House Party

[Oriena]

Oriena shrugged. What did he want her to say? That Rafael would forgive him? Because she could imagine him doing it in exactly the same way he’d forgiven Kasun for nearly ripping his fucking throat out. But she saw no outcome in which it made either of them happy. Rafael wouldn’t defend himself when he needed to, and what an unfortunate and inevitable fuck-up that would make. She was protecting him and Rafael both with her bluntness, but by the silver tear that ran down Nox’s cheek, he was too fucking soft to appreciate it. When was he going to realise that what people like them wanted didn’t matter. They were what they were.

She considered walking out and leaving him to his maudlin thoughts and what remained of the horde’s needs. Ori had enough of her own shit to drown out without sparing a bleeding heart for his. But she waited out the demonstration and ignored how still he went. Frankly, she thought pushing all his emotions down was as dumb as teaching Rafael how to control him with the power. But Nox hardly ended up short an arm by being smart.

When he’d finished the explanation, she shoved him out of the way to take the centre spot. Not that she needed it, but she wanted him to snap out of the quietness that was probably some utterly riveting pity-party of ex-boyfriend and dead sister woes. In fact Oriena had both those things herself, and a half-psychotic mother to boot, but he’d never hear her talk about it.

The image she began to draw was complex, but she had little problem recreating it; probably because of the way it had been learned like a fucking brand on her mind.