[private] I hate you because I think of you

[Obscene]

I can see through you, see your true colors
Cause inside you're ugly, you're ugly like me

Perhaps there is something wrong with his finely pointed ears because he could have sworn Cheri had just claimed to not hate him at all. She says it so nonchalantly that he is sure he is mistaken, sure he had gotten it wrong. He had dabbled in perhaps too much nectar earlier and surely this was the price he was paying now. It takes all his restraint to not flick his gaze in her direction, to hold still and simply listen for once. Sure enough, she clarifies but it is still not what he expected. Now he turns his full attention on her, an unreadable expression darkening the gilded features of his face as he meets her earnest jade-green eyes.

Surely she is lying. She calls him good and he openly snorts, just as uncomfortable with this as he had been when Oceane had called him kind. She smirks and reminds him of his visit to Loess, when he had treated her as if she was nothing to him. Nothing more than the dirt beneath his and Aela's hooves. He raises a brow, the smug smirk widening as he fights an internal battle within himself, trying to decide if he believes her or not. Trying to find a new buoy to grab on to now that she had yanked that safety net clean off.  “I recall that you sauntered into my home before that looking to use me to make your boyfriend jealous.” He comments lazily, as if it hadn’t bothered him at all. As if she hadn’t managed to hurt him beneath the layers of cruel words and thick hide he wrapped himself in. As if he hadn’t thought about that particular moment over and over again even after all this time that’s passed between them.

He is silent as she finishes her declaration, as her praise falls around him and he shifts slightly, tension thrumming through his sable body. The stars across his chest glimmer with the movement as the constellation flexes along tense muscles. Of course it all sounds promising but he still can’t quite believe that there wasn’t some sort of trick here. Something he was missing. “You’re keeping something from me.” He finally says and it’s not a question, not one he expects to be answered anyways.

She doesn’t ask him if he still hates her. So he says nothing, the Fae in him sniggering with the realization that he was not the only one asking the wrong questions. For all her brilliance, she had a bad habit of missing what was always right in front of her and perhaps this is what aggravates him most about her. He lets the silence stretch between them again, the sounds of distant conversation catching on the breeze now and again. He can feel the warmth ebbing as the sun begins to descend over the Mountain, feels the softness from the tip of her wing which still lingers along his barrel and knows that he can no longer linger behind the ambitions of the women who infiltrate his life.

“Alright Cheri.” He finally says quietly, the blaze of his fiery eyes alighting on her once more. “I will agree to your truce. But only if I get something to make it worth my while.” A wolfish grin spreads across his lips, a devilish gleam in his crimson eyes and wonders where her mind might race to. What he might ask of her. The Wisp between his ears laughs brightly but only he has the ears to hear it.

obscene

@Cheri