PHOENIX.
the mischievous smile only grows with her reaction, his quiet laugh bubbling from his chest when she seems to deny it — his entire demeanor shifts when she does move toward him though, the smile becoming proud. still, he remained silent and listened to everything she had to say. his eyes followed her hand until they couldn’t, instead focusing on them as they moved against his neck and, though he tried to hide it, it sent a shiver down his spine. his own hand came up to her sleeve and he played with the material, far more interested in the way her eyes moved around his face. icy blue hues, framed by long lashes, flickered between her lips as they moved with each word and then up to hers again — she was already awaiting his gaze. “sardonic,” he whispered with a single, subtle nod of his head. “guess that would still be an interesting addition to the romanticism movement,” then, with the grin appearing again, he made the move to lean forward this time and brought one of his knees close to his chest to curl his arm around — it also allowed him access to dangle his hand toward her lap and with that, he lightly brushed his fingertips against the back of her hand. “do you believe all of that? that it’s all just a daydream?” his head canted to the side, his other hand moving up to push back her hair again but he didn’t let it linger there, he just wanted to see her face. “maybe he’s the one that’s wrong about it all,” an amused twitch in his brow followed his statement, “why are you always so cynical?”
-- SHE THINKS for a moment at his question -- probably a moment longer than she usually would, considering the affect his touch has on her, even as minuscule as the brush of his fingertips against the back of her hand. she’s stubborn about it, tries to ignore it, but she turns her hand over anyways, lightly skitters her fingertips over the tendons in his wrist. “i’m not sure,” she ponders, serene this time when he pushes her hair behind her ear -- she’s used to it now, knows it’s not ill-intentioned. “it all just seems ---- too good to be true, that’s all.” she offers a slight, thoughtful smile as she leans forward to rest her chin atop his knee, settling in there for a few serene moments before she pipes up again. “a mind at peace with all below, a heart whose love is innocent-----” she recites airily, eyes flickering around the room before they settled on him again, lifting her head for a moment to speak. “----nobody’s truly at peace, and nobody’s completely innocent,” she rests against his knee again, her cheek pressed to the peak of it this time, head turned to the side. her fingertips blindly grazing against his in her lap, and her fingers twitch slightly at the feeling -- the only reason she doesn’t reach to intertwine them with his is because she consciously ( stubbornly, at that ) tells them not to. “but i’d like to believe that your version is true -- no shame in that, is there?” she smiles wistfully, eyes trained on the gray sky visible through the window across the room. “-----if i may recall when i told you your voice would be nice for reading poetry -- or a bedtime story,” she smiles for a moment -- she’s not completely sure if that actually happened, considering it happened while she was a bit plastered. “i’d like to test my theory sometime, if you don’t mind.”















