✦ broken together

[Vivika]

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( her )
( him )
( credits )
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a lil love story
written by fae
and viv! <3



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[Vivika]

It was so hard to resist him.

“Eli!” His form closed around hers, breath gentle as he eased her to the grass, large paws cradling her head. His nose skimmed her neck, gruff voice a rumble in his throat. Her chest swelled, a breathless laugh bubbling. “Alright, alright… you win. You got me.”

His head settled against her shoulder, a warm, reassuring weight. “You shouldn’t be overexerting yourself.”

“Says you.” With a chuckle, her claws gently twined around his curls, easing a tangle loose. “Now… who's idea was it to play chase?”

A small part of her held her breath, held it tight and close, waiting. Waiting for the inevitable ━ the shift in his weight, signalling his departure, the raised tail and mocking smile reserved for felines like her. But none came.

He was still here.

Still picking up the tiny fragments of her heart and piecing together the remnants of her soul, spinning cloaks of silver under the bloom of the crescent moon to cover her scars. Still so genuinely eager to make her smile as if that alone would make the world… alright.

His paw skimmed hers. “You okay?”

His voice seemed so far away, lost in the millennials, warped by time and space.
And she… she was so far away.

She’d been a fool, then.

A fool blinded by the brilliance of the sun. So eager to pledge her love, heart and soul to the first to say those sacred words. To the first to bow a head and swear a binding oath. To the first who made her heart soar.

And the first who ripped that away, piece by piece, sealing the cracked remnants with threads of lies.

But she’d changed, building from those ruins. Her walls, a fortress; her heart, bound with iron gates; her soul, not for all the silver and rubies in the merchants’ caravans. Love crafted fools and she wouldn’t fall for its arrowed sting again. Never.

But Eli…

He was different.

He’d seen the darkness mirrored in her soul, but never flinched. Seen the ache engraved upon her heart and the oceans of tears she’d cried. He knew her. Truly knew her. Fully, wholly and completely. Perfectly.

And Stars, it terrified her.

"Yes. I'm… fine." Her paw touched the tip of his nose, smile soft. “Hey you. Big guy. Tell me a story.”

[faelyn]

so much had changed since then.
so much had changed beneath the weeping willow tree.

he could still remember it all too well.
the sleepless twilight of crumpling galaxies and tossled constellations… how the angels seemed to mock him as they watched from above. with their laughter laced within the vibrato of a thunderclap and their triumph in the stormy tears that would plummet from the feathery plumes above to the earth below.

but in the chaos of a bellowing storm, dandelions and daydreams still adorned the empty, starstruck meadow. a blissful reminder that there was still hope. still hope for a hopeless wreck like him.

a withering lily beneath the cries of the angels, there she was. curls unfurling in auburn waves and wilting against the rain. against the shattered pieces of her own heart.

sandcloud.

so much had changed… too much.
but she never changed.

because today was truly the day.
with billowing willows delicately braided into babbling streams and luminescent ribbons of light kissing the earth below, there she was. a halo of gold above her head as a lyrical laugh bubbled to her lips… innocent.

he could say it. whisper it into her ear like a secret to be kept. right here. right now.
but he couldn’t.

he just couldn’t.

it was like a daydream.
she was a daydream, a dancing lily in the midst of a storm and in the kiss of daylight... she was the queen of the galaxies. of the stars and the morning… of the constellations and the stories they would tell.

ha. unlike him.
he was terrible at stories.

“tell me a story, eli.”

a nervous chuckle fluttered at his lips, and the golden ribbons streaking the fronds of willow seemed to tease him as they tickled his cheek. “i don’t know if i can, sunshine.” a crooked grin adorned his features for a moment. “i’m sure you’re much better at telling them… don’t you think?”

“please, eli?”

“alright.. alright.” gently bopping the roses that blossomed a her nose, he leaned in closer, the vibrato of his voice lowering into a soft whisper. “but don’t put your expectations too high, sunshine.” he grinned. “i’d hate to disapoint.”

