Pyrrhic: A Coalesce Graphic

Doorway: A Coalesce Short (3/3)

(+1)

Tadashi doesn't know how to react upon seeing Aether for the first time in weeks.

Aether's bedroom is eerily dark. The curtains are drawn shut, lights switched off. Squinting his eyes in the dark, it takes him a moment to adjust until he manages to make out a figure lying on the bed. There's a quiet body under the blankets that remains unmoving despite his entrance. Provided that it was only Mathieu in the living room alongside a man whose name he remembers as Anthony, Tadashi finds that his worst fears are confirmed.

The scenario is too similar, as is the lighting and the mood. It nearly makes his chest constrict but he pushes the feeling down and swallows away the lump forming in his throat. The last thing Tadashi wanted to see was his worst assumptions, but there was nothing more he could do now that he was inside as well. He opens his mouth, tests the waters.

"...Aether?"

There's almost no response aside from the twitching of what he guesses is her leg. Pressing his lips together, he takes step after step forward, approaching the right side of the bed. It takes him a moment longer; the lack of light in the room makes it near impossible to properly navigate. The thought makes him wonder about Mathieu, and the feeling in his chest is only made even heavier.

Red Like Roses: A Birthday Graphic

red like roses

fills my dreams

and brings me to

the place you rest

Doorway: A Coalesce Short (2/3)

04.

Despite her numerous attempts to convince herself that she was ready, the truth is that Aether is not and would never be ready to bear Tadashi’s hurt.

But there she is, anyway, bearing it. “I’m sorry,” he croaks. “You—you weren’t supposed to see this, you weren’t…” He’s unable to finish his sentence as he buries his face into his hands once again, and Aether shushes him quietly. She rubs his back. It’s a continuous motion, one that she keeps up the more he crumbles beneath her touch. “You weren’t supposed to see this.”

“Shh.”

Tadashi keeps speaking about how Aether didn’t deserve to see him like this. She considers opening her mouth but keeps it shut, decides to listen as he purges every single nasty thing he had kept in for god-knows-how-long. He repeats certain phrases here and there. Aether catches the words “toxic” and “tired” and pieces them together. She learns about his unwillingness to be toxic, his desire to not have her—or anyone—tire of him. She wonders about how he had gotten that kind of mindset and who had even implanted those kinds of thoughts into his head in the first place, but again, she remains silent. Aether keeps silent as he admits fragmented truths, as he attempts to keep all the shards from spilling.

“I’ve been trying to get better.”

Doorway: A Coalesce Short (1/3)

01. 

The first time she meets him, Aether notices the weary look in his eyes and the way the first few buttons of his shirt remain undone. 

She nearly brings herself to pointing it out, but she finds herself distracted by the unkempt stubble on his jaw and the way he smells lightly of a previous night’s liquor. It’s a little unnerving, but Aether decides to take it. All she can think of is how desperately she needs to talk to someone, provided that the ‘someone’ isn’t part of the airport staff. She can’t help it. Aether’s an introvert, and she knows that well. After suffering more than nine hours in the sky and one hour attempting to navigate through Seattle-Tacoma, she finds that a conversation about anything but her flight would do her some good. 

Unfortunately, however, the first conversation concerns her flight. She forces a thin smile and responds with a tired voice. It was okay seemed to be the best answer for any query, from the in-flight entertainment to the food that had been served. Her companion—Tadashi, that’s what his name is—merely nods at her answers, and any hope that she would have literally any other conversation seems to extinguish itself from that point onwards. 

She doesn’t like the feeling. 

Aether attempts at starting conversation about anything else and tries to engage him about Seattle, about the airport, even about the car that they were riding on the way back to where she would be sleeping for the first couple of nights. She brings up certain details here and there, tries to compliment the interior of the car, attempts at asking about the picture of the pretty lady on the dashboard. Aether tries to talk to him about where she would be studying and does her best to ask him about the university she would attend for the time being, but Tadashi’s lips remain tightly shut. Her enthusiasm fizzles once more, and Aether finds herself mumbling a quiet “okay” as she resorts to glancing out the window. 

(From the corner of her eye, she spots him glancing at her with an apologetic look. Aether almost wants to believe that he’s sorry for not engaging in conversation. But then again, nine hours of tossing and turning in her seat with little to no sleep tended to cause one to see and imagine things that might have not been.) 

Empire: A Coalesce Graphic (II)

"it's time to build my empire."

123089: Birthday

"what's your idea of home, mack?"