@sabiyi. — ❛ hard to sit here and be close to you, and not kiss you. ❜ ( vex )
for far too much of their lifetime, they've been considered anything but brave. strong, yes, a shoulder to lean on, certainly, but not brave. to avoid feeling the overwhelming, icy tide of death yet again, they had abandoned more subordinates and comrades on the battlefield than they'd care to admit. it had been gentler, somehow, to see the light dim in their eyes from afar, to see their chests stutter and then go still at a distance. they already knew what it felt like to take their last breath, how dying felt like drowning whether they were at the top of a mountain or in the middle of a desert.
volesus had only further proven that they were a coward. his death had prompted them to hide, and they had kept hiding. they had failed to undertake the task of determining whether they had any living family left, and today, it still remains a mystery.
they don't want to be frightened anymore. vex takes the first step, quiet but undeniably courageous when he admits what's on his mind.
“ what's stopping you? ” they ask, and it's encouraging, soft, a fire burned down to coals and smoke. vex's gaze snaps to theirs, bright and strange and glowing, and theo offers a small, warm smile - just enough for the points of their canines to wink. something in them solidifies, strength and steel. “ if you want to kiss me, you should, ” they continue, and reach out - slow, cautious, allowing vex the space to change his mind - to cup his jaw, thumb brushing over the swell of their lower lip. CERTAIN bleeds through the skin of their palm, and they watch it ease the wrinkle between vex's eyebrows. “ i want you to. ”
f. scott fitzgerald / accepting








