May your past be the sound
They walked slowly, neither of them really navigating a specific path, just wandering through the ruins, together. He watches as she swallows another wave of sorrow, blinking back and hiding her face against him as tears threaten, and he holds her close, welcomes her, lets whatever tears might leak out dampen the front of his shirt.And she speaks of her mother again, of how she was elected to be Queen (a notion far different to the royalty from his home, but that was neither here nor there), of how she accepted the role even if she wasn't expecting it. She had been well loved, he surmised, and so wanted to say it, but held his tongue, thinking that the words would only cause more heartache for Kia at this moment. Gently he directed their path to a large piece of stony rubble, a place where they could sit, where he could draw her up onto his lap and just hold her in silence for a time.
Grief sucked. He had been fortunate in his life, his parents always present, his extended family still relatively young and healthy, his friends similarly blessed. No great tragedies, no disasters tearing them apart. Then he had been torn from that world, and grieving for it ever since, but it was a different sort of grief, for while that world was lost to him, it wasn't necessarily lost altogether (and he had thought about whether there was a difference between the two endlessly).
Then Weaver had died, and while she hadn't been a close friend, she had been a part of his new normal, and it had affected him deeply (though admittedly, still not as deep as some). He daren't think about what he would go through should he lose Kia - he would get lost in the what-ifs and never find his way out again. "Hey," he said with a gentle stroke along her arm. "Let me feel you. Use the bond. Let me hold you," he whispered as he hugged her, prepared as best he could be for what he was asking of her to do to him, that he sought to do to help her, to lighten her load, that she might find happiness again, one day.
of your feet upon the ground
CHULANE
