Missteps and Revelations

Azzurra laid on the beach and watched as she sun began to rise while her coat slowly dried, but she didn't have to wait long before she heard movement behind her and glanced back over her shoulder to see Balthier walking out of the bungalow toward her. A fresh wave of nervousness hit her, but she did her best to keep her composure. She tried to find strength in the fact that she at least had one other friendly face in this pack. She didn't know if Erys would still be as welcoming and friendly outside of the surprise encounter late at night, but she hoped that he would. It gave her a little bit more confidence as Balthier came to lay next to her on the sand, greeting her and commenting on how she was up early. "Good morning," she said softly in return, glancing down at the sand between them as she gathered her thoughts. "Yes... I am," was all she could say at first while she struggled to find the bits of statements that she had planned out in her head.

"Balthier... I... I have to be honest with you," she said after a moment, glancing up at him uncertainly. "Hiding things has only made all of this worse and I don't want to keep doing it." It felt like that was the key to help the flood gates open even though the anxiety of it was making her heart beat harder against her chest. "I... I was with a man last night. I drank the last of the wine we had and went looking for someone and... well..." She looked at him nervously, afraid of what he was going to say or how he was going to react. "I just... I needed it and I wanted to not feel like I should feel guilty for it and I... I wanted to know if I could enjoy it with someone else and... I..." She struggled and stumbled over her words, her mismatched ears flicked back against her head as she tried to find a place to stop, a way to fully tell him how she had been feeling, but it was hard. She didn't want to hurt Balthier, but at this point she wasn't sure if there was a way around it. She had been hurting and hiding her pain for so long to try and keep the status quo, but she couldn't do it any more. She had to rip the band-aid off if she had any hope of finding her way out of this.

"Azzurra"