Gale
this is going to break me clean in two --
this is going to bring me close to you
He hears the sound of movement, and briefly hopes that she is moving away. That will make things easier. But she’s coming closer instead, and despite the fact that he’d just hugged her, he feels a brief shudder run through him. Like static electricity on a dry night, only it doesn’t end until she pulls away, the warm fizzing fading slowly even as his ears flick forward to catch what she’s saying.
Gale had often imagined their next encounter, but he had anticipated his mouth feeling quite so dry, or the way he could the follow tear tracks along the snowy slope of her cheek and how he wants to dry them all away. But he concentrates and forces himself to swallow, and to open his eyes and meet her gaze. Gale had never bothered learning to hide his emotions, so he wears them freely. He frowns, the concentration visible in the winkling of the blaze between his eyes, and pins Mazikeen with his sharp blue gaze for a long moment of silence after she pulls away.
“I am cursed,” Gale tells her again, because he is quite sure she must have forgotten. Perhaps he had not pressed the inevitability strongly enough, or maybe by not being explicit about the malevolent acts of his Cursed sire he’d made this seem a lesser danger. Remembering those, he is able to remain still, to resist the magnetic allure of Mazikeen standing so near. “And content to admire you from afar.”
That was the line he’d practiced, because it is technically an honest one. He can say it and it even sounds true, especially paired with the fond smile that begins to settle on his navy face. There are things he would prefer if his future were not so dim, but he is happy even at the sight of her, and that is all he can have. Better to focus on what he can do, Gale thinks. Anything to distract himself. Mazikeen had said she doesn’t need anything fought, but that doesn’t mean he’d be entirely useless.
“If I can’t get it back for you, can I help some other way?” His voice is hopeful, if strained, and he finally blinks his luminescent eyes for the first time in several minutes.
@[Mazikeen]
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