starshower: (temp 294)

[personal profile] starshower 2024-01-16 12:28 am (UTC)(link)
[She counters it immediately, and while her dreamotion is still on the mend, she wraps her hands over his arm and lets it flow unbidden, regardless of how much she needs to push out to get it. She'll try to melt it away, her flames—small as they are—spreading over him as she brings her lips to press against his forehead. There are tiny, dim buds of starflowers that grow along the vines, their petals quivering as they try to bloom.

She gives him another shake, firmer this time, the panic finding its way into her voice now.]


Eustace. Can you hear me?

[Stay calm. Don't scare him.]
starshower: (temp 200)

[personal profile] starshower 2024-01-16 02:03 am (UTC)(link)
[The flames immediately dissipate when she hears that scream tear out of him, and Tifa leaps back, that panic finally setting in. The dogs are barking and leaping up onto the bed, which does nothing to help put her at ease. If anything, it just makes it worse, and there's a conflict in the room—a war between the heat on her side that suddenly spikes and the cold on his, neither of them winning or losing or giving in.

The flowers that line the bedframe wither away, their light fading and leaving the two of them in the dark, with only the light of the moons, and even that feels as if a shadow has fallen over it.

She has no choice now, and it takes her a moment to pull herself together and blink back the burning tears in her eyes before she's shaking him more vigorously, and shouting at him, and she only presses her dreamotion—weak as it is—into him further as the dogs growl all around them.]


Eustace, you need to wake up!

[If she has to dive in there to get him, then she will...

For now, she leans down and descends her lips over his, hoping that somehow, she can get through to him.]
starshower: (temp 198)

[personal profile] starshower 2024-01-16 03:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[The moment that he wakes up, Tifa's arms are around him. She can see—and feel—that ice that's creeping up his arm and into his shoulder and chest, and fear grips and squeezes her heart... but her relief is what keeps it from plummeting, because at least he is awake, and aware, even if his lungs may be struggling for air. She takes him and holds him as tight as she can, pulling him close into her warmth, her hand cradling the back of his head.

It's terrifying, how much this reminds her of back then... and her body is shivering against the ice and her fingers are shaking as they comb through his hair, but she remains steadfast, whispering into his ear.]


... I'm here.
starshower: (temp 294)

[personal profile] starshower 2024-01-16 09:52 pm (UTC)(link)
What—!?

[She falls back from him from the push, her focus far too preoccupied with trying to force as much of her warmth over him as possible that she doesn't notice the way that it starts to move towards her, too... not until she feels the light bite of it against her skin, gone as quickly as it had come but certainly not unfelt. She winces, trying to hide that look of pain—it isn't hard when another sort of pain grabs at her heart that hurts far more than the one that's fading from her arm and across her chest where their bodies touched.

She stares at him with glassy eyes, confused, a hand reaching out to steady him, but she hesitates.

This is just like before...]


Eustace, just talk to me, what...? Was it a dream?

[And just like her hand as it finally reaches out to grab his, her voice quivers like a leaf.]
Edited 2024-01-16 21:53 (UTC)
starshower: (temp 277)

[personal profile] starshower 2024-01-16 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
[She's absolutely frozen in horror, watching as that ice spreads over his arm as if it means to encase him... like it had her that time...

And in spite of his warnings—]


No.

[—she moves back in, her arms wrapping around him stubbornly.

She shouldn't be so afraid. This is the second time that they have been through this, the first so much worse, but she is. She has been since he grabbed her hands in the dreamscape. But if she has to feel some of that same burn that he feels, then so be it. She will brave it if it means protecting him from it, or helping to fend it off, then she'll take all the ice that comes at her.]


Yell at me all you want. I'm not making that mistake ever again.
starshower: (temp 190)

[personal profile] starshower 2024-01-17 01:13 am (UTC)(link)
[That...

That snaps her back, her gasp audible, and the tears that had been burning the edges of her eyes now suddenly erupting and streaking down her cheeks as she stumbles back, forcing herself up and off the bed so quickly that she almost trips over Bri, who whines and falls back, all of their ears pinned down in fear at Eustace's voice.]


I...?

[She wraps her arms around herself, everything suddenly feeling cold. And not just the room. Her body feels like it's on fire on the inside, that wretched heat coming to a boil in her gut, but her skin prickles with the chill that continues to spread.]

... I didn't mean to. I'm...

[The words get all tangled on her tongue as they stumble out of her.]

I'm sorry.
starshower: (temp 191)

[personal profile] starshower 2024-01-17 04:00 am (UTC)(link)
Eustace, what—

[Her voice, already so small that she's not even sure she'd said his name at all, dies away the moment she sees the full extent of his arm with the ice and the lightning, the sound of it crackling startling her. Hearing the whining of the dogs, she gently shoos them all out and shuts the door behind them, their low growls and barks drowned out by the sound of Eustace's dreamotion in the otherwise silent, still room.

So still that Tifa is almost afraid that if she moves even the tiniest bit from where she is, takes even a step closer, she will hurt him. That if she so much as breathes again, she will break him.

