pyrewood – theme 21 – (scent)
She says, "I love you."
There is stillness and silence and whole other bunch of emotions raging underneath his flesh, but Seifer feels nothing at all.
(He feels nothing but her.)
(Eyes closed, eyes open; she's there, her scent wrapped around him like her favourite sweater.)
And all Rinoa says is, "I love you."
A breath, a sigh.
(Everything in between says differently. But Hyne, he's always been shit at reading subtext.)
And he can't say anything at all. Emotions that bolster in his confidence, his anger is just waiting to explode; he's a time bomb ticking, yet the seconds are passing him by.
"I love you, but I can't do this."
Tries to reach out, but can't. A flinch, rejection; and he can see the look of pain on her face before it's even there.
(He's always been good at hurting the ones he loves.)
"No, it's not that I can't, it's more like I won't." She doesn't have to say a damn thing, because all she's doing is suffocating the air he breathes. "I don't want to do this. Not anymore."
Words catch his throat, trapped like butterflies flitting into the night. And it must have been a breeze that shifts her scent so that he inhales her one more time, and Hyne, the words fail him.
(There's nothing he can do to set this right. After everything he's done.)
He wants to go back.
Back when he promised her the world and nothing less; back when they believed in fate and destiny, and anything was possible.
Back when it was him and her and nothing more than firefly dreams and when now meant forever.
Back when they kissed, crushed against each other, and that's all they needed to see the sun set, painted with twilight hope.
His heavy tongue begins to move and it tastes like blood stained nightmares.
"What happened to forever?"
(It's too late for tomorrow.)
Disclaimer: ffviii isn't mine.