Seeing Florentine again - like this - makes him feel strange about the twilight girl - strange about how beautiful she is to him and how she makes his stomach tingle as if it were a flurry of flowers and butterflies. She is almost as old as he is now (part of him is relieved to know he feels this way about an adult and not a child, awkward) but even he considers himself barely an adult. There are so many things Only hasn't done - hasn't even considered. Florentine has found love and a family and a duty to that family while Only can barely figure out what he is going to do after Florentine leaves to go home. This only means that they are still both quite young and inexperienced at a lot of adult things, different things of course, but perhaps that is where they can help each other out as Time goes on.
He feels protective over her as she floats towards him like petals on the wind and he is as tense as - yes - a snake poised to bite and kill, he is ready to fight whatever may leap out of the tall grass and destroy this moment for him. Beautiful Flora, so perfect and rare (he will wonder later why he thinks of her as 'rare') that surely this isn't happening. It is only when the buttercream girl places a soft kiss against his cheek that he relaxes entirely - his tension melting and the rigidness more elastic - she laughs and he sighs, content. "Oh Florentine..."
I'll be your tiger, goodness knows a sweet girl like that needs one. You know what they say, there is always someone worse than the worst person you know - so if Only is here, he wonders what else may be out there that is far more terrible than him - than Stephan.
Only reaches around her, embraces her, and it is the first gesture of kindness he has offered since...
Well, he cannot remember.
Your skin is so soft. She says and quite honestly, he hasn't noticed it since now. "Our old home made sure to take everything from me before I was pushed out. Not a thing was left by the time I ended up here, not even my own skin I guess. But you -"
you have not changed one bit, he wants to say but doesn't. Instead, he allows himself to smile rather than be tormented about it. She has a way of disarming the worst of his worries and she doesn't even know it. The Rift is far behind them - farther now that he has found another one of his friends.
Are Florentine and I friends? He wonders then, the thought of such a thing warms him. They've only met once but indeed, Time has a way of being very funny. He is still reeling on the idea that they are nearly the same age now - and relieved that they were, of course. An adult man wandering with a girl-child just didn't seem...well,
kosher. Speaking of which, she is on to tell him about sex and pregnancy and that is where he turns an ear towards her to make sure he is hearing her right. Her gaze is laughing and her laughter is wild and free - the whole of her is just some melodious harmony full of rainbows and kittens that it has never occurred to him that Florentine (a young
woman) would eventually be encountering these things.
Now he stops in the grass from their casual walk and he offers that same serious, wild look he always gives. The same bewildered and sobered expression he gave her when he first met. She stretches her wings and checks just to make sure and it's enough to make his heart palpitate thinking this little girl has known the touch of a man in anyway. She's not a baby anymore though, and he must try to remember that. Quietly he walks with her again as she apologizes for it and that is when he decides he must shake himself of the overprotective feelings he has for her.
"I'm not sure why I am saying this but I am glad as well. Then again I am still trying to wrap myself around the idea of you being an adult." He admits but he cannot hold it back any longer,
Oh he says again and she laughs again. The man's ears turn into one another as he moves forward with her. It amuses him every time the summer yellow butterflies and honeybees buzz around her hair to visit each delicate flower that has woven through her hair. He finds inner peace and smiles again, quiet and calm like the breeze that cozies up around their shoulders. Dusk is not far behind them but he is not concerned for her - she is in good hands.
"So Flora, where all have you been here in Novus? What all have you seen - anyone
we know ? - do you belong to these so called courts?" He asked as casually as he could, his nose reaching over to nip a flower out of his hair before gobbling it up very obviously for her to see. The flower was very perfumed in his mouth and he couldn't help but snort at the heavy nectar-filled smell it filled his nose with. "Well, I hope you that's alright for the bees long term - someone could get sleepy eating those." He says as he bumps her shoulder and swats his tail back at her trying to measure out moment.
"You couldn't have come at a better time, I'm in desperate need of a friend I could trust. An honest one at that." He hums then, his ears still tucked in close together as he thinks about how lucky he is to have been found by Florentine at a time like this in his life.
.only
thief for hire
low-functioning telekinesis
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
For many are called but few are chosen.
@Florentine
