Walk awhile
Malalia
05-20-2020, 08:12 PM
He might not have sought her sympathy, but he had it fully. Malalia was still as she listened, hearing the Warlord's history, and that of Iolaire and Banshee. Her heart went out to them, the three of them, alone as they were, the last of their kin in one way or another. How could it not, when their stories weren't all that different than her own? The sadness she felt then, was for her, too. Oh, Sirius. She hadn't known much about the man's past. It was strange, that a kind of solace swam within her grief. What a comforting and terrible thing it was, to not be alone in her loneliness.
She wasn't quite sure where he was going with this, but as he went on, offering her more than just a home -- a name -- her eyes couldn't help but to widen. Tiny, invisible knives stabbed her heart, at the mention of the family she left behind. But overwhelming, still, was the joy that coursed through her when he called her family. His family. Mal had considered herself the last of hers. Pia was dead for all she knew.... and as much as she had bonded with Sirius and Mortis, they didn't share blood. They belonged to each other, and the rest of Sirius's family. They weren't her kin... until now, perhaps.
The wash of the shimmering ocean filled her ears, masked the plip of her teardrops onto the sand below her feet. The quickening of her heart, the heat across her face -- she knew she was crying this time. "Gods..." With a mumbled apology, she raised a paw to wipe her face, but only succeeded in smearing sand across the bridge of her nose. The tears kept coming.
A little more silence passed. "I—" She took in a shuddering breath, and turned her face away from the man. Guilt, shame, despair churned in her belly. "My dam, my brother and sister—they—they were killed. And I ran away." She could barely see the water, as clouded as her eyes were. She could barely breathe, but went on, haltingly telling him the story as she had told Mort not too long ago. Her own voice a distant echo in her ears, her lips moving not of her own accord.
"Pia might still be alive," she finished. "Or she might be dead. I don't know." The strange feeling subsided, somewhat, as another few heartbeats of silence passed between them. "I just... I just thought you should know," she sniffled, head bowed. "Before you offered me something like that." She wanted to accept. She did. Even if she wasn't alone, even if Pia were alive, Sirius could be her family, too.
But the guilt was eating at her like never before, she sneaking feeling that she didn't deserve it creeping up her ears. Because how could she deserve anything he gave her? She was supposed to be dead, along with the rest of them. But for some reason, she wasn't.