White Flower Love Songs

She had woke up in her room at the old abandoned theater with a raging headache and that sensitivity to light and sound that proved it had been all together too great of a night when it came to her bawdy, rowdy nature and her outlandish behavior. The last thing she had remembered was gazing up at Finn and near getting lost in the topaz brilliance of his eyes with that terrified look of awe and wonder in her own pale greens.

She remembered well his whisper to her before she had fallen asleep in his lap to see how she felt in the morning, if she felt that way still. Avy knew well what Finn was implying, if that look in her eyes would still be there over him when it came to the early greeting of sobriety.

The recollection and review of the night prior spun through her head, stretching out infinite miles of laughter and mischief from the triple hug and shared kisses with Daigh and Taneth, the many greetings and new friends made, the staring contest with Reap that left them both sprawled out on the floor with her, the feisty snap of Daigh?s suspenders and the claimed hugs as she was claimed as his ?sweetheart? and then the kisses when Finn came back smoking.

Smoking hot.

Avy grinned to herself at that visual and remembering how the steam had rolled off his wet figure when he dumped that bucket of ice water over his head. The kisses though? those were something else.

It felt like centuries and ages had surpassed and folded over between them and through them in that kiss, an electrical charge and craving in that kiss never acknowledged or known ever in her life. So many years, those centuries and ages that had stretched before her and never had she felt like that after just one kiss.

The original heartbreaker was what they had called Avy just as they had called her She of the White Flower. She knew there were so many legends and stories woven about her and the past that was hers to claim. She knew well how the stories had altered in small fashion to fit with culture and time but the foundation remained the same. Certainly the names had changed and they called her by so many of them still for those that remembered her.

A glamour couldn?t change a name or a history, no matter how much she wished it to. Fingers rubbed through her hair as she stared up at the ceiling and counted the day glo stars that had been stuck up there by one of the misfits, probably Mockingjay or Mouse was the culprit.

So long ago the story had begun with a once upon a time. The story had carried on with a pair that had fallen in love when they should not. The story involved in a king, and a bond brother, and a woman that had loved them both. A life was found to be most dangerous when the heart could learn to love more then one.

There had been one to love by the heart by her growing affection for the man, and the second found by oath and bond to know her love. It had been so long ago and yet the mistake remained with her to this day and she lived on with the suffering of it when she should have burned.

Avy nearly had burned for it but as much she was the original heartbreaker, she could indeed be considered one of the original escape artists. There was always a way out and Avy had learned that well. There was always a way.

A way? blinking she sat up groaning as she looked around the room and wondered how she ended up here. Did Finn carry her all the way over here or had the twins come to retrieve her?

The thought of him brought a flush of color to her cheeks as she remembered the kiss and was left to wondering? if Avy could handle the love of two men, why did she feel so lost at the idea of caring for and possibly loving just one?

Labels they ruled the world. Stick a name on one and suddenly they become that without contest or distress. The worst label was that enforced upon relationships. Love could not be just love, lust could not merely be simple lust.

Boyfriend. Lover. Husband. Soul Mate. Consort. Beloved. Heart Sworn. Significant Other. Fxck Buddy.

The labels were known well and perhaps once used when she thought of the others that had come and gone. Yet when her Suspender Sporting Sweetheart had asked her if Finn was her boyfriend, well there was when the laughter and the jokes would cease.

Looking back the kisses were unlike any that she had ever known and yet so familiar. Avy knew he was different, just as she was. That much was obvious. A few fist fights and it all should have been obvious.

How many lives, how many stories had she known of herself as her existence had surpassed with the end of loss?

Not this time. Not today. Not ever again.

Such was the silent plea as she looked around the room and found it without the Irish once more. Only then in solitude would the walls and the laughter that hid her heart in bright shields of joy and mirth be let down.

The sun barely had roused itself but Avy rarely slept anymore. Far too restless, far too wary of waiting for the fire and the witch hunt to start all over again.

She didn't want a boyfriend. Or a fairytale love. Avy wanted something that would last.

Something like forever, for once.

Looking up at the old abandoned theater she couldn't help but smile before she went to climbing the ropes. Everyone was still asleep and it left her time to reflect as she perched above the stage, swinging legs in her linger at heights so high.

