Wrap your teeth around the pavement

M  A   E    A I talked to God to no avail Said, "If you won't save me, please don't waste my time." He pulled her in, and Maea didn't resist. Leaning into him, burying her face into the crook of his neck, her hands came to rest on the sides of his chest, grasping the cloth of the shirt. He was warm, as always. Warm and firm and real, and she breathed in the scent of him in deep shuddering lungfuls, as if smoke and drink, salt and water and soap might somehow be the healing stuff to carry her off this brink she teetered on. The girl parted her knees a bit to let him come closer still, welcoming the embrace like someone starving. And she was, wasn't she? Starved on affection, intimacy, the genuine care and concern he so casually offered with soothing strokes along her neck. He spoke them too, in a smooth rumble that tickled against her cheek; she only raised her head to look at him when he pulled away, and returned her face back to the safe, quiet dark against his neck when the kindness in his expression became too much to withstand without crumbling. Was it possible to hug someone tight enough that their broken pieces might fit back together? It felt a bit like it at the moment. Like Sunjata's strong arms around her was the only thing that held her up. "How did you do it?" she asked, muffled against the collar of his shirt. "How did you recover after being throw into this place, with nothing but yourself? I... I can't even let go of a house, a-and I-I'm still.. I'm still..." Still in her own world, with all the familiar rules and laws, knowing what was expected of her and with goals to accomplish. It was a struggle to bite back the tears, but the girl fought with ever breath to keep them from falling. Didn't want to be weak, or ungrateful. Crying would solve nothing, help nothing. But there was a bag on the floor with a lifetime crammed into it, and when she thought of all the things that had been left behind, a dry sob wracked her thin shoulders.