Flashfic
She loved to stand at the edge and close her eyes. It was dangerous - reckless, he might say. But...
But.
She was alive. Wasn't she allowed to live?
The cooling afternoon breeze pulled at her hair, like soft, curious fingers, almost child-like. She breathed in, deeply, smelling the distant rain, and the setting of evening in the air. The sunlight cast long shadows over the tip of the cliff-side, throwing them deep into the river-cut gorge below.
He would be coming soon, to fetch her. She could almost feel him. Always watching, somehow. Waiting... She wasn't quite sure what for - but she caught the glances he gave her, every so often. Strange... almost distant looks, that make her feel as though he wasn't really looking at her. Just... something that he remembered, somewhere beneath her skin.
Shivering lightly, she breathed in again, toes shifting just a bit more towards the edge. Small pebbles tripped and tumbled down the rock face. She smiled.
She wasn't sure what he was expecting from her. She... respected him. And she knew that he had saved her. She hadn't really asked him what she had been like... before. She didn't think he would speak much of it. But his actions - his eyes told her just enough, and yet always too little. A stray thought would come into her mind, sharp as the silver daggers in his endless gaze. But... it would never stay. Always slipping out of her grasp. And he would watch her. Waiting... so patient, but, always... expecting. Like a father waiting for their child to come home. Father... no, not a father. She wasn't a child, after all. But she wasn't quite a woman, either.
She wasn't that woman.
A small, chilly gust of wind pushed her a bit harder, and she breathed in, a bit sharper, as she could feel her body tipping forward, out towards that expanse. Endless and unforgiving. It reminded her, somehow of... something.
She didn't open her eyes as her heels tipped off the ground, head tilting back a little. Waiting. Waiting for the fall.
"You know that it is dangerous, my lady..." a cool voice murmured against her hair, almost before strong arms wrapped about her waist, pulling her back from the expanse of nothingness. The next breeze to coax along her face was warmer. "If one is not wary, they might fall."
She glanced behind her, into night of his eyes. "I do not fear the fall, my lord."
Something pulled at the edge of his lips, and she turned her gaze back to the sky ahead and above. The sun slipped down under the horizon, light filtering away into haze and shadow. It would be a cold night.