summoners-path:

[ 大召喚士 ]

It was odd that Chuami’s voice came from his room. She was normally in the kitchen or sprawled out on the furniture in the main room when he came home. The sudden change of pace made him pause, worried. Still in thought, he set down his things and took off his shoes, exchanging them for slippers, by the front door.

          “Chuami… ?”, he asked, though likely not loud enough for her to hear.
               Is she well… ?

He wondered, concerned growing in his face as he hurriedly made his way across the main room and up the few, small stairs the led to the hall. Then, arriving at his door, half-open as it normally was these days, he looked right, into it. However, what he saw was not Chuami lying in bed as he’d expected. His initial glance led him to believe he wasn’t actually seeing his room at all.

His expression was a mixture of confusion and downright speechlessness. He, quite literally, had no words. His eyes slowly moved across everything in his room as he took careful steps through the doorway, his mouth hanging open, eyes wide with surprise. If it hadn’t been for his staff that still sat leaning against the closet door he might have believed he’d walked into someone else’s home by accident.

Still, nothing came to him the entire time she spoke, his eyes still moving over her handiwork, his mouth still clinging to the lack of words. It wasn’t until she was nearly finished speaking that he finally met her eyes, hers looking at him pointedly over a pair of glasses, and he only held them for a moment before his eyes began to wander over everything once more. His hands left his sides, up as if he was putting on a display. Then, shaking his head, his gaze moved back to her and, finally, his surprise melted into a smile of disbelief.

          “How did you… ? How long did this take?”, he asked, shock still in his voice.

He paused then, his eyes finally catching a string of light he knew did not belong to him carefully placed behind her. It was then that he burst into laughter. It took him several, solid seconds to be able to even breathe again by all accounts and, when he was finally able to, a hand pushed through his hair and he sighed, shaking his head once more. Afterwards, he caught her eyes for a moment before turning away from her, spinning around slowly several times as he took it all in, inching toward where she sat. When he arrived before the tent’s entrance, his back to her, he stopped and fell down onto the bed.

          “That’s a… a tempting proposition indeed.”, he finally answered, still laughing.
               “How about we start with a vacation and…”, he paused, taking a deep breath.
                “… if all goes well, we make it permanent.”

  He didn’t sound thrilled at first, but she expected as much. What she hadn’t expected was for him to look momentarily concerned before the stunned expression took over. It hadn’t occurred to her that he might think something was wrong, and though seemed obvious to her now that he would, and she felt suddenly guilty for it.

  Not that he noticed. She watched him silently as he wandered over, biting her tongue to keep from laughing. There was still a chance he’d tell her off for making a mess, but if he did, that look on his face was absolutely worth it. Chuami had given him a lot of reasons to find himself speechless in the last few months, but none of them had been accompanied by this sheer confusion.

  “Not too long…” she replied. “… Well, alright, most of today. I was bored. And… once I started, I had to keep trying to raise the bar and… yeah.”

  Her eyes flicked toward the row of lights behind her at the same his did and she was relieved when he broke into laughter. She didn’t really think he’d be irritated with her, but the point of the thing had been to make him smile. She had achieved that, at least.
  Chuami sat up, laughing at him as he found his way over and dropped onto the bed in front of her.

  “You know how sometimes people have, kind of, small habits that are kind of sexy when they’re not really supposed to be?” she asked thoughtfully. “That thing you do with your hair definitely qualifies.”

  She moved forward and draped her arms around his shoulders.

  “Hey, you. I’ve got dinner to get on with, and you’re not allowed to help, so the floor’s lava til I get back and you better stay here.”

  She made no move to let go of him or move away, though.

  “I’ll do it in a minute, I swear.”

summoners-path:

sovereign-chuami:

[text] went to visit tidus. all going fine til we went to catch up with yuna at the temple

[text] decided to wind tidus up a bit, looked at your statue, looked at him, said “i’ve seen him naked”

[text] i didn’t realise how good the acoustics were in there

[text] to cut a long story short, i told the priests i got too close to sin and i didn’t know what i was talking about. they said sin didn’t exist anymore. i said they weren’t trying hard enough.

