chevaleros | 7rings: harrow

[Her ears go dark again at that comment, even though it is ridiculous. It is not cute. But she'll still let Vira take her hand, squeeze her fingers back, even if she's pouting a little.]

I'm grateful to have met you as well, even if you insist on teasing me today. Vira, you were telling me something serious.

[ Pouting is cute though... Vira stops heckling her long enough to fall silent; she knows she has to make a confession this week, but it's a difficult task for her, put off for days now and only shared in the privacy of their room. ]

Of course. I need to confess that you... rattle me.

[ It's very, very difficult to say that much, her words hesitant and halting, like by saying it, she's admitting defeat. But it gets a little easier once she's started. ]

...I'd sworn to be alone, so that my every thought was dedicated to Katalina. [ she was, frankly, obsessed with her. viciously so, for a very long time. harrow had felt it for herself. ] But before I came here, I could feel our bond start to change. Everything in me yearns and beats for her still, but it no longer fulfilled me, not wholly. I thought that coming here and distancing myself from any distractions would help, but...

I cannot help but feel close to some of you. You most of all. [ Harrow called it a relief, but she's scared to accept that. ] That I can even talk to you so openly speaks to how weak my heart has grown. Even so, I want to help you, to learn more of you and be near you. To... talk to you more.

Oh.

[She doesn't know what to do with this - with the sincerity, with the fact that she's hearing these words at all. It's hard for her to picture herself in this light, as something worth reaching out towards.

But it's somehow not hard to understand why Vira would think so. She understands Vira a little by now, too.

She - will take the hand entwined with hers and bring it to her mouth, press a kiss to the back of it.]

You awe me, Vira. [She has relied so very much on her, her fellow in Despair. Vira never behaved as though she needed to rely on anyone in return. That she would admit to as much now is very precious.] And you are unnervingly dear to me, which I hope you do know. Whatever you say, I could never think your heart was weak. But I would do whatever was in my power to soothe it. As you have done, often, for me.

[ Vira is used to praise, unmoved by it—too conceited to care, really, except in moments like these. Katalina was the first person to humble her, her crew's captain the second, and now perhaps Harrow is the third.

Because unnervingly dear hits very close to her own feelings, which is not so unexpected, because Harrow is alarmingly easy to embrace and understand. Her hand and her face feel warm before she ducks in without thinking, inhibitions worn out by the week's effects as she kisses her, lingering for a long, doting moment before pulling away, as though in gratitude. ]

—Thank you, Harrowhark. If I've eased your woes in any way, then I'm glad. I know we're meant to indulge in despair, but perhaps it's not so bad to have some reprieve from it from time to time.

[ Is that counterproductive? Is this not its own indulgence? She'll worry about it next week. ]

[She should be expecting the kiss - the moment is intimate, the words they're speaking to one another sincere - but somehow she is, anyway. She's kissed a few people here by now. It's outside her nature, to be so easy with physical contact of any kind, but the circumstances of their being here make it different. If it helps her meet her goals, and she doesn't mind doing it, why not? She has no vow of celibacy to uphold nor any great love waiting for her outside the grave.

It's a little different, though, to kiss someone back not because you think you may as well, but because you would really like to kiss her.

Still, she lets Vira draw away, smiling slightly, looking a little flushed but pleased.]

We are meant to do what we would like to do, are we not? So I think it must be permitted.

7rings: harrow

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