Horizon Ridge xiii. everybody says the world is ending

His ear flicked as she laughed, his eyes sharpening with interest as he settled down onto his stomach so he could relax fully and focus on her words better. As he listened he realised two things, one was that Rhælla was a kind of woman he had never seen and there was something about her that kept him enraptured. The second was that by the way she spoke, she had no idea the effect she had on people, in fact it seemed that she didn't realise she was cool at all. "There's nothing wrong with being raised a leader unless you're bad at it or don't want to be one" he said gently and offered her a lopsided, goofy but sincere smile "You seem to want it and unsurprisingly it seems people want to follow you. And even the better if you were raised to know how to do it. I would have been much better off if I had learned instead of being thrown into it my whole life" he spoke slowly and hesitantly, eyes flashing with occasional nervousness as if she would grow mad at him for hid words. When he finished he gave a deep chuckle, glancing  away embarrassed not catching her sheepish smile but turning back at her words. He blinked with surprise "Don't apologise. Everyone needs a friend to vent to. Being a leader doesn't mean you have to keep a distance emotionally though" he pointed out, inside his head thinking how he wished he could mantain some distance. Being close made every loss all the more painful.