around my bones {h.s. au}

i have buried you in every place i've ever been

Later when they both run through the tall grass, laughter trailing in the wind behind them, they collapse in the clearing where the trees end and the seas begins. Holding onto each other, memorising all the lines and details.

"Are the seas a dangerous place?" Lena ask him, hands admiring the blue markings on his arms.

He pauses, taking time to run his thumb over the edge of her cheek. "Isn't everywhere? Men are always searching for the next war –eager for what they do not understand." His eyes close for a moment and Lena wonders what all this traveler has seen. She maps the veins under his eyes with the tip of her finger, the colour of the lavender fields in spring. His hand reaches for hers, turning her palm up, tracing the lines. "You haven't asked me my name yet?"

"And you have not asked me mine." Lena counters, shifting around in the grass until her legs wrap around him. "But tell me, what is your name traveler?"

"They call me Harry."

"And what land do you come from Harry?"

"Very, very, very far away," he says against Lena's lips. They stay like that, lips hovering over each other, and Lena ghosting her hand over some of the markings along his collar. He catches her hand once more as she dips down to the hollow of his throat. "And what is your name?"

"Olena, but everyone calls me Lena."

"Olena." Harry allows her name to roll off her tongue, saying it over and over. Whispering the name into her skin until Lena can feel it everywhere.

//

They meet a second time at the same clearing by the sea. Lena likes the way Harry's eyes follow her as she moves down the rocks. How his eyes had widened when she stepped into the clearing. Hours pass and Lena watches as Harry tosses the net out into the sea. They talk about nothing and everything until the sun dips below the horizon. Sending a thousand colours scattering around them.

"Why have you come down here?" Harry ask, weaving some of the broken rope of the net back together.

"My mother wanted me to collect some of the sea grass."

Harry glances down to her empty basket. It is a lie. Lena had set off earlier that morning to where the ships dock, asking if they knew where Harry had gone off to. Judging by the way Harry nods, and his lips lift the slightest bit on the left side, he knows Lena is telling a lie.

Neither of them say a word.

The clearing by the sea becomes the place they always meet. Lazy, slow summer nights when the heat is unbearable but Harry still builds a fire. After many nights Lena realises it is so they are not surrounded by darkness.

Lena takes to leaving her dress in a pile along the edges of the water. Floating on top of the waves as they roll under her body. Harry joins her. Moonlight shining down on both of them. Sometimes Lena forgets to pay attention and floats to far, Harry always grabbing a hold of her hand.

He shakes his head at her. "One day you will float away with the tide and never be found again."

"Then I will become a siren," Lena laughs, splashing water towards him. "Waiting on the rocks and singing my songs until one day your ship passes and I am found again."

"And what a siren you would make."

Lena swims closer to Harry, arms wrapping around his neck until she can trail her lips up his jaw. Taking her time, and finally whispering in his ear. "But none of that will ever happen, you would never let me just drift away with the waves."