[private] burn me to the ground, phae pony

[hadrien]

hadrien

He understands without having to ask that her mother being gone and his mother being gone are not the same. He understands it in the tightness of her voice, the tear that slips from her eye and streaks down her cheek. He can see it even in the rain.

But he is just a child and he does not know how to offer her comfort. He does not hand her a lie about how she’ll come back eventually. Or how she’ll find her when she least expects to. He only stands there and watches her cry and feels a vicious stabbing in the center of his own chest. Because things are not as simple as he’d once thought they were.

Her mother had left her under different circumstances than his mother had left him. He should have been able to tell simply based on the way she’d fixated on the idea of his mother, but there are so many things he still doesn’t know.

He extends his nose in her direction but does not touch her. But this close, he can see the way she trembles. (Is it from the cold or from something much worse?) He swallows thickly and thinks that maybe he’ll take a step toward her, offer her some warmth even if he can’t offer her anything else.

But she speaks again and stays him where he is. He offers her a lopsided kind of grin that lists and fades as he nods and glances over his shoulder. 

“I’m looking for my sister,” he tells her but does not tell her that it’s something his mother asked him to do. He shifts his focus back to her face, acutely aware of her trembling now, “we could walk together for awhile, if you’d like.” 

but if that chariot they’re driving don’t swing low enough for us
Just paint two crosses on my eyelids and point me out of touch

@frey