don't look too hard, might hurt yourself
known to give the color red the blues
It’s strange, but underneath it all, there is a sense of familiarity here. He can’t know the source of her fury, but if he could, he could have sympathized. Could have understood. He’d spent his life in the shadow of much greater things than himself. Spent his life never being quite good enough, or quick enough, or powerful enough. It’s undoubtedly the reason he had developed such irreverence towards life (especially the larger things in life). But when one has a dragon for a sister and an angel for a mother while being particularly and spectacularly normal and uninteresting, what else was one to do?
He has spent his entire existence walking in the wake of greatness, and she is no different. It’s as plain as the stars on her shoulders that she houses great power. A power he will never understand. A power he could never hope to match. He is nothing more than a bug in the face of her speeding windshield.
But that’s what he’s always been. He’s smashed upon so many of them. Honestly, it would probably serve him right if he died yet again at the hands of someone with far more power than he. Not that it would change him. The last couple of times certainly hadn’t. Might as well have fun in the meantime though, yeah?
Her absolute horror at his insinuation sends a wave of laughter through him. He can’t help it. She’d probably never imagined someone so insignificant would ever have to balls to suggest such a thing. And there’s something improbably amusing about watching her struggle with the concept that it’s not fear she had inspired in him.
Her final statement (”Don’t be disgusting,” she had spat) draws another guffaw deep from his belly. With a faint cough, he clears his throat quickly before replying over his laughter. “Are you implying that wanting a cuddle is disgusting? You’re the one that kept… pushing for it.”
He blinks at her, brown eyes surprisingly guileless despite the crinkle of laugh lines. No one could expect her to know how often he’d had to play at daft innocence throughout his life. Enough that he’d gotten pretty good at it. Besides, he was rather curious to see whether she’d choose to step back or push it to its logical conclusion.
He knows what he’s hoping for.
Cassian
@[Beryl]