the world was full of wild things, people and wolves or a combination of the two, clawing and climbing towards the light and towards each other. sleeping on their backs with their hearts pointed towards the sky, like an offering, a plead, wanting something more. it wasn’t that the world was empty, nat didn’t think, it was that the people were. “ i suppose, ” he said, without a sarcastic remark, more distracted by the box he pulled into his lap. “ kosovo. ” the name felt strange on his tongue, as was the case with most new words, nothing exceptional about this one besides the fact it came from honor, and that was all the difference. there’d been a time where america had sounded strange to nat, too, and perhaps half the familiarity he found in honor was because of the unfamiliarity they’d both experienced, at one point in time. “ you don’t talk about it, ” it wasn’t an accusation or challenge, simply an observed truth. it felt intimate, almost, the way nat took out photograph after photograph and studied each carefully, as if he were trying to memorise the snapshots and the way honor looked within them. something close to a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, and he flipped one over to show her, a clear favourite. “ —belle ? i was expectin’ like, i dunno’, fuckin’ pochontas or something. do you even like books ? shit, yellow is not a good colour on you. ”
“and you don’t talk about trondheim.” & it wasn’t an attack, either, although honor’s dark face often conveyed an irritation that wasn’t really there - but nat knew every last one of her quirks. “i mean, there’s not that much to say. i’m going back one day, i guess - don’t know when. maybe soon.” she adored san francisco and all it had brought her, but she felt the city of pristina rushing through her veins. it glowed through her skin. and although she didn’t have that many memories to actually miss, something inexplicably drew her to it. it wasn't that it was her home. her home was with bas, with her parents, with adriana - with nat. she had never attached her heart to places, but she did to people, which was just as dangerous. places can be flattened into dust but people leave and that’s an even worse feeling. “yes, belle.” she rolled her eyes, inwardly questioning why she was so protective of a fictional disney character. “i like them. it’s just, i ‘dunno. like, when i came to san francisco i didn’t read any english. i really struggled. kids would tease me about it. so i just never really got into the whole reading books thing, and stuck with numbers because they’re the same everywhere.” she shrugged slightly. “with beauty and the beast, i think i sort of liked the idea of someone seeing goodness in something that nobody else did.”
