☾

@hyrded the weight of his gaze was crushing, its intensity threatening to make her burn to ash in that very moment. ruhani did burn, red with rage and red with...more. something fluid and hot that coursed through her veins and coiled in the pit of her stomach. the didn't feel butterflies around rurik, she felt searing heat, a hint of which turned her pale cheeks flush with emotion. his actions drew a gasp from sealed lips, eyes widening as she had no choice but to stumble under the force of his pull. 
            her chest collided with his, the air between them thick and charged making it hard to breathe as her lungs remained taught with tension. "you know what i want." the effect he had on her was visceral, draining the resistance from her....but not enough for her to give him the straight answer. her own eyes dipped to the displeased curve of his lips and stayed there for a moment too long.

@iztirar         mismatched eyes, one a striking jade green, the other a stormy grey—-hardened as his chest rose with uneven breaths, heart hammering from the stifling tension between them. the heat of her hands, her defiance, her refusal to yield, snapped something inside him. control, once locked behind decade old restraints, slipped through his fingers. his hands were the first to act, digging into her hips as he surged forward, barely flinching when she shoved him back. for once, words abandoned him. all he could do was pull ruhani closer, his gaze dropping to her mouth with a fierce, silent fury. it wasn’t desire—-         it was the ache to punish her for making him feel. for stirring something raw and unfamiliar inside him, something he couldn’t name. he stilled only to free one hand, trailing it slowly up her arm to her neck, fingers tightening as they curled around her delicate throat. then he pulled her in,         lowering his head to meet her eyes, voice low and ragged. “what do you want from me?”

@hyrded @hyrded she fumed. how could she not? when this endless tug of war between them always ended this way: a perfect moment ruined by a pull or push from the wrong side at the wrong time. her jaw set stubbornly, an expression he was familiar with by now. "don't doubt that i will." ruhani lifted her hands to his chest and gave him another shove. the first one had scarcely moved him by a millimeter, but her anger trumped rationality and pride in this moment. "who do you want me to accuse, then? hm? i am not the one who decides to be close and then cold as ice per convenience. only /you/ have the nerve to treat me this way, rurik sires."

@hyrded "i don't think i will." she hummed, the action of hiding the notebook in question behind her back a purely theatrical one. "you are acting like that king who had his soul placed in a parrot. is this your soul, rurik? and if it is, my god, do i want to know what it holds." ruhani's words teetered between playful and bold, cautious steps putting distance between herself and rurik thought she never once turned away from him.

@hyrded "it does not amuse me any more than it pleases you." the chuckle accentuating her words did nothing to take the edge off them: that she was about to make no move to relieve him of his agony. she  kept her gaze on his and took an excruciating step forward. "tell me...if i let you in, what will you do?" ruhani didn't intend the words as a taunt, but it came out as such. the wire mesh separating them a laughable obstacle, yet it only heightened the strange sense of control she felt. he was right, it /did/ amuse her.

@hyrded her mischievous grin split her serene face from ear to ear in a rarity, her visage was a display of pure playful joy as she parted her palms to reveal the silken red powder on them. A pigment as potent as the one that normally coated her lips, but now stained rurik’s face in the pattern of her caress. as she showed off what she had done, ruhani began to back away in slow steps, ready to bolt if the man retaliated from her innocent prank. doe eyes watched him with feline sharpness, gauging how he would react next. 

@koniqs the melodious notes falling from her lips faded into the emptiness of the valley ahead when she heard the stranger’s intrusion. Her singing interrupted by not particularly encouraging words. “Both of those things are true.” Ruhani mused without greeting the intruder with so much as a glance. He had interrupted her ‘lihaaz’, a classical singing practice she took very seriously. So much so that she almost wanted to perceive the action as disrespectful, when in truth it could have been genuine concern. 
            
            “I enjoy the seclusion of late nights. I have no fear in my own town and my forests. I belong to this land.” She said in hopes that there would be no further questions from the man. “Besides, the moon is full tonight. Only a fool would miss this”

@inlecebra >> ahhh thank you sm <3