#graire

Gray couldn't understand why Claire kept giving him twigs.

The first one had been surprisingly delightful: it was sturdy and had a strong fork in it that reminded him much of a toy slingshot he had as a child, and he was eager to attempt recreating it. The next day, Claire had eagerly presented him with another stick - this time, it had been heavy and very straight, great for practicing toolmaking in his free time.

She had since given him one after another, and while he could appreciate the differences in them, he started to wonder exactly what she was getting at.

As Gray stared at the pile of branches littering the floor by the foot of his bed, he wondered which would happen first - his roommates would get annoyed at his growing collection taking over the room, he should assign a project for each branch, he should start a bonfire, or if Claire would tire of her curious hobby.

SUMMARY:

Flora warns Gray about the repercussions of his actions while hiding out in the valley. Claire is mislead on her search for Gray by a certain someone in Forget-Me-Not, while simultaneously coming to terms with a shocking realization regarding her feelings for him.  Ao3

PREVIEW:

She swallows, no longer able to avoid it in that moment; she chases her direction over to the pictures by her dresser that she had once kept so close to her, that she banished the second she felt betrayed by him that night. Her hands are an earthquake, tremoring when she lifts one up, but she stares at the photographs through the darkened night and holds them close to her heart. They’re the ones from his nineteenth birthday party that she threw for him.

She remembers that she told him she loved him that night.

Why did she say that?

And she stares through their smiles, the picture of him, her, and Kai, the group shots with everyone who came to celebrate him, the one of just them two together.

Realizes it’s true.

She said it because it was an irrefutable fact.

Even that night that she held him… she remembers wanting to deny it so bad, masking it with her overwhelming worries for him.

Not allowing herself to feel it.

But she knows—realizes—that he has always had a place in her heart, because he’s just occupied so much of it.