[ 大召喚士 ]

After an initial look of absolute horror followed by a fit of laughter and then several deep breaths as he paced the length of the kitchen running his hands through his hair he finally settles on the ideal response, one that truly captures how much he appreciates her sense of humor:

[text: chu] have i told you how much i love you today?

summoners-path

[text] went to visit tidus. all going fine til we went to catch up with yuna at the temple

[text] decided to wind tidus up a bit, looked at your statue, looked at him, said “i’ve seen him naked”

[text] i didn’t realise how good the acoustics were in there

[text] to cut a long story short, i told the priests i got too close to sin and i didn’t know what i was talking about. they said sin didn’t exist anymore. i said they weren’t trying hard enough.

[lies on] “I thought you said it got warmer around here in summer? :c”

summoners-path:

summoners-path:

[ 大召喚士 ]

          “Well, you know…”, he began, reaching for a blanket to throw over her.
               “Cold spells do happen. And, even at its best, Bevelle is certainly no Besaid.”

By now, he had the blanket over her and, after a moment, he looked at her and smiled. Then, laughing, his expression turned into a grin.

          “Although, if you think it’s that bad, I wouldn’t be opposed to a vacation.”

[ 大召喚士 ]

He’d raised an eyebrow at her command before he’d answered, his voice low in his reply. It took her a moment— an exceeding long one— to turn and face him, he noted, all the while feigning irritation at his words. She was playing hard to get, wasn’t she?

          That’s fine.

Finally, their eyes met and he studied her with a severity he rarely displayed even with her. This, of course, was in spite of the fact that it was a look entirely reserved for her, a fact he was certain she well knew. He did no let this stop him however. And while he waited for her to object further— or to say something about his expression— his head titled slightly and he looked her over, his eyebrow finally lowering from where he had eyed her previously, his expression settling into something more satisfied. Her gaze left his, however. And though he was well aware of her eyes moving over him, he was still with his own, patient—

painfully so—

until hers found his once more.

Still, she said nothing, her eyes on him though they seemed lost in thought. His own eyes left hers then and followed a hand, one that absentmindedly ran her fingers through and around her hair, all the way up until, it seemed, it found something of interest— her silken hair tie— and lingered there. At that, he shifted his weight, intrigued, and his eyes narrowed as he watched her, curious. His gaze remained firmly there until her voice pulled his attention back.

He thought he saw the faintest hint of a grin on her lips as she spoke, though he made no move to reciprocate the expression. He kept his own astonishingly neutral to perhaps best her own and he found that was rather proud of himself for that, in truth.

          “Oh, there’s never a wrong time.”, he corrected, a smirk of his own almost showing.
               “But, there are times that are… better than others, certainly…”

He took a deep breath then, an attempt to steady his voice. Then, however, he noted then that she looked mildly offended. For a brief moment, his expression softened, concerned, confused; however, he was no stranger to her playfulness and a reminder of her near-hidden smirk only moments before caused him not to worry, to hold his position as it were. Seconds later, that smirk he had nearly displayed previously finally showed on his face.

If she was toying with him, it seemed only fair that two should be allowed to play that game. yet, before he could tease her more, he saw her lift herself from the counter, quickly moving toward him, a look of slight surprise crossing his face. He cleared that from his expression, however, just as she came to a stop before him. And even after she reached for him, yanking him toward her, he was careful that a look of only faint amusement found its way onto his face. His eyes moved down to find her hands, instead of responding to her words outright. Then, he slowly allowed them to move back up, hovering over every inch of her until he met her eyes once more. Then, a smirk spreading across his face, his eyes jumped from hers up to her hair and, without asking, he reached for that soft, silken ribbon that held her hair— however messily—

in place.

A gentle tug did not pull it loose and he frowned. Ignoring what was likely to be an amused expression at his initial failure from her, he reached his other hand up to assist and a moment later, he pulled it loose, her hair falling about her. Then, as he lowered his hands, he made sure to wave the thing in front of her eyes, looking extremely pleased with himself.

When he realized this, however, he wiped that look off of his face, replacing it with one much more serious.

          “Not tea. ”

His words were simple, spoken as he eyed her. A moment later, he glanced downwards, each one of his hands finding each one of hers and with a gentle tug, he unlatched them from his clothing and pulled them in front of them both. His fingers ran over them gently, carefully. But then, his eyes shot back up and the smirk returned to his face. Without looking, he’d quickly wrapped the silken ribbon around her wrists, tangling the ends between his fingers. And as that grin grew across his face, he jerked her toward him.

          “Is that alright with you?”, he asked, his voice hushed. “Or should I even ask?”

