@terminal-deity
She had not meant to make it sound as though she disliked Lorin when he was intoxicated. Rather, she’d meant that she preferred him sober because he was more in control of himself, he wasn’t hiding behind the mask of alcohol. She loved him regardless, all of him.
“No, you are. I did not mean it that way…”
She paused for a moment to reflect on her words, opening and closing her mouth. Instead she searched for his hand, and then lacing his fingers with hers. She liked to hold him like this, hold his hand, draw him near. He was warmer than she was, always had been.
“It just makes me concerned. That is all.”
She herself lived behind a mask, quite literally, to hide the cracks all over her skin and her face. She was, she supposed, vain in that way. No. There was no supposing about it. She was very much vain in that way.
“No, it’s fine. I guess, well, I’m just worried about-...nevermind.” he said, cutting himself off rather quickly.
He worried that if he stopped drinking, stopped being ‘fun’ that people wouldn’t find him interesting, wouldn’t want to bother giving offerings to a god that was just as lame as the gods he talks smack about. But, even if he were alone again,
Nazili would still be there. She would always be there. Of course he worried deeply about the fractures and the cracks...sometimes he was afraid to hold her because if he did, she might fall to pieces in his hands and then what would he do? The thought made him anxious so he tried to forget about it being a thing.She would never break. Never. Never.
When she grabbed his hand, he snapped back to reality, soothed by the coolness and softeness of her lithe fingers. Everything about her was fragile, so he had to be tender. Carefully he leaned down, practically having to bend himself in half to reach her height, and carefully removed the mask she wore so that he could lean in and kiss her. She knew she didn’t like people seeing her face, but he also knew that he was special. They both got to see each other under the masks. Their true selves. Their vulnerable selves.
