Chapter Text
The campfire danced greatly in his eyes. Bewildered, nearly bewitched, he stared at the man in front of him.
The golden eyes matching the golden edges of the flames, nearly blending over in each other. Like someone had taken a paintbrush and decided to directly copy paste the same shade into his eyes.
It was a sight to behold. A sight to hold dear. A sight to drown in. A sight he’d liked to be choked in.
“What are you staring at?” The man asked him. Voice a mere whisper. Blending in with the cicadas around them. Barely noticeable for anyone not glued to his lips.
Yet, to him, it was the only thing he had ears for. The only person he had ever set his sights on. The only person that ever mattered, even more than he himself ever did. And ever will.
His sun. His love. His universe.
Voice as clear as night. Eyes as warm as the liquid gold running through their veins.
The sight unfolding before him was rupturing. Breathtaking. Otherworldly. Enchanting.
The man’s voice was rang through his skull. Like an endless echo reverberating through his cranium. It sounded as clear as day.
Nearly smashing him out of his dream like state, scattering it all over until he was fully shaken awake. Like being shocked entirely through his core, forcefully pulled back into the here and now. No longer on cloud nine.
The other man’s eyes were no longer focused towards the flames, but were instead directed at him. Piercing his skull. His body. To shreds, until nothing was left.
“Ah, nothing.” He replied, apologetically scratching the back of his head. Averting his gaze from the honey gold coloured eyes, piercing through his own blue orbs.
“Just lost in my thoughts, that’s all.” He replied back. Lips forming a cheekish smile. A remorseful chuckle followed swiftly as he refused eye contact.
The other man let out a soft hum. Observing him. Eyeing him. Weighing him like it was nothing. And inside of the other man’s head, cogs started to turn. And thoughts, assumptions and presumptions, started to form.
Grand theories. About the truth. About reality. About love. About the man seated across the fire. The recipient of the gaze still didn’t return it, until he softly pried his eyes back open and stared from underneath his eyelashes at the receiver.
The receiver of his attention. His affection. His love. His life. His longing. His everything.
“You seem lost.” The other man stated. Voice drowned inside of his apparent worry.
Like he wasn’t used to it at all. Maybe he wasn’t.
Hadn’t he always seemed as clear as day? As present as one could be? Replies at the ready? Maybe too ready.
Now, none of those easy-get-going-replies were there for grabs. Like they had all simply dissolved into smoke right in front of him. Unable to get attained. Unable to get used. Unable to get uttered for another cycle.
It all weighed down on him. Crushing his bones. Smashing it to pieces, to nothing but dust.
“Have you ever found it?” The man suddenly asked. He blinked in confusion. Unsure what the other was talking about.
Words rang through his head. Pieces of conversations. Of events he wasn’t sure had ever happened before. Of countless scenarios replaying over and over again inside of his mind’s eyes. Hastily strung together. Incoherent. Incomprehensible. Insane.
“Found what?” His voice had grown quiet.
When had it grown quiet?
And why?
Because of all the talking?
Or because of all the screaming?
Or because of the intense feeling of hatred dancing deep inside of him, nothing more but a sheer reflection of the flames in front of him.
His soul being nothing more than a pair of golden eyes where the flames heavily danced inside.
Keeping it burning.
Keeping it alive.
“The answer.” The man said.
He was even more confused by it all.
“To what?” He asked.
Voice no longer above a whisper. Just mere whimpering leaving his lips. Like a final cry out inside of the coffin that’s been nailed shut and buried deep below.
“Everything.”