Tiny teeny itty bitty Tumblr word prompt by awesomeasusual.
mercurial: characterized by rapid and unpredictable changeableness of mood
He finished aloud the last chapter of Wuthering Heights even though she was asleep, mostly because he hoped it would give her good dreams, and then he proceeded to listen to the sound of her breath playing off the rain.
She breathed like she lived, strong and deep and steady, and he found himself shutting his eyes to better hear it. Then she shifted and curled in on herself and he shot upright, snatching a blanket off his bed and settling it around her immediately.
He tried to get interested in another one of the books he'd stolen from her satchel, but none of them could compare to her warm living sounds, so he pinched out the lantern, kicked off his boots, and stared into the blackness as the rain drummed gaily onto his roof.
She was such a wild little thing. Honestly, sometimes he thought he was dealing with twins or possibly triplets, all identical, running around with different personalities just to confuse his head. The night he'd met her, she'd shrieked and fought like a trapped animal, conquering her fear with a warlord's fury. The day she'd woken up, freshly dipped into her amnesia, she'd been the perfect worked for the circus, amiable and sweet, but she hadn't been able to douse the green fire in her eyes. Then there was the Maka of fifteen minutes ago, curled peacefully on his floor with her gaze fixed steadily on his face, drinking in every word he read. She had a way of propping her cheek on her hand and pulling her knees into her chest, and it was so very calm and devout that he would occasionally stutter.
Even after so many weeks with her, getting used to her ever-changing ways, slowly gaining the ability to read her mercurial moods, he could never see what was coming.
He traced the dim shadows of her lips in his memory and reflected that perhaps the last wasn't entirely true. Maybe he never knew exactly what she'd do, but he always knew it would be brave and sterling and beautiful. Perhaps she wasn't quite as unpredictable as he'd thought. He remembered her flinty, endless green gaze and her breathing was loud and steady in his ears.