living beyond your years, acting out all their
fears
“You didn’t know for sure,” he echoes, eyes gleaming, as though he doesn’t believe a single word. (It's true, not a single word.) The both of them were far too intelligent for their own good - he’d known she was well worth pursuing since the moment he’d laid eyes on her in the meadow upon the edge of a storm, and she… She could recognise something in him that few dared reach for, more less welcome - something dark and dangerous.
“I gather it's not sunset. Humor me,” he huffs softly, pretending at disappointment for a fraction of a second, before his face smooths over again, inscrutable as ever. “Please,” he asks ever so nicely, and runs his muzzle along the firm line of her jaw, gently guiding her attention to the world that sprawls below them. “The way the dying light casts a red glow across everything… Don’t you think it’s beautiful? What better way to dwell on all you’ve achieved in the day, to think of all the possibilities that tomorrow holds, than beneath a blood-red sky?” He lapses into silence then, to allow her to ponder over his words, or offer any insight of her own she deigned to share.
The white-bellied stallion turns his own attention to pondering, though physically at least, he does not draw away, nor become any less responsive to the way her body fits against his so naturally. “Tell you what, let’s make a wager,” and here, he shifts his weight away from her for the first time, in order to get a better look at her, though his hip remains flush against her.
“If I win…” Starscream purposefully draws out the suspense, his eyes half-closed and sly. A wicked grin twitches at the corners of his wicked mouth. “You owe me another sunset.” Those devilish gold-brown eyes of his dance across her face, a vain attempt of gauging her reaction. Vain, because Starscream knew he’d only see what his delightfully mysterious companion wished for him to see. “And if you win,” the brindled bronze stallion murmurs, leaning in close to brush his dusty, dusky lips against the edge of one dark, delicately curled ear. “I’ll do anything you want.” It is a risk, to be sure, given that there’s no way for him to know, for certain, if he happened to guess right or not. He’ll just have to take her for her word.
Even if he were to lose, it could hardly be considered a true loss, for he couldn’t think of a single thing she’d ask him to do that he wouldn’t enjoy doing for her. (And besides, it was all part of the game anyway, because by the time they parted, Starscream was certain she’d not be opposed to spending another evening with him, regardless of this outcome.)
By the time he begins, he’s pressed himself back into her willing embrace, and he arches his neck, all the while watching her from the corner of his eye. “The dead of night, when the moon is but a sliver, or dark entirely, low upon the horizon. But you only catch a glimpse of it, for the heavens are clouded. The world is quiet, and only creatures of the night dare prowl through the darkness.” Starscream tilts his head toward her, mouth softening. “You, my lady, with your coat as dark as shadow… I imagine you would be free to go wherever you wanted.” A thin, wry smile curls across his lips. “Not that I’d think such an ordinary thing as the stark light of day would ever stop you from doing anything you had your heart set on,” Starscream is quick to clarify.
“But it certainly is fun to be unexpected, sometimes, don’t you think? To happen upon someone entirely unready for you.” Not him, of course. Starscream feels like he’d been ready for the silver black mare far longer than anyone could begin to understand. But that doesn’t mean she can’t have just as much fun with him.
“I can almost see you, the very picture of beauty and grace, sliding through the shadows like you govern them. Not quite invisible, for you, dear thing, are far too lovely to ever go entirely unnoticed. But on a moonless night, you would have a muted halo, and your tail would flash in the darkness like fulgur.” He pauses in his flourished telling, and he casts about for an ending that pleases him. Finds it rising instinctively to his tongue; “If you’re lucky, there’d be a break in the clouds, through which you’d glimpse a scattering of stars.”
Silence falls upon them then and Starscream does his very best to hold himself still against her. His tale had served a two-fold purpose; to entertain, and to distract. Each word had been carefully weighted, every expression layered with undertones that could be read in a number of ways. And all that focus had, not rendered Starscream unaware exactly, but it had provided him with a certain steadiness. Now, though, he feels adrift and dangerously close to slipping off the edge. A fall from this height would spell the end for him, and it was far, far too soon for that.
Starscream moves, curling in front of his silver crowned companion, suddenly restless and seemingly no longer content nestled beside her. He leans his weight into her, the flat blade of his shoulder pushing against her chest, forceful in a fleeting moment of unabashed dominance. But then he eases up as soon as he’s moved them both further from the edge of the rocky shelf. Starscream remains there, coiled around her, content that he has her right where he wants her, with the heat of him in front and the cold stone of the mountain slope behind. And he reaches for her with his teeth. Not to scrape against the line of her shoulder - not yet - even though he desires to very much. Instead, he softly nibbles at a tangled lock of silver-white hair trailing down her neck, his nares fluttering, shallow breaths hot against her ebony skin.
“I believe this is what’s called the denouement,” he murmurs at length. “Unknotting.” But he has left her shining tresses and raised his head to brush his velvet lips featherlight upon her dark cheek, burning eyes fixed hungrily upon hers.“So… How did I do? Is it to be a date or a debt, darling?”
xoxo
STARSCREAM