For Li;
This load I've carried / longer than I had cared to remember
He watches her the next day;
The bite mark, the space of three fingers up from the curvature of her collar bone and neck, livid, an aicd purple brand, against her fading tan. When she catches his eye, strained and focused, staring still, and she doesn't avoid doing so anymore today than she ever did before, he can't tell if the look she gives him is telling him he has no right to comment or begging him to.
Copper eyes cool and clean and sharp, above him, he can hear the dust bowl and tumble weeds before each of her words. What he can't figure out most is whether it is profanity that it looks right on her skin or that his brother put it there.