the way you kiss me will work each time // Chryseis

[Rhaegor]

and I could easily lose my mind; the way you kiss me will work each time
calling me to come back to bed, singing Georgia on my mind

In the moments between their quiet conversation, he sees her. Not for the first time (lord knows that he saw her that day on the plateau, with the whole world behind her and her, right in front of him), perhaps, but for a time that he cherishes passionately. The darkness in her eyes speaks to the sobriety of their situation and their contagion, but the softness in the curve of her smile speaks to something else entirely. Although he knows that he broke her heart that day on the beach, Rhae hopes against hope that perhaps one day, he might hold that precious flesh again in the palms of his hands.

He doesn't deserve it, of course; but perhaps in time, he could earn her love again. They were children, back there on the beach; and though they are but teenagers now, they have come into their own. He feels differently now than he did then; the clamour of girls has fell away and left only her, standing as if with a halo of light around her. In this reverie, the only frost he sees upon her is that of a fresh snowfall; for in the depths of her eyes and in the breadth of her chest, he feels only the warmth of something more than companionship.

Of course I forgive you. He blinks softly, realizing that it had not been a reverie in his mind at all, but that which he observes in this, the present. In this, his reality. Tears gather in her eyes and the sight of them render his wet, too. Exactly as she reaches for him, he reaches for her, their hearts and minds already working in tandem despite the short length of their reunion. He cannot see the way her tears leave small markings across his shoulders, but he holds her tightly nonetheless, as if he could mend the pieces of her he'd broken through sheer pressure and love alone. She trembles in his embrace. He holds her tighter still.

I'm the fool. I thought... Although she trails off on her own, Rhae attempts to cut her off with a sharp shake of his head no into her body, his own teeth gritting now as an anger and self-hatred reintroduce themselves to him. His eyes, open and clear now, stare into the distance with the unseeing rage of perfect hindsight. She would never be the fool. In this moment, as she attempts to stifle tears, he pledges to always serve her: to bring her happiness: and to be exactly that which she needed him to be.

He thinks, now, that he can keep such an oath; but though a child is not a teenager, nor either is a teenager an adult. Every fiber of his body makes this pledge; but his fibers will change, and is too young to realize that.

If they're lucky, his love for her won't change... But for now, they are together.

Chryseis pulls away from him at last, eyes wet but composed. Her voice sounds weaker than when last he'd heard it, and it leaves him gutted. She says she'd never had the right to be mad, that she should have been less naive. His ears lay back, nostrils flaring; the spike of anger he feels leaves the whites of his eyes showing, though only momentarily. As her eyes close against the onslaught of his self-hatred, a last apology slides from her lips: and that, that will be hid undoing.

"Fuck that, Chryseis." He says in his loudest voice, though it is barely as loud as one's regular speaking volume. His tail snaps vehemently behind him, head tossing as if to do so might rid his poll of his straining ears. "Don't you dare blame yourself for this." A part of him wants to paw at the earth and to vent his anger, but the other remembers the softness of her smile and the way her tears had traced down his spine; with a single moment of that image in mind, the boy stills.

He feels like exploding for all the emotions he feels, but he stills.

He steps forward, angles his head, and lifts her chin with his.

When she lifts her lashes and finds his eyes, they are not angry, but a different kind of passion fills their depths. Not a hunger, but a need: a need to reassure her, in as intimate a way as she would allow him.

"You alone have my heart, Chryseis." The words fall in a heavy exhale, but it is her breathing that makes his hairs stand on end. The rest of the world, the howling wind and the rocky outcropping, it all fades away. As he stares past the blue colour of her iris and into something far deeper, they are again together in their secret utopia, two children, though his intentions are far from childish. "I see that now. And I will fight for you every fucking day if it means that I may have yours, too."

A pause.

With the languid movement of one older than he, Rhaegor steps into her chest, and places his lips on her withers. For a moment, that is all; but as her lungs expand to inhale, his lips peel back to reveal his teeth; teeth which clench slowly around the flesh of her shoulder, claiming her until her blood, too, spills unto his tongue.

Rhaegor

@[Chryseis]