petrichor [rosalie hale]

lviv. new... friends?

The morning sunlight was just beginning to dapple through the small cabin windows when Kiara awoke. The comforting sensation of Rosalie's cool touch on her skin lingered as she blinked sleepily, her hazel eyes catching sight of the blonde vampire tracing the detailed pack tattoo on her shoulder. There was a familiar tenderness in Rosalie's expression, an intimate warmth that permeated the air between them.

"You're awake," Rosalie noted softly without looking up, a hint of a smile playing on her lips as she continued tracing the tribal design.

Kiara shifted closer on their tangled sheets, closing the small gap between them. 

"I never get tired of looking at this," Rosalie murmured reverently, her eyes never leaving Kiara's tattoo. Kiara chuckled lightly at that, reaching over to thread her fingers through Rosalie's hair.

"And I never get tired of waking up next to you," she countered softly, tilting her head to press a lingering kiss onto Rosalie's forehead.

They lay there for a moment longer, simply existing within each other's space. Rosalie's hand slowly slid down from Kiara's tattoo, drifting across her skin as light as a feather as she reached the slightly faded scars of Kiara's newborn bite after their battle with the newborn army. Her smile dipped for a second as her other hand rose to lightly touch at the scars of where Victoria had ripped the skin from her neck, before finally pausing on the more recent mark that she'd left on Kiara herself.

Kiara sensed the change in her mood, reaching up and grasping on to both of her hands with her own.

"Hey, hey, look at me," she murmured gently, turning to look directly into Rosalie's eyes. The vampire hesitated for a moment before finally meeting her gaze. There was fear there and some sort of guilt that Kiara hated to see. She lifted one hand to softly stroke Rosalie's cheek, watching as her eyes fluttered shut at the contact. "I survived, alright? We're still here."

"I know," Rosalie murmured, her eyes meeting Kiara's with a depth of emotion that made her breath hitch. "It doesn't mean I have to like them."

"You don't have to," Kiara reasoned, sitting up and wrapping her arms around Rosalie's waist to pull her closer. "But they're a part of me, just like you are."

Rosalie sighed softly at that, leaning into Kiara's touch as she closed her eyes.

"I still wish I could have taken away your pain," she confessed quietly. "The thought of Carlisle..."

"Jealous?" Kiara joked, faking hurt as Rosalie slapped her arm lightly with a scoff. "I'm joking. I know... if anything happened to you and I wasn't there to do anything... I don't know what I'd do."

With a sigh, Rosalie allowed Kiara to pull her closer until they were nearly nose-to-nose.

"I love you," she whispered meaningfully.

"I love you," Kiara repeated with a warm smile which was met by a relieved one from Rosalie. 

They lapsed back into silence then, contentedly cocooned within their own world as the sun gradually began to illuminate the room around them.

"You know... with everything that's been going on I've been thinking a lot about us and where we've been, and I guess what comes next for us - if we survive the Volturi," Rosalie started, her eyes sparkling as she brushed a bit of black hair away from Kiara's face. The shifter's smile dropped a little, having a gut feeling she knew what Rosalie was angling at.

"I wanted to know if you would do me the honour-"

"I've been running secret tests on my blood with Carlisle."