escordvi | closed ⚡🪶 and forevermore, i'll be chasing the storm we had.

[There's a slight widening of his eyes in surprise, but it's an easy answer for him to make. As his fingertips grip the pendant, she'll feel the warmth of his levin mixing with her wind, forming something like a chain that gathers around the pendant before it crawls over to the place over her heart and then spreads out to his, creating a visible link between them. A link made and bound by their aether.]

I promise. Once we find that relic and change the rifts, we'll sail away and leave everything behind. Start our own life together.

[His grip tightens over the pendant between them and thus over her fingers as the heat from his levin intensifies, as if digging into their skin.]

...I already lost one lifetime. I'm not wasting another.

[He spent all his life serving others, sacrificing his own wants and will until it burned him out. Of course, he made those final years, those final moments count, but he will always resent the decades he had been used before, of all that had been taken from him. This time, he will be sure he live the way he wants and keeps fast of what he desires.]

[He'll hear her breath catch, see her chest rise and fall, at the feel of his lightning and his aether, the static heat of it already threading into her own beneath her skin, binding them together in a way that no one else could. Binding that promise to them in a way that only they can. A way unique to them, and them only, and thus, a thread that cannot be broken. After all the rest that had been severed by fate and by themselves, they can finally forge something stronger.]

Me neither.

[She doesn't want to just survive. She wants to live. What that means, she still hasn't figured that for herself yet, but if this is what it means to live, then she wants it.

And with that, nothing else needs to be said. No more words. They've spoken enough, they've revealed enough, and now it was time to etch it all into one another. To carve those promises into each other's lips and every inch of themselves so that they may never forget.

There's a splash of the water as Benedikta surges forward, her lips crashing into his for that first kiss to seal them together. There's a soft sound of the metal chain as she frees the pendant from their hands so that she can wrap her arms around his shoulders for support as she pulls herself as close as she can be. And as she deepens the kiss, her lips parting in invitation for him, there are words that rest on the tip of her tongue.

Words that she may never speak, but ones that she intends to convey all the same through her actions. Her own reassurance, her own promise to him that she has held onto for a long, long time. She can only hope that through them, she can make him understand.

After reaffirming all the things they already knew and then the things they didn't, after sealing that promise wholly between each other, they move back inside, taking the food with them, only to stumble back into their ways again, and again, wasting away the evening completely caught up and lost in each other that she's hardly noticed the sun is setting by the time they rest their heads, only because they are far too spent to continue.

As they lie there together, her head falls to rest against him, her finger trailing a sleepy line up and down his front as she watches his chest rise and fall with every breath before her sleepy gaze moves up to peer at him. To just... look.]

[The time spent between them was both everlasting and a blur at the same time. Compared to all the other times before, this had more of a profound emotional weight between them. The rift still remains, but what was once a seemingly impossible distance now feels as he could just leap over and he would be there. The bridge that had once been torn and hanging by a fraying thread now almost complete. Work still needed to be done, and there is still a gaping hole that will be difficult to fill and cross...

But there will be no thoughts of that now. For now he has her in his arms—truly has her. Even if it wasn't an explicit declaration, it was clear enough that it might as well have been—she chose him. This time, she chooses him.

And now, lying together, with her in his arms and for once not having to wonder if she will flee or disappear (not that she has since they've been togerher), he just relishes and savors her presence and warmth. How many years have they both wished for this and for it to finally be so close in coming true...? And how many years were wasted because they were forced apart? Six or eight years may not seem much at first, but it's too long. Too, too long...

When he feels her gaze, he'll slowly look down to meet her, his eyes softening before he grins.]

Like what you see?

[Her eyes widen just a touch when he catches her staring, but for once, though a new flush passes over her cheeks, she doesn't avert her gaze or fumble about. She just offers him the same soft look back, a tiny quirk of her lip and a low hum.]

I always do.

[That much has never changed. She could have hated him all she wanted, but she never didn't like what she saw right in front of her, but...]

Today in particular.

[His smile only deepens as he takes a moment to take in her own face, those flushed cheeks just making her more attractive and tempting for him.]

Mm... Can say the same of you.

[He shifts to turn more onto his side so that his arm can fully wrap around her waist and his face can fall closer to hers. There's that usual gleam, that hint of mischief, but then it softens as gently brushes his lips over her cheek.]

...Thank you, Benna.

Hm?

[She hums in question at him, falling to her side as he moves to his so that they are more face to face now, a small breath of laughter forming in her chest when his beard tickles her cheek.]

