#divinityblooming

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ❛ we should be honest with each other , don’t you think ? ❜

                     her blood runs cold in her veins at his words, her heart leaping to her throat and lodging itself like a bird in a cage.  she can feel it there, fluttering.  sera’s fingers still in their task of plaiting her hair, and her eyes lift to find his in the mirror of her vanity.  he stands some ten feet behind her, leaning against a doorway to her right, toying idly with some bit of iron in his hands.  one moment it makes itself into a sphere, and then a box.  it opens of its own accord, and then shuts as he manipulates it out flat, like a sheet of paper.  now it is a book, pages flipping quickly.  she swallows with difficulty, and looks away.  ‘ i have never been dishonest with you, ’  she murmurs, fingers slowly unwinding the braid of her hair.  ( though that is not quite the truth  ––  nor is it a lie, either.  she has not been dishonest with him, she has just . . . left information out. )

                     ‘ i did not ask for this, ’  sera whispers a moment later, though that is not quite the truth either.  she didn’t realize honesty was this complicated, and part of her wants to laugh at the realization.  ‘ there is nothing . . . ’  she finishes undoing her braid, swallows, and manages to meet his gaze once more.  ‘ he doesn’t love me, if that’s the answer you’re looking for.  he hasn’t even spoken to me since  –––  ’ her throat tightens again, her mind drifting back to that moment, that fateful moment. the tear she barely had time to see slip down his face before augustus had turned her face away.  { don’t look at them.  look at me. }  if honest is what they should be with one another, perhaps they should start there.  was that kindness ?  jealousy ?  possession ?  ‘ is that what you wanted ?  confirmation that another man has not touched your property ? ’  she scoffs, shaking her head.  ‘ not that you do, either. ’  she knows better than to bait a man like him, but part of her is curious, pushing.  wondering what he’ll do if she does.

      karen usually covered things that were less ... mundane. fisk, the punisher, the devil of hell’s kitchen. those were right up her alley. but, uh -----it had been a slow week. and ellison needed something for the front page and considering nothing vigilante related seemed to be happening, this seemed to be her best shot. besides, former gossip girl victim turned mayor? come on, that was just begging to be on the front page. she shifts in her seat and glances up from the pen and paper in her hands, lips curled up into a small smile towards the man in front of her. ‘  so, mr. archibald,  ’ she starts, the tip of her pen resting on the curve of her lower lip for a moment. ‘  mayor, huh? that must feel like one hell of an achievement.  ’

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ❛  sleep with fists closed and shoot straight.  ❜

                  despite herself, she pictures him like that  –––  fast asleep, and still with his fists clenched tight, ready to throw a punch at a moment’s notice.  ready to fight off nightmares and boogeymen with no weapons but his fists.  ‘ you’re always so ready for war, ’  she murmurs, smiling to herself and shaking her head.  she’s not surprised, of course, but it still aches somewhere in the hollow of her chest.  one day he’ll have to lay the guns down  . . .  won’t he ? 

                  ‘ i shoot straight, ’  she assures him, ducking her head, shuffling her feet a bit.  karen thinks she should feel a bit angry with him, for the insinuation, but she knows better.  knows him better.  he says shoot straight because he can’t bring himself to say be careful.  she wonders, only for a moment, what else he might say if he let himself.  ‘ you goin’ somewhere, frank ?  that sounds an awful lot like a goodbye. ’

a sudden burst of laughter comes from simon and it's... well, not exactly the most charming sound. ugly, uncontrolled snort drawn out from him and he's just glad he'd already swallowed that mouthful of his water beforehand. last thing he needed was a glare from jace for spitting at him, especially in a moment like this— rare, unique severity between them.

instead , she let out a soft groan , leaning herself back reluctantly to lower her arms & wind them around his waist , raising her eyebrows toward her hairline with a serene smile. only her eyes glittered with playful frustration.          ❛             i know this is your life , this is your time. but if kit slanders me one more time , or steals any more of my journal paper , i might just unravel his existence from the marrow.            ❜           could she do that ? probably not , but the threat still felt nice. diana stretched forward on her toes , planting a soft kiss to his cheek , then a teasing nip with her teeth against his chin.

IT WAS PEACEFUL. And perhaps it was the only place he could find peace, in quiet places like this. Places like these were the only ones where he could stop and shut his mind off for a while, and these days, opportunities like that were hard to come by. The pew beneath him was unforgiving, hard against his back, but there was nothing Elijah found more comforting.