NATE
Of all the people he could stumble across in this most remote of places, it has to be Hotaru. He’s trying to get away from pain, trying to get his head on straight again, not send it hurtling through the labyrinthine passages of his heart. Fate, or Caido, or whatever other force it is that controls these things has other plans for him, and who is he to deny them, to keep himself quiet?
Nate doesn’t smile back, or if he does, it’s gone from his face before she can catch a glimpse of it. Shaking his head and drawing back into himself the closer she comes, Nate let’s a shrug roll over his shoulders, this uncertainty something he still trusts her with. He can be vulnerable, can be emotional, to a point. ”You don’t need to be rescued.” He replies smoothly, brows pulling together. ”You can take care of yourself.” The words are half sorrow and half pride. No matter how it hurts him, Nate has to respect how Hotaru has taken charge of her story, how she’s known when to try and heal, and when to amputate. It’s a skill he should be better at, but he isn’t.
”I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” Even as he says it, Nate kicks out of boots, pants, pulls his jacket off and his shirt over his head. ”Last time I was near this water, it burned me.” But that had been when he was sick, when he’d been trying to heal. Testing the water with a hesitant toe, the ascended tries to keep his gaze focused on the haze of steam, instead of drifting towards the abandoned. Maybe the warm water can soothe the wounds on his heart, before it has him boiling over. Or maybe this will turn out to be an especially slow kind of suicide. Nate can’t quite decide while eventuality he would prefer.
He’s waist deep in the water by the time he looks up, closer than he expects. Close enough that he could maybe reach out, could touch her, though he doesn’t dare. There’s something sky lingering in his gaze, overshadowed by something mortally wounded, and bleeding out. ”Thought you were...” Actually, he doesn’t, doesn’t know what he thought, doesn’t know where she’s been spending her time. He can assume Halo, knows she has friends, family, a life there. The words die off without an end, Nate’s single eye falling to the steamy water again.
Nate doesn’t smile back, or if he does, it’s gone from his face before she can catch a glimpse of it. Shaking his head and drawing back into himself the closer she comes, Nate let’s a shrug roll over his shoulders, this uncertainty something he still trusts her with. He can be vulnerable, can be emotional, to a point. ”You don’t need to be rescued.” He replies smoothly, brows pulling together. ”You can take care of yourself.” The words are half sorrow and half pride. No matter how it hurts him, Nate has to respect how Hotaru has taken charge of her story, how she’s known when to try and heal, and when to amputate. It’s a skill he should be better at, but he isn’t.
”I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” Even as he says it, Nate kicks out of boots, pants, pulls his jacket off and his shirt over his head. ”Last time I was near this water, it burned me.” But that had been when he was sick, when he’d been trying to heal. Testing the water with a hesitant toe, the ascended tries to keep his gaze focused on the haze of steam, instead of drifting towards the abandoned. Maybe the warm water can soothe the wounds on his heart, before it has him boiling over. Or maybe this will turn out to be an especially slow kind of suicide. Nate can’t quite decide while eventuality he would prefer.
He’s waist deep in the water by the time he looks up, closer than he expects. Close enough that he could maybe reach out, could touch her, though he doesn’t dare. There’s something sky lingering in his gaze, overshadowed by something mortally wounded, and bleeding out. ”Thought you were...” Actually, he doesn’t, doesn’t know what he thought, doesn’t know where she’s been spending her time. He can assume Halo, knows she has friends, family, a life there. The words die off without an end, Nate’s single eye falling to the steamy water again.
I am tasting myself
In the mouth of the sun
In the mouth of the sun