All she can do is watch helplessly, her hands trembling as she holds them up in front of her. In surrender? An offer to help? She doesn't know anymore.

What she does know is that she can't hold him. Can't help him...

Can't do what she wants to do—needs to do because she promised him...

Besides the crackles of lightning and the looming feeling of the dramotion, the only sound that breaks this eerie silence are Tifa's quiet, stifled sobs.]
starshower: (temp 235)

[personal profile] starshower 2024-01-17 04:47 am (UTC)(link)
[She stiffens when he looks at her, looking and feeling like she had done something wrong. Had she moved? Had she breathed? Those pangs of guilt when their eyes meet and she can see the pain within them are strong enough to send a sob tumbling out of her, but she can't bring her feet to carry her to him. No matter how badly she wants to hold him and promise him that she will keep him safe, she remains paralyzed.

...

That is, until he collapses, and all of that goes out the window for all of two seconds. She rushes forward, tripping over herself when she remembers his voice, his words...

"You're burning me—"

She hits the edge of the bed to stop herself, coughing when she loses some air in her lungs, and drops to her knees.]


Eustace, I can't... What am I supposed to do?
starshower: (temp 127)

[personal profile] starshower 2024-01-17 05:21 am (UTC)(link)
[She flinches away from him, her own voice tiny and broken under the sobs she tries to hold back for him.]

... No, what if I...?

[She shrinks back, less scared now of the nightmare energy and more terrified of what she might do to him if even just their fingers touch.]

I don't want to hurt you again.
starshower: (temp 193)

[personal profile] starshower 2024-01-17 05:39 am (UTC)(link)
I do, but...

[He'll feel her tense the moment he reaches out to grab her hand, her fingers curling into a fist before he lifts it to his face. Only then will they unfurl, just enough, to touch him. Tifa still winces the moment her fingertips press to his skin, and she breaks with another sob, the fear clutching at her the same way that ice clutches to Eustace.

Her own personal nightmare, and it's lying on the bed right in front of her. A nightmare that she cannot wake up from.

The man that she loves—her husband—in so, so much pain and she has no idea what to do to to make it go away.]


Eustace, please tell me what's going on...

[She still can't quite bring herself to reach out to him on her own, but that hand that he holds stays where it is, even if every bone, every muscle in her is pulled as tight as a bowstring about to snap.]
starshower: (temp 267)

[personal profile] starshower 2024-01-17 06:36 am (UTC)(link)
[She watches his face a moment longer, not daring to tear her eyes away lest she miss the first sign of pain, especially as she lets her hand relax against his cheek a little more, still pressed under his.

He says to trust him, and she does. Unconditionally. But she's stuck now between being too afraid to move any closer, and wanting to believe him when he says it's different, especially as she lets her gaze wander down to his shoulder and his arm, where that ice still lingers even after he's reached out to her.

As if all those nightmares she was afraid of have come back to taunt her.

Her other hand comes up, curling over the edge of the bed, and she lifts herself from her knees, a light sniffle leaving her. Slowly, she pushes herself up with a groan, and brings herself to sit at the edge of the bed where she watches him a little longer.

... Before she leans in and drapes her body over his, resting her weight on him as she brings her other arm to wrap around him, cautiously and hands still shaking, and closes her eyes...]
Edited 2024-01-17 06:45 (UTC)
starshower: (temp 271)

[personal profile] starshower 2024-01-17 07:13 am (UTC)(link)
[She's never hurt him before, not with her dreamotion, and certainly not like that. It was always something that could heal him, heal them both, never harm. She thinks of their starflowers, even the ones that are withered along the headboard of their bed, and how bright their glow normally is. Of the little stars that always dance around them. Of the warm flames that kiss his cheek and his nose when he gets a little cold, or that blanket of warmth that comes over them when they're together.

How could it be used against him like this? What did she do wrong? Or rather, what is she not doing that could help make this go away? It's a hard question to ask when he doesn't answer... or when he might not even have the answers at all.

All she knows is that she's never been more scared of touching him, and of hurting him, than she is in this moment. He can beg her and plead with her to hold him until he can no longer speak, but she's not so sure that will change a thing.

Still. If it's what he wants... no, what he needs, then she is willing to push all of that aside. Stamp it out as she always does and be the pillar he needs to get through whatever this is.

So, when she feels him relaxing more and more, that darker, colder energy beginning to dull, she will finally loose that breath and carefully reach a hand out to brush it through his hair. Her eyes open so that she can watch over him as he sleeps, scanning his features for more signs of change, or of another nightmare coming for him. She had meant it when she said she would dive in to pull him out if she had to, and that hasn't changed.

Eventually, she moves, bringing herself up closer to him, shifting so that she's beside him rather than draped over him, so that she can more properly wrap her arms around him and pull him close, that hand on his cheek now cradling the back of his head and burying him into her neck.

Quietly, she whispers into his ear, wondering if he can still hear her voice.]


Just stay with me, okay? Don't go back to that place...

[That darker, scarier place where they had pulled themselves out of once before...]

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