crushing

He watched out of the corner of his eye as she tucked away the offered marigold. For a moment he felt kind of bad about not acknowledging her gesture, but of his current "wounds" the physical one was the least of his concern and he had been so focused on the important things that he'd been blind to what she was doing until it was too late and the moment had passed. As an afterthought, a weak attempt to make up for ignoring the gesture, he blurted softly as she put the leaves away, "Thanks for the offer."

Pyrrhic found himself nodding along shallowly as she replied. He liked the metaphors she was using. It made sense to think of what he was going through as an injury. Really, it was clever and it put things into perspective. "I think I understand." Did he tell her what was wrong? How could he explain himself to her, a stranger, when he struggled to do that with his own family?

He bit his lip and lifted his eyes to the root matted ceiling above them; looking anywhere other than at Riva. "I feel..." The words stuck in his throat. This was wrong, he couldn't do it. Pyrrhic's voice dropped and he shook his head. "Like I shouldn't be boring a stranger with my problems." He was suddenly angry. With himself, with Riva. It was just easier than to continue down the path he'd been on.