He tries so hard to keep his burdens from her. His way of protecting her, she knows, and for a moment, she wishes he would not. She does not press him however. Perhaps, in his own time, he would learn how to share it with her. Perhaps he would not.
Either way, she would hold him as close as he would allow.
His touch eases the jagged edges of worry carving through her heart. She leans into him, clinging to the moments they would have together. If her touch is electric, his is a storm that batters against her skin. Alive yet somehow comforting. She would bask in it for eternity if she could.
But they do not have eternity.
His words whisper against her, causing her heart to squeeze painfully inside her chest. They loosen the ache she has been trying so hard to keep contained. Breathing out a gentle sigh, Noel moves closer, dark eyes closing against reality. There is a note of desperation in her voice when she replies, “I wish that too.”
It cannot be of course, no matter how much she wants it. So she eases back, eyes opening as he tells her of his visit to the south, his voice soft in the slim space between them. She could listen to him speak forever, even if it is of things that inevitably drag him away from her. When he is done, she considers him quietly for a moment before murmuring, “It seems like a… large undertaking.”
She does not say - cannot say - the obvious: that it must mean he would be away from her even more often because of it. Noel would never burden him with the selfish weight of her own foolish wants.
Then he asks about Reave, the strange Guardian of Nerine. She hadn’t been quite sure what to make of him when she had gone to him for help. He had seemed willing enough to give it, but his smiles had been too quick, his curiosity too cryptic. She shakes her head briefly, eyes dropping to the ground before rising to meet Nashua’s. “He seemed willing to help.” She pauses thoughtfully before adding. “He only asked for a favor should he ever need one. He was… pleasant enough, I suppose.”
- noel
@Nashua