 That look on his face was… interesting. Unusual was more like it; Braska wasn’t
constantly smiling, but there was a gentleness about him that never really went
away, even when his expression was completely neutral

(or when he does the concentrating lip
biting thing that makes me want to do it for him)

Until, apparently, he chose to withdraw it. It was fake, though, this
indifference, at least partly – she was
convinced of this at the flicker of something like amusement that crossed his
face when he answered her back.  If he
had learned this trick from her – and he might well have done, for all she knew
– she was teaching him too well, and she really ought to remind him who
invented that look.

 But as she pulled him toward her, he
only looked…  mildly interested, maybe, or amused,
and for the first time she wondered if perhaps she had lost control of their
one-off experiment in her submission, or if she had lost control altogether.
She wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about that, but she raised no protest,
even as he took his time looking her over, not touching her at all. She only
realised then that she had been expecting him to return the gesture, to pull
her closer to him. He did no such thing, in fact, he seemed to try quite hard
not to, and once she was aware of it, she wanted nothing else; but this had
begun to feel like a challenge of some kind, and she wasn’t about to lose by
begging

 (at
least not yet)

  Her grip on his clothes loosened and her
fingers made half an effort to smooth the fabric down, though she found the
heat of his skin too distracting to do a decent job of it. His hand moved to
her hair before she realised what he was doing, and she laughed quietly at his failure
to pull that silk strip away. Her amusement was premature; when he tried again,
it was in earnest and he quickly untied it and held it in front of her with a
victorious look on his face that lasted a second or two before that careful
indifference replaced it.

 Does
he think it’s convincing? It really isn’t.

 But that wasn’t quite true, though it was half of why it was making
her want him so badly; knowing it
wasn’t real made her want to wipe it off his face. She was about to say
something to this effect when he cut her off with two words.

 “Not
tea.”

 She began to laugh again, but he didn’t
seem to hear her. His eyes dropped down to where her hands still lay against
him, and he pulled them away, gently. Chuami’s eyes fixed on his fingers
running over her hands; already, even that tiny contact felt like something
much more intimate. She sensed a slight movement and looked up to find him
looking back, wearing that insufferable smirk. Focusing on that, she barely
registered the slight, short lived cold of the silk against her skin until it
was too late. She looked down and almost laughed at what he’d done, but the
sound came out weak and hardly audible. As she looked up, he pulled her forward;
on instinct, she tried to pull back, to free herself, but only caught her hands
between them as she was pulled against him.

 Should
I even ask? he said, and she gave a slight shiver at the realisation that
he had seen straight through her reluctance and wasn’t even going to do her the
courtesy of playing along. At that point, she realised that the almost pleading look on her face had been there too long for him not to have noticed it. She shook her hair off her shoulders, more to give herself a chance to take a breath than anything.
Looking from her wrists to him and back, a small
smile appeared on her face. She made no further effort to free herself;
instead, she stood up taller on her toes, moving as if to kiss him, only she couldn’t, not without his cooperation,
and it did not appear to be forthcoming. So she drew as close as she could,
tracing his mouth with her eyes, and spoke in a half-whisper.

 “You
better pray it holds.”

[lies on so u can’t get out of bed]

summoners-path:

summoners-path:

[ 大召喚士 ]

It took Braska a surprisingly long time to notice that he was, indeed, still in bed. A warm light streamed in through the thin curtains and a gentle breeze moved over him as his vision came into focus, blinking. It was then, as he shifted, becoming aware of her weight, that he realized it was likely she that had woken him up with her movements and not the light from outside.

He must have been very tired, after all; it was rare he slept this far past sunrise. He took a deep breath, moving an arm around her, satisfied. Then, unsure whether or not she was asleep, he whispered,

          “I suppose this means I’m not to go out until later, hmm?”

[ 大召喚士 ]

He laughed at her reply, his eyes closing once more. He thought about drifting back off to sleep then; it pulled at him, in truth. However, she was awake, it seemed, and they were both there. Thus, it felt to him to be a waste to fall back asleep now.

         "You didn’t.“, he reassured her, his voice still low, sleepy. After a moment, he laughed.
              ”You’ll have to forgive me for allowing the novelty to run out.
              But, if you think of a way to prolong it, do let me know.“

  She might have fallen asleep again herself, if she hadn’t felt him shift slightly under her as he laughed. It brought her back from the edge of unconsciousness and her eyes dragged open. Blinking, she shifted herself further upwards.

