Sunspire Mountains you would come up to me, mumbling awkwardly

no worries!

he squirms again, weight shifting between fidgeting paws, and wonders if it's too late for him to reach across time and eat the words he's shared. brienne's sentiments are comforting and not at the same time -- he thinks maybe it's still too raw even if it's part of the story. he hasn't earned those calluses yet. 

again the spectre of mato hangs between them, always implied. delight bites his tongue for a moment, long enough for brienne to share her tragedy. the comment strikes him as uncharacteristically off-handed, and eager to distance himself from himself, he scans her with critically. he does not know he's met the same girl that brienne left with, but he knows she must have been important to her in some way. "i'm sorry for your losses, too," the morwinyon settles on. it isn't his place to pry anymore. "i'm handling okay. i have people in my corner," he says, faintly smiling, before adding, "but i don't think... i don't think mato is going to come out of his seclusion any time soon." delight's hoped -- when burke died, when they decided to move, being here -- yet mato's remained quiet and introverted. he doesn't want to give up hope, because giving up hope is resigning himself again to loving from behind glass. but hope can only carry him so far, and more and more the practical realities of tindómë take precedent over the willful longing of his heart.