Private Tales There Are Worse Poisons That Exist

[Saffia]

Saffia blushed, the softest pink colouring her cheeks as Aerium pressed those featherlight kisses to her knuckles. It made her want to laugh, shy and startled by how proper, how gentlemanly he could be. He was so... fancy. She managed a curtsy with a quiet chuckle.

But then he looked at her.

Gods. That look. The kind of look that stripped her bare without ever touching her, that made her feel beautiful in a way no mirror had ever managed.

"You are very sweet." she answered when he complimented her. Her heart stumbled, and tripped entirely when he said he may have been falling for her.

Saffia stopped walking. Her hand was still caught in his, her fingers small and warm in his larger palm, and for a beat she said nothing. Her gaze flicked up to his face, and though there was a flicker of worry in her eyes, uncertainty, hesitation, though it softened into something fond. Something aching.

“You shouldn’t say things like that, Aer...” she murmured, voice low and touched with a rueful kind of smile. One hand rose to tuck a dark curl behind her ear, a motion she often did when flustered. “Those kinds of words are dangerous.."

She didn’t pull away though. No, she held his hand tighter and fell back into step beside him, brushing her shoulder gently against his as they walked.

When he mentioned food and sweets, she huffed a small laugh, eyes lighting again.

“You’re going to fatten me up,” she teased, grinning now as the mood lightened. “Is that the plan? Woo me with sugar and charm and compliments until I can’t run away anymore?”

She bumped his hip with hers, playful now, despite the storm still quietly spinning in her chest. “Because it might just work.”

 

[Aerium]

Aerium laughed aloud, the sound traveling through the area heartily as if it were part of the nature residing here. That this day was already picturesque, that the weather was so blessed, Aer could not contain the mirth sitting with him. For that was the effect Saffia had on him. She already had made a home in his heart and mind, even if she was unaware of it yet, but Aerium was sure to leave that space there for her.

It warmed him, that her presence could have the effect of the sun upon him.

"Aye, that it precisely what I am doing to you." He grinned, toothily, widely. "And perhaps the fact that I think of only sweets when I think of you... must be because of that Daylily cupcake you got that night we met."

Daylillies. He had taken the time to find some this morning to no avail, but the bread he had baked had the flower carved upon it. Not his best, but he was pleased enough to pack it into the basket he had brought with him.