her request is surprising, thus far all she has asked from him is space. distance. time. things that might rankle the primal nature of a fae, but to lucien is the least she could ask for. but regardless of fates cruel twists, he does desire to give her all that she’d ask. simply for who she is.
he’d come from the band of exiles, reported to azriel - and expected to be on his way back almost immediately. not out of dislike of the night court, though he considers them less his home than he had the spring. but because he has no desired to pressure the woman who stands there before him now.
there’s the faint whir of metallic as his eyes shift, first from her, to the gardens in the distance. a nod as he finally answers -
‘ of course — and i suppose, we must. ‘
he is oddly calm as he rises and offers his arm, manners trained into him by his mother as a boy - a boy when he’d simply been the youngest son of an autumn lord. a boy who’d never amount to anything and felt free enough to love a woman who chose him. jessaminda had seen him, and chosen him, and chosen him again and again until she died. he bore that guilt. just as much as he did for the changes foisted upon the archeron sisters. he had helped tamlin, and nothing could undo the wrong he’d wrought. death of another kind on his hands.
the silence he doesn’t find uncomfortable, content to walk at her side until she found the place or words that would be the talk that had long been delayed between them. a hum of breath, long auburn hair catching the sunlight that seems to favour him even in the dusky light that filters through to the night court. his ancestry may be unknown to him, but the sun knows, the sun flickers across his features. there is something, peaceful - to him amid his melancholy. a sharp breath and then —
‘ i hope, that despite my mistakes, you will always feel able to tell me whatever it is that might trouble you. i — i have been a poor enough friend to your sister, but i care for her, as i always have. and i know - we are not friends, and perhaps may never be. but i would like to be. i would like the privilege of knowing you. i would like to be your friend. ‘
would you go on a walk with me? we have much to talk about. // lucien & elain // @lifebloomd
