"Not going already, are we?"
Her tongue clicked to the back of her teeth as he began to slink away.
Tracing one thin finger along her skin, her black eyes narrowed, closing in on his palpable fear.
"Now now," she softly murmured, reaching to touch his jaw, smiling as he shuddered upon the feel of her hand,
"No need to fret dear. I'm just having a little fun."
As the words left her lips, she exhaled deeply and turned, her deep scarlet hair encasing her shoulders as she did so.
He could do nothing but watch.
His worlds called back to him,
"She was beautiful. But she was beautiful in the way a forest fire was beautiful; To be admired from a distance. Never up close."
He bitterly chuckled, it's tone quickly drowning to nothing but a groan.
He stepped forward.
She froze, momentarily, before turning to face this rugged worn man.
Her eyes were the deepest green, with dashes of black and gold scattered across their watery surface.
Every time he searched through them, he drowned in the ocean they seemed to embody, the ocean filled with a thousand mysterious creatures never to be found.
Every time she blinked, he swore the lights dimmed, and he could no longer see the world.
She drew her slender figure closer to him, her eyes wary of him, hungry in curiosity
Her right hand lay limply by her side, the other pressed into her chest, wedged between her rib cage, convulsing methodically.
One-two. One-two. One-two.
With each beat, she took the opportunity to breathe.
Every time she did, he could feel himself reawaken,
"You're not leaving."
She stared at him blankly, as he stood his ground, his words echoing in his ears.
He was made of grey.
His eyes were a light faded blue, sparkling only in the harshest of sunlight.
His skin was the iciest of whites, while his lips had the memory of blue imprinted upon it's edges.
His ribs were torn right apart, inside nothing but a hollow cavern.
But now, right now, his eyes were ablaze.
His feet stuck solidly to the ground as his teeth hit off each other in the restraint it took for him to stay standing.
She gently cocked her head to the right, her spine curving away from him,
"Say it agai-"
"You're not leaving."
Her face was, for once, void of this distant smile he loved to hide her behind.
Her expression was withdrawn, her eyes boring into his.
He could do nothing but stare on.
Her lips pursed slightly,
"I am born to break."
She smiled weakly at her chest, her eyes tracing the blood that lined her convulsing hand.
He nodded,
"And I am born to function. No more."
As he said so, he could feel her stare upon his ribs, he removed his eyes from hers and continued,
"But I am not human," he softly murmured, his head hanging lower as he did, "and to survive, to live, rather than function, even you know..."
Both stared on silently.
He stood so still as her hand convulsed between her bones, and she continued to breathe.
His eyes took in each piece of her, the smooth skin encasing her, her slender form, her burning eyes, her cracked lips, her shock of wild hair, the scars lining her cheeks, the pins pressing against her arms, her shoulders, her chest.
They briefly lingered on the chunk of soul torn from between her ribs.
"You're not leaving." he conceded, one last time.
Raising her head, her eyes reached out for his,
"Pretend to breathe. As if you're tasting the air."
He began to inhale, the air hitting his lungs harshly, the memory of life now dawning upon his mind frame.
Reaching from her chest she drew out one pin, the other hand solemnly convulsing like clockwork,
"Life is not how you remember it, " she sighed, almost to herself,
"I will break easy."
At her words, both solemnly nodded, before she reached for his hollow chest with her empty hand, digging it under his ribs to gently pull him closer.
Closing her eyes she waited until he was close enough to feel her warmth, and as his body warned him to run from such heat, she pushed her hand deep within his chest, and finally he breathed.
One-two. One-two. One-two.
Her hand began to convulse.
He was reunited with Heart once more.
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