( @almadael ) ❝ all right, out with it. what do you want from me? ❞
golden gaze is attentive to his less than gracious wounds. they were meant to send a message: to gabriel de león. that he too, could be caught by another type of predator. a huff, sharp ivories grazing her lower tier as she all bought fought to retain her mask of composure. ❝ idiot. ❞ skilled, lithe digits applying pressure before she finally lets those of glowing warm gold rest on his darkened optics. ❝ truthfully? I want to know how you got yourself caught by the inquisition... secondly, how you've managed to let yourself become this. ❞ lucretia raises a palm and wafts it in his general direction. he was paler than normal, unbathed, hair a mess, and he looked as if he had aged far beyond what he should have in the time they have been apart. vocalization was a raspy lashing, typical jest lacking in uttered intention. (missing him had felt like a notion of the past, unimportant given the circumstances he was in.) maybe there would be time in the future to assert unspoken affections.
his travelling partner was safe in the next room, asleep after what seemed to be a tumultuous however long they had been on this journey. gabriel tries to rise and she stops him; applying significant pressure to that silver lion tattooed to his chest. ❝ your companion is safe. fast asleep once she realized no one was going to hurt her. ❞ touch not easing just yet, as lucretia knew he was persistent. wanting to appease him though. it was important he knew he could relax, even if it was only slightly. ❝ I tended to their wounds first. I knew you wouldn't let me hear the end of it otherwise. ❞ the former silver saint would not easily be excused from her scrutiny. after all this was the first time in years she had heard from him. her letters had gone unanswered, and any knowledge held from passersby was met with hesitance or praise, never fact.
a slight brand of vulnerability echoes on carved countenance, palm moving from his chest to his jaw. bearing intently down upon him as she knew this was a man who did not ask for help easily. she would have to offer the possibility of it. not to mention whatever mess he and the girl were in, was now her mess too. it was coiled deeply within the ire of the inquisition, lucretia knew there was no simple way out for either of them.
❝ ask me for what you need, gabriel. ❞ she dares not give him the space to worm out of this. sculpted brow raised as she puts words to what they were both thinking. hunter would not deprive him of what he needed if he only asked. (even then, she'd probably cave to his incessant complaining.) but he didn't need to know that. rolling up her sleeve she waits, once perfect posture now haunched over his own. so close that they could kiss, if the moment warranted it.