𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐈𝐓 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍, 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐃 ? 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐍, 𝐇𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐋 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐃𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑 - 𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐎𝐂𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 ( … ) all around her were broken dreams, but none of them had ever belonged to her / none of them had ever been woven together by the gold - touched threads of her heart, and mayhap this is why they had always felt painfully unfamiliar and foreign ⸻ alien fragments of someone else's desires stitched on the muscle tissue of her melancholic heart. underwater, in apnea. not living in full, but merely surviving. is it not ironic, how it is much easier to breathe in the midst of violence now, rather than 'pon a diamonds - lit stage ?
a titter escaped from rose - red tiers, a dulcet sound not unlike the mellifluent song of a lovebird. it was not bashfulness that crept 'pon beauteous features, but an odd sentiment in - between pride and joy: she had learnt how to dance amidst monsters, amongst those who had been abandoned by the world and thus perpetually dwelled in the shadows ( ... ) their love, albeit tainted by the horrors of mania, had always been much more genuine than the ravenous affections of the wealthy. and now, with pleasant shivers slithering down her spine, hamel wondered whether she was ready to dance not for the shadows of the past, but for someone else. someone who was similar yet different, someone whose thunderous heart - beat had become a familiar and soothing melody.
her gaze was downcast, long lashes casting dark wisps across her cheeks, whilst her nimble fingers idly played with ninety - nine's ; tenderly, carefully, with the honey - soft touch of one who is still searching for her place in the world. ❝ would you like to learn ? ❞ her cadence was feather - light, but her vowels had become sweeter and her consonants rounder. there was an undeniable eagerness in the way she had proposed such a precipitous idea, her mirth further emphasized by the way her eyes now searched for the other's. ❝ before all of this⸻ i would always dance by myself, alone in the center of those bright and frightening stages. but now i would be really happy to have a partner, especially if it was you. ❞