  “I can think of a few.” she replied.

  But she laughed, kissed his cheek and fell back onto his shoulder.

  “I’m probably supposed to be at work. Do you think Sash would believe me if I called in and told him I’ve got… uh…“ she paused, thinking, but her still-asleep brain wasn’t offering her any realistic excuses, so she said the first thing it suggested. “Shoopuf fever.”

five times kissed [sighs in defeat]

one; sudden, nervous, awkward, should I have done that? maybe, maybe not; but it’s done, and the barrier that was between them before is ripped away for better or worse.

---

two; there are times when her presence isn’t needed, where she’d really be better off making herself busy elsewhere; so she makes her excuses and leaves braska and his guest to talk alone, leaving him with a kiss and a smile. it doesn’t occur to her until later that she might have gotten over her fear of people knowing about them, of not being deemed good enough for him – and she didn’t even notice it happen.

---

three; there’s a light breeze blowing over them from the window, the sheets tangled and mostly discarded; but they’re pleasantly warm, partly because of the sunlight falling over them and partly because they’ve just woken up. they haven’t even spoken yet, not so much as a good morning, but that can wait; for now, she concentrates on the pattern of his breathing – she can feel it against her lips and as his exhales become soft moans, she leans down and silences him with a quiet laugh and a deep kiss. He tastes like tea, even now, or maybe she’s beginning to confuse the two, the same way he sometimes puts it to her that she always tastes like sweets.

---

four; down the beach a little way, a circle of light from fire pits and fairy lights illuminates the sand and the rest of the guests, and most importantly, the happy couple. the bride’s dress is suspiciously loose-fitting around the middle and her slightly teary-eyed father is accepting of this; mostly because her mother was in much the same way when he married her, and he is hardly in a place to judge. there has been no formal announcement, but lady yuna’s baby is the talk of spira already.
“should i stay home…?” chuami had asked him the night before, at last.
he knew she would, eventually. the answer was a firm no. “they invited you. don’t be rude.” he added with a grin.
but they both knew what she meant. yuna’s mother should have been there; not her.
now, they sit not far from that circle of light, high enough on the rocks so they can see yuna and tidus dancing, over the heads of the people watching them. braska turns to chuami and the look of pride on her face is enough to tell him that she’s here, not as his guest, or as yuna’s friend, but for tidus, her third brother, who has just stumbled over his own feet. she catches braska watching her, she grins, quickly leans forward presses her lips to his. 
it will never be their names at the top of one of those expensive invitations, but as she leans against his shoulder, fingers lacing into his, the sense of togetherness between them defies the need for it.

---

five; she won’t go further than halfway up the steps, and he stands opposite her, unable to speak. what was left to say? she can’t say anything either. she can’t say don’t go, not when his lucid periods are becoming further and further spaced. she wants to allow herself the luxury of anger, to just yell at him to stop, but she knows this would be the single most selfish act of her life. she can’t make a sound, because she doesn’t trust herself not to leave him feeling guilty, and she cannot, will not, let that be his last memory of her. instead, she only stands there, silently crying. she asked him not to touch her, because that might make it worse, but he can’t watch her cry, and he pulls her into his arms. the knowledge that this might be the last time he does it breaks the last of her self control and she sobs into him, apologies mixed in between the tears.
“i can’t…”
“i know. it’s okay.”
“it’s not–”
“it is, chu. you have a life here. i understand if you can’t leave it.”
but it isn’t that. it isn’t an attachment to life that keeps her on this side of that gateway, it’s an intense fear of what lies beyond it. she turns her head, still leaning heavily against his chest, and stares hard at the farplane gate for a few seconds. then she commits the one act she swore she wouldn’t.
“please don’t go. i can’t lose you.”
his response is to hold her even closer.
“it’s past my time, chu. we… we’ve already talked about this.”
she pulls away from him far enough to see his face. exhausted. they have talked about it, but that doesn’t mean she can accept it. his fingers brush away the tears on her cheeks. before she can speak again, he leans down and their kiss, their very last kiss, is over in a moment. he pulls himself free of her and walks on without looking back, because if he does, he might falter.
as he reaches the top, she calls out to him, her voice panicked.
“wait!”
she darts up the steps and her hand grabs his. not to pull him back, but to pull herself onward. 
he looks down at their hands, then up to find her eyes. she looks back at him and smiles, unconvincingly.
“chu…”
“if you tell me to–”
“go back.”
“no.”
her eyes fix on the gate once more.
“i trust you.”

