After
(Basically an uber short fic/headcannon about the immediate aftermath of Cherry and Donovan’s fight.)
Her jaw ached, more than the vibrantly, violently, violet bruises that had begun to bloom across her chest, more than the several, shallow slices that lined her cheek, more than her eyes, sore and stinging with unshed tears. Above all, the most penetrating pain was that of her jaw, which had gaped open in a roar of indignance at the injustices that dotted her life like stars, burning bright against her vision and blotting out the beautiful blue expanse that was the sky. The sky, that galaxy of lazy grins and loping strides, planets populated by the light in eyes that used to burn brighter than the stars that swallowed him. Him. Cherry clamped her mouth tight against a sob that rose to her lips like bile, swallowed the lump in her throat, and smiled, because it was better this way.
A clatter sounded as the boy, the adversary that had stood stagnant at the edge of the clearing took a stumbling, stuttering step backwards. His eyes, a kaleidoscopic collection of amber and honey hues, were full of a foreign fire, not those shining, shimmering shards of the cutting cleverness that pierced his features around false friends, nor the hesitant warmth that lit his gaze when it fell upon a particular witch, but a fidgeting, flickering flame, fear. Cherry Snow saw terror, a bone deep dread that left him trembling. And, in the face of that fright, she ran.