“you never do.”

so among the lilies and beneath the willow tree, his voice fathomed a fairytale out of the soft nuance of… “once upon a time..”

and from the delicate cadence of the beginning of a fairytale, a tale was spun. a tale that wasn’t truly a tale… but the truth. the truth of his own story.

a story of a lonely prince, his sister and their lunatic love that had been lost. a story of magic, fire and romance between the prince and a servant maiden. a story of an arrogant prince and his--

“...now, this prince had the bluest eyes that anyone had ever seen. blue like the sky and…” like yours, sunshine. like twin azure stars castled by the morning and guarded by the depth of midnight, her gaze was radiant, captivating his heart entire and pulling every rhythm that it sung closer than ever before. “with fur as dark as the night.”

and with that.. the fairytale was sealed, sealed with gold and daintily curled letters. ones that spoke of a different soul that didn’t belong to him.

but it did.

for beneath the disguise of those azure eyes and curls as dark as the night, the story of the prince would always be his. no matter how much he wanted to forget.

he could never deny it. he could never deny his memories and what they foretold.
embellished with flames and the marble ruins, he could still remember. he could still remember the plumes of smoke that unfurled into ashen feathers as tongues of scarlet kissed his curls, outstretched to welcome him to a place of eternal dreams. outstretched to swallow a servant girl.

a servant that had once meant the world and more to the lonely prince.

“the prince didn’t know it yet.. but he truly cared for the servant.” his eyes fluttered shut into a little wink as a smirk laced his features. a forced grin. “but when it came down to it… in the fire and the smoke, he went back for her, diving into the ruins to help her to safety.”

it had been a mistake. a mistake brimming with gambled romance, broken hearts and a spiral of falling dominos as the burning passion of fairytale love faded between the prince and the servant.

a fairytale that was no longer a fairytale.

“but little did the lonely prince know… the bond between him and the maiden wouldn’t last. not long anyway.”

i thought it would.

“she found another cat.. and left the prince behind.” his voice were like little larks, wavering and faltering ever-so lightly through the nuance of each syllable. “and the prince was lonely once more.”

[Vivika]

It was him.

His heart thrummed, a gentle rhythm against her cheek, steady like the song of the ocean, deep calling to the deep. And the deep surfaced, tearing the fabric of darkness and exposing it to the wings of the dawn.

How could she miss it?

All the little hints scattered like the ivory blossoms falling under the curtain of a weeping willow tree. It was there. So clear.

His half-hearted smirk when the hero plunged into the flames, recklessly undaunted, cursing the odds and gambling with that one precious ace. The tentative falter, the relapse and slip in that gruff voice, when the maiden left, choosing another over him.

The nuance painted in every syllable, the details at every turn, the reality of the aching pain bleeding into a fantasy tale.

“And you claim you’re not good at stories.” She leaned closer, head resting on his shoulder, smile dwindling. “Eli, that was…”

Raw.
Fierce.
Breathtaking.

Her neck arched, head tipped up. “Real. It felt real.”

Painfully real. The rejection, the heartache, the throbbing truth.
The way reality was warped fantasy crookedly fashioned in unforgiving flame.

And a part of her just… knew.

Eli. He was that prince, that hero, that silver knight diving into that raging inferno. The one to sacrifice everything with a roll of the dice, to believe in the impossible and chase impossibility after impossibility, mystery and treasure, seeking fulfillment. Purpose.

It never changed.

And he was that lonely soul left standing as the servant turned her back, parting ways. A witness to shattered dreams, because… giving all didn’t mean taking all. One step forward risked a thousand steps back. A moment of vulnerability for countless moons of heartache.

Life had a way of being sardonically ironic.
Something she was far too familiar with. And it seemed… she wasn’t the only one.

Her paw tentatively settled on his. “Hey, I… I’m so sorry.”

[faelyn]

nothing had ever terrified him more.
no storm, no flame or demon dressed as an angel had ever terrified him quite like this. enough to steal his heart away and tug him into the earth below.

“no, no… i- you don’t have to be.” like doves sent loose in his chest, his breath fluttered and caught. “it’s just a story, sunshine. there’s nothing to be sorry about.”

above his head, the lights that dazzled the skies seemed to wilt and the billowing willows that streamed into the babbling lakes seemed to weep for the loss of dancing words against his tongue.

