A night in

[balancingminds]

"Raven!" Charles yelled as he entered the flat, just managing to close the door and not drop anything.

Tonight he was holding slightly more than usual as he'd just been gifted a bottle of wonderful booze and the only person he was going to drink it with was Raven.

Comments

[andproud]

"I'm not unhappy," she insists, her fingertips tracing the slight angle of his temple, next to his eyebrow.

And maybe more of him needs to be blurring into her. He's the better one; he's just so good. She's always wanted to be more like that.

She licks her lips, tastes weaker remnants of the ouzo.

[balancingminds]

"But you're not as happy as you were. You changed when you didn't have to,"

He taps her lips as he wants her to smile again and she doesn't have to shift around him.

[andproud]

"I just want to be - "

She can't find the words for what she wants, and her breath catches slightly at the touch to her mouth, lips pursing subtly against the brush of his fingers.

[balancingminds]

He doesn't like when she drops the end of her sentence like that and he moves to brush her hair back trying to read her without reading her,

"Be what?"

This is a feeling he hates when there's something that he should know but he just can't figure it out. Especially when its Raven who he should know better than anyone but sometimes he feels like he doesn't and that feels like a betrayal of her.

[andproud]

There are so many words she wants to use to fill the gap, all of which race through her head - (normal ordinary yours wanted normal)

Unconsciously, she tilts her head into the movement of his fingers, the touch feeling like more than it should with her skin humming from the ouzo.

[balancingminds]

When she doesn't answer and he's not listening and he won't, he promised, he sighs.

He feels blurry and useless and pulls her into a hug,

"I want to fix what I can for you. Make the world better for us. I'm sorry that I can't get it right."

[andproud]

The world might not be better, but hers is just from having known him. Just from being given a place to go after they'd first met.

She wraps her arms around him, pulling him into a tighter hug, her chin nestled against his shoulder, her cheek resting against his.

"It's not your fault."

It's mine.

[balancingminds]

"Still should be able to fix it," He murmurs into her hair.

[andproud]

"You always want to fix everything," she whispers, pulling back to look at him as the pale of her skin gives way to blue, blonde hair unfurling into red.

She presses a kiss to the edge of his mouth and rises, slipping out of his hold.

"Some things can't be fixed."

[balancingminds]

When she gets up, he pulls his legs up and holds them, feeling tired and vulnerable,

"I hate how that's true. I don't want it to be."

[andproud]

"It's because you're so good," she murmurs, looking at him with sad affection.

If only they both were.

[balancingminds]

He tries to meet her gaze as he sighs,

"I'm me. Good is for King Arthur and wise men from stories."

[andproud]

"And you," she insists, her hand bearing her weight as she leans over him to press a small kiss to his forehead.

"Goodnight, Charles."

[balancingminds]

He watches her go before sighing once more and stretching out on the couch.

His bed feels too far away at the moment and moving requires more thinking.