Noctisardor Bypass I've got a distant memory of previous lives

So much was brought into the tense air between them that Anselm reeled from each forceful word. It was as if Etienne was a storm and he the parched crops below; but for all of the storm's threatening of sweet summer rain, it blew past and his fields were left singed and bitter.

Anselm croaked out a laugh; first, that this was Etienne being nice -- then the acrid mirth lost its pall as Etienne wedged the truth right between the thorns of Anselm's protective heart.

His pupils darkened as he registered what had been shared. Any tenderness that moment could hold was drowned by a deluge of fury -- this was not how people loved! This was not --

Etienne swept forward, a taunt in that steely gleam of golden gaze. Anselm's fur stood on end as he felt that old, familiar emotion curl like a content cat around his sunken chest: contempt.

Etienne's admission threatened his very being, for it exposed a part of Anselm that existed in spite of all attempts to eliminate it. In Anselm duality warred -- and in Anselm, every tower was crumbling.

He looked like he might strike, his teeth bared with a serpent's ire -- but in the end, something shadowed his face and every part of him seemed to take two steps back. If that is vhat your love feels like, Etienne, I vant no part of it. He grit, lifting his chin so that the seaborn might see his throat and know he was fearless. And fuck off - I'm not gay. A lie, he knew -- but truth and love held no quarter in the gruesome court of his withering heart.