@ofphonylove — political and monetary fuckery he’s dug himself into in the past year.
‘i’m sorry, roxanne.’ king addresses her plainly, his eyes hard and strong like steel but, for once, honest.
‘if there is any way i can help...’
she’d feel like she was in a dream. or a nightmare. how he always knew where she was didn’t even surprise her, she knew he knew.
she wouldn’t even have the energy to fight it, to slam the door in his face or anything. he’d be allowed in.
@ofphonylove — on.’ he waves a hand. a hand that indicates the people he has under him, the ones that work and watch and keep tabs and check in. only a few times while he was gone. only as much as they were paid to.
only to know she was safe from all the fuckery, the goddamn—
@ofphonylove — throat. wonders how to answer her question.
‘not so, no.’ he admits, in response to her suggestion that he rested. ‘i had... business.’ he manages to catch her dark eyes in the overhead light.
‘-.... i was made aware that things had been difficult for you. alric, and so —
@ofphonylove — what.
it is not nervous energy: king is not nervous. he does not get nervous. it is more... peturbed; a great sense of unease around her, of not knowing, quite fully where he stands.
a perturbed vulnerability that leaves him exposed.
he clears his —
@ofphonylove the wooden back of the chair rungs press into a bruised, but, grateful spine. grateful for the support, perhaps. something like that.
king is positively itching to smoke, his blunted nails scratching gently at the inner of his left wrist, a soft movement that calms him some—
@ofphonylove he hope it fits. he knows they’re not necessarily on speaking terms; and she may definitely hate him.
but it’s a little something. something of his that belongs to her, now.
@ofphonylove — her, fearing their proximity - her skin so close to his, her perfume, her breath - will choke him.
‘alric tells me that things have not been easy, for you.’
@ofphonylove ‘four days ago.’ he answers, lingering close to her like a moth to a light, drawn to her. he focuses his gaze on a knot of wood in her table, that jaw of his sharpened by the clenching of his teeth.
he does not know what to tell her.
king withdraws to the chair opposite —
@ragefilledking — control was taken from him. his precious control.
‘perhaps we should take lessons in bulgarian, al.’ he jokes dryly, emptily.
‘explaining otherwise... didn’t go down so well.’
@ragefilledking — dish on the bar top.
‘they believed me to be a rat.’ he explains. he sips whiskey: it’s fire blends with nicotine in his mouth. ‘... and did what is done to rats. trapped me.’
silence. he is still at odds with it all: the fact he did not see it coming. the fact that —