LET US LIVE LIKE FLAMES [P]

[Deleted]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 500px; height:644px; background-image:url(http://oi49.tinypic.com/r6zmsm.jpg)] There were parts of his past that he had kept to himself. His stillborn children. The secretive ceremonies of his tribe. The terror that his leopards had been able to evoke. But he was tired of some of these secrets; of living with their weight on his soul. His father had always told him that to keep secrets was to keep a part of you locked away from others, and by doing so you did an injustice to yourself. That was before that same father cast Kajetan out, of course. As a man, Kajetan rubbed at the scar on his cheek, before leaning into the fire and blowing at the coals. Eden stood a little behind him. It had taken some convincing to get her to follow him, but now the sun was setting, and he had a fire burning in a precise location. Kajetan had discovered the ruins forever ago, it seemed. He had discovered the bloodstains, a grotesque marking of the previous leaders and their "offerings". He had also discovered that, at sunset, the sun lined up with a few of the windows in the ruins and spilled out over a flat platform. Through a series of weeks, whenever he had free-time, Kajetan had set to clear away the dead leaves and brambles and dirt scattered across the platform, until he had exposed the mosaic beneath. It was a complexity of polished stones, made grungy from time, but Kajetan thought it added to the appeal. They were still beautiful. The fire caught, then. It blazed up abruptly and he jerked backward with a laugh. It was directly in the light of the fading sun. "Eden, come!" He turned to look over his bare shoulder at her, his grin still on his face, eagerness in his eyes. When she heeded him, Kajetan would lean close beside her, and grab her hand to interlace their fingers. It was a thoughtless gesture to him--he was excited, and by touching he could convey this, particularly when he drummed her fingers with his own. It was what his family used to do. He brushed her side with his shoulder and nuzzled her neck with his face, still laughing. He found her ear, then, and with his lips brushing the lobe, he spoke. "Can I... tell you? I want to give you a gift. A piece of.. me. I know it isn't much. But I owe you so much." He released her hand and leaned away so that he could see her face. His expression was uncertain, with a crooked smile still in place. He didn't always know what to expect with her.

[Wanderer]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 497px; height: 675px; background-image:url(http://i49.tinypic.com/3515onn.png)] “Eden, come!” The sound of her name snapped Wanda out of her dark thoughts of the ruins. Blood stains still littered the ground where her people had been sacrificed under her previous rules rule, in hopes to please his gods. She had been against this practice, but she had kept her mouth closed and tried to ignored the deaths. But that was another time. She had wondered why Jet had brought them here, and watching him build the fire had not helped sate that question. She approached him after his call, her arms wrapped around herself, fingers squeezing into her skin, but he pulled her hand away and interlaced their fingers. It was an odd but wonderful feeling, of skin upon skin. He began to nuzzle her neck and she stifled a giggle. This touching, the fleeting glimpses from afar, and when Jet would every now and then brush himself against her, was an altogether a new experience. Regardless of how pleasant it was to have Jet next to her, dark thoughts entered her mind, and she found it difficult to shake off. She stared into the fire, until Jet began to ask her a question. She turned her gaze towards his, admiring how brightly his eyes glowed against the light of the fire. "Can I... tell you? I want to give you a gift. A piece of.. me. I know it isn't much. But I owe you so much." She smiled, untwining their fingers to brush her fingers across his scarred cheek. “Tell me your heart’s desire. I am all yours.” Her heart fluttered in her chest as she pulled her hand away to pull his against her cheek, admiring the warmth that radiated from his skin. When she pulled it away, she admired the cracks that ran along his palm, and gently pressed her lips against it.

[Deleted]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 500px; height:644px; background-image:url(http://oi49.tinypic.com/r6zmsm.jpg)] Her fleeting touches meant as much, if not more, to Kajetan as words did. He closed his eyes as her fingers brushed his cheek, smiling despite himself. Her kiss, mere moments later, evoked a line of fire up his veins. He opened his eyes to look at her, intensely at first, and then with a tender sort of affection. Then he turned his gaze from her and toward the fire. "My people believe in Life. I guess you could say we were religious..." He paused, continuing to look at the flames. The sunset was drawing to an end, and darkness was taking hold. "They believe that there is the Sun and the Moon and Life and Death. That everything is in a constant... flow. A revolution. The sun is always creating a circle, the moon is small and then big and then dark and then reborn. Life is the same." He took a nervous breath. Kajetan did not know if she would understand, or if she would care. "Always changing. This... my people used to say that this burning flower, this fire was what life would look like if you took it out of... the body, I guess." He trailed off, uncertain, hesitant. But then he cleared his throat and reached out to the edge of the fire, where soot was already gathering. He drew his fingers through it. Then Kajetan turned toward her, his gaze asking for permission. "My people used fire for all of their ceremonies." Without waiting, he reached out and drew his dirtied thumb down the center of her forehead. This was followed by two marks just below her eyes, following the curve of her cheek. Then he leaned very close to her. Their cheeks would brush, but then he would pause at her ear. "It means I'm marking you as mine." He leaned back then. He looked not so savage at the moment. His eyes were still wild, yes. But there was an almost adolescent uncertainty in his gaze. He was nothing if not honest. "And if you want, you may do the same." A hitch of excitement caught his breath, as well as fear.

[Wanderer]

» - - - - - - there’s a fire in us
SWEET LOVE, SO PURE - - - - - - - - - - «

She couldn’t help it; a couple of tears fell down her sooth covered cheeks. At his words, his words of Life and Death and the Moon and Sun, it reminded her so much of her mother, so much that it hurt her heart and soul. She had never known nor admitted how much she missed her presence, no matter how hard she try to remember that she was in everything around her. She cleared her throat, her heart pounding as he brushed his cheek against hers and she heard him whisper ‘mine’. She belonged to him as much as he belonged to her. The tears ran freely then, the mixture of emotions pouring from her eyes. She pressed her forehead against his, breathing him in, before pulling away to look into his eyes.

Wanderer reached around him towards the fire, dragging her fingers through the ash, hardly wincing at the heat. “As long as stars are above us, and longer, if I can,” she began as she mimicked the pattern across his own face. “I will be yours, just as you will be mine.” When Wanderer finished marking him, she brushed her nose against his, gently, to not ruin the decorations upon their faces.

As she gazed into his wild eyes, their faces touching, she noticed the gentleness behind them. So new, these electric feelings shooting through her veins, the rapid pace of her heart in her chest. New, yes, but it was a wonderful feeling, once she hoped that would never fade away or be extinguished like a candle in a breeze. She brushed her lips against his, murmuring, “Mine,” as they touched. Wanderer pulled away to gaze at his features, the piercing in his nose that she still found intriguing and amusing as well, to this day, to the scar that ran across his cheek. All of these were familiar to her, as familiar as the woods around her. She sighed as the thought of him whispering ‘I am marking you as mine.’

With a hitch of excitement in her throat, she asked, “Is that all you do, when claiming what is yours?”