King Elk Forest -- we both know a break does exactly what it says on the tin

of course she rebuts him, of course she forgives him -- she's the nicest wolf delight's known, but when you get right down to it, that wasn't what delight meant. "he loved you too," the androgyne confides, wondering when he's going to step over the damn line he's been tiptoeing for months, "he told me that he almost abandoned tindómë for you, but then he didn't. he hardened himself instead." does he still love her somewhere deep down? he suspects the answer is so, but he knows it doesn't matter either way, that mato is good at closing off. that he'd rather burn the bridge between them than offer that moment of vulnerability. and delight agrees with brienne -- hadn't he said as much to mato before brienne had even returned? 

he's playing with fire and he knows it, but the burn is so lovely against his cold feet. "you know i love him," he says, finally, and feels the words raw in his throat. "and you, of course, in a different way -- i don't blame you if you don't want to stay, but i do love you too." and in an alternate reality, a better one, maybe, delight would be the quiet bachelor, the (if he can be a little arrogant) godfather to their children, protective but distant, still orbiting the happy couple. not happy himself, maybe, but content enough. he'd accepted his fate the minute he'd realised a) his decision to follow mato had less to do with a promise of pack and more to do with the prince himself and b) the way brienne and mato looked at each other meant mato would never be his to look at. and mato never would have noticed -- or so he thinks, anyway, because he can't cast himself as the homewrecker when he'd worked so hard to not be that to them. even if in the end, maybe he is a little bit. or maybe it's just all too complicated to fall back on these archetypes -- and all he can do is hope that each of them are able to grab onto whatever small happiness they can find, whether it's together or apart, tindómë or not.