his fingers touch the charred, scarred skin underneath; only ever let his lips kiss her broad shoulders; only ever let his words soothe her flame-licking tongue), even into the afterlife she draws it closely around her bosom. The soldier smiles (in his serious sort of way) at his fire’s words. Perhaps if their children did not visit, there would be hell to pay. He chuckles to himself quietly – they are already dead. What more could they do to their children? Nonetheless, her cloak is slipping away to reveal the weaker sides of the ghost queen. She cracks against the weight of his words, but he doesn’t regret asking. He knows the pain that was caused by the deaths of the adopted mother and the leopard queen. He spent his nights caressing his flaming lover against his strong chest while she sobbed and hid from the world, the Jungle noise providing a cover-up for the sounds of her heartache. He knows her well, and he notes the way her eyes shift from broken to weak. She mentions the other woman, the sunny girl who pulled him from the shadows long before his dearest ever caught his world on fire. They were both so different, and yet the both coaxed tender smiles to his serious mouth. He sighs heavily, pulling her closer against his chest. “I haven’t been looking, il mio fuoco.” His voice is a deep rumble, full of sincerity and adoration. “Why would I need to when I have everything I ever wanted right here?” At this he kisses her shoulder gently, as if too harshly a touch and she might shatter like a China doll. True, his time with the dancer was treasured and precious, especially their sunshine daughter, but his time with his flaming beloved is far more worthy of his love, if partially for the aged years they’ve spent together. your words were the fire that burned the best parts of me