The utter silence within an unfamiliar home brought Paola out of her restful slumber. Rubbing her eyes and yawning, her healed shoulder marveled at its regained ability to bend and move as it was created to be. The stretch was wondrous with the dreamy haze that clouded her consciousness. Soon her senses picked up the subtle differences - the silence, the vague rising heat somewhere near and the feel of an Elemental fully using their gift. Curiosity was always given priority, messily tucking in her tunic into pants to make herself barely presentable. Curls that were in every direction were irritably braided down her back as she was already moving to the room Devin had been sleeping in. Carefully keeping her emotions in check, she waited for a moment before knocking on his door. When no reply came, she creaked the door open to find that he was not there. Her face now covered with a frown, she followed the exploding gift with her own, finding herself bobbing out of the house with concealment, eyes quickly drawn to the Elemental near its truest form. Wanting to witness without disturb, she attempted a closer vantage point.
Lost in flames, Devin drove them swirling faster and faster, the motion enough to look entirely uncontrolled until it could be seen that for all the wildness the fire never lashed close to the house or surrounding vegetation. Upwards, into the sky in a display of showy white and gold, before red and orange curled and pummeled down and through his shell. But he couldn't help but feel the stirring of an Air nearby, and there was only one that it was likely to be. The flames vanished, abruptly, cut off into the night, leaving stillness and dark where moments before there had been light and heat and crackling sound. Still the flames lurked in his eyes when he turned to face the house. "Did I wake you?"
It wasn't until moments into her watching that Paola had recognized the owner of the vivid flames. Her discovery brought a deeper meaning in her visual recording, eyes pushing her pupils out and wide in her surprise. For months he closed himself up like a shell, and how ironic for him to nearly be completely out of his own physical one. She knew the moment she was caught, the bright and blinding flames abruptly turning into darkness. It took several blinks to readjust and focus her eyes again on his normal shell. "No, I.." she cleared her throat, finding her voice weaker than she had intended, "I had just woken up, and later sensed a gift in use. When you were not in your bed, I came to see what I could find." She subtly emphasized "his" bed, seeing if he would react.
"And did you find what you were looking for?" He didn't reply to her subtle needle about "his" bed, pulling back and damping down the remnants of Fire that lit his eyes until they were once again almost charcoal black. Only then did he start the short walk back to the house, bare feet almost noiseless on the ground. Shorts for sleeping in - he hadn't bothered to dress before he went outside. "Who else's bed should I be in?" The question came out curt - apparently the needle had stung more than was first apparent. For all the travelling across the Realms he had done lately, the only bed he had slept in had been his own. Flirtations reappeared under the mask of confidence, but had never ventured further.
Her pupils changed in the instant to near all black to now near all of her irises. She did not come out in search for an argument, but his words poked at her anger that had been just waiting for the moment, "No, I did not." She said flatly to his question about her search. She had been looking for Devin, but the man that stood in front of her, who had been her caretaker for the past few months, was someone she did not know. "It would not seem to matter; there are several women that would be offering. And apparently the woman that you do care for is nothing more than some.. *thing* that requires nursing back to health and nothing more." Her anger varied from flashing heat like his to the brittle cold of winter's air. She made no movement to head towards him home, but stood very firmly in place.
Brittle words froze him in place just a few steps past her, the line of his back stiff, rigid with tension. Pride and guilt and fear and self-doubt were an unholy mix to contend with when trying to bite back words not wholly meant. So when he did speak, tight control laced through the phrase. "I'd not take for the offering." When he started walking again, the words were spoken forward, away from Paola. "You're no thing." Palm hit the front door, slamming it open, before he finally half-turned to look back at her with white and orange searing across the coal-black background of his gaze. "I'll keep in mind that my bedspace doesn't matter to you." The words were bitten out, hard and harsh.
"How could it matter when my place is no longer there by your own judgement?" She tossed her hands in the air, exaggerating her frustrated feelings, "I have become nothing more than a responsibility to you. I'm fed, my body is well taken care of, but never have I felt so *empty.* You keep me under your wing and yet I am treated on the same level as every other person you speak with. I do not know what is the matter, when you speak nothing to me." Her hands went to her hips, hurt showing only in the dark centers of her eyes, "If you no longer want or desire me, then be out with it, instead of shunning me out. I have not been able to read your mind for months, anymore." Her voice showed weakness towards the end, a moment she regretted, but she quickly regained her composure. It was not much composure to begin with; her sleeping tunic hastily tucked into pants that were a touch too large, and her curls messily pulled away from her face.
It was almost involuntary, the short laugh pulled from him when she mentioned not wanting her. Cherry-red and gold surfaced to swirl through white-heat and drown black entirely. His words didn't reflect the livid colors of his eyes, but something in her response had burst the dam. "Sharing minds almost killed you. I almost killed you, with that senseless feud. Weeks before you were able to speak again; why would you want to share that again? What is there to say when seeing you almost die still gives me nightmares and I know that I don't have the strength to go through that again? By the Goddess, Paola, why would you want to have anything to do with me?!" His hand had fallen down from the door frame, and now both were fisted by his sides. Sparks crackled and danced before he ruthlessly cut them off.
