this brilliant light is brighter than we've known; fenris

[fenris]

well, you and me, we'd run away to be wherever our adventure awaits
and time would be a distant memory, nobody could tell us to stay

He wants to keep her at arm’s length. He wants to make this a meaningless moment that does not leave imprints on either of them. And there is part of him that is almost successful in this. There is part of him that is able to keep the emotion from his face, his dark eyes inscrutable underneath the mess of his cream forelock. That is until she reaches for him, pressing the velvet of his nose underneath the hard angles of his jaw. A shadow passes over his features, not unalike the shadows that she so easily manipulates around the curves of her body, and he fights to gain that casual composure. He does. Of course, he does.

But it takes more effort than he cares to admit.

At her question, he just laughs, the sound smoke and ash in his mouth and he shakes his head.

“I could be,” he replies with a roll of shoulders, turning his head to briefly touch his lips to her forehead. “Then again, there are plenty who have found me completely untrustworthy, little bird.” The nickname sticks, finding root in his mouth and easily called upon when needed. She does not bear the physical attributes of a bird, but there is something about her that reminds him regardless. Something that is constantly perched on the edges of his palm, feathers ruffled as if ready to take flight.

(Little bird, little bird.)

He shifts just slightly so that he can get a better look at her, studying her quietly. She is so similar to the last time they had met and yet different, some of the fragility having hardened and replaced with a strength he’s sure she was surprised to find. But he wouldn’t be. Even then, he had always known just how strong she could be. “Have you been keeping yourself out of danger?” The question is breathed out softly, and he cannot help the way that his eyes slide to her neck, to where her flesh had hung so loosely.

If something in him shifts, if something in the angle of his mouth hardens, he says nothing about it.

well, I've been dreaming ever since I've seen your heaven when you came my way