its in the way you leave

Koa

Don't take this the wrong way
You knew who I was with every step that I ran to you

Well, Koa supposes with a curdled sort of amusement, it's good to know he still knows the right things to say to her, even if she doesn't want to hear it from him. It makes him wonder what he said, the oh-so-wonderful Jack. And why it isn't him she's seeking comfort from, where he is in her difficult hour.

Why he's picking up these pieces, when nobody picked them up for him.

But that's a bitterness he'd rather not entertain, and so he swallows it all back down. Instead he barks a surprised laugh at her anti-demigod sentiment, raising a dark and querulous eyebrow that she of course cannot see. "That's the second time you've told me that," Koa remarks drily. "Don't worry - I don't have any designs toward demigodhood. And even if I did, there's like a hundred better candidates." He shrugs, shoulders digging into the coarse trunk, the discomfort nearly a relief.

Silence lapses in between them: not pleasant, perhaps, but comfortable enough, a tenuous, weary thing. When Flora breaks it it's to pierce another small barb into his heart. Koa winces, and is immediately grateful she cannot see him, because the last thing he needs is for her to see how wounded she still is. He shouldn't be offering to help her at all, not after everything; yet here he is, pride be damned, unable to do anything else. Though her follow-up offer is more surprising, especially when she suggests they channel for a rose.

"I..." Emotion makes his voice claggy; he clears his throat, unwilling to deal with whatever it is he feels. He can feel himself closing off, shoring against the terror that she'll worm in and hurt him again. "Um. Thanks. That... thanks. But I'm still looking." A smarter, more humble man might have taken her up upon her offer; alas, Koa is dumb and proud, and the whip of her rejection still bites upon his heels. The last thing he'd asked Flora for, she hadn't been able to return.

He may be more than willing to help her in whatever lies ahead, but it will be a long time before Koa's ready to trust the Queen with any of his own needs again.

Forcing himself to rally onwards and thus (he hopes) avoid betraying the thundering of his heart, the Dragoon adds with affected brightness and nobility: "Besides, you have your other big, important plans. Plus, like... as much as I want to cure Noe, any roses either of us find should probably go to Ronin first. He's way more important, in the grand scheme of things."

Only blue or black days
Electing strange perfections in any stranger I choose