Mount Apikuni 'cause loving and hating are one and the same

There was nothing he could say. He could feel her heart pumping hard as she finally leaned into him, sobbing, crying, melting. Taikon pushed back against her, holding her there, feeling himself silently weeping again. He didn't know what he had done to her. He didn't know why she had decided that he had only been pretending. He didn't even know why she had come out of it when he announced that truly, he was not pretending.
He held her close, offering no words. The touch said everything. It was a language of old, of warmth, and trust. You're amazing, he repeated in a whisper, thinking it true. He couldn't believe that she, with such injuries, had managed to hunt down a meal that was enough for all of them. It seemed to him miraculous and great. Once again, he looked up briefly from the embrace to Taki, who was still lying motionless but unchanged. He shuddered out a slow breath. He leaned back from Zephyr then, and moved to lick at her wounds, to clean them once more. Please, he thought.