Blacktail Deer Plateau this world is only gonna break your heart

in the moments that followed, what struck arcturus the most was that wraen did not greet him in the manner he'd become accustomed: that soft brush of a cheek, the gentle wave of her tail.

all absent.

arcturus felt as if a glacier lurked in his veins: the dull thud of his heartbeat against his ears, as if he were held under an icy current. he wrestled with trying to decipher both what was unsaid and said; rather than greet him, wraen elected to sit down and study him in a silent spell that felt as if it were an eternity. under her gaze he felt his confidence, his warmth, his happiness all stripped away to reveal nothing but uncertainty and worry.

what did she mean, a story about why he was really here? his mouth gaped helplessly as he worked through the thousand ways he could answer that. the hundred ways that he could say one wrong thing and feel this sudden, fragile line between them break.

so he went with the truth, as naked and bare as he had ever been and felt. feeling hurt she could be so cold, so suddenly (did she blame him for maia disappearing?). feeling stung, that she could question why he was here when he had only ever made it obvious -- that it would always be her, it had always been her and no move or gesture he had ever done would sully that. how could she even question that, sitting there so primly as if she did not house ice in her own blood?

arcturus fell away, drawn to his own defeatist crouch before the burn of her stare: "for you."