Arrow Lake abbatia

A lifetime.

That was the selfish response, wasn’t it? The one that laid the cards bare for everyone to see—and there were so many players involved in such a dangerous game; herself, him… it surpassed even their partners and right to children and friends.

He watched her move closer. He did not move from her—he did not move closer. He simply remained—and like a trained soldier, he asked her. From curiosity sake, perhaps—pr, maybe, it was something more.

Was this magnetism only felt singularly, by herself?

She hovered—her breath hitching, daring so much closer to graze against the hairs along his nape, his shoulder—breathing him in and her own lashes fluttering down, knowing in this very moment she was not empowered but weak.

The sun was on the rise, painting the sky brilliantly above them, but it was the way her breath curled in the air so close to him that held her transfixed. He was in her reach and yet so very untouchable. And so her eyes sought his—delving for an answer. “So very many, Germanicus,” she murmured, ambiguous in so many ways… and yet with that, she pressed forward, seeking to press an ear to his chest—wanting nothing more in this moment than to feel the man’s heartbeat—because surely it thrummed as heavily as her own?