Missteps and Revelations

Azzurra had stayed with Erys for a while longer after they had indulged in each other, reveling in how she felt and the way he looked at her. All of it had answered some questions and brought up many more, but she was grateful for this wonderfully kind man that soothed all of her pains and worries. She dozed off in his arms after the cathartic act was done and when she came to it was very early in the morning. It was still mostly dark out, but the sky was just beginning to lighten with the impending dawn. A bit of reality hit her as she realized how long she had been gone from Balthier and the fact that if he noticed her absence he might come looking for her. She had already made her peace with whatever repercussions might come from this for herself, but she didn’t want sweet Erys to get caught in the crossfire.

Carefully, and reluctantly, slipping from his embrace, Azzurra quietly slipped out of the well decorated bungalow and back out into the open air. She followed the beach back around to the section of the island where the bungalow she shared with Balthier was located. Her steps slowed as she got closer to the bungalow, trying and failing to guess what would happen once Balthier knew. She had already decided that she wasn’t going to lie to him no matter how painful it was going to be. One thing all of this had made her realize was that hiding how she was feeling was only hurting her more. She needed to just get it out in the open and deal with whatever consequences might come… no matter how much that terrified her.

She didn’t go into the bungalow right away. She stopped maybe a dozen feet from the stairs that would lead her up to the door and instead turned toward the near by ocean. Wading into the cold water, she started rinsing off her fur and washing away the traces of last night’s acts. Even though it was mostly for her own comfort to not have her fur all matted and to feel a bit more refreshed, she also didn’t was to make things worse coming home covered in another man. It was already going to be hard enough to explain any of this as it was. By the time she was done the sun had crested over the horizon, the beginning of the sunrise starting to light up the island. Nerves fluttered in her stomach as she stepped out of the water and onto the beach, giving herself a good shake to get most of the water out of her coat. Settling on the sand outside of the bungalow, she watched the sunrise for a little bit and tried to decide how she would address everything.

"Azzurra"