Avery. The first time he said her name, she froze. Her yellow-brown eyes were on him immediately. Somehow, he was even more handsome than the last time she’d seen him. Filling into his age, just as she was.
Avery.. they had stopped near each other, but there was still a slight cushion of space between their bodies. A rebellious part of her wanted to challenge that, to close the distance and press herself against him without saying a word. He would hold her, surely. He’d missed her too, just like she’d missed him… hadn’t he?
Her fear of facing his rejection kept her in her place.
Helios told her he was glad to see her, and that was when Avery’s nervousness at being turned away was tossed aside. A sighed breath left her in a rush and the tired loneliness she’d been suffering for some time now showed across her face. “I- I’ve missed you too, Helios.” She admitted and swallowed back, feeling she owed him some sort of explanation. He had been expecting her to come, they’d discussed it so many times…
“I’m sorry,” she began, but found the emotions tightened her throat and made it momentarily difficult to continue. She swallowed back and started again, “I wanted to come to you… but I… there was so much happening with my family, and I knew if my mother found out…” Avery trailed off, unable to put a voice to what worries had taken her.
“I fled from Salem, from the islands entirely, when the Badlands leadership shifted…” Even now, she didn’t know who held her birth home. “But I couldn’t… I couldn’t stop thinking of you.”
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