good morrow

the smallest twitch crossed his jaw when she tugged her shirt higher, trying to hide the scar. a part of him wanted to tell her not to. that it wasn't shameful. that he hated the reminder just as much as she did, yes, but not for the reason she thought. his silence stretched long enough to feel suffocating, and still he didn't look away. 'i don't think of you in anger,' michael said at last, voice low, though words never break. 'not you,' the chain clinked as his fingers tapped once, twice, against the table — the closest thing he could get to restlessness. 'the rest of the world. . . not you,'

"what about the world?" she asked. there's so much that she yearned to unearth about his history. to try and understand what had caused that flip in him to switch. "i mean - you don't have to tell me michael." his name the punctuation of every sentence she wanted to say. as if she can preserve a version of his former self in the softness of his name. tuck him safe between the letters until this anger or hurt had come to pass fully.

when he leaned forward she cannot help but counter back. her spine pressed flat onto the back of the chair. there's a flicker of fear in her features but she moved to meet his eyes with hers. it's funny, but she could swear there's almost warmth. "you were never buried." voice is barely a whisper. it's almost a laugh in the back of her throat. "not to me at least. the news, my work, ziggy - all begged me to bury you. mourn you. forget you. but i just stayed." cindy looked down to her own trembling hands. "when i thought you called i came." shoulders shrugged at her own misgivings. "but i cannot pretend that there is a vast part of you that is a stranger to me. places that you never let me, or anybody sit with you, not really, and i don't know how to not be frightened by those parts." she admitted. "i don't know how to reconcile them with the parts of you i know like they were my own."

chains rattled again when his hands flexed against the metal, not from anger but something harder to name. michael's gaze didn't leave hers, not once, not when her words hit like knives, not when she spat her defiance at him like she'd been saving it for years. he was sure she had been. 'i didn't —' he stopped. the words dragged out of him like something foreign. his jaw worked before he tried again, quieter this time. 'i didn't ask,' the implication, however, hung between them: but i wanted to.

in a moment he's deflated the anger in her. it was truly a talent of his, even now. despite herself she settled into the cool metal chair, feet on the floor, and her own hands mirrored on the table.when he speaks again she can't seem to find her voice. mind races as she tries to comprehend the meaning of it. "i - i didn't know you thought of me at all." cindy admitted. "except in anger maybe." anger at being caught, or getting in the way. of never being quite where she should be. when she notices that his gaze is on her heart, on the scar, and she takes a moment to tug the shirt upward.

the walls never change. white, sterile, humming with the low buzz of fluorescent lights that made everything feel like it had been drained of color. michael sat in the chair bolted to the floor, chains at his wrists rattling every time he moved, though he hardly did. stillness had become second nature, as did the monotony of this place. but then the door opened, and both of those things cracked open. cindy was older now, sharper at the edges but still carrying something of the girl he used to know. there's a moment where michael didn't breathe, unwilling to break the image of her standing there, like a memory given flesh.

it had taken year to will herself out of her house. to bring herself to be in the same room with him again. she didn't tell anybody where she was going, just accepted the meeting when asked. she's stopped at the door when she sees him. a rush of something in her chest stirs. he looked the same, but also different. it was as if her former image of him now rested in his aged features. as if they weren't quite the same. cindy's hand almost wants to reach for him, feel the flesh of his cheek beneath her fingertips, trying to remind herself that he's not myth or legend but flesh and blood.

it isn't fair. though janice would say life isn't fair, persephone, in that horrid condescending way of hers, usually followed by: i'm just telling you how it is. as if it was all for percy's good. as if cruelty was a given, as if she would never have even one ally to stand with her against the world.

she cannot help but crack a smile at the response. shoulders slump with a lazy shrug. "if they have ears they aren't listening. and if they have eyes they certainly aren't looking." she remarked in return. how easily the unkind hands of the people who ought to be caring for them could bruise.

❛  i can't stop thinking about you even when i try.  ❜ ❛  every time i see you, it's like my heart skips a beat.  ❜ ❛  i never realized how much i needed you until you weren't there.  ❜ ❛  do you ever feel like there's something missing ... like a piece of your heart is somewhere else?  ❜ ❛  i wish i had the courage to tell you how i feel.  ❜ ❛  if only you knew how much you truly mean to me.  ❜ ❛  do you ever wonder what it would be like if things were different between us?  ❜ ❛  sometimes i wonder if you ever think about me the way i think about you.  ❜ ❛  i had a lot of dreams about you recently.  ❜ ❛  somehow, you're always on my mind.  ❜ ❛  i think i've been in love with you since the day we met - scratch that, i know i've been in love with you since the day we met.  ❜ ❛  my biggest wish is to hold you close and never let you go.  ❜ ❛  all my life i've felt like a part of me was missing, but with you i've finally found it.  ❜ ❛  you deserve better than who i am right now, but i'm gonna keep trying to become someone you do deserve.  ❜ ❛  every time you smile at me, i get this flutter in my chest.  ❜ ❛  do you think i'll ever be worthy of your love?  ❜ ❛  i want to be the person to make you happy. the one person you can always come to with whatever you need.  ❜ ❛  will we ever get another chance together?  ❜ ❛  you were the best thing that's ever happened to me.  ❜ ❛  my biggest regret is ever letting you go.  ❜ ❛  i'm still in love with you ... and i honestly never stopped.  ❜ ❛  when i wake up in the morning, you're the first person i want to see.  ❜ ❛  every time i wake up, i check if you wrote me another message.  ❜ ❛  i wish i could be as important to you as you are to me.  ❜ ❛  it hurts when you don't talk to me like you used to.  ❜ ❛  i miss everything about you, your touch, your laugh, your smile. i wish i could have that back.  ❜ ❛  i want to fall asleep wrapped in your arms.  ❜ ❛  hold me closer; i always feel safer when you're with me.  ❜ ❛  there's so much i wish i was able to tell you.  ❜ ❛  i know things aren't easy right now, but i want to remain a fixture in your life. after all, you're one in mine.  ❜ ❛  i miss the way you always made me smile.  ❜ ❛  you're the reason i keep holding on.  ❜ ❛  maybe we're supposed so to remain a case of 'right person, wrong time' forever.  ❜ ❛  if only you knew how i feel about you.  ❜ ❛  i'm yearning to hold your hand in mine.  ❜ ❛  i think you are the one for me, and i hope one day i'll be the one for you, too.  ❜ ❛  do you think i'll ever become more than a friend to you?  ❜ ❛  my heart belongs to you, always and forever.  ❜ ❛  my first instinct is to protect you, no matter the cost.  ❜ ❛  i've been thinking about us a lot lately.  ❜