[open] that's my cross to bear

[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

Elio would have known Eyas would offer her home readily if he had known she has one; but the extension of love comes as a surprise, and all he can muster in the moment is a slow closing of his eyes.

It feels as if every atom in Elio's body cries out to be soothed. They lift tiny arms to worship Eyas, to praise and believe and blindly follow. Touch-starved and so, so lost, the dunalino has forgotten what it feels like to have goosebumps. To feel love in its unconditional embrace. And most of all, he doesn't remember what it feels like to truly be home. Not even Taiga does that for him anymore, and now, standing so easily beside his sister, Elio wonders if it ever gave him the feeling of belonging.

"I really want to," Lio blurts, turning his head to offer Eyas his whole face. The space now between them allows him space to breathe, to perhaps finds more understanding. "I have to tell you something, though, I--" he pauses here, swallows, mouth set into a hard line. How does he explain his son that lives only in his dreams? That Lannister is real and controls their world despite never touching foot on real ground?

"I have a son," he breaths out, more relieved than he thought he would be to say it out loud. "But he's not here, on this plane of existence. If I come stay at . . . at Islandres, then I might lose him. I can't stop looking for a way to get him here, with me. He only knows what I manage to dream on the nights he can find me. I know I'm not making much sense, but please, believe me, Eyas. I want almost nothing more than to relax with you and Gale in the middle of the ocean."

Elio thought his eyes would be more desperate as he spoke, but instead they find a calm gentility he rarely knows. The generally stormy lines of his face soften and he frowns, flicking his gaze down to his hooves.

"His name is Lannister. I bet he could find your dreams, too, if you want to meet him."

@[Eyas] <3