#burning verses

[aritealeaf]

Prompt 'a hot night' - Orufrey

This is an A4 sheet prompt written for the 'burning verses' experiment (read more here) that helps the author get out of writer's block

Fandom: Witch Hat Atelier

Pairing/characters: Orufrey

Spoilers: ch. 40, 88-92

Rating: T

Tags: angst, unresolved tension (all kinds), Qifrey is a masochist, open ending, yearning

Context: on a hot night, Qifrey watches Olruggio suffer from heat and offers a simple but cruel (to himself) solution

~~~

A drop of sweat is rolling down Olruggio's neck, and Qifrey wishes for it to crawl down his own throat instead of the dreadful thoughts that tie up his mouth. He keeps his face a blank cover for emotions, hoping that the skill of self-composure is enough for cheeks to stay cold, for true colours — ink blots and blood stains — not to come through his skin. Both ink and blood are racing in his veins at the sight of bare and shining collarbones under Olruggio's dampened shirt.

And Qifrey knows well that if he were able to cover Olruggio with his touch, he would not stare at the love scene between him and the heat. He would not dream of embraces never to happen, of kisses never to soothe their pain. Eyes looking for relief through half-lidded exhaustion would not steal his breath. What would be there to desire if Qifrey could replace the beads of sweat on his temples with fingertips, or his mouth?

But Qifrey's hands were never warm, blame it on the curse — a cold, slowly-spreading poison — or inability to love with no harm, no difficulty of proclaiming a feeling through a kind word or a generous touch. It was Olruggio who could warm their palms on a cold night. Maybe on a hot night, however, Qifrey could be of use — with no harm to Olly through full damage to himself.

'Do you want to take off your shirt?' Qifrey asks casually to plant a thought in Olruggio's mind that this is normal; it surely has not happened before in a private setting of Qifrey's room or Olruggio's workshop, melting them into heavy breaths and whispered words of love. In the memory Qifrey is painting for Olruggio today, there is no place for confessions, but an ocean of unspoken wants. Qifrey knows how to create oceans even if he hates the way the salty waters cling to his skin. Nevertheless, he will not wipe the guilt dry — he is destined to forever be trapped in the cold embrace of the ocean's arms.

Olruggio steps into the waves that Qifrey sends to his shores; a tired expression on his face is washed by shock in an instant. His eyes open wide to pierce Qifrey through with a bright beam of panic. Qifrey knows Olruggio's fear — to soak hands in sea salt by accident, to drown yourself in the ocean by choice. Not today, Qifrey repeats, not today. Another time, they would be carried away by the sea's hug together, Qifrey would bury the body in the sands of the deep. Bones of the past encounters are locked in a treasure chest with a kiss, for them both to discover when time comes again — not today, Qifrey prays, not today. Today, he watches Olruggio from a distance and dies in the whirlpool alone.

'It must be uncomfortable to sweat while eating,' Qifrey adds to guide Olruggio to the right path, the line of truth — isn't the crystal clarity what they've promised to each other since childhood? Even if they both broke the promise many times — Olruggio doesn't know his roots, and Qifrey pretends not to know his love. It is safe for both of them to find comfort in telling and hearing lies, believing the illusion of each other's coldness.

Qifrey lies not with the words, but apathy. For when Olruggio makes a helpless attempt to laugh his worry off, spit it out with cheeks flushed from heat and feeling, Qifrey's burning.

'I will cool the air down too, if you want,' Qifrey hums, satisfied, standing up and turning away — giving Olruggio a choice. Qifrey may notice the ties of embarrassment, but he can never guess if they're enough to keep the sailor from hitting the waves again.

Olruggio releases a sigh of defeat — returns a stolen breath, and it is enough for Qifrey to bury another feeling, to choke another unspoken want.

'You should untie your collar too, then. I can't believe you stand the heat in that.'

[aritealeaf]

Prompt 'before the first kiss' - Orufrey

This is an A4 sheet prompt written for the 'burning verses' experiment (read more here) that helps the author get out of writer's block

Fandom: Witch Hat Atelier

Pairing/characters: Orufrey

Spoilers: ch. 40, 88-92

Rating: T

Tags: postcanon, morning cuddles, yearning, Olruggio's POV, fluff

Context: they wake up together after Qifrey's curse is broken, Olruggio is wondering if they are ready to be intimate with each other, with no fear of harm (they are in this version)

