Shadewood I remember when

Yeeesss the plot thickens by 100

 

From Higoros perspective, Minori looked war torn but more notably, heartbroken. Higoro kept the space between them and stayed quiet as she vented her frustrations. Memories of very similar experiences flashed briefly through his mind, they brought forth nostalgia, causing a few beats of his heart to pound with purpose and joy. However hearing Minori rant on about his betrayal caused a complete 180 in emotion. His ears flattened, tail sunk but his head remained high, fighting off any urge to slink away like the coward he once was. No he was going to stand there and take the reprimand like he deserved. Minori deserved that much at the least. His ears managed to flatten further, agaisnt all odds as she continued on her rant and his tail almost hiding between his legs. Guilt tore him down like a bear mauling a deer, leaving nothing of his usual confident self left.

The guilt screeched to a sudden halt when forgiveness was thrown into the mix. His ears perked at the word and his tail lifted from its cowering. Then the unbelievable happened, Minori forgave him. She actually forgave him! He couldn't believe it, his tail was wagging uncontrollably and his facial features looked light and happy, he was even smiling. Thats not even the best part, she did the thing. The thing that was, and clearly still is, his favorite, her affection. It felt so different from all that he had felt throughout the past years, affection, kindness. His heart raced like a love struck teen, and yearned for him to return the affection and dear god did Higoro give in and melt into her. He couldn't stop himself, his hidden emotions came out in full force and he gave his full affections. His muzzle nuzzling into the fur on her neck, a soft, quiet whine escaped. He realized in that short moment that he still very much loved her, his heart never stopped pinning for her. He wanted to tell her, he needed to but he can't. He shouldn't at least. 

Coming down off the high that was his love for her he stepped back, putting even more distance than before between. "Thank you for forgiving me Minori, I promise you I won't make the same mistake." He kept his voice low, and kept his eye contact to a minimum. He felt he had stepped over the line far enough with what he did, he didn't want to make things worse but his eyes told a story of heartache. Heartache from the fact that he will forever love her and never be able to love her the way he should've long ago. In truth he wanted to cry but he'd never cried in front of Minori before and he wasn't about to change that. Instead, he swallowed hard and fought his tears like he fought in battle but this battle was much harder than any others he had ever faced.