Sense8 Meme: “You didn’t expect this, did you?”

  For a moment or two, she kept pointedly silent and focused on re-tying her hair. Once she was finished, she dropped her hands to her sides and shifted awkwardly, looking around as if she were thinking very hard about her answer. 

  Eventually, she folded her arms. Tapping her fingers on her arm, her eyes found his again.

  “… no?”

[lies on so u can’t get out of bed]

summoners-path:

[ 大召喚士 ]

It took Braska a surprisingly long time to notice that he was, indeed, still in bed. A warm light streamed in through the thin curtains and a gentle breeze moved over him as his vision came into focus, blinking. It was then, as he shifted, becoming aware of her weight, that he realized it was likely she that had woken him up with her movements and not the light from outside.

He must have been very tired, after all; it was rare he slept this far past sunrise. He took a deep breath, moving an arm around her, satisfied. Then, unsure whether or not she was asleep, he whispered,

          “I suppose this means I’m not to go out until later, hmm?”

  She didn’t answer for a few seconds, still half-asleep herself. Then she wriggled upwards to find a more comfortable spot against his shoulder and shook her head.

  “Nope.” she smiled, then fell silent again.

  After letting out a quiet sigh, she expended a tiny amount of effort to tap his nose with one finger.

  “Didn’t mean to disturb you,” she said, “You’re not often here when I wake up. Or, I’m not when you wake up. You’ll have to forgive me if I keep you here til the novelty runs out.”

  

summoners-path:

[ 大召喚士 ]

He laughed at her question, shaking his head playfully at her observation that such an action on her part had been “anti-climactic”. When he had recovered from this, he raised an eyebrow at her, one that said: Hardly.  And without any further reply, he patiently waited, watching her pull herself into position and nodding to her when she met his gaze through the numerous, free strands of hair that she hid behind.

He really couldn’t agree with her observation, though. After all, it was exactly such a drunk and accidental event that caused them to have this conversation, here and now. And, in his eyes, it was a conversation that now felt long overdue, even though so much of it, he thought, didn’t even need to be said.

He exhaled, laughing slightly, as she called out her own nervousness. His hands, instinctively, holding tighter to her own. And, with the gentlest of motions, he pulled her forward, his small way of nudging her onward with her words when she hesitated. He had wanted to reach up and brush aside the hair that had fallen into her face, but the grin she had worn when she finally looked back to him had left him satisfied just the same.

His eyes never left hers. His hands never let go. And as he listened to each and every word she said, the soft smile on his face grew and grew, near ten-times over, he felt. He looked her over, all of her, noting how she sat, how she breathed, how she hesitated at certain words. He wanted to remember all of it, as best he could. After all, he’d never thought he’d have another moment like this in his life.

He’d never thought he’d ever care for someone like he once had cared for her. He’d closed his eyes, for only a moment, at the thought and, when he opened them, he caught her sighing and his hands gently pulled at her once more. He wanted to be sure he had her eyes when she finally said it… and he did. She looked surprised with herself and, in turn, he looked surprised with her. Then, as she began to laugh, he laughed with her, all the while inching her ever closer and leaning in.

          “That is a start.”, he finally said, a hint of teasing in his voice.

As he finished speaking, he finally let go of one of her hands in order to brush the hair from her face. The other still laced with hers, his free hand lingered on her skin. He traced a finger along her cheek, downward, until it rested under her chin. Then, closing the remaining distance between them, he kissed her, gently and only once, before he moved away ever so slightly, hovering only barely an inch away as he spoke again.

          “Hardly disgusting.”, he teased in a whisper, laughing to himself. Then, more serious,
               “It’s exactly what I’d hoped you would say, you know.
               I… I never thought I could feel like this again. Yet I do.”

It was true, though he doubted she really knew just how important it was to him. That, of course, was of no fault of her own. They had not often discussed his life before, his wife. His story was well known and she had never asked about much of it. They had spent so much of their time focused on the fact that they could simply be. Yet, as he looked at her now, he found that he wanted her to know, to know everything. Not all at once, of course. There was no rush; they had lots of time. But, eventually, even as difficult as much of it was to say, he wanted to share that with her. He wanted her to understand, to share that with him.

