#venilis

"Really?" Cal uttered a breathy sound that got lost in the low background rumble of Misty's lulling purr of contentment as the sharkdog rolled and wiggled in closer to the hands scratching at her spotted belly scales. He had to duck under a flagging tail as the creature yawned and leaned into the spot where Yu's hands were working a particularly itchy patch. 

He was concerned, true, but only about as concerned as one could be in the lazy sunrise hours and the peace of the world waking up; what could have been that bad? Still, he waited for the answer, careful not to speak over her even as he shoved a hand to the sand and used his palm to push up enough to peer over the creature sprawled in the space between. When no answer reached him in the span of silence, one second, two, three and into the next Cal was tempted to frown but locked the heavy emotion behind a smile he would not, for her sake, allow to waver. 

"Lots of days are hard but today, well, it's not so bad." Cal posed the question to the breeze as it curled over his skin and left the taste of salt on his lips. Shoulders sank back against Misty's bulk and head tipped even further, he regarded her from the upside down vantage point with lifted eyebrows. 

Absolutely ridiculous, of course, but he didn't mind in the least if it broke the glass that was her tensed jaw and faraway gaze. That mirror in her bright eyes was filled with cracks and splinters ready to chip away the shine, wondering if the future was as frightening to her as it was himself while they stood right at the cusp of it looming over their lives. 

The wordless answer, tone collected and cool but he could pick up the hint of distance in it; just where was Yu on that crisp morning when she wasn't there with him watching the sun play games with the waves as it lifted into the sky? More importantly, how could he bring her back from that maze inside her thoughts? Maybe he couldn’t, some things had to be traveled alone to find the door outward.  That truth wasn’t one he cared for, eyes tipped to the clouds and words offered up with the ease of someone who believed them. 

❛ care? ❜ they repeat, glancing up at yuliya from where they examined the outfit drawn up from them. it needed to be different to be special from their ordinary garb, no matter how practical or ornamental it already was. no, the parties after the coronation required extra frippery, for their jacket to be white with gold trimmings, longer and textured and so much effort for a night few would be lucid enough to remember.

they shrug as they hand back the sheaf of papers, happy with the look (sel had insisted for yuliya to get them something special, and it was one of the few things sayf couldn’t be bothered to argue back about).  ❛ it was an off-hand comment about my status, i apologise if i touched a nerve. ❜

“Yu. Come now. Don’t be silly,” Eleri laughs, quiet and melodic, not at the other fae, but in disbelief. She isn’t entirely sure what she disbelieves - that she could mean so much to Yu or that that’s how she makes Yu feel. Eleri, who is so folded in on herself, who is an observer of life more than a participator. The irony of it, when it is Yu and Cal who bring about the most of her warmth and smiles and laughter. Who represent the golden sunlight of her life, piercing the cold depths of the Undersea. When she wonders with every passing day how the fates aligned to bring her these fae that are hers and that are home and that can make her shortcomings fall away.

She reaches out, intertwining fingers and resting her forehead against Yuliya’s. She shakes her head, full of fondness and love and so alive. It is a little ridiculous, the idea that she herself brings that kind of liveliness. She would like to hold onto it, though. She likes the idea that she can be for Yu what Yu is for her.

“It is you that brings me to life.”

    “i wish i was, yuliya. i do not know how many times i have told you i could care less over your rambles of embroidery, design, silks and so on and so on,” cassian looked up from his notebook on his lap to the fae before him, a hint of irritation flashing in his black eyes. “and yet you continue to bore me to death.”