[private] trying to find a better way

[aureus]

Aureus

oh, these wings, they flicker and my feathers stir
'til I'm an ancient soul in a cascade world

Aureus is not surprised that her attention is caught by the star between them.

Whenever he does engage in conversation with someone else, it’s usually the same. Why would someone choose to talk to him when the very constellations fill the space between them? Why choose the studious young stallion when they could instead pick the star that dances around them, sparkling like galaxies?

He knows what he would pick.

What he often did pick.

So he does not begrudge them their choice.

Instead he studies her, his dark purple eyes intense beneath the swath of his pale forelock. She is different than anyone that he has ever seen before, and he wonders exactly what it is about her. It’s not just the ears, although those are the most obvious difference, and it’s not just the color of her coat—because he has seen plenty of others with a more fantastical coat and colors covering them in the night.

It’s something else entirely—and he can’t quite say exactly what.

Still, her question surprises a soft laugh out of him. “I have a twin sister and a younger sister,” he says, speaking only of his full siblings. It felt odd to loop in the others who are only partially related. “They are both wonderful—bright and beautiful and at ease in the world in a way that I could never be.”

The truth comes out quickly. Quicker than he expected and he struggles to not dip his head in a sudden burst of shyness, ashamed at being so vulnerable with a stranger. “What made yours inferior to a rock?”

and I'm quick with the bullet when it comes undone
I got a head like a turret with a mouth for a gun

I'm not going to pretend I'm sorry.