“nikkari.”[break][break]

she stood from the crystal with a cautious gaze. seeing him at a party was one thing, but she figured catching him out in the wild a second time could be no mere coincidence.[break][break]

after the revelations of time travel, she was even less inclined to trust him – but now that she knew of rinc's unfaithfulness, nikkari's appearance awoke a whisper that hardly steered her away.[break][break]

how jealous he’d been of the man in front of her.[break][break]

“you’ve been looking for me.”[break][break]

she took a few steps closer, chin turning inquisitively.[break][break]

“why?”[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]nikkari hect [break]

looking at her now reminds him of the past. it reminds him of another man's shadow. that lurching indignance that she was always far too good for the good-for-nothing waste of space he hadn't even known was dead. 

he reached out. confirmed her story. they were gone. he didn't ask after the details. it doesn't matter anymore.

why don't you want to know? he looks at her and when she takes a step forward, alecto grasps the corner of his shadows. sharp claws dig into stone and sapphires gleam under the surface of his long figure. she cackles a warning, untrusting of her approach. nikkari stays firm.

"i told you - i wanted to see you." he smiles. "do you not want to see me?"

Lulu Flint

☉

she stopped her approach, not wanting to alarm his cackling sableye any more than she had already.[break][break]

his smile was still potent. however, she was not as easily charmed as she once had been.[break][break]

“i’m not sure why i should. the past is so far behind us — especially if you’ve been in this region for as long as i have.”[break][break]

how long had he been in hoenn, watching, listening like the quiet observer that he was?[break][break]

though her words were dismissive, her eyes remained curious.[break][break]

”what is it that you want, nikkari?”[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]nikkari hect [break]

the imp hums silly warning lullabies, but those startlingly bright sapphires slip back into the abyss of his shadow. its song is faint, but it lingers there - a horrid backdrop to a dramatized rendition of two star-flung souls meeting together again at last. 

"i haven't," he admits. the past is gone, but it's so much closer to him. he is looking at her and he is seeing yesterday's eyes under the fringe of her bangs. 

frustration, as it only ever has when he's around her, settles into his bones. the crossness does not flash across his face, but there is a rigidity to his normally languid stature. she has every reason not to trust him. she always has. 

"they say you're still one of the most brilliant minds in rocket. you know i have a penchant for wanting to know important people."

Lulu Flint

☉

there was the tiniest scratching on a crystal above. a noibat pulled herself down one carefully to get a curious closer look at alecto. lulu, however, ignored the sounds of the goblin in his shadow.[break][break]

”i’m not important.”[break][break]

she shook her head, taking more slow steps in his direction.[break][break]

”and i am different than i was when you knew me.” in case there was any doubt.[break][break]

though she had always had a little darkness about her, what vibrant moments she’d often had before — dancing, joking — had faded into something enduringly cold. it was in her eyes, and the shape of her unsmiling lips, and the scars here and there.[break][break]

it was in the way she walked, closer still towards him.[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]nikkari hect [break]

alecto waves sharp fingers from within the confines of nikkari's shadow. nikkari ignores the exchange between the two pokemon entirely, though he does wonder just how many more of hers are hiding within the crystal landscape.

"i've found the most important claim they're not," he fires back. his weight falls to his heels. some primal instinct to take a step back hits him as soon as she advances, but he stays his ground - twinkling eyes, languid smile, every bit enticed by the new mysteries he's yet to discover about her. 

"it's been years. of course you're different, but people don't change at their core. not really. it's the superfluous bits that are stripped away." tumbled stones, faceted diamonds. 

