Golden eyes watching our every move
Losing time without the sun or moon
There is something in the simplicity of his life these last years that he hadn’t known he was missing until he realized he never again wished to go without. It’s almost frightening to realize something so dearly gained might too easily slip away. Perhaps that makes him more protective than he ought to be, more watchful. More devoted.
It is a thin line, the one he walks. Dangerous, in a way. The closer he grows, the more he cannot imagine life without her.
Their children grow so quickly, it seems. Only yesterday they had been watching Misfit and Haunt touch noses for the first time. Now their youngest daughter trips so bravely through the woods, already venturing further and further afield with each passing day. If feels as though only moments ago she was finding her unsteady legs for the first time.
He has quickly discovered it is a full time profession, raising children. Though one is certainly easier than three, Torryn and Wrenley had given their siblings a run for their money. Still, he finds himself happier now than he ever thought imaginable. It becomes almost easy to ignore the lingering fear of losing her (of losing them). Becomes almost a thing forgotten.
Except not quite. Never quite.
At long last, Wrenley has collapsed into an exhausted slumber, and for a moment they are given peace. With a soft sigh, Ether slips through the shadows alongside Briseis, his lips trailing a gentle, affectionate caress along hips and spine and shoulder. She is as perfect now as she had been when first they’d met. It’s amusing the think how such an introduction could have been the catalyst for what they now have. Had he told that lost boy he’d been what the woman who had run so haphazardly into him might become, he never would have believed it. But then, fate seems to have a sense of humor.
Placing a kiss on the curve of her cheek, he presses against her, reveling in the simple touch. Once it might have been unimaginable for him to be so comfortable with such easy affection. Now he only leans in, his lips against her skin. “I love you.”
Always and forever, for better or for worse.
ether
@[Briseis]