Hazy Shade of Winter

It was never a question of if she would see him again, Cae just didn't have room to doubt that their paths would cross after the first time they'd found one another. Even when she'd run from that encounter, she'd never fully believed they'd be apart forever. What she didn't know was if they could ever patch things up, or if the pieces of their shattered past were just too damaged to stick back together. Sometimes she'd tried to tell herself that they'd probably just always miss each other, that seeing him that time had been a one in a million chance and that he'd never get close enough for her to see again. Until she'd found Inverno she thought maybe she'd walk the earth alone, waiting for her paws to fall off from all the miles traveled, or her body to waste away, whichever came first. Life had other plans though. If fate could lead her to him twice, was there hope that things would smooth out and in the end, by some miracle, it would be okay again? Maybe not the same again, maybe they'd never feel completely better or whole ever again, loss did that to you. But if she could just be okay, that would be enough.

Pressed close to him, with her face in his fur it all felt possible. The feeling was fragile, so thinly held together like a spiders web. Would it break, or last? Caelum felt like a helpless little child here, in awe of the feeling he elicited, and always wishing for forever. If only he would accept the new her, the broken one who broke apart so easily even she found herself pathetic at times. She wondered if he cried often anymore. Until now she'd been so wrapped up in just soaking in the present moment that she hadn't really let herself wonder what he had been up to. He'd said he had changed, and she knew it was true. Something in those shimmering eyes, it was different. Not even in her most foolish and childish of moments could she deny that he was different. But so was she, right? It wasn't the same though. They were different, in different ways. What ways? How could she go on with so many unanswered questions?

Wrong? Denying that was another thing she couldn't do. She couldn't walk away from him, couldn't really go to him, couldn't tell what changed him, and couldn't say that it wasn't wrong. If only there was something she could do... If only, if only... Why...

Pulling away slightly and rolling so she could lay on her back, staring up at him with soft blue eyes and an aching heart she'd reply in the softest of voices, like a breeze rustling through grass, " If I knew, darling, I'd make it go away." Her heart still hurt for both of them. Reaching towards his cheek again she'd seek to place a gentle kiss there, thinking wistfully that if kisses could cure pain she'd freely give them till both wolves were healed of the damage that day and the time since it had done.

"What... I mean, where have you been?"