DAWN
it must be about as hard as forgetting your best friend
Once, she had believed that love was the burning in her chest when he had told her about another. She had thought that love was the tears shed and the painful goodbyes, and the years with no true reconnection.
Once, she had wondered if love was the way that Litotes wrapped her up in his tantalizing darkness. Was love the way that he had taught her to embrace her bear, instead of hiding from it? Or maybe it was love when she was sneaking around with her best friend’s husband, the one she used to frolic with along the hills and beaches of the Cove.
Once, she had pondered if her childhood crush - an oh so brief thing, before she discovered him - was the one she was destined to love. Until he left her with no warning, alone to raise her second set of twins in as many years. Was that heartbreak she felt at his absence? Or was it a sense of relief, knowing that if their love was true, he never would have left her?
Once, she had tried to force her love, only to be caught up in the throes of lust instead. She knew it wasn’t love, when she seduced the boy in the cold waters of Hyaline. But she did it anyway.
-
Nothing could have prepared her for this.
Nothing could have prepared her for the moment they finally succumbed to their passions, wrapped up in grief and not knowing what the future held for either of them. When she had returned from the Mountain, shaken and stripped of all power, he had held her tight and whispered to her how beautiful she was, even stripped down to her barest form and broken with grief. He had nursed her back to health and they had grown stronger together, and their brief passions had flourished into something so, so much more.
So this is love.
When the darkness comes, she is afraid, but she is not alone. He is there with her through it all, and she takes comfort in knowing that she will never again be alone. Their young son, born the spring before this eternal winter, is a constant source of joy in their lives, and Dawn delights in watching the boy prance around, only to turn and giggle at the bioluminescence of his hoofprints. Their cozy den is filled with a brilliant blue light from both Rhaegor and Sunset, and though something tells Dawn she should be uneasy in the darkness, she has never felt more at peace in her life.
Her bear doesn’t plague her, though the words of Wysteria still linger in the back of her mind. If she is to be strong without her powers, she has to fully embrace everything that broke her, and maybe - just maybe - she’s not ready for that yet. So for now, she’ll remain powerless, and she is at peace with that.
With a gentle sigh, she leans into Rhaegor, and though neither of them speaks, the atmosphere is peaceful. Happy, even.
This is the love that she has been waiting her entire life for, and it is everything she could have imagined and more.
@[Rhaegor] hi no rush i just suddenly had a lot of dawn muse?