Broken Pasts and Broken Hearts

It was not panic that had stilled the woman in her tracks... well perhaps that was a bit of a lie. Panic had played a great role in her uneasy countenance. Not the kind of panic that grappled hold when one was terrified of being physically assaulted or harmed, but rather the unease that everything you know and love is crashing down around you, that your entire world is being turned on its axis and your vision blurs and you don't know where you're going to stop. Mahniya's life had been simple. Black and white. No colors intermingled, no grays coincided... there was nothing, nothing that could be done to her, no words that could be spoken to wound or assault her to change this view. When she had been naught but a pup, she had accepted her lot in life. A slave. Black and white, colorless. Even with the abolishment of her once thriving kingdom, her mentality had stayed the same. She lived to serve and she served to live. Even with Gargoyle, on the rare chance he had to spend with her, it became predictable. He asked her a question, she gave him an answer, granted he wanted her opinions, wanted her thoughts, but she had always had as such, he may not realize it, but honestly she had merely been merely following another command. Mahniya had been able to slip back into Glaciem's routine, unnoticed, unseen. Black and white.

Until him. Until Rogue. He had noticed her first back on Alacritis, he approached her, spoke with her, continued to seek her out time after time. Her tail would flicker, her ears would pin back, she would speak and be polite but before she had really registered it, his presence had merely worked its way into her life. She smiled more freely, laughed a bit more carelessly, and offered him her voice... but then he had left, vanishing back into nothing, seemingly not to return and Mahniya had once again faded to invisibility...black and white. It was not to last, he was before her now, seemingly ready to leave when she had not known he had returned at all. Why had she approached him, why was she drawn to him? It made no sense to her this invisible tie, this bond.

She was snapped from her scattered thoughts as a dangerous glint entered his gaze, she shifted uneasily, not liking the fury she saw there, unsure if she had done something wrong. Had she offended him in some way? Her mind scoured over all of the things she had said, she could find no fault in her words, and yet he was angry, so very, very angry... but why? His question came abruptly and with such seriousness, that she wasn't sure how to respond, she hesitated, jaws opening to speak, his hackles rose, he paced restlessly, his massive frame making her uneasy as it trembled in its rage, she feared punishment out of habit. She forced her vocals to vibrate with speech, but never got the chance, because his angered fueled words spilled forth like a furious tsunami.

His words would stun her, shock her into stunted silence. The passion, the fury, the absolute determination, desperation behind each syllable. It would shake her, rock her. She had been spoken to a thousand times from a blind rage, but never like this. His thoughts of her, they revered her, border-lining on worship. He claimed so much of her, he saw so much uniqueness, so much light, so much goodness, it blinded her to think of herself in such a way. It made her dizzy to think anyone would think anything even close to the kindness and adoration that fell from his jaws. Her throat swelled shut and her heart hammered painfully in her rib cage. Why... why did he think of her so highly?

But he would not pause, he would continue with his praise, his words loosing their anger, their tenacity. His words with fill with something she could not readily identify, his hackles would fall and his body would loosen and then he was moving towards her, a soft sigh escaping his lips. She stood like some statue carved of stone and for the lead she felt in her legs and her heart that had suddenly refused to stop stuttering, she damn well could have been. The warmth of his breath wafted across her face and only then did she realize she had been crying. He would ask of her, impossible things, a desperate plea, a soft whisper, and suddenly her world was filled with revelations and colors.... so many colors, they flooded her like a kaleidoscope and everything seemed bright and crisp and beautiful. Emotions, feelings, she had never let reside in the confines of her flesh bombarded her now and God help her he was standing there, heart bleeding upon his sleeve waiting for her to say something, anything. With a desperate, keening whine, she was propelling herself forward, closing that last gap of space between them herself. He had always seen her, he had always found her, he had always come back. Her neck coiled around the base of his own, and when she was buried against him... his warmth... his radiance, she would whisper upon his skin, tears still pouring from her eyes and voice strained.

"I love you."


Speech!