Still... the higher up one went, the more likely the faster they would fall...

and Avy felt like falling.

“It’s not so easy to tell him is it girl? Not when he doesn’t remember you at all. He just cares but he doesn’t know why.”

“He’ll remember.”

“Oh look at you, with all your confidence and faith in him when he barely remembers you.”

“But he is! He will.”

“Are you so certain, White Flower… are you so sure? Do you still have your faith in destiny.”

“Not in Destiny… but in him I do.”

“We shall see about that. When you burn again we shall see if he comes for you.”

It had been a secret arrangement when she had received the missive from the brethren of her prior handler. It had been easy to assume that the missive was sent to address the Order’s concern that the one Finn called the ‘Plague’ was in the same area as Avy and Finn, and more so that the Plague herself was cohabitating with another man of interest for the Order.

Avy had no interest in the affairs or concerns of the Order especially when she knew that her freedom from the Order had made her a ventured for target. More so now that she had found Finn. It was easy to consider it happenstance but Avy knew more then ever this wasn’t just finding him… it was a reunion.

Every new skin, every new shell helped little by little for her to remember the past and to remember the names he had worn and the men he once had been. Some things and moments were better left forgotten but with him it was different. He had ever been the one constant in her lives that she would never change.

Avy knew well that the Order wanted them together more then anything if only for the promise of offspring as the sole survivors of the immortal lines intertwined through the Order’s forging. Still she knew deep down that it had to be more then that between them. She would always believe there was more between them.

A hand ran through her hair as she adjusted to her new shell. A bit older, a bit more slender, a bit taller now even as she was waiting so patiently for him to change as well. The more he changed in his shell the more he would remember her.

The more it would make it easier to speak three little words. Those three little words that meant everything and yet were so simple and small she had held within her heart for centuries now. She had waited so long to tell him and would wait even longer if need be.

If only he would remember…

Avy could be patient. She had to be. She had crossed fires and mobs for him, had become an outcast and a rebel for him.

After all these years and lives, what was just one more life to wait for him to believe in her again… to have him remember what she was to him and the silent truth… that he was everything to her.

Her fingers traced along his skin as he slept, or at least pretended to sleep. The path of her fingertips explored the new shell as she took in the presence of the firm, toned muscles beneath flesh. The ageless youth of face was looked over by her eyes as her touch sank into the short dark of his hair.

Even with his eyes closed, Finn could make Avy?s heart skip a beat as those topaz eyes would always be a constant in her heart. Through all their lives together that was one thing that had never changed. She would always know his eyes.

Her lips brushed against the hollow point of throat and shoulder even as he pulled her closer against him and buried his fingers as fists into her hair. The slumbering tug of his touch brought her a gasp from her lips as she closed her eyes in the sheer pleasure of it. So many lives over and done and yet this was the only life where they belonged solely to each other.

To think it was only hours earlier on that rooftop they had confessed their love. It amazed her even now that he had managed to love her through all of their shared lives when she was intended for another. He had remembered everything and he had come back.

So many names and shells worn even from the beginning. She had been his Hesione, his Isolde, his Guinevere, and so many others only now to become his Avy. She was solely his and his alone for the first time ever in their joined lives. Never had she and never would she stop loving him.

There were surely so many additional lives left to live where they had the freedom to think about family and offspring without the worry of the Order or their kin to interfere. For this life they would just have each other. Her lips brushed along his jaw stirring him from his pantomime of sleep as the topaz of his eyes sought out hers once more.

No longer did she fear this bond, this connection of soul and heart and minds. So much that had kept them intertwined and as she looked up at him all the fear was swept away as in the breath of a moment another connection bound them both together. Her body and his joined as one and for a brief moment Avy understood why the Order feared such a unity.

They would never be separated now, she was his as he was hers and nothing could break that bond, that vow, the claim they held upon each other. No matter what was done from this point forward, nothing the Order or any of the rest tried would break that unity.

Avy smiled through her whisper as she realized no longer would she fear the Order or their kin that had kept them apart for so long. Oh no, for now she realized it was everyone else that should fear them and that unbreakable bond.

?I love you, Finn??