Lingering Glance (Patreon)

A little snippet of a conversation I was editing...

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Your palm tickles. Faintly, almost gently. But it tickles.

"I can imagine," you whisper, smiling an empty smile.

Hadrian's brows lower. You stare at his profile, seeming so harsh all of a sudden. "I'm sure you can." Comes his dark answer. He quiets then, and you think the subject will be put to rest but then you see him cracking his lips open.

"The main lesson was to act first and ask questions later," he says, his tone slowed, as if he's hesitant to speak but cannot keep it inside. "But there were more. How to see the world in black and white and ignore all other shades."

"Talk of mercy but never show it. Talk of humbleness but never feel it. Speak of fairness, but step on the ones you consider below you." Hadrian starts talking faster, his lips curling upwards. "Don't show tolerance, don't show patience, don't show..."

He exhales, and all the anger goes out too. Hadrian closes his eyes, hand tightening so hard on the cross that his nails turn white. "Don't be kind, I suppose. That's, uh. I saw a lot of that."