A warm meal and a quiet night

KIADA we are all just fighting to survive a world, where 'i miss you' doesn't mean I'm coming back. It is exhausting, day after day, to care for all the needs of the Grounders all by herself. She’s gotten a couple of them who have offered to step up and help just so she can at least have a few moments of sleep and rest for herself. But it reminds her so much of the Rift and the aftermath of all of those traumatic events that it’s hard not to tax it on further. It wears on her, in the lines in her face, in the way her shoulders seem to sag a small amount, but she keeps up as chipperly as she can. Chulane has helped a lot, that other person to kind of just… Understand, to know, without having to use words to explain it. She’s become used to telling him goodnight, to waving him off as he heads back home to his own devices, despite how much there’s a part of her that hopes the nights never truly end when they finally get their time together. Today, however, when he calls her by her nickname and her iceberg gaze lifts to meet his, there’s a slight furrow of her brow – it was early and perhaps she was selfish but she simply just didn’t want to let him go just yet – but, but, he pulls her into a hug, holding onto her hands softly instead of letting them go like usual. “Okay…?” She says in silent question, wondering what exactly is going on, but following through with it. Auni can handle entertaining the Grounders left. She keeps her hand in his until they reach the table – and it almost looks something like a date, a space just for the two of them but secluded enough that Kiada’s gaze slips toward him with a silent question, a pulse of it sent toward him with the bond before a small smile tugs at the corners of her exhausted face. “Dinner?” She asks, giving his hand a soft squeeze, before letting him go to take a seat – some huge amount of relief leaving her shoulders at the idea that he wasn’t simply leaving just yet. and 'I love you' doesn't mean I'll stay...