King Elk Forest -- we can't say we didn't try

in which i feel like mato is the asshole that takes the cake in my circus of assholes. ;-;

Mato had just finished meticulously stitching up the wounds that Brienne’s capture ( he knows now ) had left gaping and bleeding in it’s wake; only to have them torn at the seams, reopening what he had attempted to close back up and leaving him bleeding out. He is outwardly cold but inside is world war three. “I do know what it’s like to have false hope,” He speaks with more infliction then he means and recoils back ever so slightly, drawing in a harsh breath through his black, leathery nostrils. They are both damaged by it, though neither is at fault for what happened. “You came into my life so suddenly, burning like a sun in my lonely, dark solar system …is it such a far jump to think that you would leave it just as quickly? That you would leave me scorched and wanting?” That wasn’t fair. Mato knows it. He knows he’s being unfair, perhaps even childish and yet he is suddenly angry in the wake of the otherworldly chill he’s adopted thus far.

It threatens to incinerate him: her anger and his own. He thinks, absurdly, of Delight, of how he compares Delight to moonlight. Softer, without the threat of burning him should Mato drift too close ( it does not occur to Mato that, in turn, he may very well be Delight’s burning star of a sun ). She mentions that she’s not sure that he ever loved her and he takes a moment to think about it. He does not recall ever uttering those words to her, in truth. He’s spoken about caring for her, yes, but he never told her he loved her. Had he? He didn’t know. He cared for her, yes, that is obvious. He would not be so angry if he didn’t. “We’ll see.” Is all the druid speaks, because he’s got to staunch the bleeding, has to re-stitch the wounds her disappearance and now sudden reappearance has re-opened.