in this world it's hard to get it right.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Silence fell between them after she gave her apology. The quiet gave her mind the time to reel with doubt. It warned her that everything was about to go terribly wrong. He wasn't going to forgive her. He was just trying to find the words to explain how he would never forgive her, how she was a different person to him now. He didn't trust her, he could never even look at her the same way. She had ruined it. She'd destroyed everything before she'd even realized what it was.

And then, he came closer. Fin froze against her instincts which were telling her to back away, to cower against the attack he was about to unleash. It was absurd, really. She'd never flinched in such a cowardly fashion when an angry carnivore had come charging at her intent on killing her, but she knew without a doubt that Elwood could do far more damage to her than some stupid bear could.

When finally he spoke, Fin was convinced that she hadn't heard him right. Almost as though he knew this already, he repeated himself and stole away that doubt. When he continued, the caged animal look and tension upon her features eased away with each word, leaving behind only a feeling that she couldn't have described if she'd tried. It was somewhere between overwhelming joy and complete terror... Jerror? Whatever the case, Finley Blackthorn was speechless, and suddenly her head was spinning even faster.

He loved her. Those three words could have knocked her unconscious had he not been so firm with her about wanting her to stay and listen to what he had to say. Hearing him say it was so completely different than any time she'd heard it uttered to her by anyone else. There was no uncertainty in it that she couldn't overlook, and no lie that she overlooked easily out of pure desperation for it to be true. It was just... true. And it left no room for her to argue, which meant that she had no idea how to function if fighting wasn't an option. On that much, her mind and her heart were in complete agreement.

Fin had never been good with words even at the best of times. Now standing at the precipice of saying something every fiber of her being was screaming at her to just say already, she found herself suddenly struggling to remember how, even though all it would take was for her to just repeat exactly what Elwood had just said. Why was that so painstakingly difficult for her?

When finally she replied, Finley was shaking like crazy and staring at his face as though she'd cease to exist if she dared look away for even a second. Her voice was hushed and trembling, but somehow, she found the strength to reply with four breathless words: "There was no moth."