Lulu Flint

☉

the noibat, realizing she'd been seen, quickly climbed deeper into the shadows.[break][break]

superfluous bits. like her sanity. like her desire to live in the realm they’d always known. like love, she thought. superfluous, indeed.[break][break]

her approach was not threatening as last time. as his smile remained languid, so too did the steps she took towards him.[break][break]

”is that right?” her head tilted. he seemed the same on the outside, down to the cool look on his face. she did not realize what anxiety stirred within him, instead wondering if he might stay rooted there if she were to reach out.[break][break]

”and what has changed about you, i wonder?”[break][break]

not a moment after she asked, a voice whispered, almost too quiet to hear, ”i missed you…” it held the sound of her voice, but softer, near his ear. it was accompanied by a soft breath across his neck, like a passing breeze – but there was no wind in the cave.[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]nikkari hect [break]

the years that have lapsed have not changed him much. he's grown more cautious, as caution comes with age in his line of work. those who don't learn it end up in body bags. 

sharper, too. always able to read people, but what used to intrigue him is now petty drivel. his hunger for intrigue is not so easily sated and he finds himself wanting constantly. 

so how lovely it is that she approaches him like a hunting animal, how remarkable when he feels surprise. a shiver creeps over his skin and he tilts his head, leaning into a warmth that isn't there. 

"i was hoping you'd want to find out," he says softly. 

Lulu Flint

☉

a hand went up to gently caress his cheek, before it disappeared again. seconds later, a sensual moan echoed through the cavern. his name was sung with rapture in an echo.[break][break]

the real lulu stared at him, face flushed a deep pink as she wondered which one of them the dream belonged to.[break][break]

it was an old desire, for her. things had changed. maybe he was still there to kill her — but to hear herself encourage him like this made her heart thump faster all the same. [break][break]

”i used to think of you,” she admitted — but surely he’d known, with the looks they’d shared in those days.[break][break]

almost close to him, she stopped.[break][break]

”… but i went to prison, and you faded away, and i have not thought of you in a very, very long time.”[break][break]

her gaze poured over him, assessing that he’d hardly changed in at least one way.[break][break]

”you want to be my friend, nikkari? is that what this is?”[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]nikkari hect [break]

flesh remembers flesh. the way she used to move around rinc was magnetic and he'd always envied their orbit - until he looked deeper and saw that they were glancing blows, magnets on opposite ends forced together by pride, manipulation, and other heartaches that had forced him down the bottle.

watching her waste away had killed him and he still doesn't know why. was it always love? is that what love is? to want so deeply for a thing you cannot have? to dream about the taking?

he is sorry she is hurt, but he would have rinc hanged again and again and again - and after that moan comes a gasp, a throttling of hands on throat. 

he colors, cursing the mist and all its phantasmal echoes, while alecto laughs and laughs and laughs. 

"i don't know what i want," he says, brows furrowing, "and that is what frustrates me most." his teeth sink into his lower lip. he tugs on the tie around his neck, suddenly feeling strangled, and he says, "what would you want of me, lulu? now that i've finally found you?"

Lulu Flint

☉

though the deep blue glow of the cave made it difficult to detect, she thought she could see the faintest shift in his color. more blood in his bitten lip. [break][break]

deciding to lean into it, she took the last empty step between them with a rising hand. her gentle fingertips traced the edge of his tie, which all of the sudden seemed too tight around his throat.[break][break]

his question went unanswered. softly, she asked her own, ”did you really not know they were on their way to kill me?”[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]nikkari hect [break]

her hand comes up and he feels a visceral instinct to stumble into two different directions. into her with his hands over her, possessive and wanting, taking for the first time after years and years and years of silent, unspoken pining. and away from her with a flinch, with the hard-to-swallow reminder that they are strangers; that they've always been strangers. 

and so he is caught in the middle, paralyzed there, left looking helplessly down at her. 

"i have never lied to you before," he says quietly. the truth. always the truth. "why would i start now?"

Lulu Flint

☉

they were in different modes of thinking, after those years apart. indeed, through apocalypses, dark blessings, and personal deaths, she’d metamorphized. Her attention had turned to the elements, to gods and other realms and the meaning of life.[break][break]

he was flesh. Her thumb grazed over the waves of muscle, and she felt the familiar wave of heat from lingering sounds of distant dreams.[break][break]

”why, indeed.”[break][break]

Like the noivern on his back, he’d heard everything before.[break][break]

”why would you follow someone across an ocean only to not know what it is you want with them?” if he didn’t think she could have changed that much.[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]nikkari hect [break]