𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐓 ❅ (𝐠𝐱𝐠)

21| taffy

Apprehensive eyes, abnormal in their tenebrous colour, shadowed a winding flow of raven hair that bounced against the woman's back with even step she took.

The anticipation that descended to the depths of Lily's chest, laying dormant and laden, had excruciatingly endured there for moments far too long for her comfort. She had only caught a fleeting glimpse of the presently arrived figure's face before she had ventured straight towards the café bar, but that cursory insight was enough to have had engendered that feeling; and the longer the figure did not become cognisant of her presence, the longer it had remained.

Seated at either sides of the booth, its vinyl of dark vermillion, the two women equally regarded the brief exchange of words between the quite alike sisters, although the older one – who awaited with nothing short of a humoured interest – did not come to ascertain the small disquietude upon the younger's look. But even though Ms Valentine wasn't, Lily herself was certain; more specifically of two things in particular. The first being that she knew exactly of this woman's identity, and the second being that if it was so – that her understanding was exact, she was acutely tethered with misfortune.

A small smirk could be seen crawling across Carla's lips whilst she spoke with her sister, and as she gifted her eye to the older woman situated oppositely to her, she gestured her head to her for her sister to look. And when she did finally turn around, Lily's heart procured no less than every ounce of secreted cold tension, to which she felt it then pump around her body in a replacement of warm blood. Her mind, overdriven with concerns and troubles, muttered the same incessant profanity over and over again.

Two pairs of kindred light brown eyes now stared back at the older woman; the pair Lily was most dismayed by were sharply sculpted with dark eyeliner that was similar to the way Ms Valentine fashioned hers. She didn't need anymore confirmation, but the clear rich accent of her voice when she addressed the woman she recognised with the charming pull of her lips, compounded both her certainties.

"Aurora? Oh my... What a not so pleasant surprise," she lilted in a jest and the playful roll of those same brown eyes. She took a step away from the bar, and when she did, her now doubtlessly familiar eyes finally drifted away from the woman, and found hers.

Lily wearily kept her eye, observing as her smile lightly faltered for a moment and her brow twitched in consideration. She mentally prayed to the Gods that the woman wouldn't recognise her; that she had been so drunk as to forget there meeting, but of course, she was not so lucky to be of fortune's partiality. And to her dismay, the woman's momentarily pensive lips, then began to grow into a broader and knowing grin.

Oh for fuck's sake.

"But this surprise certainly is pleasant." Taking a few more steps, the woman gradually advanced towards their table, her voluptuous figure swaying in the saunter. Hands stuffed into the pockets of her black slacks, her set gaze continued to playfully tease hers even as she came to a stand closer before their table. "Well look who it is..." she spoke, adopting a familiar tone with her, "It's the girl with a runny nose."

An involuntary scoff of disbelief convulsed from Lily's lungs. Despite being agreeably amused by the woman's unexpected ludic mocking, her scepticism and the concerns she had for the possibility of her revealing her most sheltered truths in front of Ms Valentine – intentionally or not, tormented her nerves.

A frolicsome sneer enticed the corner of her lips as she bestowed an eye-roll, and quickly, she diverted away from the confidence the woman alluded to. "Oh look who it is, it's the lady who talks way too fucking much."