The Hand You've Been Dealt

*Azzurra* · 07-14-2021, 02:08 PM

The words her brother repeated back from their father didn't make any sense in her mind, but him leaving also didn't make any sense so she supposed it was just completely confusing and heartbreaking all around. There wasn't much in her life that was safe or familiar. All she had ever really known was this den, her father, and her siblings. Anything else was new and unknown. She knew losing their father was a drastic change for all of them, but with such a massive piece of the limited scope of her life gone... The information was both hard to accept and somehow so painful that it was numbing at the same time. She held onto Balthier, feeling as if he was the last piece of familiarity she had left now that both of their parents were gone. She had always felt close to him, but now even more so as they shared in this heartache and loss as their world was pulled out from under them.

Her crying became hiccuping breaths as his forehead rested on hers, trying to keep some kind of composure like he was, but struggling to even manage that. "It's n-not your fault..." she whispered as he apologized, her mind coming back around to the fact that her brother was the one that had discovered that their father had left or perhaps even seen him leaving. And now here he was, having to support her as he always did, being the most wonderful brother that she ever could have asked for. Guilt mixed with her sorrow, realizing that there was no one else for Balthier to fall back on. He had always been the strong one, the responsible one, the one she looked up to the most. Her forelegs slipped up around his neck as her name faintly left his lips, breaking what little pieces of her heart were left as she closed her eyes as well, holding him and trying her best to comfort him in return. She didn't want him to feel like he was alone in this, she wanted to support him and make him feel better too, no matter how unusual that felt for her after being the helpless one for most of her life.

Her mind reeled with the information she was given, with the overwhelming emotions that kept her teetering on the edge between breaking down again and being okay, and desperately trying to find some way to lift her brother up and prove to him that she could comfort him just as he had done for her so many times before. Her muzzle brushed his as their foreheads leaned into one another, making her heart skip a beat and catching her off guard. They had snuggled and laid close like this so many times before, but somehow this felt different. She didn't know what this feeling was as she brushed the side of her muzzle against his again and felt that same skip in her chest, but it wasn't pain and it wasn't heart break so she gravitated toward it naturally, grasping at anything that felt like it might bring her some kind of happiness.

She shifted her head slightly so she could nuzzle her cheek into his, her dainty paws holding on to the thicker, black fur at the back of his neck, feeling this odd tension only grow the more she indulged in it. "Balthier..." she breathed as her muzzle brushed his again, butterflies fluttering in her stomach. It didn't occur to her that what she was doing wasn't they should do. She loved her brother and if these little affections could distract them both for even a little while then she couldn't find the harm in that. She didn't know what a normal family looked like or how other siblings interacted. She hadn't been out among the pack or known anyone outside of her siblings. Balthier was hurting and this was how she was trying to help him feel better. She finally tipped her muzzle till her lips lightly brushed his, leaving the softest hint of an experimental kiss in her wake, making her breath catch.

"Azzurra"

Login
Username:
Password:	Lost Password?
	Remember me