Duskfire Glacier testing my patience

the grip these two have on me needs to be studied.

she chokes on a breath that threatened to leave her as a sob. she could not remember the last time she'd allowed herself to cry, let alone weep in front of another. wildling ways had carved themselves into her bones. 

wildlings simply did not cry. and she shouldn't. she tries to will it away, to clench her teeth and blink away the tears the threaten to fall and stain her ghastly cheeks. 

but then faust speaks of the grief he'd felt, and the dam inside of her breaks. at first, it is a single tear that glides down the pillow of her fur. and then there's more. a faucet that would not stop. 

would he think her weak for crying? 

she gets her answer in the form of his closeness, the kiss he presses to her chest. the way she cranes her chin downward so their foreheads may rest together, her pale eyes closing. a shuddered exhale, a small, vulnerable smile. 

a smile only he could see, for she would smite anyone else for witnessing vulnerability that had no room to breathe. 

"i was so angry with you." came her soft whisper. voice thick with emotion and conviction. "i hated you. and when i found you again, i convinced myself that times would be the same. that we would be the same." 

she swallows, nuzzles their foreheads harder together. to ground herself. "but i have been a fool, faust. i am scared of that change." because what if this new, grown Faust had no place for her in his life? 

as a woman who put on the mask of fearing nothing, she feared this. "i do not know where i belong in your life, and that frightens me. i am selfish."