April 2025 Talent Showcase

"Where did this rain come from?" Bastien shouted over the sudden storm as he dragged Liselle down the beach, running hand-in-hand toward the nearest sun shelter. Only a moment ago, the sky had been clear and sunny, but it had darkened with clouds before they even had time to get out of the water.
  Struggling to keep his jacket over her head while they ran, she answered with a panting, "Summer showers are common in Chalet! I've been coming here for so long I didn't even think to mention it!"
  He hauled her into the leaky shelter, eyeing it suspiciously as it creaked and quaked under the wind's power, and backed her into a corner so that she was protected from the elements on all sides. "You are vexing, my Lady," he chided in a growled huff, dusky violet eyes as stormy as the one tearing along the shore. She flinched when he reached past her face to take a handkerchief from an inner pocket of his jacket, but he learned long ago to stop asking why. "Now hold still." His velvety voice was a gentle command before he began drying her face and neck, peeling free the curls of chocolate hair that had plastered themselves to her skin and trying not to think about the way he could feel her malachite and gold eyes tracing his face or how he could still smell the citrus of her hair even after her time in the sea.
  "B- Bastien...?" Her breath caught when those violet eyes met hers and she could swear that the drumming of her heart was loud enough to drown out the storm around them. She felt it race all the faster when his hand stilled on her collarbone, halted by the focus of his curious concern. When he arched a brow for her to continue, she cleared her throat and took the cloth from him to start drying him instead. "Here. Since you let me use your jacket..."
  Her knight held statue still under her attentions, hands overhead and pressed to the shelter's walls to brace himself protectively over her even as occasional drips from above sent shivers and goosebumps over his skin.
  "Lise-." "Bassy-." They both started and stopped as one, shyly averting their gazes so neither had to bear the other's blush.
  "You first," he murmured softly, lowering one of his hands to fold around hers and hold it to his chest.
  She hesitated, then cupped his cheek with her free hand and tilted his face to meet his gaze. "You have feelings for me." It wasn't a question, it hadn't been one for quite some time. After his jerky, nervous nod, she continued softly, "You know that I'm still in love with him. That I can't feel for you what you feel for me. Even with him gone..."
  "Just as you cannot command your heart to let him go, I cannot bid mine to be rid of you, Liselle." He ran his thumb over her knuckles and sighed, leaning closer to touch their foreheads together. "I can ask them to assign someone else to you, if you wish."
  Shaking her head, she slid her hand from his cheek to tangle her fingers through his ebony hair. "That is not my wish, Bassy..."
  Hesitantly, watching for any sign of tension or reluctance, he tipped his face lower until his lips hovered only a breath above hers, close enough to feel their warmth. And when she closed that last bit of space between them, he wrapped her in his arms and kissed her soundly, pouring years of longing and heartache into a single moment - hidden safely behind the silvery veil of a summer shower.