Redhawk Caldera If the whole wide world stops spinning

I like it too, she said, and they were probably some of the best words that she could've said for Eljay. Validation meant a lot to him. He hadn't always received it in his youth (rather, he'd often felt that he lacked many things; beyond his parents, not many had validated him for his childcare and medical knowledge until more recent years) and now that he was well into adulthood, that still left a mark. To hear that she was enjoying being with him just as much as he enjoyed being with her put a perspective on, well, everything that he thought he knew.

Eljay thought before that running after Maia would be a fool's errand. It'd felt like something he still wanted to do, if he could be missed here, because it felt a lot like the uncontrollable urge he had had to join the Copse when Wiffle had first left the Plateau to start it. Like an opportunity that couldn't be missed. Yet at the back of his mind he had always had the uncertainty because he thought Maia didn't necessarily need him there, and Wraen certainly didn't. Now Maia was here, and she was telling him that she liked being here, with him, even despite having just been mauled by a stranger in a terrifying life-altering incident. And still she looked like she wouldn't have wished it to be any other way.

Maia looked away from him, and he tried to piece together why. Was she shy? He didn't realise that he'd been staring until she looked away and he started to analyse what was going on. Maybe he'd been staring. Maybe it made her uncomfortable. Sorry, uhm, Eljay said awkwardly and he looked away from her face as he felt his cheeks heat up underneath the fur. He wanted to add 'for staring', but that just sounded strange.

Maybe he was getting too far ahead of himself with these thoughts and feelings. He wasn't really sure where to place them. Eljay had never considered anyone to want to be with him in that way until he'd fallen in love with Wiffle. Even then, she was the one to take initiative, and he hadn't even realised that he was in love with her until well after their children were conceived. The situation was just entirely different. Eljay wished that he had the courage to tell Maia about the way she made him feel in that moment, but he just didn't really know where to start and he certainly didn't want to send the wanderlusty Maia spinning on her heels waiting to get out of there.

In the end he just said, I like you. A lot. A whole lot. Like a mountain of lots stacked together. Like.. Eljay continued to look away too, then, too afraid to look at her to se her reaction. He had tried to make it sound as casual as he could, as if he was just telling a friend that he liked spending time with them, but somehow when the words finally did escape his throat they sounded deep and heartfelt and as if they'd struggled to get free for some time now.