She wasn't wrong to be worried. A few years earlier and he wouldn't have understood. Jealousy and pride would have twisted his tongue and wrapped vines around his heart with the thorns pointing inwards. He would have been too caught up in his own pain to see hers for what it was.
But she had been the one to help him grow. To hold him up when he was weak and give him the strength to reach out to others again. He had blossomed because of the care and support she had shown him, and with every new bridge he'd built he had grown a little stronger and a little more resilient. Even, perhaps wiser. If only a little bit.
There was tea on the couch. The table. The floor. And both of them, not that either of them noticed or cared. Boreal watched them from her bed on the hearth, pale eyes liquid with contentment as Tal wrapped his arms tightly around his best friend and buried his face in her hair. "Y'betternot," he mumbled into the golden strands, fiercely intent on holding her to her promise even as he gathered her close to his chest, breath shaking as he squeezed his eyes tightly closed to better memorize the warmth and strength and weight of her in his arms.
Not for the last time. But, perhaps, for the last time like this.
"...I wouldn't have t'miss you at all... if I came with you. T'King's End," he said slowly, almost too softly to hear even as close as she was. The words felt like a betrayal and the first light of dawn all at once as the ice inside him shifted and cracked no less than that on the Sea of Glass was doing in this strange, wild Flowerbirth.
But she had been the one to help him grow. To hold him up when he was weak and give him the strength to reach out to others again. He had blossomed because of the care and support she had shown him, and with every new bridge he'd built he had grown a little stronger and a little more resilient. Even, perhaps wiser. If only a little bit.
There was tea on the couch. The table. The floor. And both of them, not that either of them noticed or cared. Boreal watched them from her bed on the hearth, pale eyes liquid with contentment as Tal wrapped his arms tightly around his best friend and buried his face in her hair. "Y'betternot," he mumbled into the golden strands, fiercely intent on holding her to her promise even as he gathered her close to his chest, breath shaking as he squeezed his eyes tightly closed to better memorize the warmth and strength and weight of her in his arms.
Not for the last time. But, perhaps, for the last time like this.
"...I wouldn't have t'miss you at all... if I came with you. T'King's End," he said slowly, almost too softly to hear even as close as she was. The words felt like a betrayal and the first light of dawn all at once as the ice inside him shifted and cracked no less than that on the Sea of Glass was doing in this strange, wild Flowerbirth.
