he looks amazing , tired or freshly awoken he still manages to make her heart halt . with a night gown to the floor , she tucks her feet beneath her . she wants to look modest , not like she did at dinner . ❛ yeah , and i .. i i’ve always wanted one of these . ❜ riley looks fondly at both alexander and the fireplace . ❛ not thinking is good . but , i want you to know i trust you . and if you want to ask me anything , you can . ❜ so now he knows , at least a little bit , but more importantly , he knows it’s okay to ask , that she is ready . her hands rise close to the fire , allowing comfortable silence to fill between them .
he wishes he still remembered , in one form or another , what it was like to really smile . not just the action itself—- as he’d always been one of fakery and feigned put together-ness , so the act of smiling was only half the chore—- but the feeling associated with it as well , be it from happiness , flattery , relief , love . sometimes he feels truly empty , totally void , completely numb . as he matures , that sometimes grows closer & closer to all the time , and alexander knows one day riley will look in his eyes and he simply will not be there , a caricature of flesh and meat but hollow within .
her trust in him , however , brings alexander a sense of closeness to riley , without him asking her anything at all . this girl , delicate and frail and small , trusted him—- ugly and angry and void . sure , riley had always trusted him due to her clear devotion and adoration of the man , but she’d never really trusted him like this , with something that consumed her life so intimately , even more than he .
‘ thank you . ‘ he murmurs , crooking his neck downwards to nestle into her collarbone . his breath against her neck is warm , barely there . as much as he did want to ask , he doesn’t feel like he should ask right now . they’d come here to escape , after all . ‘ i’ll ask when we are home . right now , i just want for us to be together , here . ‘ its almost out of character how gentle , soft , and loving his vowels sing to her . truthfully , he’d just been entranced by the magic of it all , this place , and it did really bring out the child in him , one he’d locked away for safe keeping , but trusted in riley , like she trusted in him .