#tantalusbred

magnolia’s iphone: ↳ ft. @dervoured  &  @wyhlds  &  @tantalusbred  &  @bladedglory    ​

❛  if all this shit ever really ends,  maybe we can go somewhere.  just us.  ❜   she spent enough years stuck in one place.  as long as tantalus’s shadow is cast upon their lives she will always be in a cage.  releasing a slow breath,  magnolia leans in and presses her face into his chest.  arms wind around his middle and she allows herself to relax.  he isn’t walking away and no one is trying to take him away from her right now.  that’s all that matters.  and if there is an after for them,  they’ll figure out what it means when the time comes.  

❛  i don’t want to have to need anything,  ❜  she admits  ❛  i didn’t used to need anyone.  ❜  she used to be stronger.  she was a kid with nothing and no one.  she grew up understanding how the world worked,  she learned to be independent,  not to require friendships or family.  she knew what she wanted.  she had such dreams in her head. and now...she doesn’t remember anything other than the pain and loneliness.  ❛  i need you.  but every time i need someone they get taken away from me.  i’m afraid if i let you be that person it’ll happen to you too. ❜

             fingers lift to trail along his jaw while he speaks.  it’s an impulse she doesn’t repress anymore.  there was a time she would have believed him no different from the rest,  just another man with an inheritance and an abundance of apathy.  but he is different.  he’s not really one of her peers,  but he isn’t like all the people who hurt her.  he has never once looked at her the way they did.  him looking at her like she was a person all those years,  even the smallest glances from across a room,  it kept pieces of her soul from suffocating completely.  so it makes her wonder for a moment— as her eyes lift from his mouth to meet emmett’s gaze— if he realizes what he does to her.  leaning in,  magnolia brushes the end of her nose against his.  a playful smile tugs at her lips before she murmurs  ❝  what?  ❞  she wants him to say it.  she wants him to tell her just what it is she makes him feel.  maybe she knows,  but she wants to hear it.  

             gaze flickers between him and the floor plans spread out on the coffee table.  she’s familiar with missions.  she was forced into innumerable amounts of them by jasper   (   until she left him bleeding in his car   ).  but this is new territory.  she isn’t here to assassinate someone and while she is supposed to get information,  there won’t be anyone to get her out of the situation if she fucks up.  not like there was when she was tantalus’s little play thing.  lips press into a thin line and she releases a slow breath.  she can do this.  he needs her to and after everything he has done to help her,  she owes him.  she owes him a lot.  ❛  i assume most things are a trap,  or will end badly,  ❜  she admits.  hands waver in the air before she continues to sign  ❛   i’ll get it done right the first time.  i promise.   ❜

             the others don’t understand why she needs him.  but,  this is why:  because he came after her.  because she’s standing in the middle of a thunderstorm drenched from head to toe and he knows it’s a good thing.  he knows the rain cleanses her soul.  it makes her want to let go of her anger and fear.  the darker the clouds the less stubborn she grows.  his footsteps echo against the wooden deck,  then squeak against the wet grass and mud.  she hears him but she doesn’t turn around until she can feel him right behind her.  head tilts back as her gaze locks with emmett’s.  she’s sure their eyes say the same thing:  i’m sorry.  i was stupid and you were stupid and i never want to fight with you again.  they will.  they’re both human and fucked up in their one ways.  but that’s not what matters.  she lifts a hand to rest against chest,  the other grazing fingertips against his jaw when he starts to lean down.  this is what matters.  he never lets her go and he never abandons her.   the touch of her lips to his is gentle at first.  like a request to be let back in and to forget that she was even angry or difficult in the first place.  and when his own grip on her tightens in accompaniment to the firmness of their deepening kiss,  that feels like a promise.  they don’t need anyone else to understand because they understand each other.  

she almost hates how easily it quiets her.  her muscles begin to relax and it only seems to make him kiss her more firmly and that,  in turn,  causes her to lean towards him.  it’s the only way she seems to be able to listen.  he’s not leaving.  he’s still right here despite these days where she gets too lost inside herself.  and maybe they both know he can’t promise nothing will ever take him from her,  but the way he touches her feels like a promise he can keep.  that it would never be a willing departure.  and she supposes that’s the only reassurance they can have in a world like this.  

her head dips down when he speaks to press a gentle kiss to his chest.  magnolia nuzzles into him,  lips lightly brushing along his skin.  she doesn’t know how to explain the way her heart swells.  it feels good to be able to drive everything else away from his mind but her.  because he does the same so easily.  eyes flicker back towards his features with a small smile.  her arm comes to wrap around his torso and she relaxes into his side,  letting her head rest against his shoulder.  ❝  just feel,  ❞  it’s a small whisper.  there is no rebellion quite like letting themselves be consumed by all the softer things they have both been denied.