#apparentheir

@apparentheir​  willed,    ❛  it’s like we’ve become strangers.  ❜

@apparentheir​  willed,    ❛  they broke your heart.  ❜

     a soft breath escapes    from between parted lips,  his impassioned whisper like the loudest bell but for the silence between them,  ringing and wringing confessions from them both.   her lidded eyes flicker down to his hands,  one of hers covering one of his,  fingers prying at the thick leather covering it.   once finally coaxed away,  she tangles their fingers together,  calloused palms sliding together.     ❛  you  .  .  .  ❜     rey starts,  momentarily distracted by the swiping of her own thumb across the back of his.   she raises her eyes to his,  gaze settling upon him with an earnest certainty.     ❛  you make me feel whole.  ❜

     ❛  you  would  do  well    to hold your tongue.  ❜     truthfully it isn’t much of a threat,  not for how blatantly besotted the both of them have since become  —  but she’s learned what to say during these exchanges to coax out his best and brightest smiles,  to lure out laughter and joy in equal measure.   as a condottiere,  rey can’t imagine there are many moments like that for him  —  if the stories from her father’s dear friend sforza are to be believed, anyway.     ❛  you never know who could be listening in.   i wouldn’t want to put you in an awkward position.  ❜     she teases,  as if she has not made her feelings and intentions painfully obvious,  even as terribly inexperienced with love as she is.   but she supposes,  in case any doubt still lingers  .  .  .     ❛  or you might be faced with staying and making a certain proposal that would almost just as surely demand an immediate answer  —  both question and answer neither of us could take back.  ❜

          ❛  that’s not the word i’d use.  ❜      she critiques over his shoulder,  nose wrinkling with distaste none too subtly.     ❛  you’re beating around the bush  —  we don’t have time for that.   well  .  .  .  we do,  but he doesn’t.   if i could just speak to him,  i could  .  .  .  ❜     handle it with a touch more immediacy than a long, pretty contract written in calligraphy.

CRUSHING GUILT LANCES THROUGH   her for a fraction of a second  —  but it’s still long enough that rey hesitates,  averting her gaze,  unable to meet with either finn or kylo’s.   no,  she hasn’t had to endure the trek he has,  having lived in petersburg her whole life  —  but are the sewers and streets really so much better than the shadows?   are they so different?   she supposes he must think her lucky that she at least knows her parents fled before the revolution  —  but then he forgets something else,  too:   they ABANDONED her in their haste.   still  .  .  .   does that justify misleading him?   regardless of his eerie resemblance to the lost prince?

     ❛  then don’t you owe it to yourself to find out who that is?   to make all that searching worth something?  ❜

THE TURBOLIFT WHIRRS AROUND THEM,   the pair of them awash in the bright white glow of its panels  —  for better or worse.   dark, sweat - damp strands hang down over his eyes as his shoulders heave,  but rey can still see the shadows beneath them,  ones she’s not sure the carnage they left in their wake had much bearing upon at all.   truthfully she’s not faring much better,  but even so  .  .  .

          ❛  —  you’re sure?  ❜     her fingers twitch in some aborted move to reach for him,  injured arm falling in line with her side once more.   when his gaze finally drags up the length of her,  fear and exhaustion filling it  —  rey DARES to step forward.   he doesn’t startle away like she expects,  and it’s all the encouragement she needs.     ❛  i  .  .  .  don’t know how they’ll receive you,  but i promise  —  you won’t be alone.  ❜

             BROADWAY’S  ANASTASIA    /    @apparentheir.

❛  IT’S  A  RUMOR  THAT’S  PART  OF  OUR  HISTORY.  ❜       not  to  mention,  it’s  said  his  royal  grandparents  will  pay  a  royal  sum  to  someone  —  anyone  —  who  can  bring  the  prince  back.   normally  she  might  balk  at  such  an  underhanded  scheme,  but  .  .  .  surely  it  will  do  both  parties  some  good.   besides  —  kylo  is  a  natural.   it  isn’t  difficult  to  entertain  the  idea  that  he  could  truly  be  the  man  the  dowager  empress  has  been  searching  for  all  these  years.