we can't make any promises now

Remi kept following him, when all Loren wanted was for this to be over. But the summoner leaving the alchemist had been what got them into this mess to begin with. Running away again might just compound it. Besides, at the pace the librarian was capable of setting at the moment, the Attuned would have little trouble keeping up. That meant this reunion was going to last a little while longer whether Loren wanted it to or not. So the Launceleyn stilled, and turned, silent tears still falling from his eyes. None of this was going like he expected—not that it made it any easier—and the more time passed, the more he fell apart at the seams. Looking at the curly haired man just hurt, but the librarian deserved the pain. Welcomed it even. It was better than the sorrow coursing through his veins, and his tolerance for the searing agony was much higher. “R-Remi I, I…” Loren swallowed against the lump in his throat and chest, but they didn’t go away. Probably wouldn’t, no matter what he tried. “I can’t...I can’t hurt you again.” And there it was: he’d accepted there was no relationship between them anymore, accept that he’d irrevocably broken any trust he had with anyone he’d left behind, and accepted that there was nothing he could do to make up for his disappearance. But the thought of causing more harm to those he’d once loved terrified him in a way nothing else could. Which was why he had to go away, and stay away, unless they absolutely needed him for something. That was the only way he could see to proceed. LOREN Not quite an open book