.

𝗙𝗔𝗖𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗙𝗔𝗖𝗘 ◟ ͜ ◞◜ ͡ ◝⭑.⭒๋࣭ ⭒

𝗆𝖺𝗌𝗄 𝗈𝖿𝖿, trembling. he looks down, scared and trying to hide his face. you gently take his hands out of his face, and your eyes find each other. On the verge of crying, he searches for any kind of disgust or dislike on your expression yet he only finds.. adoration. the same adoration you always have for everything. but now it's different, there's a special joy at the sight of his disfigured face.

"a-aren't you scared..?" he mutters, his insecurities still present.

"scared?" You chuckle softly and caresses his cheeks gently, feeling his scarred skin. it's been a while since he felt someone's loving touch. "Why would I be scared of my Sal? My sweet, beautiful Sal?"

his heart skips a bit and buries his face on your palm, looking for your warmth. He decides to trust, just like you. He can see it's true. He can see the sparks in your eyes as you look at him, with or without his prosthetic. no matter what, he is your Sal, that's what makes him beautiful for you. it makes him feel beautiful. he looks into your eyes again as he promises to himself he'll always make you feel the same way.

ʳᵉᵇˡᵒᵍˢ ᵃⁿᵈ ˡⁱᵏᵉˢ ᵃʳᵉ ᵛᵉʳʸ ᵃᵖᵖʳᵉᶜⁱᵃᵗᵉᵈ ♡

Ngl- feels like Hyugo and Sol from TKatB (this is a good thing)

Just look for the third rock from Sol. - Submitted by: fastman27

#1E5496 #318DBE #6CD2DD #6DDEAB #32BF40 #1A8021

Four days.

You had four days to tell Qiu Lin you were in love with them.

Four days before Qiu would leave Golden Grove again to return to their university and leave you. Four days to somehow summon the courage to say aloud what you'd whispered only to your pillow at night. Four days to reveal what you had held close to your heart.

Four. Days.

It had felt easy at first. After all, you'd been best friends for years—what were three months apart? When they left for that out-of-state university, the goodbye had been teary, yes, but you'd reassured yourself they'd come back even if it was so far away.

Much less could be said about you. No, when you planted yourself in Golden Grove, you had been determined to put roots so deep in the ground that not even your mom could uproot you again.

You weren't like the others, ready to run off and embrace change. You had chosen this life, this town, with its familiar faces and predictable days. You chose the comfort of online schooling while the rest packed up and moved on. While they left.

And when Qiu and Tamarack no longer graced your bedroom with their laughter and light, the house felt colder and emptier, especially with your mom taking more business trips now that you were an adult.

That first week, you found yourself hiding a teary voice in a three-way call with your friends that lasted an hour. They'd promised to call every day, but the best-laid plans never consider being a new freshman in college. Very quickly, the calls devolved into sporadic spurts of text conversation, erratic like the flicker of a dying candle.

You understood. Of course, you did. They were busy, and so were you. That was what you claimed in happy texts that ended in a thumbs-up emoji.

In actuality, you found yourself staring at your phone most days, scrambling for the device whenever it lit up. You tried to occupy yourself, even taking a job as an assistant editor at the Golden Grove Gazette. However, you still felt their absence... especially Qiu's.

It was different with Qiu. Always had been. Always would be. Much like the rest of Golden Grove's student body, you'd admired and crushed on them for so long. Even when they had iced everyone else out, they had kept you close. You'd never told them how much that meant to you, but it was more precious than all the stars you'd gazed at together, lying on your backs in the damp grass of your backyard at night.

Even when you also pushed everyone away, crashed out, and earned the moniker "Golden Grove's Local Delinquent," they stayed. They didn't judge, but they were worried because they knew what it felt like to feel lost. Through their help, you righted yourself somewhat, even if much damage had already been done. You still didn't know how to thank them for that.

Loving Qiu, even quietly, was like loving the sun on a frosted morning. Its rays would somehow penetrate through the chill to warm your face, comforting and cozy. It'd been like that since you were 10.

You'd watch them from across the schoolyard, noting their every move. Noticing how they carried themselves differently from others around them, confident but kind. Taking mental note of how the wind blew their silky dark hair and how it'd catch the light in such a way that it would cause you to stare for just a few moments longer than anyone else.

And sometimes, just sometimes, you swore you caught them staring back when you weren't looking.

However, as time marched on and your crush grew into something much fonder and more profound, you resigned yourself to friendship. Everyone liked Qiu; you were not unique in that sort of way. You told yourself it was enough, thinking it better to have them as a friend than to lose them altogether if they didn't feel the same. Time hid your deeper love like seeds under snow, and you tried to forget the words you were too afraid to speak. And as time did what it does, you slowly accepted that it had been too long to utter them aloud at all.

Until they left.

Then, it was like all the years of buried longing had rushed to the surface and the forefront of your mind like roots cracking the pavement, like released hounds, barking and gnashing at your thoughts. You believed you could go the rest of your life only half loving Qiu Lin. Loving them contently from afar in a quiet part of your heart.

But the ache from the distance only revealed more and more that half loving Qiu Lin felt like a life half lived.

When they texted some obscure (but funny) anti-thanksgiving meme in the group chat stating they'd be home for the four-day break, you knew you couldn't let the time pass by without telling them.

Because you knew with even more certainty that you would likely never get another chance. The gap between you two was expanding, and if you didn't jump now, it'd become too vast for even the most skilled leap to make it across.

You had just hit 'submit' on your last online midterm test when you felt your phone buzz a couple times next to you on your bed. Closing the laptop, you grabbed it and read the text messages coming in with a growing smile:

(Part 0/4)

Another comm finished~

At least he tried 🤷‍♀️