[Training] one foot before the other

all my scars have got a tune

He’s patient as can be – content to be there however she needs him to be, for however long she needs him to be. It was one of the perks of being a runner, of having the ability to sit and wait for the packages to arrive before using most of his stamina and endurance to take the package wherever it needed to go. For her, though, he remains a steady pillar, focused entirely on her and her breathing, trying to get her to calm, using his arms as a weight to keep her close, to let her know that he wasn’t going anywhere.

And when she finally calms just enough, he can feel her shoulders slump, he can feel her as she begins to pull away, and he lets her – lets her have space, never one for smothering. “I know, ‘Relia. I know.” He murmurs to her after a few heartbeats of silence. But he steps toward her, reaching out to rest his hand on her arm, where his bracelet she had gifted him sat, trying to get her to look at him.

“People’ll get hurt whether y’know how to do it or y’don’t.” If she lets it get that bad. “But… Maybe I made a mistake too, askin ya t’bring it t’ya.” So he, instead, focuses on summoning another moth. It flits around his head and then hers, before drifting toward the fire, a fair and safe distance away from the two of them. “Y’wanna try puttin’ the fire on that? Or d’ya wanna stop the magic trainin’ for tonight?”

there's a fire in my heart
and i can't stop it burning down

MILO