my heart stops without you

In the water behind her, the soaked woman's tail swished slowly back and forth, the longer fur trailing in the water. This little outing had made her happy. Roan was very thoughtful and it definitely showed. He pulled her in close and she willingly went. The kind word that he uttered touched her. She had saved his life, but... he had also saved hers. That was something that she hadn't told him. Perhaps now wasn't the time to do so out on a reef in the middle of the ocean.

Then he pulled back and looked into her eyes. His soul was bared to her just then. Her tail ceased its wagging and hung slack, the water keeping it buoyant. "Before you... I had a relationship with the Empress of the Ashen Empire; Deathbelle." Io sat upon the shelf and continued. "We were lovers. We genuinely cared for one another." The wet woman gave a shake of her skull. She didn't want to get too deeply into it. "We gave each other up for the good of the Empire, but it was... difficult."

Turning her head, the small woman looked out to sea. The gentle ocean breeze had begun to dry the fur at the back of her skull and her ears, so it danced slightly in the wind. "I was so depressed and lonely after that I thought about ending myself more than once." That had been part of the reason for the outburst when they were moving territories. Since then, Roan had filled a large, bleeding hole in her heart. She no longer thought about whether or not she wanted to wake up in the morning. She no longer planned in her head which concoction of poisons would let her sleep forever with no pain. Roan, just by his presence and his love, had patched up that empty, broken spot within her.

She looked back to him, a sad sort of smile on her slender maw. "So, you see... I would have died without you too."

Then something bit her tail that had been drifting on the gentle waves and, eyes going wide, Iolaire shrieked and leaped up out of the water. She dove towards Roan for protection. Her leap had brought a little purple fish flying through the air. Presumably the one that had bitten her tail. It landed between their touching bodies and flapped against their chests. Io, the panic now leaving her, scooped up the little fish and put it back in the water. "I think I've had enough ocean for today." Her heart was still hammering and she was still heavily pressed against him for both comfort and protection.