[P] not strong enough to stay away

[Marisol]

hallelujah
I found
jesus when
i drowned

Marisol stares out at the sea as he talks. Rhone’s voice is kind and comfortingly deep, but it can’t soothe her nerves quite enough. Instead she tries to calm herself down by matching her breaths to crash and roll of the waves, slowing her pulse to the rhythm of the rising and falling flecks of foam. The smell of salt, too, is like a balm to the part of her that is wild-blooded.


But she would never admit it. Especially now that her confidante is gone. Now it is her burden to shoulder for ever and ever, a pain that she cannot put words to for the rest of her life. Flushed with embarrassment, she pulls her head down to her chest and frantically blinks the oncoming tears out of her eyes. “To me, too,” she whispers, and that is that.

Now the sky is turning perfect blue. Sun streams down around them, and another knot of tension slips out from her shoulders as the light and the wind and the sea-smell all wash over her. When he speaks again it brings the barest smile to her face, warm and sheepish and are you sure? Warmth tingles through her, a flood of relief mingled with satisfaction.

“I’m not so sure. But.” She pauses, shakes the rough bristle of her mane as if trying to shake off the whole situation along with the salt that comes flying loose. Mari bites her lip in deep consideration at the next part of his speech; surprise and curiosity interlock in the looks that she gives him, upturned from a swath of dark eyelashes.

A king? She can see it, now that she’s looking: the way he holds himself, the seriousness in his face, the way he’s taken so easily to this whole situation. Calmness in the face of calamity. Marisol knows how to do that, but not without losing her kindness. She’s never been soft enough for democracy anyway.  

“I appreciate it,” Marisol responds slowly, and her voice holds the ultimate note of sincere. Demure, too, in the quietly embarrassed way she slips her gaze sideways to meet his. “What… how did you start? Helping people move forward, I mean, helping yourself too. I don’t even know where to begin repairing. This.”

“Speaking.”

credits