Girls/Girls/Boys: A Coalesce Graphic

"and love is not a choice."

Risk: A Coalesce Graphic

Three: A Coalesce Graphic

[x]

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.”