Snow's White | ✓

3. Dusk and Dawn

Lucas felt as if someone had sucked the air out of his lungs as Keir emerged from the carriage. Wavy rivers of raven hair spilled around a stoic jaw and sculpted cheeks, the skin there lightly coloured with warmth. Red lips, neither thin nor fat, were parted lazily as a pair of azure eyes blinked behind thick lashes. The beautiful face was set in a natural frown, thick brows creased at the centre. 

"Such a pretty face," Lucas heard his mother gasp, almost in a trance, as the man stepped down from the carriage. Lucas swallowed thickly as his eyes trailed down the stranger's neck to his exposed torso, the skin there impossibly pale and glistening with a light sheen of sweat. Though his face was indeed pretty, his body was that of a man, lean muscle emerging from rolled sleeves. Though not as broad as Lucas, the man's lithe body still dipped and curved in smooth peaks of muscle. Dark pants encased his long legs and rested on the curve of his hips casually, a leather belt holding the fabric flush against his body. 

Lucas was slapped from his rapture as Rose cried out, the stranger obscured by a flurry of lace and skirt. Strong arms wrapped around his fiancé's thin waist, and black hair melted with black hair as Keir buried his head into the crook of his sister's neck. 

"I've missed you," Rose cried, lavishing in the feeling of her brother's arms. Even though he had grown, even though his stringy, boyish arms had changed into large bands of muscle, his hug still felt the same. Warm, safe, calming. 

"I've missed you more," Keir smiled, all fatigue and tension leaking from his body. He had always missed his sister, but he hadn't realise quite how much until he held her close to him. Somewhere along the way, he had grown to the point of completely enveloping her in his arms. She had never felt so small or fragile to him before, despite having grown into the beautiful woman that she is. 

As the siblings pulled apart, though Rose still clung tightly to her brother's arm, Lucas tentatively stepped forward, his legs heavy as he tried not to stumble. It was not until he was within arm's length from them that Keir finally looked up from his sister, blue eyes piercing into brown. Lucas's legs felt like pig's fat as they wobbled under him with the weight of his future brother-in-law's gaze. 

Close up, Lucas couldn't help but stare. His mind couldn't comprehend how similar yet different the two faces before him appeared. Same ebony hair, same ruby lips, and same crystalline skin, yet where Roses's features danced in soft slopes and curves that felt like dawn breaking, Keir's face was sensually beautiful, like shadows waiting for dusk to fall.

"Lucas?" Rose asked, waving a hand in front of his face. Keir's lips almost dropped their frown for a moment, as Lucas coughed.

"Apologies," Lucas flushed, straightening his back. "You two look so alike, I was shocked for a moment."

"Well, he finally caught up to me in height," Rose teased, poking her brother in the side. Keir scoffed, crossing his arms across his broad chest. 

"Snow told me that you were shorter than her as a child," Lucas said, hoping his voice sounded normal as he forced the words out of his clenched throat. "I see that she was wrong." Keir stood at roughly the same height as Lucas, their eyes meeting straight on, and Rose's crown of baby's breath rested roughly at the tip of their chins. 

Keir laughed at that, his eyes crinkling as he laughed. Lucas swallowed thickly again. "I suppose she has also emphasised that she is eight minutes older than me? She's always had to emphasise it, because people always assume it's the other way around based on temperament," Keir chuckled, his voice dropping to a low timbre, sending shivers through Lucas's body. Lucas laughed nervously, as Rose huffed, unlinking her arm with her brother's to stand at Lucas's side.