She watched the colors of his eyes, almost perfecting the code of a language all of their own. Throwing up her own ice mask, his words downed down like an unexpected weight. This, this was the cause of everything? It created her own laugh. "Devin, I knew the consequences of our bonding, and bloody hell, I expected injuries. That you were attacked more so than me happened to be the turn of events. I have never, ever, felt or shown any blame towards you. Why the devil would you bring that upon yourself?" She scowled furiously then, and pointed a shameless finger at him, "You say that you cannot live through your nightmares, but you would rather live without me at all. Damnit, by you placing all the blame on yourself, you are destroying the both of us more than any wound could have done." Her cheeks were high and flushed now, her hand falling limply back to her side, "And do not assume what my feeling are for you without asking. I wouldn't be here if I did not want to be."
Lost in flames, Devin drove them swirling faster and faster, the motion enough to look entirely uncontrolled until it could be seen that for all the wildness the fire never lashed close to the house or surrounding vegetation. Upwards, into the sky in a display of showy white and gold, before red and orange curled and pummeled down and through his shell. But he couldn't help but feel the stirring of an Air nearby, and there was only one that it was likely to be. The flames vanished, abruptly, cut off into the night, leaving stillness and dark where moments before there had been light and heat and crackling sound. Still the flames lurked in his eyes when he turned to face the house. "Did I wake you?"
It wasn't until moments into her watching that Paola had recognized the owner of the vivid flames. Her discovery brought a deeper meaning in her visual recording, eyes pushing her pupils out and wide in her surprise. For months he closed himself up like a shell, and how ironic for him to nearly be completely out of his own physical one. She knew the moment she was caught, the bright and blinding flames abruptly turning into darkness. It took several blinks to readjust and focus her eyes again on his normal shell. "No, I.." she cleared her throat, finding her voice weaker than she had intended, "I had just woken up, and later sensed a gift in use. When you were not in your bed, I came to see what I could find." She subtly emphasized "his" bed, seeing if he would react.
"And did you find what you were looking for?" He didn't reply to her subtle needle about "his" bed, pulling back and damping down the remnants of Fire that lit his eyes until they were once again almost charcoal black. Only then did he start the short walk back to the house, bare feet almost noiseless on the ground. Shorts for sleeping in - he hadn't bothered to dress before he went outside. "Who else's bed should I be in?" The question came out curt - apparently the needle had stung more than was first apparent. For all the travelling across the Realms he had done lately, the only bed he had slept in had been his own. Flirtations reappeared under the mask of confidence, but had never ventured further.
Her pupils changed in the instant to near all black to now near all of her irises. She did not come out in search for an argument, but his words poked at her anger that had been just waiting for the moment, "No, I did not." She said flatly to his question about her search. She had been looking for Devin, but the man that stood in front of her, who had been her caretaker for the past few months, was someone she did not know. "It would not seem to matter; there are several women that would be offering. And apparently the woman that you do care for is nothing more than some.. *thing* that requires nursing back to health and nothing more." Her anger varied from flashing heat like his to the brittle cold of winter's air. She made no movement to head towards him home, but stood very firmly in place.
Brittle words froze him in place just a few steps past her, the line of his back stiff, rigid with tension. Pride and guilt and fear and self-doubt were an unholy mix to contend with when trying to bite back words not wholly meant. So when he did speak, tight control laced through the phrase. "I'd not take for the offering." When he started walking again, the words were spoken forward, away from Paola. "You're no thing." Palm hit the front door, slamming it open, before he finally half-turned to look back at her with white and orange searing across the coal-black background of his gaze. "I'll keep in mind that my bedspace doesn't matter to you." The words were bitten out, hard and harsh.
"How could it matter when my place is no longer there by your own judgement?" She tossed her hands in the air, exaggerating her frustrated feelings, "I have become nothing more than a responsibility to you. I'm fed, my body is well taken care of, but never have I felt so *empty.* You keep me under your wing and yet I am treated on the same level as every other person you speak with. I do not know what is the matter, when you speak nothing to me." Her hands went to her hips, hurt showing only in the dark centers of her eyes, "If you no longer want or desire me, then be out with it, instead of shunning me out. I have not been able to read your mind for months, anymore." Her voice showed weakness towards the end, a moment she regretted, but she quickly regained her composure. It was not much composure to begin with; her sleeping tunic hastily tucked into pants that were a touch too large, and her curls messily pulled away from her face.
It was almost involuntary, the short laugh pulled from him when she mentioned not wanting her. Cherry-red and gold surfaced to swirl through white-heat and drown black entirely. His words didn't reflect the livid colors of his eyes, but something in her response had burst the dam. "Sharing minds almost killed you. I almost killed you, with that senseless feud. Weeks before you were able to speak again; why would you want to share that again? What is there to say when seeing you almost die still gives me nightmares and I know that I don't have the strength to go through that again? By the Goddess, Paola, why would you want to have anything to do with me?!" His hand had fallen down from the door frame, and now both were fisted by his sides. Sparks crackled and danced before he ruthlessly cut them off.
She watched the colors of his eyes, almost perfecting the code of a language all of their own. Throwing up her own ice mask, his words downed down like an unexpected weight. This, this was the cause of everything? It created her own laugh. "Devin, I knew the consequences of our bonding, and bloody hell, I expected injuries. That you were attacked more so than me happened to be the turn of events. I have never, ever, felt or shown any blame towards you. Why the devil would you bring that upon yourself?" She scowled furiously then, and pointed a shameless finger at him, "You say that you cannot live through your nightmares, but you would rather live without me at all. Damnit, by you placing all the blame on yourself, you are destroying the both of us more than any wound could have done." Her cheeks were high and flushed now, her hand falling limply back to her side, "And do not assume what my feeling are for you without asking. I wouldn't be here if I did not want to be."