All By Yourself

She wanted to stand her ground. She wanted to prove a point. However, that resolve had very quickly wore thin with night after night of coming home to an empty bed. During the day she could keep herself busy and distracted, indulge in Kavik and let herself put the current strife in her marriage out of her mind, but at night when there was nothing to hide from the glaring loss that's when it hurt the most. It made her wonder if Alastor was feeling the same pain and loneliness or if he was really too far gone from her to really care. The emptiness and quiet let her mind spiral to the worst conclusions. Occasionally she would relent and go to Kavik's den for some relief, but tonight that just felt like part of the problem. She kept waiting in hope that maybe Alastor would make some kind of revelation and show up at the door to their room, but she knew they were both too stubborn for their own good and both of them would just continue to dig in their heels until one of them broke.

She tried to keep her own issues as contained as she could, but she knew it was impossible for her children and Irilyth to not notice Alastor's absence. It would be foolish of her to think that her attempts at seeming cool and collected to any of them would keep them from figuring out that something was going on, but she couldn't go to their children. She couldn't burden them with this. Kavik knew, but that wasn't the kind of escape she was craving. Eventually she allowed herself to get up, rising to her paws and quietly moving across the connected caves and paths to where Irilyth's room was. It was a fairly small space, but Manea didn't care. She carefully stepped over the sleeping form of her love, settling down in the small space at the edge of the healer's bed, and slipped her forelegs around the smaller woman, hugging her close and tucking her head into the crook of Irilyth's neck. She didn't care if Irilyth woke up or acknowledged her or questioned her. Just having the familiar presence of her was comforting.

"Manea" & "Irilyth"