Solace
As Rou speaks Solace forgets that she is the Caretaker, she forgets everything except for the worst day of her life. A shuddering breath sakes the girls chest as she holds back the tears which threatened to overflow. Only he had the power grant absolution, he was the one she hurt most.
Her mother had tried, and Svedka had almost been successful, but she had only tucked those dark feelings down and away, not resolved them. She had never forgiven herself, she had only refused to think or speak of what she had done. Maybe it hadn't been intentional, but it had been stupid, careless, preventable.
Oh, if she had only been more careful!
And then he says words she had heard before, but they had been worthless in the mouth of any other than good, kind, Rou.
Now, they mean something.
"Don't apologize, Solace. It wasn't your fault..."
Hesitantly at first, and then with determination she closes the distance between them. Solace comes to stand alongside her once-guardian and leans her head against his neck in a familiar gesture. When she was younger her head had only reached his shoulder, but she takes comfort from the expression all the same.
It was still Rou - she still trusted him.
Like a child, she can find no words in her grief - grief that had been expertly suppressed. But as the tears begin to flow into his golden coat, she knows it will be the last time she cries for the brother she could never have saved. From now on she will only remember the beautiful six months they shared together, and with Rou's help, Solace absolves herself.
you are my sunshine
@[Diable Rouge]
