Bramblepoint one for sorrow

Summer watched her with quiet intensity, his own mind reeling. He met his life these days with confidence that bordered on arrogance, and yet standing before Magpie now, he felt just as anxious and uncertain as he had back when he had been a kid bringing her a pine cone as some silly consolation for being held captive by his pack. Outwardly, she seemed just as stricken as he, but his intelligent gaze did not recognize this in a way that would settle his nerves. She didn't know him. He had been nothing to her where she had been so much to him.

Black ears perked when she finally said his name. A ghost of a smile rose to his face, but he was still too shocked to let it free. He nodded instead and swallowed hard. "Yeah, it's me," Summer replied, and somehow finding his voice set the flash of his grin free, "You're here still. I thought you'd gone."