His love was silent in the circle of his arm, bearing a burden far too heavy even for his sturdy shoulders. Jigano wished he could share the weight of it in some way, but Rory had always been jealous of his pain, not hiding it but hoarding it close, a creature of sunny days and sullen storms when the thunder rumbled amidst the low clouds but no lightning made its way to earth, only a steady grey drizzle of despair. It was offset by those nights when his eyes gleamed with mischief and his grin stole the bard's breath with its beauty, when laughter rolled like the tide, like their breath, in and out, back and forth, with playful brightness that put the moon to shame.
He loved the man at his side in darkness and in light, in good moods and bad, but it still ached to see his lover brought so low by the world's cruelty. If all he could do was hold him and remind him that he wasn't alone anymore, that he had survived another week of darkness and that light would, eventually, return to his world, then that's what he would do.
Because Rory's wordless hum was frightening measure of just how close he had come to being left. Not from a lack of love, he knew, but in the face of a lost sister's voice? Her shadow against the door? How easy it would have been to crack the door just an inch to see her faceone last time...
His mate shifted against him and he hesitated at the indefinable sense of space those simple movements put between them. Interpreting the soft sound of inquiry he sighed, nestling his cheek against his partner's hair, letting the simple joy of being together again soften the pain of those lost to the dark. "In the town, Ezra and Cera. I don't think you met them, and I only knew them briefly. Caiside, though... he was one of my guild, and a good friend." There was a quiet undertone of grief in the words, for the pain was still fresh, but not so sharp as it had been in the dark while he sat deathwatch over his guildmate's body. His voice was steady in the face of it, his mourning underway and healing a ways off but within sight, as it had not been in the dark. "And... Roana, too," he added, not quite an afterthought, but without the weight of emotion that the smith's passing had carried.
It was more than enough, though he didn't think Rory knew any but the last. He let silence return but for the crackling of the fire and the soft susurrus of their breaths in and out, letting the names sink in or slide away as his lover needed and giving them both room to simply be together again.
{Fin}
He loved the man at his side in darkness and in light, in good moods and bad, but it still ached to see his lover brought so low by the world's cruelty. If all he could do was hold him and remind him that he wasn't alone anymore, that he had survived another week of darkness and that light would, eventually, return to his world, then that's what he would do.
Because Rory's wordless hum was frightening measure of just how close he had come to being left. Not from a lack of love, he knew, but in the face of a lost sister's voice? Her shadow against the door? How easy it would have been to crack the door just an inch to see her face
His mate shifted against him and he hesitated at the indefinable sense of space those simple movements put between them. Interpreting the soft sound of inquiry he sighed, nestling his cheek against his partner's hair, letting the simple joy of being together again soften the pain of those lost to the dark. "In the town, Ezra and Cera. I don't think you met them, and I only knew them briefly. Caiside, though... he was one of my guild, and a good friend." There was a quiet undertone of grief in the words, for the pain was still fresh, but not so sharp as it had been in the dark while he sat deathwatch over his guildmate's body. His voice was steady in the face of it, his mourning underway and healing a ways off but within sight, as it had not been in the dark. "And... Roana, too," he added, not quite an afterthought, but without the weight of emotion that the smith's passing had carried.
It was more than enough, though he didn't think Rory knew any but the last. He let silence return but for the crackling of the fire and the soft susurrus of their breaths in and out, letting the names sink in or slide away as his lover needed and giving them both room to simply be together again.
{Fin}