Really, he wanted to share everything with her. To think it had started with a simple piece of furniture and a blanket or two… The thought made him smile.

          “Thank you.”, he told her, finally putting some distance between them once more.

He paused then for a moment. The hand that had guided her face to his moved back to her free one and, once more, his fingers laced with hers. They pulled tighter on her than they had previously. There was an need in them now, in the way his held them, a possessiveness that he did not often allow himself to portray. She was her own person, after all. That was why he loved her. But also, she was his and he wanted her to know. He glanced away at the thought, a hint of color in his cheeks as he laughed at himself, thinking once more like the foolish teenager he thought he had lost so long ago. Then, looking back to her, he found her eyes, bright and alive and more beautiful with each passing day. And with more quiet confidence in his voice than she had likely ever heard, he added,

          “I love you, too.”

   Were they sitting in
the same place now, as he leaned forward to kiss her, as they had been when
he’d first done that? She thought so. There was no similarity, though, between
then and now. The first time had been nervous, sudden and neither of them had known
quite whether they ought to regret it. Enough time had passed since then that
he was able to take his time with her and she turned her face towards his hand
as it traced over her cheek.
 
    There were tears burning her eyes, but
she didn’t realise it until she heard him say it, until she heard the words – I
love you, too – and then she let out a laugh that was so strongly coloured by
relief it was almost a sob. She looked down at their linked hands, trying not
to let him see her being this emotional, and pressed her eyes closed to stop
them from overflowing.

    She was used to hearing, “this means
nothing”; “I don’t want anything serious”; “you know we aren’t exclusive,
right?”.  Her instinct was to reject his
words and replace them with some other explanation. Maybe Auron was right,
maybe Braska only tolerated her so well because that was what he did; maybe he
was humouring her, maybe he thought she needed to hear it. But for her to
believe any of these theories, she would have to call him a liar, and that was
not something she felt able to do; at all. In all the time they had known each
other, he had never lied to her, had never given her reason to doubt him.

    As she looked up, she understood that
she had made the right decision. By now, she thought she knew his face as well
as she knew her own, and she was sure she hadn’t seen this exact expression on
him before, pink-cheeked, laughing and mildly bewildered. She had told him she
loved him, and there was nothing more
than that she could say – was there? Even though, right now, the words
seemed far too small and insignificant to carry nearly as much meaning as she
needed them to. Instead of saying anything at all, she wrenched her hands free,
threw her arms around him and held him as tightly as she could, laughing at herself,
at her nerves and her foolishness, as she hid her face against his shoulder and
her fingertips  curled into the fabric of
his shirt. The scent of his skin mixed with that of his clothes and the ever-present
tea was the deepest comfort, and for a moment, Chuami felt a sense of complete
contentment. After all the evenings spent curled up at his side, all the casual
kisses exchanged for no reason other than their possibility, all the nights she’d
slept in his arms – somehow this was
the closest she’d ever felt to him.

   But as soon as she acknowledged
it, something began to feel wrong. This was too easy. He was too open with her,
too kind to her, he felt too real in her arms. It was all too familiar.

 I don’t deserve this.

 I don’t deserve him.

  There was a pause – a fraction of a
second in which she fought this idea and lost – then the tears she had been
holding back spilled over and began to dampen his shoulder. Chuami had the
strangest feeling that when she let go of him, she might never hold him this
close again; but at the same time, she feared that her presence might be
damaging him somehow even now, like she might be poisonous.

 “You can’t say that.”

    It came out as a whisper, her face
still hidden against him. She drew back, her hands on his shoulders, her eyes
downcast and her cheeks wet.

 “You can’t say that.” she repeated,
loud enough to be heard this time, though her voice caught in her throat.

 “I have to tell you… I didn’t mean to
keep it secret, I never meant to hide anything, I…”

    It sounded weak, even to her own ears.
There had been times she could have brought it up, but she didn’t, because she
was scared. Hadn’t she deliberately avoided the subject only a few minutes ago?
The truth was, she had lied.

    She looked up but was unable to speak
for a few seconds. Her voice trailed off, her hands withdrew. She pulled her
knees up to her chin and sat, staring at the floor.

  “There’s
a reason I never told you before. I… really didn’t want to love you. I’ve only
ever felt like this once before.