~~~

Qifrey's face is so close that his breathing leaves traces on skin, from lips to neck — a path that is always exposed to everyone's eye yet hidden to anyone's touch, except for Qifrey's ghost in Olruggio's dreams. Olruggio keeps a distance between them because he wants Qifrey to decide when his body deserves to be found and explored — if ever.

Olruggio can never guess when Qifrey makes up his mind to commit an incredulous act, like making him believe there has never been a thin line between their bodies and souls. The line has always been the same length, starting from their lips, travelling to their shoulders when they bump in the kitchen, to their hands when a bottle of midnight indulgence is put aside, back to their eyes when Qifrey catches a thread of the stare that slips through Olruggio's hold. It is a thin line both of them have wished to cross, and they have probably smudged it a few times. For now, all Olruggio sees is blurry, from questions of how they erase this line to whether they need to at all. Is Olruggio dreaming again of the ways Qifrey's breathing will never take?

But Qifrey's in his arms, vulnerable, trusting his sleepiness to Olruggio's embrace. If he wished to run away, he would not let Olruggio caress him with sighs, gaze at his lips as if the line between them is nothing but a stripe of ash to wipe off — or set ablaze into a flicker that finally blinds them enough to never draw it again. Qifrey moves his head up, a feather-light exhale escaping his lips and kissing Olruggio's mouth. Olruggio dreams — he thinks — the fraction of a moment when Qifrey tries to reach closer but pulls back. This does feel like a dream, for the heat of Qifrey's body cannot be real. Olruggio cannot hold it knowing it is his to adore — with or without the line that can never be crossed.

It might be easier to know that Qifrey does not want Olruggio to kiss him. But the moment Qifrey looks him straight in the eye, Olruggio sees that the line had been washed away by Qifrey's tears when he was freed from his curse.

Their bodies and souls have no more lines to keep them from spilling into each other.

'Can I?' Olruggio speaks into his lips, melting from the cloud of warmth his words create, a small flame they start. Qifrey can still escape him and put the fire out instead of pushing them both into it. That's what he always does.

Qifrey smiles — burns Olruggio instead. A short huff escapes him, and his laugh is forever sealed in the cracks of Olruggio's lips. They are lying next to each other, cinders — completely gone but eternally warm.  

Qifrey puts both of his hands on Olruggio's cheeks, and Olruggio does not wish to be anything else now but a tired body in his lover's arms.

'Yes,' Qifrey whispers with sweetness Olruggio has never tasted of him before — sugar of willowgrape wine matured in their cupboard for twenty years. It is enough to make him drunk from a single touch.

If this is a drunken dream, Olruggio wishes to sleep endlessly, then. If this is real — he pleads to never rest.

[aritealeaf]

Some kind of a master post (to be modified)

I realised you needed at least some explanation of who you were watching shatter, right? Let me begin with something tiny

My name is Ari, I am a living being who squeaks and cries in pathos. Tries to return to writing after a writer’s block. Tries to live just in general

Multifandom person! My current obsessions: Witch Hat Atelier, Deltarune, Moriarty the Patriot

Current project: burning verses — publishing my A4 drafts on a given topic to get used to posting

Stories published: new invention writes — fanfiction/stories that somehow survived to be exposed

Thank you for reading this post or any of the ones I make. I like to talk to people who like the things I like, or who simply want to check if the ‘ask’ button works, so don't be afraid to use that option!