raphael forester . (bladed) wrote in exsanguious, @ 2015-09-30 21:51:00 |
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Rafe liked trees, always had, ever since he’d been old and strong enough to pull himself up into one he’d spent as much time in them as possible. Climbing in them, as high as he could, attempting to swing from the branches of one to those of the next along in the line like some sort of ungainly chimpanzee, or as time had gone on simply sitting, enjoying the natural free feeling that came from being among the leaves with the breeze tugging his hair around his face, the scent of the wild all around him. Peaceful, quiet, right.
As he sat he traced the tips of his fingers unconsciously beneath his shirt and along the lines of his ribs and the scars there, still a little pink but fading, healing over as much as the damaged skin was able after being so roughly parted. Rafe didn’t perform the action with any kind of awareness, he’d done it so much in the early days of his recovery that it had started to become habit, a tick of sorts, and it wasn’t until he heard the shift of dry twigs and dying leaves from below that he stopped. Only then did he realise what he was doing, withdrawing his hand from beneath his shirt and lifting it to rake his unruly dark hair from where it had tumbled across his face in that breeze.
Without even needing to call he knew who it was down there and after drawing in a breath to prepare and brace himself he shifted his weight so he could swing it around the branch upon which he had been perched and then down, dangling from his arms for a few seconds before he let go and dropped. When he landed it was with bent knees that he did so, his legs absorbing the shock of the landing just right so that he didn’t suffer any injury. When he lifted his head and pushed his hair from his face he offered his brother a smile that was a little closer to a grin than anything else, rising to his full height and shifting his weight a little, almost restlessly. It was still early in the day and Gabe had snuck off before the sun had even crested the horizon properly. Rafe’s curiosity was a force to be reckoned with when it was provoked. “Where’d you go?”