i don't know where home is, but i suppose it's anywhere i go that's any good at all
Maybe Sunjata’s experience, or lack thereof, should have been obvious considering the way he’d been acting when he’d brought Delphine home, but it doesn’t click for some reason, written off as worry in the moment. Didn’t click, until this moment, and Nate thinks that’s as deep as it goes, that that’s the cause of the slight pull away, the flush. He smiles, gentle and bright, and tries to meet the other mans stormy eyes, nodding easily as Sunjata begins to explain, nothing like drugs in Korofi, sensible enough, even if he doesn’t quite believe it - there’s a difference between no drugs, and never encountering drugs, though, the other man had been a cop, of a kind, so...
The train of thought ends as Sunjata trails off, as he tightens his arms to a pressure even Nate can feel clearly. And it becomes very clear very quickly that there’s more, there’s worse, and Nate frowns, about to say you don’t have to do this when the attuned opens his mouth again, and he suddenly can’t say anything at all, can’t bring himself to inturtupt, to stop the wheels already in motion.
Nate licks his lips, hands not moving away from Sunjata's face as he settles in to hear the other man's one experience, something like dread settling in the pit of his stomach. At least it's better than the directionless swirl of darkness from earlier had been. It starts off innocently enough, as much as anything else he's heard about the other man's past, though it breaks his heart to hear that the hardships hadn't stopped just because he was in a new world. And he can't quite imagine it, coming to a new place and immediately falling sick, immediately being gripped in the throws of confusion and anger. Nate manages, only barely, to keep his face schooled into something neutral, something encouraging, though he can't help the wince as the Trials come up again. Though, that wasn’t the end, couldn’t be, with how it hadn’t circled back around to what they’d been talking about, and-
Wait. What?
"She... gave you something, when you already..? And then slept with you?" There's a tremble in Nate's voice, in his hands, as he speaks, tries to clarify. It... it couldn't be like that, there had to be some part of this that he was missing, that he wasn't understanding. But there's no reason Sunjata would tell him anything less than the whole truth, no reason he'd lie, not about something like this, shitty ex or not. And it explains a lot, answers questions that Nate hadn't even had yet.
Maybe, if he could keep a cool head, he could work through it, could help Sunjata work through it, properly. He could be comforting, could be reassuring. All Nate wants, in the world, in this moment, is to be able to keep the other man safe, to bring happiness to him, but what is he supposed to do in the face of this, apart from grow senselessly angry, apart from shake and rage and tremble, where it wasn’t really his place. ”I’m... oh darling.” Theres something heartbroken in the words, Nate pulling Sunjata in close, a hand moving to spread through his hair, the other wrapping around his shoulders. There is a fine line between pity and empathy and all Nate can do is hope he straddles it well, when everything within him is turmoil.
The train of thought ends as Sunjata trails off, as he tightens his arms to a pressure even Nate can feel clearly. And it becomes very clear very quickly that there’s more, there’s worse, and Nate frowns, about to say you don’t have to do this when the attuned opens his mouth again, and he suddenly can’t say anything at all, can’t bring himself to inturtupt, to stop the wheels already in motion.
Nate licks his lips, hands not moving away from Sunjata's face as he settles in to hear the other man's one experience, something like dread settling in the pit of his stomach. At least it's better than the directionless swirl of darkness from earlier had been. It starts off innocently enough, as much as anything else he's heard about the other man's past, though it breaks his heart to hear that the hardships hadn't stopped just because he was in a new world. And he can't quite imagine it, coming to a new place and immediately falling sick, immediately being gripped in the throws of confusion and anger. Nate manages, only barely, to keep his face schooled into something neutral, something encouraging, though he can't help the wince as the Trials come up again. Though, that wasn’t the end, couldn’t be, with how it hadn’t circled back around to what they’d been talking about, and-
Wait. What?
"She... gave you something, when you already..? And then slept with you?" There's a tremble in Nate's voice, in his hands, as he speaks, tries to clarify. It... it couldn't be like that, there had to be some part of this that he was missing, that he wasn't understanding. But there's no reason Sunjata would tell him anything less than the whole truth, no reason he'd lie, not about something like this, shitty ex or not. And it explains a lot, answers questions that Nate hadn't even had yet.
Maybe, if he could keep a cool head, he could work through it, could help Sunjata work through it, properly. He could be comforting, could be reassuring. All Nate wants, in the world, in this moment, is to be able to keep the other man safe, to bring happiness to him, but what is he supposed to do in the face of this, apart from grow senselessly angry, apart from shake and rage and tremble, where it wasn’t really his place. ”I’m... oh darling.” Theres something heartbroken in the words, Nate pulling Sunjata in close, a hand moving to spread through his hair, the other wrapping around his shoulders. There is a fine line between pity and empathy and all Nate can do is hope he straddles it well, when everything within him is turmoil.
NATE
