I miss sunrise even more. The green scent of dawn in the forest? The color blushing back into the world, different every day.

...magic was ugly—-a hard bargain with the universe, a calculus of pain.

"Love is a luxury." "No. Love is an element." An element. Like air to breathe, earth to stand on.

Just then, lit only by the flicker of his wings,the sight of him was so..right somehow. He was right. It made no sense at all, but the feeling flooded through Karou

She craved a presence beside her, solid. Fingertips light at the nape of her neck and a voice meeting hers in the dark. Someone who would wait with an umbrella to walk her home in the rain, and smile like sunshine when he saw her coming. Who would dance with her on her balcony, keep his promises and know her secrets, and make a tiny world wherever he was, with just her and his arms and his whisper and her trust.

With the infinite patience of one who has learned to live broken, he awaited her return.

Around Mik, my powers desert me. I lose basic motor function, like my brain focuses all neural activity on my lips and shifts into kiss preparedness mode way too early, to the detriment of things like speech, and walking.