[private] you'll wish for time to turn back around

[elio]

elio

some say I should learn to cry but I only learned how to fight
and I know everything must die but nothing fades like the light

Tell me where you've been, Lepis had said to Elio once. She persistently picked at his tangled mane, offering the doting affection of an insistent mother. He had let her pick out wayward twigs and leaves as he always did, smiling with an innocence he wishes he could remember possessing. There were stories upon stories, hugs and strained smiles and good memories even as time flew by and shadows crept upon their backs. There was laughter and there was joy, suffering and pain to match. The bond of love and blood. It was good, then. It's good now, too - but Elio doesn't know how to answer the question that always twists his tongue:

How are you?

Delivered in earnest, forgiving, persistent like the phantom touches of Lepis in his mane. It's in this moment that Elio sees a piece of Nashua he never truly appreciated: overwhelming bravery. In the face of their cursed father. Bearing the weight of another's uncertainty. He'd always been so daring and curious, so purposeful and kind. But underneath there was a strength Lio envied, that aforementioned overwhelming bravery.

Elio isn't brave anymore. He isn't sure he ever knew bravery, at least in it's total reality. There was a time when he thought reckless anger was bravery. He doesn't know that man now, the one controlled by emotion magic and the ghost of a curse. Standing here, in the face of such love and pure strength, he almost feels emboldened - but mostly he feels shame.

And he can't let that shame win anymore. He must learn sometime, lest he go mad. Was it not madness that took his father? His mother? His sister? Is he cursed, too? To wither and die? To fail Lannister like his father unwittingly failed him?

"I haven't been well," Elio says suddenly, though the words are measured in a way that surprises him. He matches Nashua's gaze with a strength he longs to know intimately. "My mother's death and our father's curse . . . I let it take me away. I am so glad to hear of Taiga's growth, though. And your adventures. It, uh," he pauses, looks away. "It's grounding."

Elio looks back at Nash, a shy smile growing on his face.

"Who is this girl? Is my little brother smitten?"

@[Nashua]