✓ | 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐋𝐈𝐄, KATHERINE PIERCE

prologue

𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐢𝐞.
the beginning, setting the stage!
( england, 1492 )

            TRANQUILITY WAS FOUND IN THE SEA OF SUN KISSED DAFFODILS DEEP WITHIN THE WOODS. In the midst of the open meadow were two souls of the innocent indulging in what was forbidden.

Warm brown eyes framed by hooded lashes overlooked the rim of her canvas. Her strokes were effortless, something in which she was trying to capture from her muse laying in the bodies of the earth's graces.

"You are staring again, madame, Katerina," she acknowledged━━ her lips were transitioning into the smallest of smiles. "It is not considered to be staring if it is me simply admiring the art before me,"

"You humor me," she laughed━━ it was a velvet delivery that Katerina could bask in for hours. She sat up from the comfort of the earth, her curls bouncing as she turned her neck in the direction of the brunette. "If it rewards me with the melody of your laughter, I am inclined to continue such. Now please, Zakiyah, call me Katerina."

Zakiyah, placed her brush down beside her on the cloth obtaining the colors of the world and the glass of water diluted by emerald. She wrapped her fingers around the edges of the canvas, careful not to smudge the wet paint settling on the surface.

"Do you wish to see my creation?" Katerina nodded, a cheeky smile gracing her lips. Zakiyah giggled and made her way over to the brunette she adored. She sat herself across from the beauty, expertly shielding her masterpiece from sneaky pools of honey. "I do believe this is my best work yet, Katerina,"

"Spare me the agony of withdrawing such a sight from me, 'Kiyah!" Katerina begged, her small hands reached for Zakiyah's arm splattered with warm hues of yellow. "I am beginning to grow restless!"

She squeezed onto her skin, gently, the action painting a blanket of pink across Zakiyah's cheeks. Nodding, Zakiyah turned the canvas for Katerina to see. Katerina gasped, her eyes doubling in size.

She brought her hand to her mouth that was parted. No words were exchanged between the two girls━━ the tears welling up in Katerina's eyes alarmed Zakiyah who placed the painting beside the two and cradled Katerina's face in her palms.

Her thumbs gently swiped away the tears Katerina tried to blink away. Katerina laughed, her hands going over Zakiyah's. Zakiyah looked deep within the eyes of honey that held sorrow she wished to kiss away.

"What is wrong, my darling?" Zakiyah inched closer to Katerina who shook her head, casting her head down in shame. "It is ridiculous. You ought to laugh for my idiocity,"

"Hey," raising her head, Zakiyah found Katerina's eyes that tried to avoid, but could not. Zakiyah was impossible to ignore; her angelic presence demanded to be seen even when she tried to blend into the crowd. "You mustn't speak so negatively about yourself when you are anything, but those venomous lies you try feeding yourself. Trust in my words that whatever you were thinking I would not laugh. Please tell me?"

"I was just touched by how you managed to capture such beauty of me through your art," Katerina's eyes skittered away from the confused ones of Zakiyah. She gestured to the abandoned painting. "It is silly, but I envy the portrait you've created as I could never amount to such beauty you portrayed,"

"My love," Zakiyah's smile was bright enough to illuminate even the darkest of rooms. It gave Katerina hope. "There is nothing to envy because you already uphold such beauty."

Zakiyah promised with a soft laugh. She brought Katerina's forehead to her lips where she planted a tender kiss upon. Katerina closed her eyes in contentment, her heart fluttering in the cages of her ribs.

Slowly, Zakiyah's lips parted ways with Katerina's flesh, the warm that abandoned her enough for Katerina to open her eyes once more. Zakiyah rested her forehead against Katerina's, eyes boring into hers.

Her eyes were filled with an immense amount of love that Katerina hadn't believed was possible to possess.

Yet here, Zakiyah Reed, sat, staring at Katerina Petrova as if she were the whole entire world━━and that's exactly what Katerina was to Zakiyah.

"Your beauty both inside and out astonishes me," Zakiyah admitted with the smallest of smiles. "I feel as though I still missed the perfections God had crafted when she breathed life into you."

"What did I do to deserve you?"

Katerina whispered, another silent tear trickling down her cheeks. Zakiyah wiped it away, a sigh abandoning her lips. Katerina held onto every single word Zakiyah spoke because if she hadn't, she was afraid she would miss the admiration within them.

And maybe that was the point when Zakiyah spoke━━she wanted Katerina Petrova to hear her affections for the brunette beauty had thousands of suitors she had all, but chased. Zakiyah envied those wretched men as she could never have what she so desperately craved from them because she was of the same gender as the woman she fell irrevocably in love with.

A smile, hiding the pain of losing someone she hadn't had to begin with, was enough to make the butterflies in Katerina's stomach soar━━ unknown to the owner of Katerina's heart.

"By letting me in, madame Katerina."

★彡. ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.

            ZAKIYAH REED WASN'T ONE TO BE SELFISH, RATHER THE POLAR OPPOSITE TO BE SPECIFIC. However, when it came to the name of Katerina Petrova, she wanted nothing more, than to be selfishly rotten that her mother would strike her for such devilish thoughts. She was selfish for the desire to have Katerina return her affections.

And it was in the choice of choosing to be selfish that Zakiyah Reed found herself to be alone in the center of the daffodil field. Her fear paralyzing her body that was drenched in the pool of crimson oozing from the severity of her wounds.

Zakiyah Reed had been damned for loving Katerina Petrova━━the woman who her heart still foolishly found room to love even when she had abandoned her in the meadow of their escape.

Zakiyah's eyes stared up at the starry night sky, a single tear streaming down her cheek. Her breath hitched━━ she began to cough, coating her lips with blood. Zakiyah whimpered as her lungs finally collapsed, in the crimson she was drowning in. For death had claimed its angel whose pure soul was ready to return home.