 “Her name was

(I can’t say it I can’t talk about it I can’t think about this–)

(I can and I will)

 Anjali. She… she died. And it was my fault.”

[lies on] “I thought you said it got warmer around here in summer? :c”

summoners-path:

summoners-path:

[ 大召喚士 ]

          “Well, you know…”, he began, reaching for a blanket to throw over her.
               “Cold spells do happen. And, even at its best, Bevelle is certainly no Besaid.”

By now, he had the blanket over her and, after a moment, he looked at her and smiled. Then, laughing, his expression turned into a grin.

          “Although, if you think it’s that bad, I wouldn’t be opposed to a vacation.”

[ 大召喚士 ]

He had been rather satisfied with his reply until, of course, she turned to him, pulling away just enough so that he could see her expression change to the one thing he had least expected: disappointment. He’d opened his mouth to speak, frowning and looking genuinely confused, but she had not allowed it. Instead, she’d thrown her legs over him and he’d remained silent, expecting her to explain. Surely, she would. Though, even if she did not, he would have been fine so long as she continued tracing him.

But, just as he’d expected, she did and all at once the motive behind her disappointment made sense to him. His expression of confusion melted into one that looked suspicious, though playfully so. And, as soon as her smiled returned, he hurriedly whispered to her, unsure if he could make more sound, before she could speak again.

          “Is that so?”, he asked, eyeing her though she noticeably did not reply.

It seemed she preferred the conversation to take a non-verbal route and, of course, this was fine. He did not wish to fight her and, instead, followed every move she made, every part of him on edge as she moved across him with an almost painful slowness about her fingertips. He knew her well enough by now that he was careful not to shift around to meet her or reciprocate her actions. He did not move despite how much he wanted to do so. And his eyes remained fixed on her, still following her with purpose until her hands moved through his hair. At that, his eyes closed and he leaned into her expectantly.

Only, it seemed, to be disappointed.

          How fitting…

His eyes shot open, hurriedly searching for hers, and there was once again confusion in them that only seemed to accentuate the soft heat in his face, flushed. He opened his mouth to speak, but she beat him to the first word and, before he could object or do anything, she had already removed herself from his presence and was halfway to the kitchen.

          Tea.

There were few moments in life when he did not want tea. This, decidedly, was one of them.

He took a moment to recovering, shaking his head and running his own fingers through his hair to fix where she had upset it. Then, without hesitation, he got up from the couch and followed after her. He found her already at work over the sink and he paused just a few feet from where she stood, her back to him, as he worked to slow his breathing before he spoke. She had to know he was there. He had not been particularly quiet about his approach, nor the exasperated sigh he had let out as he’d watched her walk away. Finally, after a long silence, he spoke, his voice filled with uncharacteristic frustration. He knew she would likely be pleased.

          “Tea? Really… ? Now?”

  Somehow, his silence as he stood watching her was amusing to her on its own; with her back to him, it was far easier to hide that from him, but it was likely that he could sense it anyway. 

  “Don’t distract me,” she began, throwing her hair off her shoulder. Before she could say anything else, though, he cut her off, and the slight rough edge to his voice made her eyes close for a moment too long. She let out a short sigh and turned around and leaned back against the sink, biting her lip to keep her face a little straighter.

  At first, she didn’t say anything; she wasn’t able to. He had managed to sweep his hair back into place, but it was still slightly disheveled. The faint flush still left in his face was at odds with the frustration in his eyes. He looked younger, somehow. For a while, she just stood there and stared as one of those moments of disbelief made her wonder at how she had managed to end up here; from being mortally afraid of the effect he had on her to being able to enjoy it. Her eyes moved over every inch of him – she didn’t bother with any attempts at subtlety – until staying this far away from him was a torment to her that she drew out only in hopes that he felt it too. It was relatively new to her, this restraint, and she tested it now and then out of a curiosity that had developed after… 

  That thought trailed off and her fingers played with the silk strip in her hair as she remembered she was supposed to be answering him.

  “Hmmm? There’s a wrong time now?” she asked, head tilted, barely concealing a smirk. “I must have missed that lesson. I mean, if you’d rather I didn’t…”

  As she spoke, she tried to look mildly offended or saddened, but she was unable to maintain it; when she looked up and met his gaze again, her smile had returned. She pushed herself off the sink and crossed the short space between them, stopped in front of him and pulled him closer.

  “What is it you do want?”