Ascension
This was comfort: knowing that as much space as possible was taken from her and Hunter. She wanted to remain suspended in this moment where nothing had the capability to hurt them. They were in the trees, blended with the sky and the leaves and the wind that came in through the cracks of the wood that made up their hiding space. Safe meant sticking together. Fall City had given them that for a while, but then it erupted in a heap of fire and screams. Diana recalled the night vividly. She had a feeling she always would. She would also recall who she turned to first, not considering anybody else, not considering the idea of lingering around to help those who may have survived. She was selfish in that way. It bled into realization. Diana would assist and heal, but when it came to Hunter – he was above them all. When Fall City infiltrated Xavier’s camp, she stopped the instant she found out Hunter was bleeding. A possession of her will. A mantra in her thoughts: save Hunter, save Hunter, save Hunter. Alone she would survive, but alone she would not live because Hunter painted the world around them in his own way. It was their secret shared. Bitter and closed off to others. Open and genuine to Diana. She never cared about his jagged edges. She took them graciously in her hands. It was with a smile that she brushed her fingers through his hair once more and the anxiety on her chest began to ease at his words. As long as this didn’t seem contrived, then Diana could continue. “None of this makes me feel uncomfortable. I only wanted to make sure you felt the same way.” And to test the waters, she placed her lips against Hunter’s again, ankles wrapping around the small of the others’ back. She let her body erupt in a concoction of light and warmth. She let her mind detach. She let her mind f-o-r-g-e-t.
She could only wonder if she would have ever known Hunter if the apocalypse hadn’t happened. Odds were slim – halfway across the world. Diana believed in God strongly once, would have deemed this an intervention of faith, a reward for her goodness. Now, all she had to ground her was Hunter and the security he brought her. She couldn’t consider the unknowable. She had to focus on making this as real as possible because it could disappear any second. So she succumbed to her greed momentarily, left Hunter’s lips swollen and plump, planted kisses along his jawline, his neck. For she was so tired of things ending that she wanted her own beginning, her own say in a scheme that was far bigger than she could ever be.
Hands that wandered – slipping under the fabric of Hunter’s shirt, hovering over his torso before settling there. The contact was electric, lightning striking through the air and breaking apart into thousands of charged bolts. Diana exhaled a breath, a way of grounding herself. Human connection was a marvel, how people could wage wars over someone they cared about. And she knew if anything were to happen to Hunter, she would wage war for him. She would do anything to make sure he stayed beside her in some shape or form.
Maybe she was delusional in her beliefs, but she would allow it for now.
Temporarily suspended until reality dictated otherwise.
Up above the world, Hunter could think that the rest of it didn't exist outside of the two of them but he knew that was only temporary. Sooner or later it would invade their personal space, cause him to hesitate and think twice before going after what he wanted when it was too good to be true. She was too good to be true, and yet, she was the one still by his side while the rest of the people that they ran through continued to drop into the grey parts of his memory asa he struggled to remember that the world was still painted in color. But with her there, the warmth and gentle brush of her fingers against his skin was enough to bring the life back into his cheeks and cause his breath to hitch in the back of his throat. It was Diana that brought him back from the edge, a brief touch of her fingers in the crook of his wrist to the gentle tone that she took with him above anyone else, it was more than enough for him to remember what he could easily forget, what could be gone while he was swept away in the torrent of his demons.
They were on the outside of the tree house now, letting her lips brush them away without much problem that left him wondering what power she had over them before he deepened the kiss and parted his lips to let her in. That was how she'd come into his life, bit by bit until he couldn't imagine how his life would be without a part of her there with him. In her absence, he'd felt cold and emotionless -- lost and left to fend for himself in a world that would have rather seen him trip and fall, never to get up again. It was her voice, the kind nature that others would take for granted that caused him to get back up again and refuse to let the world run over him for the final time. It would have to try harder than that, to take him from her, as one hand tangled with her hair at the nape of her neck as he pulled her closer into his lap until there was no space left between the both of them. His other hand wrapped around her waist.
What did he feel? How much of what he felt was genuine? All the questions that he could hear in the back of his mind were ones of doubt and darkness that could only see the way his skin stained her own with every press of his lips against her own and the streaks that his fingers left on her bare skin. When they broke apart, only for a gasp of air to dilute the heat was rising up from the both of them, Hunter knew there was more than primal desire to be cloes to someone else. She was more than that to him. He released her only to grab his shirt from the back of his neck to pull it over his head before he discarded it and sought her lips once more, the need for the taste of her growing stronger with each passing moment. In his desire, he ignored the status of his skin that he kept hidden from anyone that would think to look from the scars that littered his side of the last time that they'd nearly lost each other. If it hadn't been for her that night, hadn't been the actions of a few, then he knew that there would have been nothing but the end that he deserved.
Incomplete without the future that he felt when he was with her.