For what?

[She wasn't expecting nor looking for thanks, so she is a bit surprised by it.]

[He just continues to smiles with a small shake of his head.]

Wouldn't be here if it weren't for you.

[But there is another reason. A deeper reason.]

[Now she flushes properly, and she shuffles closer, trying to find someplace to bury her face.]

You would have found your way here eventually.

[She just hopes that it would have been with her still.]

Maybe, but... It wouldn't be like this.

[He lets her hide, but that just means his mouth will be closer to her ear as his hand drifts up her back to thread through her hair that is still just a little too long.

And then with a little teasing tone and rougher whisper.]

Don't do it for anyone else.

[That draws out the small hum of laughter into his ear.]

As if I would. I almost didn't for you.

[A downright lie. She was waiting and waiting until Eltrut and Nogard were finally close enough that she could take off and meet him here in a flap of her wings.

But in case that message still doesn't come across, she offers quietly:]

Only for you.

Edited 2024-01-24 17:17 (UTC)

Good.

[A quiet chuckle in return because he did know, but it is nice to hear it so clearly. And then, in a quieter voice:]

Because it can be only you.

[He had better savour those words, because this may be the only time he hears them, with her head all abuzz in their afterglow.

But his words make her heart flutter and then soar, and she tries to grapple it and shove it back into its cage lest it fly too far away from her that she cannot take it back should she need to, but it's far too late for that. It is in his hands, and now her lips are on his again somehow, pressing a languid kiss before she can even think to resist.]

Good. [She echoes into the kiss, a grin forming.] Then all is as it should be, isn't it?

[As it should have been.]

Aye.

[A smile against her lips as he returns it.]

...As it should be.

[As it should have been.

And briefly overcome with a rush of emotions and need, he captures her lips once more for a tender, gentle kiss that as always will turn more passionate as the hand at the back of her head will run down her neck, her shoulder, her back, to her hips and legs to pull her closer. Actions that while still carrying the lingering heat of their passion also carries those deeper feelings and wants. Of not just wanting that physical heat, but because it is her heat, her taste, her everything.

And there is something else he had wanted to tell her but couldn't quite bring himself to say.

He had already thanked her for helping him, for pulling him out of his rut, but he also wanted to thank her for being here with him. Being here, alive, by her own will and want. By her own choice. To thank her for choosing him, for loving him. Even if he still wished she had done this before, he can no longer hold it against her—he can't, he shouldn't. Not when they are finally righting the wrongs inflicted upon them.

And, perhaps, he still feels that bit of loneliness that he was reminded of after Mid's departure, so for tonight he will be a bit more clingy. Bit more needy, greedy.

And a bit more loving.]

[If he hadn't taken her, she would have taken him, her own rush of emotions too great a tide to stem. She doesn't know when it had happened or how it happened, what exact moment to pinpoint and blame for this shift, what thought it was that spurred her forward and into his arms faster than she has ever flown into them before. Not that it matters—it's here and she cannot do much about it anymore. When it comes to him, it's impossible to fight those feelings. She can't, not when they are so deeply weaved into her aether, into her very existence. Not when he is so intricately threaded into every part of her life, whether through fate or by their own hands.

Hands that reach for him as he takes her again, her touch once more saying all that he needs to know. Things that she had not said in the moment because she didn't know how to.

Like how she should have thanked him for continuing to pull her out of her own depths that she still sometimes sinks into. Yes, she pulled him out of his rut today, but he does so for her again and again, even when she doesn't want his hand. Even when she's bitten it or turned away from it, he still fights back and pulls her free. Thanked him for how he continues to push her to find her own meaning in this new life she'd been given. A second chance that she didn't believe in—still doesn't fully believe in.

Thanked him for seeing past all the ugliness in her heart, past the blood on her hands, past the anger and the wrath and the hatred that she's shaped after all these years. For still believing that she could be someone else—someone better, someone who lives for herself even when she doesn't know how to do it on her own.

And that is why it's so hard to pinpoint the moment of this shift. Had it been before all of this? Had she not realized until the rifts had served as a catalyst? Was it that very real risk of him leaving her again after all that they have put themselves through here?

Who is to say.

One thing is absolutely certain though, and that is tonight, he will not be the only one who is a bit more clingy. A bit more greedy.

And a bit more loving.

But she will be, too.]

closed ⚡🪶 and forevermore, i'll be chasing the storm we had.

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💚💜 fin.