Broken Pasts and Broken Hearts

She had tried, tried to speak, tried to move, tried to force her vocals to work, to make her bodice move, but she had been unable to do much more than stare in utter shock at this beautiful soul before her. The only wolf who had ever bothered to glance at her twice, the only creature whom had ever seen fit to seek her out again and again despite her quiet, monosyllabic responses... but she could scarcely breathe let alone move! He spoke of her like she was worthy of something more than chains and shackles, that she was better than to be someone's slave. That she was somebody with a soul, a heart, a personality and yet...

The dame could bear no more and before he could say anything else, before he could depart or before he could plead she had flung her bodice forward, careening into his chest and coiling her neck around his in a tight embrace, the words of emotions she had never felt before, clawing their way from her larynx as she cried, broke into the confines of his chest of his fur. This longing, this sense of passion, of love, of desire, this was what she had been missing, this was everything she had ever needed. Seasons could change, tides could crash, but here, locked in his warmth, pressed against his chest...she was free. He a wanderer, never claiming a home, she a slave, titles stripped and tossed away and yet she had found solace, absolution in this male and then he returned her embrace, she melted, muscles relaxing, falling away to nothing and for the first time ever, she closed her eyes and allowed herself just to feel.

At her confession, she felt his own tears soak into her neck, his body matching her tremble overcome by... euphoria? Ecstasy? So many emotions that had been nothing but another word, another phrase to her. He wrapped his heavy bodice around her and she absorbed into his touch. Transfixed and taken by him. It took him awhile but finally his voice returned to her, heavy, and cracked with emotion, but it reached her all the same. He released her to meet her eyes, to press against her and she allowed her own orbs to slide shut at the proximity, a shiver chasing the length of her spine. "I love you Rogue, forgive me for not seeing it sooner." She would murmur back to him in response, body aching to be lost back in his embrace.

As he mentioned his family, she would smile softly, a gentle, tiny smile that would never grace her face for anyone but him. Rogue's smile. Tenderly, her tongue would escape her lips to scrape the side of his cheek. "Then shall we go? Your family could use a bit of good news after all that has transpired." She would nuzzle him affectionately, excited at the prospect of telling his family.



Speech!