Glitter

He's got glitter in his hair and it's all she can do not to reach out and touch. It would be a wasted gesture anyway. She is all too familiar with the manner in which he'd start and jerk away.

So she doesn't reach out, tucking her hands in her back pockets just to make sure, staring at him all the while.

He lets the moment grow long until it no longer fits, dragging on the ground. He is aware only that she has told him something he doesn't want to hear, and his cold gaze (like pale blue and blades) violates her even as she presents her chest to accept the abuse.

She loses when she speaks first.

"What'd you expect?" she asks, shoulders hunching forward. Her voice is golden-green, but whisper-thin: a mine that will soon be exhausted. "She wasn't going to wait forever."

He pulls himself taller, and the fading sunshine sparks momentarily in the glitter adorning his hair. His shadow drapes her like a funeral pall.

"No, of course not."

The anger in his tone (a terrible, burning glacier) is not directed at her, but she still slumps back with a wince, hands unconsciously abandoning her pockets to protect her belly and throat.

"No," he says, lips drawing away from his teeth, "I'd never expect her to wait for me."

Her eyes are pulled back to the glitter once more, fascinated by the softly dancing warmth, the last lingering coals of a bonfire against a bloody sunset. Her lips part with a golden-green sigh, the last of the vein.

"She says-"

His laugh skitters out like hailstones to pummel and crush her sentence.

"She says she's sorry," he continues for her, face now in darkness. "Yeah, and she sent you to say so 'cause she means it."

His voice grates like an iceberg against a metal hull, but she fancies that his eyes (pale blue like blades) contain hurt, just barely hidden by ire and ice, and her hands drop back to her sides.

"Because she still loves me," he finishes.

Her throat bobs as she swallows back something - not tears, no, not those - and she shakily extends one hand, reaching out.

The glitter gave a final glint as the sun went down and died.