[ Kalmiya trails off, the end of her sentence so obvious that it hangs in the air, thick as the humidity clinging to their skin. It's easy enough to make the next logical leap: she'd felt hunted. Haunted, maybe. Just as there'd been a brush of understanding from her end, he reciprocates—while their reasons had been different, he knows what it's like to be on alert all the time. To be waiting for the other shoe to drop, to dread looking over his shoulder and finding all of his mistakes and past gaining ground.
He can't say he's any better about the paranoia, but he's learned to keep living anyway. Something he thinks Kalmiya's figured out as well, judging from how she flexes her toes and slumps further into the embrace of the bath. After drinking her water, anyway. But soon enough, she pillows her head on the edge of the tub, the line of her neck showing off all the marks he'd left earlier. And perhaps by design, he's able to reach more of her leg, palms slipping up to just above her knee and kneading into the tight muscle. ]
You could've. [ Just like he could have chosen to become a lawyer, a journalist, an accountant—anything under the sun, really. Both of them picked what they really wanted, though. ] But, you chose to be this.
[ He says with warmth, glancing up at her lounging form. ]
[She is in no state to question nor shy away from the affection in Arthur's words. It seems a wonderfully synchronous feeling when she's already surrounded by so much warmth—soaking in it, breathing it in, absorbing it from every press of his palms into her thigh. It's easy to let his voice join that comforting flow.
The feeling pools somewhere in her chest, and she would be hard pressed to tell whether it's Arthur's affection or her own.
There is another short, satisfied sound at the back of her throat as he works a knot free, preceding a sage chuckle.] I choose it every day.
Sometimes it's hard to find, and sometimes I don't know what it means. But it's worth it, don't you think?
[Arthur said himself, when confronted with her mirror, that people spend their entire lives trying to figure themselves out. She might have more to figure out than most people she's met—but that means more opportunity to discover something new, too.]
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Date: 2026-02-21 08:32 am (UTC)He can't say he's any better about the paranoia, but he's learned to keep living anyway. Something he thinks Kalmiya's figured out as well, judging from how she flexes her toes and slumps further into the embrace of the bath. After drinking her water, anyway. But soon enough, she pillows her head on the edge of the tub, the line of her neck showing off all the marks he'd left earlier. And perhaps by design, he's able to reach more of her leg, palms slipping up to just above her knee and kneading into the tight muscle. ]
You could've. [ Just like he could have chosen to become a lawyer, a journalist, an accountant—anything under the sun, really. Both of them picked what they really wanted, though. ] But, you chose to be this.
[ He says with warmth, glancing up at her lounging form. ]
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Date: 2026-02-25 03:37 am (UTC)The feeling pools somewhere in her chest, and she would be hard pressed to tell whether it's Arthur's affection or her own.
There is another short, satisfied sound at the back of her throat as he works a knot free, preceding a sage chuckle.] I choose it every day.
Sometimes it's hard to find, and sometimes I don't know what it means. But it's worth it, don't you think?
[Arthur said himself, when confronted with her mirror, that people spend their entire lives trying to figure themselves out. She might have more to figure out than most people she's met—but that means more opportunity to discover something new, too.]