Kindred spirits

For a moment she almost thought that she saw a pleading and longing in his unique gaze, but she just couldn't make that true in her mind. She was a mother with more emotional baggage than she could possibly ever fully process from a completely different way of life than his own, her features marred and changed by scars. She couldn't figure out why he would be interested in her. But at the very least he seemed to want her company since he invited her into his bed without hesitation, making a small, relieved smile pull at her lips. She climbed up onto the cot as he shifted toward the edge, the small sleeping surface forcing them to be pressed together. She didn't mind, but she didn't realize how much the feeling of his fur mingling with hers and the warmth of him pressed along her side would make her heart skip. "Of course," she whispered back when he mentioned being careful around his shoulder, trying to keep away the overwhelmed breathiness to her voice, a smile pulling at her lips in return to his grin.

She nodded to his question when he asked if she was feeling better, adding, "Better than I have in a long time," as she looked into those handsome, intriguing eyes. When she had laid with Sirius there had been more low, aching longing that she knew would only lead to more disappointment and pain. Laying with Resin for the last time had filled her with sorrow and mourning in the end, a sharp reminder of what she was losing. This felt different. She couldn't explain how difficult it had been sleeping alone all these months after Resin locked herself away, constantly reminded of how alone she would always be. For once that ever present, aching loneliness was nudged aside, allowing her to enjoy what it felt like to just be with someone she was comfortable with again. It was a heady, overwhelming feeling that formed a lump in her throat from the crashing wave of relief that washed over her.

After laying like that for a few moments, carefully leaning into him, she couldn't keep herself from the desire to be closer. As long as he didn't stop her, she would gently slip herself under his foreleg, getting him more onto his side so that she could press into his chest, her heart pounding against her ribs as she tucked herself into his embrace. She laid on her side so their chests and stomachs were pressed together, curling into him like a puzzle piece. With the way she was laying, she could be right at eye level with the trio of deep scars that crossed his chest and she quietly brought a paw to the raised, jagged skin, tracing them gently with soft paw pads and claws. Feeling him surrounding her in his embrace, his warm scent filling her nose... It was as much of a relief as it was a reminder of what she had lost.

Tears began to well up in her eyes as she continued to gently, tenderly trace his scars, and for a while she just forgot that he was a stranger. It felt like she had known him for ages and it felt like she was coming home. She blinked away the tears, swallowing past the lump in her throat as she tried to fight them off, but it was no use. "I'm sorry..." she managed in a choked whisper as she hid her face away in his broad chest, pulling in on herself as the waves of emotions finally took their toil and made her crack, tears spilling into his fur as she shook quietly with sobs only letting little gasping breaths escape her occasionally as all the pain was washed away from her soul.

Tamsyn Carpathius