“i-” love you. but the words never came, the confession withering in bittersweet melodies against his lips. dying. a stardust desert blossoming in his throat and butterflies in his belly.

and before long, dreams of holding his angel til the stars flooded the night died with the melody of his confession. a confession that he had once rehearsed beneath the willow tree and the babbling streams was gone… stolen like a diamond star at twilight.

but the story… it was still there. ready to be told.
and so here he was… memories, a dazzling constellation in his head. a spiralling mess waiting to erupt as the starless night came back to him. the shadows that had kissed the skies flooding back into the ivory canvases in his mind.

he could still remember.
from the sorrows to the sting of loneliness, he could still remember it all. all of it… adorned in the stars that glistened on sleepless nights.

but through it all, there was hope. “hope in the form of an angel who danced among the stars and morning. hope in a maiden that was star-sent.”

gentle and softer than the faltering grin upon his features, a smile frolicked upon his features. bright. hopeful. “a star-sent angel that healed the broken pieces of the prince’s own heart and laced his scars with gold.”

it was only then when a familiar lopsided grin came flooding back, as playful as ever as the pirate leaned in closer.

“and they lived happily-ever-after…the end.”

[Vivika]

His words flooded her, heartfelt words, words crafted so tenderly, under the guise of a tale.
But it wasn’t just a tale. He couldn't fool her.

Didn’t he see?

She was hardly an angel. No, she was a swan with tattered wings, feathers shredded and torn, ripped by the caress of ebony fangs. A swan with stolen song and crippled dance. A swan of glass, splintering and fracturing into a thousand shards, pierced by the betrayal of first love.

What he was asking, the greater meaning and the yearning behind it all… it terrified her.

Perhaps that was it. Perhaps they were both walking this realm, toeing that fateful divide, terrified to cross that line in the sand. Terrified to let those walls fall. Because the unknown was so vast, so deep, and the pain so fresh. So real.

But the past had already stolen so much, thieving for countless moons.

“Sunshine?”

And she met those wild eyes, roaring with the elegance of the seven seas and the seven winds. Roaring with the remnants of broken dreams, broken hearts, broken promises. He was the one who dared to curse the odds and brave a thousand flames, the one who stooped so low for love and played his cards even as they disintegrated to dust.

The one who owed her nothing, but was her everything.

Her shoulders eased, tension spooling as she drew close, savoring the kiss of his breath against her cheek. His heart thrummed, drowning the pounding of her own heart as she stepped out onto those turbulent tides. Onto those murky, mysterious waters churning with shrieks of sirens, screaming for her to turn back, to hide, to play it safe.

But under the weight of his gentle gaze… the storm calmed.

And right then… she knew. They were survivors. Imperfectly perfect, flawed beyond measure. Survivors with hidden scars and guarded hearts. Broken into thousands of tiny shards, only to be built up again… together. And those pieces, those fragments, created something new ─ a mosaic with the crooked cracks laced with gold. They were broken, but broken together.

“Eli.” Her whisper broke the fragile silence. “I-I want that happily ever after… for us.”

Her breath quavered. “I want you.”

[faelyn]

the constellations of his heart seemed to align.

and he had never been more mesmerized.

from the breathtaking essence of butterfly thoughts to the dazzling azures of an angel’s gaze on his, the soft rhythmic beat of his broken heart seemed to still at the song of her voice.

“i want you.”

piece by piece.
one by one.
breath by breath.
his world fell apart.
doves of ash in his midst.

the lonely lyrics of silence fell upon his lips, a bittersweet poision that numbed his beating heart from the ache of longing that had been fulfilled by a gentle promise laced with passion.

a passionate promise that would last forever.

it was like he was falling. falling into those eyes adorned with entire galaxies and twirling ballerinas, dancers led by starry orbits of silver and gold. eyes that belonged to the sun of his galaxy.. the light of his entire world.

sandcloud.

she was the brightest star that had ever kissed the night skies. the center of every universe that had ever been breathed to life and the moon, softly glowing and shifting as the sun rose and fell. she.. sandcloud… was and forever would be the constellations and the stories they told.
stories of falling tears, stained blood and broken hearts.
stories of hope, compassion and… happily-ever afters.

“so do i, sunshine.” rosy against her cheek, his touch was gentle. tentative. as fragile as a broken promise and a shattered kingdom. “i want you, sandcloud… ”


a breath in.
“i love you.”

a breath out.
“i always have.”

[Vivika]

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