Standard disclaimer here.


She ghosted her hands over skin that wasn't his and never would be, feeling a heartbeat slow and strong in his chest. Her mouth would brush against his, a certain longing always visible, even to him with his sole uncovered eye.

'Are we damned?' she would ask, and he would smile and breathe life into her, and they would go on as if the world wasn't falling apart around them.

'Haven't we always been?' he would return, one dark and one red eye sparkling in his mischief.

He would touch her, and please her, and do things to her that she had only read in his books until just now. 'Ohh…' she would sigh, his weight heavy across her chest, 'Damned or enlightened, one or the other.'

And she would jerk her hips, toppling over him, and her cherry blossom hair would trickle down her shoulders, and she would be the picture of innocence again with smiling green eyes.

His laughter assaulted her, made her feel a bit less insecure, and she would laugh along with him—like a bell from long ago, forgotten by all except those who truly mattered—bathed in the color of sunset.

'I like to think I just know better now.'