Common

He looks at her like there might be stars in her eyes and for that she is grateful. She's eager to fall into such a delusion because it would mean that she was wanted by someone, that she truly mattered. As much as Roux liked Snapdragon, she didn't want to just be someone's friend. She wanted something like what Sonorae and Rougaru had shared... just without all the meekness and groveling her mother always seemed to do. She would be more confident, like Vanya, but not so power-hungry. As loyal as Monster was rumored to have been before she disappeared. Roux had never met her, but she had lived on in the tales told by her mother.

She wanted to mean something to somebody.

For a while, it had been more than enough to be Faline's sister. But Faline was gone now, and she hadn't truly mattered to a single soul since they had parted. She'd been bounced from one home to another with no true rhyme or reason and felt even more displaced by each new claim over her body. This was her one last chance to try it again before she decided to give it all up and head to the Peak to live out her days as a spinster among the cold mountaintops.

"Well, welcome to the real world," she teased, her tone bright despite what might have been a mocking statement. Her head tilted just so, green eyes sparkling with mischief. "And you were right to fear a different set of rules." She tried to keep her lips straight, expression neutral, but a smirk kept curling at the corners of her mouth like baby hairs on a humid day. "I'm afraid that by approaching me the way you did, you've gone and sworn yourself as my one true mate, bound to love me and only me for the rest of your days." Her head tilted infinitesimally further to the side. "Hope you're not too disappointed."

The final line, at least, clanged with truth in her heart. He gave her the good kind of butterflies, the kind that made her want to sprint in a gleeful circle and run as far away as she possibly could. The kind that made her want to risk it all on a maybe.

maresilver baylove