[her words have all the impression of a breath finally released and haru smiles. like all of his smiles, this one is subtle -- the nuanced up-tic of his mouth at both corners, brief but true. some things do not need finite articulation and it's not hard to draw the conclusion: how without her scale, without her tail, oona was not fully oona. she couldn't be. yet haruka would not make the mistake of paralleling this to legs. he doesn't think he feels a certain way about them except that they help him swim. it's not the same in any case.
when oona draws herself up onto the ground, haru's eyes are all for her tail, which amounts to his gaze being politely averted from the natural reality of mermaids not being those who wear clothes. what he said before stands: she's beautiful. the scales, the soft shimmer which so easily mimics light on water, catches and casts like oceanic stars. he reaches with his left hand to brush along where her ankle would be if she had legs, the tapering shape of the tail.]
Amazing...
[his utterance is so soft she might not hear it and when he withdraws his hand, it's reverent, even as he raises it to adjust the sling on his shoulder gone slightly askew. peering at her, eye-level for how he's still crouched down, he adds,]
Thank you.
[it seems appropriate, given the permission to stare and touch and the like, but also just for speaking with him. it's not haru's forte -- conversation -- but it comes somewhat easier with oona for whatever reason. his eyes lower and his mind flickers back to the earrings she gave him. there is some regret there; even if they were in the apartment before it was destroyed, there's slim to no chance of them being there now -- more likely sunken to the depths of the flooding in some rubble in the vicinity.]
no subject
when oona draws herself up onto the ground, haru's eyes are all for her tail, which amounts to his gaze being politely averted from the natural reality of mermaids not being those who wear clothes. what he said before stands: she's beautiful. the scales, the soft shimmer which so easily mimics light on water, catches and casts like oceanic stars. he reaches with his left hand to brush along where her ankle would be if she had legs, the tapering shape of the tail.]
Amazing...
[his utterance is so soft she might not hear it and when he withdraws his hand, it's reverent, even as he raises it to adjust the sling on his shoulder gone slightly askew. peering at her, eye-level for how he's still crouched down, he adds,]
Thank you.
[it seems appropriate, given the permission to stare and touch and the like, but also just for speaking with him. it's not haru's forte -- conversation -- but it comes somewhat easier with oona for whatever reason. his eyes lower and his mind flickers back to the earrings she gave him. there is some regret there; even if they were in the apartment before it was destroyed, there's slim to no chance of them being there now -- more likely sunken to the depths of the flooding in some rubble in the vicinity.]