It's a feeling we always chase

SUNJATA

the flood

anyway, you say you're too busy
saving everybody else to save yourself

He knows it’s unlikely that she’d be cold – but it was an attempt to try and get her to speak, to talk about something other than the elephant in the room. And gods was it huge. She sips from her water, he sips from his, nodding his own ‘you’re welcome’ to her thanks before shifting on his feet and focusing on the fireplace – something safe, something easy. Still, he can’t help the way his gaze drifts toward her as she removes the shawl, swallowing against the lump in his throat when he remembers how Ludo’s rags had felt around him that day in Halo.

Long before everything else had gone to hell.

So when she speaks, he nods wordlessly, setting the glass down on a little coffee table of sorts before moving to kneel before the fireplace – placing in logs to replace those that had turned to ash, some kindling to catch the flame easier. And once he’s satisfied with it, he reaches for his pocket where the lighter Libbs had made him, sat. Flipping open the lid to it and striking the wheel on the side, the flame erupts, and he angles it in to catch on a bit of the kindling before closing the lighter to douse the flame and leans in to blow onto it to get it to catch more.

One hand braces against the top of the fireplace, and he blows a bit more onto the flame to continue it’s sparking, working slowly to catch the log on fire. So he pauses, to watch it curiously – the flame reflecting in the steel of his eyes, unsure what to say other than what he can feel on the edge of the companion bond. Some kind of excitement and pleasure at having found something. “Haai will be back soon.” He offers her quietly, daring to glance over to where she’s taken up space on the edge of the couch, before he turns his head back toward the fire, blowing on it a bit more to catch the log on fire.

and you don't want no help, oh well
that's the story to tell