RONIN
Because I'm weak and now I'm dying, Ronin wanted to say, and he bit his lip around a wry smile as he realised Safrin would hear it nonetheless. "Nothing, I suppose. Apart from being tired out easily," he said instead, taking a long, deep breath through his nose and letting it out again. A protector, then. That had been his purpose all along, he realised, seeming to make utter sense when it came from Safrin.
Shifting to sit cross-legged, sitting on his hands so that they wouldn't shake, he raised an eyebrow and heard the goddess out. A flush of pink rose in his cheeks, and a starlit glow surrounded him; he couldn't meet her eyes for a second. Special? Different? Unfinished stories? It seemed egotistical to embrace such a thing, but... here he was, he supposed. Sent to the stars and pulled down again.
"I remember," he said. "Mort's mercy, and Ashe's love. I owe all of you everything." He tilted his head back, gazing up at Vanya in the sky as well. "And I promised her I wouldn't waste it. I... I am not angry. Frustrated, is all. The world kept marching on without me, and I feel a little left behind for the moment."
Shifting to sit cross-legged, sitting on his hands so that they wouldn't shake, he raised an eyebrow and heard the goddess out. A flush of pink rose in his cheeks, and a starlit glow surrounded him; he couldn't meet her eyes for a second. Special? Different? Unfinished stories? It seemed egotistical to embrace such a thing, but... here he was, he supposed. Sent to the stars and pulled down again.
"I remember," he said. "Mort's mercy, and Ashe's love. I owe all of you everything." He tilted his head back, gazing up at Vanya in the sky as well. "And I promised her I wouldn't waste it. I... I am not angry. Frustrated, is all. The world kept marching on without me, and I feel a little left behind for the moment."
a star in someone else's sky