Little Bird

Chapter 10

"It was the sort of happiness that fools you into thinking that there is still so much more, maybe even enough to laugh forever."

As if his mind didn't give him enough grief while he was awake, it was even worse in his sleep. Haunted dreams of the past; memories he wished he could forget.

Coriolanus naturally curled his body around Ember, grasping onto her like a lifeline.

The movement jolted her awake, his hands holding onto her stomach in a brutally protective way. His body was shaking while he mumbled incoherently in his sleep.

Worried about what was wrong, she shifted her weight so she could look over to him.

Eyes clenched tight, shoulders tense, a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead.

He looked tortured.

It hurt to see him seem so... broken. For once, she was able to see what it was like to have his walls down. A version of him that no one ever saw.

With a small amount of bravery, she decided to take her hand and lightly stroke his hair. However, the act didn't exactly have the affect she initially wanted.

His eyes snapped open in fear, his hand clamping down around her neck without a second thought, still consumed by his nightmares.

Ember gasped as she clawed at his hand, her eyes pleading with him to let go.

It took only a moment before his surroundings cleared around him and he was able to see his pretty little bird beneath him, eyes watery and frightened.

Coriolanus instantly backed away, feeling petrified as he saw her gasping for air. "Little bird, I'm so sorry. I didn't-",

"I know," she said under her breath as she met his gaze. "I know you didn't mean to."

Ember nuzzled her face into his neck, attempting to ease the rigidness in his muscles. But it was to no avail.

He moved quicker than she did as he stood from the bed to look out onto the moonlit city.

To say he looked tragically beautiful would be an understatement.

The brightness of the moon shined onto him; his blonde hair looked bleached white, his eyes a cerulean blue. Ember would have been completely distracted by his beauty, had it not been for the expression of torment he wore.

She silently stood behind him, his bare back facing her.

A small gasp escaped her as she saw the scars littering his skin. They looked like burn scars across half of his back, seeming extremely painful.

Without a word, she moved forward to press light kisses onto the marks.

Coriolanus stiffened under her touch. "Ember," he whispered as she continued on, not bothering to stop comforting him.

His jaw clenched and unclenched while he felt those pretty little lips on the one part of himself he preferred to keep hidden. Something that he had earned during his time mentoring.

"Beautiful," she sighed under her breath as she continued on with the small kisses on his back. The word threw him off guard, making the tension in his muscles deflate.

Whipping around, he grabs a hold of the back of her thighs, wrapping her legs around his waist as he brought them back to bed.

And that was where they stayed, the next few hours spent blissfully in between the sheets.

The second time she awoke, it was to an empty bed. It had left a small tightening feeling in her chest, even though she knew he had things to do.

A sharp pain tingled between her thighs as she attempted to move to the bathroom. A gasp escaped her lips, the feeling new and foreign.