please forgive me, I can’t sleep at night

maybe i'm just too tired to keep lyin'

”Take all the time you need.” Both a blessing and a curse. A blessing that it’s not expected of him until he’s ready, a curse for if he ever might be. What happens then? If he can’t ever say it? Would she push him as Phoebe had? Would she condemn him as Lusea had, for giving it away so freely? There was still so much that Maea didn’t know about him, the things he had to do, the blood on his hands.

Would she care? If those same bloodied hands held her with care every night? Or would she fall into the role of the others who thought him to be a monster at the end of the day?

But she leans into the touch, tears falling from her eyes, and all he can do is give her a soft smile in response, reaching up to brush those tears away with his other hand. “You’re going to get a lot of questions, a lot of disappointment from people with this.” And there's honesty in the tone he uses there. “So I hope you’re prepared for it.” A deep rumble, hand lowering to fiddle with Ludo’s rags along her shoulders, lifting it up slightly to spot the bruising on her neck before he settles the rags down again and looks at her more fully.

maybe you're all i ever wanted

SUNJATA