"There's really no need for you to be jealous. You're the one I love. Forgive me that I don't tell you enough." - Apex Vintage // @th-meridian
unprompted asks | not accepting for meloraan | @th-meridian
Vermillion’s gaze dropped the moment the words left her lips. He looked away from Robin, shoulders tightening slightly as though he had been caught doing something he could not quite defend. Whether the feeling twisting in his chest was shame, embarrassment, or the lingering heat of jealousy he himself could not have said. Perhaps it was all three.
His jaw clenched for a moment before he spoke, and even then the words did not come easily. It wasn’t that he doubted her. Robin had never given him reason to. But he had seen the way people in the camp looked at her. The lingering glances, the quiet smiles, the sort of attention she drew without even trying. She was strong, a leader, confident, and Vermillion knew well enough that she could have chosen someone far easier to love than him.
His hands flexed at his sides, fingers curling as though resisting the urge to reach for her.
“I know,” he muttered at last, voice lower than usual, roughened by the emotions he was trying and failing to hide. “It’s not that I don’t believe you.”
He hesitated, glancing briefly outside their tent toward the edge of the camp where a few figures moved about their evening routines before quickly looking away again.
“I just don’t like the way they look at you,” he admitted quietly. “Like they’re waiting for you to realize you deserve better.”
A faint, self-conscious huff escaped him then, somewhere between a laugh and a sigh.
“And I suppose I don’t say it enough either.” His eyes flickered back to her at last, softer now despite the stubborn set of his expression. “You’re the one I love too, Robin. That’s never been the question.”