Her words slice upon him, no warning he is splayed bare and he allows this to happen willingly. Had he fallen so far that he could not even use the endearment he so loved? Eyes widen for a split second, the portal to his soul expansive before it shuts down completely as his lids narrow. He would not break to her pain, would not bend his mission lest he remain a broken hull of a wolf. Gathering his composure, his measured calm he finishes his explanation, his heart hammering against his ribs. With each sentence he was painfully aware that she did not grace him with her gaze. It was as if he did not deserve it, that she was…no…he was beneath her.

IT hurt.

It was just though.

Shattered no longer described the heartache that raged within him as he took the jagged shards and pressed them to his metaphorical wrists. Agony swirled yet he pushed through, pushed through and let his heart speak what he had found so hard to say for so many moons. And he almost finished…almost. Her biting words come at him hard and fast, harshly halting the remaining vocals within his throat. How could he say that to her? He will tell her how. Upon his first step forward the earth rumbles and upon his second the sky flashes. His body trembles with the atmosphere and the barely leashed emotions that rage within him. He, was Leonidas, the champion of war and he will make Dragon understand how HE of all can say this to her.

”Look at you, you can barely look upon me. This whole time you have looked up and over. Never truly seeing me. LOOK AT ME!”

The last three words are a whispered command, his energy rippling and cracking as he stared at her face, seeking to look upon her gaze the first moment he got. He stood before her, soaked, yet strong as regarded her.

”I am but wolf. I am no God. I know you better than I know myself. I love you more than anything else. I covet you more than I need air and yet you only see me as what you need me to be. LOOK at me and see me for who I really am. A scared wolf who wants nothing more than to be that which you would be proud of but I am not there yet and I can’t pretend. I won’t pretend any longer. I will become that warrior I know I can be. I will rebuild myself into the vision you and I both hold for myself. I will do it the right and healthy way BUT I will not sit here and beg that you love this…this imperfect version of me. I will not hold you back from finding happiness should it lurk in a body that is not my own. I owe you that, I owe you the space to heal.”

With that he turns his head to his leg, muscles suddenly weary. Now he did hug himself, soothed the internal war that rivaled the one that surrounded them. He would get through this conversation and they would either split or…or WHY did she have to say the next things? Head jerks up, the determination that brewed blazed. Just as he would never get off easy neither would she. Closing the respectful distance he had allowed her when he approached earlier he made it so that he stood directly before her. He could feel the heat of her body as it contrasted with the icy chill in the air…with the subzero temperatures of his own resolution.

”You, Daenerys, Need me.”

How brazen was he…how foolish. Yet now he was on a roll and he was not stopping any time soon. His tongue had caressed her name before but now he spat it as if the syllables offended him. They did for she will always be Dragon.

”As I need my Dragon. Go ahead and pretend that you do not want me…that I do not affect you. Turn your back just like I have all this time. What would be your excuse? The same one that I have spurted from my lips time after time? You will allow fear to control you as it has controlled me? You see where that has gotten me!”

Eyes narrow as the fervor of his pitch rises, his body standing taller with each line, with each spoken word until he stood at full height, tail swaying within the wind at half mast. He all but challenged her, but this challenge was not for her throne…but for her heart.

”The Dragon I know knew no obstacle she could not climb, no valley too deep. The Dragon I knew would fight tooth and claw to claim what was hers and to foster it until it grew into what she saw. Have I done this to you? Have I….tainted you?!”

With this his head recoils, as if she has slapped him. Did he do this to her?

”I will fix this.”

The words were a whispered growl, a promise to the earth made with bared teeth. He may have lost her but he has not lost this war. He will show her…show everyone that he was a force to be reckoned with. That he was indeed the King she doubted.