A Fairy's Tale (Eustass Kid X OC) (ORIGINAL)

Chapter 29: The Trouble With Masks

Kid and Loklynn were like night and day.

He was high noon, the blazing sun of a merciless summer. Eustass Kid lived with an incredible fire, with a scream of defiance that could bring the stars to the ground. He existed with an intensity that burned the air around him, with eyes so bright as to blind anyone who dared look deep enough.

She was midnight, passive and temperate. She lived in the quiet places and stood under the stars. She appreciated the simple things and felt that as long as she could smile, she needed nothing else. Saoirse D. Loklynn, for all her strength and power, took great pride in walking a steady path of peace.

She built, he destroyed. She gave, he took. He strove to conquer the sea, while she was happy to simply bear witness. They were diametrically opposed by nature, polar opposites to their cores.

They were so very different, he and she, like oil and water.

And yet, they fit together like the horizon line between the sea and sky.

Whatever it was that was growing between them, it was there. It began like a tidal wave, quick and sudden, blindsiding them both. They were caught in its riptide, and no one could predict whether they'd resist the tide or be dragged down in the end.

Life must be lived.
The future is unavoidable.

But sometimes it can be altered, if only slightly, when there is someone else willing to pull you out of the water.

The only thing left to do is make the decision to reach for their hand.

_______

Sleep evaded Loklynn that night.

They'd gone straight to bed after... that, without a word from either of them. He'd slowly stood, picking her up with him and laying her on the bed before leaning over her to wipe her tears away with a carefully neutral expression. He had silently climbed in and gathered her against him, and, well... that was that.

The silence had been oddly comfortable as they settled, each of them content with quietly processing the developments of the day.

Now, with the sun beneath the horizon, Kid held her close and flush to his chest, his face buried in her hair. His skin was warm, his breathing rhythmic and deep... he surrounded her completely. She imagined this was how a child's doll must feel; She had an inkling that he was somehow comforting himself by holding her, using her as a nightlight or blanket or...

...Why did she keep comparing him to a child?

She needed to clear her head. Shanks wasn't there to give her any crackers or juice, she thought wryly, but a midnight flight would do.

Luckily, Kid slept like the dead, making it easier than she'd have thought to wriggle out from under his arm and tip-toe out the door. She passed by her room- now Kai's- and decided to take a quick peek just to check on her. She smiled at the sight of them settled on the floor, with a snoring Maizie curled up around the little girl in an almost motherly fashion.

Loklynn had to hold back a wry chuckle at the irony; if she'd known they were just going to camp out on the floor, she could have just slept on her own bed instead of the lion's den. Then again, Kid probably would have dragged her with him regardless.

As with most other nights, Killer had the first watch and was up in the crow's nest when she emerged from the quarters. So, as with most other nights, the first thing she did was fly up to greet him.
They'd formed a sort of friendship in Loklynn's time on the Victoria Punk, the quiet nature of which suited the stoic Soldier well. Sometimes they'd trade a few words here and there, other times they'd simply sit, looking out at the stars and sea in a companionable peace before she eventually left to train.