Close Your Eyes, Sometimes It Helps

Allegro heard her cry out, telling him that she didn't ask for this, and it stopped him in his tracks. He stopped mid step, staring at the ground as his teeth grit together, feeling almost as if something snapped in his chest. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, his hackles bristling as he apologized with words that he knew were hollow. He wanted to just keep moving, but her behind him, focus on his children, but he couldn't. He just couldn't do it. He had put up with all of this for too long and there was not a single strand of patience or forgiveness left in his normally kind, welcoming heart. He had welcomed her in, let himself fall for her. When she showed up at the border, pregnant and upset, he had given up everything to help her, to raise their children. Alone.

He rounded on her, forcing himself to leave some distance between them so that he wouldn't do something that he'd deeply regret later. "Do you think that I did, Aranea?!" he demanded, his muscles tensed and hackles raised. "I gave up everything for those pups. I raised them alone, just waiting for you to come back to us. I didn't ask for anything from you except some decency and to show even a little bit of love to those pups. They are truly the ones that didn't ask for any of this." He swallowed back a lump in his throat, trying to keep himself from yelling and ultimately failing. "Yes, I'm heartbroken that I loved you and that was never enough for you, but this isn't about me. I am furious that you would bring those pups into the world and then just... just... abandon them for... for what?! To get fucked by someone else and end up in the same exact position that you had been in before? This is insanity what you're doing! And you're dragging us down with you!"

He drew in a shuddering breath, quickly blinking the frustrated tears from his eyes. He didn't know how to get rid of this anger, where to channel it, how to deal with it. He'd never been a fighter, never let himself get this angry at anything. And now here he was, facing the woman that he had once loved who very clearly had never felt the same, and he was going to have to walk back home alone and face his children and tell them that they were never going to see her again. He was trembling with anger, but when he spoke it was low and aching with pain. "Best of luck to you, Aranea. I hope every single second of fucking whoever the bastard is was worth it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my sick daughter and confused children and let them know that we'll no longer be expecting you." With that he turned and walked away from her, refusing to look back at her or stop, no matter what she said or did. He was done.

Walk | "Talk" | think