“you couldn’t hurt my feelings even if you tried,” he spoke so softly even ghosts wouldn’t have been able to hear him. there was no teasing tone to his voice, he spoke as if it were factual, proven with evidence. and it was true; even if she were to spit fire at him he would cherish every word, just because she would be in his presence.
no amount of bracing could have prepared him for what it felt like when she was close. it was indescribable, something as simple as how she smelled like jasmine, innocent and flowery, was enough to make him want to pull her closer so the smell would never go away. how smooth her voice sounded, how each word she spoke sounded like they were meant for her to speak, no matter what it was, it made him want her to never stop talking.
he hated it. loathed himself for it, for those moments he wanted to say damn every consequence i might face, forget everything else, there’s only you. there’s only ever been you. falling for her took a courage that he didn’t possess, so he sat next to her with tensed limbs and let all the affirmations of love he wanted to profess die on his tongue as she healed his wounds.
mikhailo didn’t flinch anymore, certain that his biggest problem now was controlling himself around her. he slowed his heartbeat so she could not sense it beating erratically. he looked down at her, then watched as she healed the burns. “i think this would be more fun if you guessed.”
“ i could. you have never seen me be cruel, mik. i chose the path of kindness, i was not born into it. ” i am cut from the same cloth as my brother. i made myself like this. but it echoes around the cavity of her chest, the trust & sincerity. how different to her self-perception. the sister of a monster, someone had called her once, surely she can be no different. ( & — are you? you are a corporalki before you are a healer. you picked your path in the second army but before that: you were a grisha, colours didn’t matter and you survived in the dark for so long. you command the body as much as another and you know the feeling of your hand around a heart and the wheeze of air from lungs. you made yourself kind. you were born cruel ).
and maybe that was love. choking sounds and silence. their pain as consistent as it was deep. her voice scrapes, barren and empty. the reminder of the child hiding in alleyways, running from the world. but she hasn’t been that child in a long time. to think there would be a point in her life in which she was safe, in a warm room & that her skin would be peached with love. but she’s heartsick, in love with someone who is just as forsaken as she is. someone who she’s made a home in against all odds. & so her fingers scrap against his skin, biting down both her tongue & her heart.
she acts as a vessel for kindness, the draw of her skin over his & the deep knit of flesh —the terrifying reality of their closeness. barely a breath away, the shake of her fingers. the pad of her thumb grazing the tendering skin, breath catching & she holds it grateful that she can occupy her focus to his arm, the idea of eye contact terrifying at best and mortifying at worst. she draws it out, her own actions nervous & the crushing realization that once she’s finished, she’ll likely be banished from the room.
“ —— hmmmm. fighting a dragon? are you to become the next sankt juris? ” her voice draws to a playful laugh, a slight shake to it. but with you i am deeply passionately, unrequitedly in love— and it catches inside of her, rotting like something left behind. as if you are to be loved back. maybe you weren’t made to be loved. certainly not by him. and how desperate she is to be loved in return by someone who will never love you back. “ or... hunting the firebird? i’ve always been a fan of that story. ”
vaporwave
kianamaiart
andulkaphoto
izzy806
ellievsbear
pixelskylines
areudirty
