there's a devil in my brain with a pitchfork and a flame

[elio]

elio

some say I should learn to cry but I only learned how to fight
and I know everything must die but nothing fades like the light

That eager innocence that Nashua wears in his smile makes Elio’s heart stutter to a stop. He watches, grey gaze so very clear for a normally stormy face, as the boy bares his emotions so openly on his sleeve. Even at his most carefree, Elio can’t recall feeling so certain when he was a boy. Envy, a wretched and green thing, clogs his throat and begs to be coughed up. Elio digs a hoof into the pine needles, faltering on such a vile emotion.

“Yes,” comes Elio’s relieved exclamation as Nashua continues to speak. He brings back the smile he didn’t realize had faltered. “Yes, a woman in Loess. She looked like a walking flame, with fur to match her wings,” he adds, his tone catering to a child’s imagination. He hadn’t seen her in a while, actually, and for the briefest moment he balks at the idea of taking Nashua all the way to Loess only to offer disappointment. Elio doesn’t have the kind of heart meant to weather the rises and falls of nurturing children.

But that won’t happen, Elio thinks, then wonders why encountering a child-stranger flusters him more than encountering someone he admires.

“Thank you,” Elio slowly replies to Nash, straightening his head and ruffling his wings against his sides. He is pleased, but in a strange, distant way—one he tries but fails to figure out in the few seconds he has to think. “Do you . . .” he trails off, eyes slipping from Nash’s to the wing hanging loosely on his stomach. Elio twists to lightly wrap his teeth around an especially bright feather, then lets it float gracefully to the forest floor.

“Do you want to keep that?” Elio finally finishes, smiling hesitantly. He isn’t sure if it’s the right thing to do, but it seems like a sweet thing; and he thinks that if he were in Nashua’s position, he’d want a random stranger to be kind and weird.

Hell, I’m being weird.

As a quick recovery, he adds, “I’m Elio. Do you have a name?”

@[Nashua]