- NATE -
When you’re around
I don’t know how to hide my feelings
I don’t know how to hide my feelings
It has been crisis after crisis after crisis. Nate is exhausted, no matter how relieved he is to have something, someone outside of himself to focus on. Even he has a limit, and it was reached weeks ago.
There’s a part of him that debates ignoring the knock on the door, letting whoever was there walk away again, while he sits close to Sunjata’s side. Honestly, he isn’t sure what it is that makes him rise, that sends to open the door, one eyed gaze distant and his mouth already open to say Hey, another time maybe?
Whoever he’d been expecting, it’s clear Hotaru is not it. It's clear that he’s surprised enough to not be able to hide the emotions that move over his face. Frustration, pain, confusion, relief. The one good eye flicks to Atlas, then back to the abandoned, a dozen questions rising up, none of them feeling worth it to ask. She'd made her choice pretty clearly, hadn't she? For a moment, it seems like he's going to close the door, slam it on her, his arm almost twitching with the thought before he's rushing forward instead, pulling her tight against his chest and squeezing her.
Without speaking a word, without giving her a chance to fight him, Nate lifts her in his arms, all but drags her into the house. "I'm so glad you're okay." They're the first strained words out of him, when he finally pulls back, his gaze taking a detour up towards the ceiling to hide the unshed tears in his eye before falling to Hotaru properly.
There is a lot to say, discussions and questions and catching up on every terror they've experienced, and Nate has absolutely no idea where to start. How to start. "Sunny's upstairs." His hand moves to grab hers, to drag her deeper, along a path that had been far lighter to walk last time she'd stepped along it, the last time she'd been invited into the bedroom.
It's only once they're sitting on the edge of the bed that Nate let's go of her hand, the fear that she'll once again disappear alleviated somewhat when all of them are present, when it's not just him.
There’s a part of him that debates ignoring the knock on the door, letting whoever was there walk away again, while he sits close to Sunjata’s side. Honestly, he isn’t sure what it is that makes him rise, that sends to open the door, one eyed gaze distant and his mouth already open to say Hey, another time maybe?
Whoever he’d been expecting, it’s clear Hotaru is not it. It's clear that he’s surprised enough to not be able to hide the emotions that move over his face. Frustration, pain, confusion, relief. The one good eye flicks to Atlas, then back to the abandoned, a dozen questions rising up, none of them feeling worth it to ask. She'd made her choice pretty clearly, hadn't she? For a moment, it seems like he's going to close the door, slam it on her, his arm almost twitching with the thought before he's rushing forward instead, pulling her tight against his chest and squeezing her.
Without speaking a word, without giving her a chance to fight him, Nate lifts her in his arms, all but drags her into the house. "I'm so glad you're okay." They're the first strained words out of him, when he finally pulls back, his gaze taking a detour up towards the ceiling to hide the unshed tears in his eye before falling to Hotaru properly.
There is a lot to say, discussions and questions and catching up on every terror they've experienced, and Nate has absolutely no idea where to start. How to start. "Sunny's upstairs." His hand moves to grab hers, to drag her deeper, along a path that had been far lighter to walk last time she'd stepped along it, the last time she'd been invited into the bedroom.
It's only once they're sitting on the edge of the bed that Nate let's go of her hand, the fear that she'll once again disappear alleviated somewhat when all of them are present, when it's not just him.
I count in binary in my head
And you count clouds
And you count clouds
