[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

There's miles of heartache to traverse between Elio and Nashua. Broken glass and steep ledges line their journey. To be gentle with each other and themselves, that's the lesson meant to be impressed. Love is powerful yet fragile, life-changing and heartbreaking. But it isn't like this all the time, no. Sometimes their paths are soft soil and lined with cheery wildflowers. Sometimes the love is as taut and sure as a skillfully crafted rope, tying them together, noose to noose. It isn't always like this, so caught up in history. There's bliss and there's peace and there's shining, brilliant summers heating sun-loved backs.

There's living in the moment. There's a gleaming, empty field. No secrets.

The field is wide and low, dotted with daisies. His heartbeat slows. He feels . . . free. Elio's there, for a moment. In a world where he confesses all his sins. Not directly to another, but worn upon his skin. All his mistakes and his regrets, wisely spoken for in his character.

Back to earth Elio falls, pillowed by the sureness of his brother's voice. A smile, wry and handsome, twists his lips at the thought of the pair of them growing up together. What could've been is painful, but not a burden. What actually is between them leaves Lio feeling wistful. He's struck with the sudden urge to share it, to find even more common ground with this brother that could have so easily been an enemy. Tendrils of nostalgia and bittersweet neediness stretch to comfort Nashua, to find empathy.

"I think you'll make an incredible father," Elio blurts, almost spilling out how Nashua is already an uncle; but he swallows the confession, allowing himself to live within Nash's excitement and the future of more tussling children rolling between the redwoods of Taiga. "And you couldn't have a better home to raise them in," this he adds with a soft smile before turning his head to peer between the shadowed tree trunks.

"I'm excited for you, Nashua, elated. I can't wait to meet every child you raise."

@[Nashua]