leave me at the altar, knowing all the things you just escaped
They are older now than they had been then, which means that the tension that pulses between them is real now. Or, at least, more real than it had been when they were merely children. Children without any understanding of what it meant.
He knows now what it means for the heart to react to her the way it does. He knows now what it means when the muscles shudder and tremble beneath the weight of her roving mouth. He knows now what it means to touch and perhaps this is part of the reason he refrains. Because, though they are older now, these things are still so much bigger than they are.
But she teases him as the false flame dances vibrant across his skin, following her mouth wherever it might roam (wherever it might make him tremble next). He exhales, long and slow, as the corners of his mouth curl up in a sort of rueful smile. No, his mother never thought to warn him about these things. How could she have known the things he would someday encounter? She had not been a bad mother, Desire, but the world is such a terribly big place.
She never could have predicted this.
She is here now. His throat tightens, a vise wrapped around his windpipe, and he nods but does not (cannot?) speak. She is here now and he does not know what to do with her except show her what he’s learned about her, about himself. He does not know what to do with her except try to get her to stay.
He feels the heat like a phantom. It tears a hiss out from between gritted teeth and he turns his head sharply to look her in the face. But there is no accusation in his expression. No, that same smile lingers in the dark corners of his mouth and he finally reaches for her. Skims his teeth across her shoulder but does not bite, does not even try. For the moment, he merely touches her and contents himself with this. Simple, certainly, but still charged with heat.
“Will you destroy me?” he asks, the question murmured into the warmth of her skin, not a request but a query about the future. Will they destroy each other?
@[Sunlight]