Bearclaw Valley Toughen me up!

He watched nervously as she came closer, gazing at him with warm crimson eyes and dipped his head down to lick at a patch of ruffled sterling fur just to avoid eye contact with her for a moment. His...condition was something he held close to his heart, keeping it from others. It wasn't because he liked it and was too selfish to share it; hell, it was the opposite of that. Raziel feared that others might know; he was supposed to be the fearless and strong leader, the light for them in darkness, they might lose trust in him when they realised how vulnerable he truly was, how his stoicness was just a shell for him to hide under. 

Raziel had never in his life told anyone about his condition other than his family and his personal shrink. Actually, strike that — only his family and his former personal shrink had ever known about his condition; he hadn't shared it with anyone else for more than a year, and truth to be told, the Roman wasn't sure he even could. The sterling male trusted Scarlett, but this was something else.

He nodded, unable to form words, when she told him she would be there for him and that he knew that. "It's different," Raziel began, wondering if he should explain this. "It's.....it's like....it's not..it's not really PTSD." He scowled, furious with himself. "Sorry," he mumbled, hanging his head like a boy who had been caught doing something bad. "It's hard to explain. It's not really a flashback of what happened, or nightmares or anything like that. It's more like..." the Roman paused, raising his head once more to look at her.

His eyes widened as she licked his cheek and rested her head against his chest; somehow, the action of her comforting him touched him deeply. But the moment was ruined when Desna moved between the two of them; Raziel resisted the urge to push her away and simply let it be. "It's more like...after a particularly...terrible? Traumatic? Nevermind. After that event, something happened to me, making me unable to..."

Raziel blinked and sighed heavily; he knew he would have to tell her, he just didn't know how.