Meadow

They stand united in the web of grief that entangles them, forever tied by the past no matter how hard they might try to forge separate paths forward. She fears that he would leave her now in the same way that he had agonized for months over the thought of never seeing her again. Each of them is broken in different ways, but the cracks in their hearts mirror one another's close enough to see that it was the same hammer that caused them to shatter.

She curls against him and he relishes in her closeness, memorizing each detail of her figure and committing it to memory so that when she inevitably comes to her senses and leaves him again, he can dream of her again. Their first encounter had been so permeated by raw lust that he had not seen her, not in the true sense. Could only guess at the width between each streak of white down her side, or where it swirled onto her neck. Their second encounter had been so rife with heartbreak that he did not dream of it willingly, nor did he seek to remember the raw edge of grief that accompanied each memory of those moments. Those he could remember… although the details were muddled. He could remember the accusation in her eyes. The hatred and loathing he'd seen there had been enough to scorch themselves into his memories with no hope of removal. And Uriah. He remembered him too. Every detail of him. The way he had his mother's face marking, to the way his mane and tail were not white, not fully, but streaked with his own amber color.

With her so close, he cannot help but stretch to touch her again, his body clenching with a fierce need for something he could not explain. He couldn't tell if it wanted him to hold her more tightly, or to flee from the live-wire of emotion that sparks between them, or if he should take her beneath him and show her the stallion he ought to have been.

She teases him and his heart clenches with the hope that there might yet be a future between them that was not saturated with a pain so deep it made him sick. We could start again where we began, she says and his brow furrows for a moment, not understanding how she would want to go back to that moment. And then his memory supplies for him the moments that had existed before he'd made a fool of himself. When the intensity of his attraction had led them in merry games around one another as they taunted and teased.

As if reflecting his confusion, she falters and he stretches forward in an attempt to reassure her just as she abandons the words that refuse to come. Beneath her touch - at once both frustratingly gentle and so bold it took his breath away - he shuddered and rested his lips against her shoulder in an effort to regain his bearings once more. They do not know each other well enough to have memorized the places their partner likes best, nor does he think she has loved enough men to be an expert, but he is a simple man and her touch is alchemist's fire against his skin.

Given permission by her boldness, he breathes in against her skin and trails a line of his own down the swell of her ribcage to the sensitive skin between her elbow and shoulder. He is careful to hold back, to pace himself, so as to give her time to change her mind but it's no easy task and he finds that closing his eyes gives him the strength to slow down. His lips part to rake his teeth gently along the faint ridge of her abdominal muscle until it gives way to the tender juncture of her flank. Solomon pauses there to tease her, exhaling warm breath against the thin skin beneath his lips. The sweet agony of the moment is exquisite, but he is nothing if not a slave to his hormones and he shifts to stand behind her, his lips trailing along her skin until his head rests upon the feminine swell of her rump.

Are you sure, he wants to ask, but the words can't seem to find their way out. He is too lost in the bliss of the moment and the recovery he thinks it represents to give voice to the doubts that shout from the back of his mind. Instead, he waits for some signal from her, any sign will do. He waits this time, as he should have done from the beginning.

OOC: We can either continue on or cut to the morning or call the thread done for now and just say they did the split. Entirely up to you <3

Solomon