Blackfeather Woods sleep is a welcome gadget in our headbondhood

Briefly, Taikon prepared himself for the boy leader to lash out at him physically. That might even had been the end of things, as the last time a leader had treated him like that, he'd said his piece and gotten himself and Takiyok thrown out. He highly doubted they would be so lucky as to survive the wilds again on their own, especially not knowing the terrain as well.
But Zephyr didn't do that. He started, then stopped, unable to fight back with his own words. Taikon watched the boy leader become tears, and immediately he felt regret and softened. The heat left him and all he could feel was worry again. Zephyr, he whispered, afraid to try to hold him again. S-sorry I.. that was out of line. I-I'm just.. afraid... He dipped his head.

Crying is supposed to be a release; therapeutic, relief of the pressure of all the emotions built up to that point. It's supposed to feel better — all of these things Zephyr had learned during his time as a captive. It'd seemed so easy for the others, who'd all followed the rules of it like clockwork and seemed better off for it. Not one applies to him.
Crying is an angry, burning, skin-crawling thing to him; fiery tendrils of misery clawing their way down his cheeks, eyes itching, stinging, throat tight. His face feels too warm. Suffocating. The icewraith was never made for the strident heat of emotions like these —

But this is what it means to live, isn't it? This is what it is to breathe and feel and think — the price of ice-made-flesh, soul threads spun into fragile being. So what is he doing, tearing himself apart like this? It seems absurd; the sea thrashing herself raw and bloody against the cliffs, ignorant to their fate already decided long before the hurt settled in.
He takes another step back, then turns, still blinded by tears. An eternity passes in the handful of seconds it takes for him to reach his decision — but the wraith is long gone from the scene before the hurt starts to subside, and the tears die into guilt-laden silence. He'd shamed himself with the interaction, made a mess of things by bringing more unnecessary conflict between himself and Taikon, and no doubt Takiyok soon enough.

Later, brooding alone, he promises himself it will never happen again.

It all went sideways so quickly, he wasn't sure what to do with himself. He tried his best to come back to Zephyr, to find some way to comfort him after pulling an emotional knife on him. He knew that Zephyr was delicate, and he'd broken anyway.
Zephyr left him, and Taikon was left standing there feeling raw and wicked and mean. Taikon wanted nothing more than to just have the few people remaining in his sad little life kept happy. He wanted Takiyok happy. She still hadn't gone into heat, and that meant they couldn't have children. Time was starting to run out for that chance. And Zephyr? Zephyr was consistently miserable, and Taikon just wanted to see him happy.
So Zephyr escaped, and the Prince of Nothing felt worse than ever. He slinked away, hoping at least to have a quick break to figure his shit out before finding Takiyok.