In better days he would have heard Amalia's footsteps, smelled her scent, and sensed Isuma's worry through the bond that connected them, and taken comfort in their approach. This night, though, the fox heard and sensed only his own demons, his skin barely twitching as Amalia stepped close and stroked him, flinching from her touch as though he expected a blow.
He shivered again, one ear twitching as her reassurance finally broke through his despondent fugue, and he shifted his head enough to crack a dark eye open. Isuma huddled against the baker's leg, shivering from the waves of dark emotions coming from her companion, yearning to go to him but kept at bay by the self-loathing that coiled so thickly around his heart.
...Amalia...? came the tentative recognition, and he knew he should pull himself together, shake off the despair that had overcome him, and put on a strong face for the sister of his heart...
But it was not that easy, and his weakness, his failure to manage even that, cut him even deeper.
You... shouldn't be here, his thoughts stumbled, thick with a twisting sense of refreshed guilt and anger - anger directed at himself, vicious and more than half a decade deep, steeped in long habit and clung to with an irrational tenacity, believing he deserved this pain. Someone will worry...
He shivered again, one ear twitching as her reassurance finally broke through his despondent fugue, and he shifted his head enough to crack a dark eye open. Isuma huddled against the baker's leg, shivering from the waves of dark emotions coming from her companion, yearning to go to him but kept at bay by the self-loathing that coiled so thickly around his heart.
...Amalia...? came the tentative recognition, and he knew he should pull himself together, shake off the despair that had overcome him, and put on a strong face for the sister of his heart...
But it was not that easy, and his weakness, his failure to manage even that, cut him even deeper.
You... shouldn't be here, his thoughts stumbled, thick with a twisting sense of refreshed guilt and anger - anger directed at himself, vicious and more than half a decade deep, steeped in long habit and clung to with an irrational tenacity, believing he deserved this pain. Someone will worry...
