i fell in love with a war
The silence following Icarus' unsolicited advice sends his own stomach sinking and his hand shaking slightly against the clutching of the rope. He senses he's made a grievous misstep, once again reaching out of his station as a lowly soldier into something he doesn't quite understand, the same way he feels whenever he tries to get Deimos to see him as more than just a young soldier untested and untried by the horrors of the world. Because for all his age and inexperience, Icarus has seen blood and death enough for several lifetimes; the burning scars spanning the length of his chest, red and raw in the presence of the dragon up ahead, speak to that. His words echo into the mists, and the man gives him a polite acknowledgement that seems more like a rebuke, and Icarus is more than happy to let the subject drop from his hands into the roiling mists below.
He regrets the topic change almost instantly though as the man mentions Stormbreak with the quiet tone of grief long-carried and his feet pause on the bridge. He seems whisked away somewhere, somewhere Icarus doesn't know the particulars of but recognizes. There's a familiarity in his longing to return somewhere that doesn't exist, though Icarus' home is people and this man's is a place. He allows the man this moment to himself, but feels a modicum of relief when he seems to return. The end of the bridge is in sight now, just a few steps away from the man in front of him, and Icarus has to stop himself from telling the man to leap for it. He yearns for the solid ground under his feet again.
"How do you like it there?" He asks mildly, trying not to step on any other conversational danger-zones. "Almost certainly warmer than Halo, I imagine."
He regrets the topic change almost instantly though as the man mentions Stormbreak with the quiet tone of grief long-carried and his feet pause on the bridge. He seems whisked away somewhere, somewhere Icarus doesn't know the particulars of but recognizes. There's a familiarity in his longing to return somewhere that doesn't exist, though Icarus' home is people and this man's is a place. He allows the man this moment to himself, but feels a modicum of relief when he seems to return. The end of the bridge is in sight now, just a few steps away from the man in front of him, and Icarus has to stop himself from telling the man to leap for it. He yearns for the solid ground under his feet again.
"How do you like it there?" He asks mildly, trying not to step on any other conversational danger-zones. "Almost certainly warmer than Halo, I imagine."
Icarus
and nobody told me it ended
