There was something strange about just… just being with Sleekwing like this. The mountains ran through their systems like something you wouldn’t believe… like something that was simply… simply a draw. Almost like the imprint bond, or at least that was how Bane felt it. Maybe he would always feel things a little differently, but that wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t so bad, and yet there were so many things he would have liked to say. No apologies fell from his tongue more… more that he was moving on. There were things that he would leave behind, and that was okay too. Things that needed to be left behind. Things in the past, and yet, maybe that was where they needed to start.

He was dwelling, though. Bane would always dwell on things, and there were things that would always make him feel… make him feel like things weren’t quite right. There was already the hole in his chest that Calista left. Every so often he would feel the tug that she was near, and once he was far enough in that direction she’d be gone. Chasing, trying to find her, and yet… falling short. Falling flat. It was enough to make everything hurt and enough to make him nearly crumble with self-loathing. And yet here he was. Standing.

But he was here. He was here with Sleekwing, standing beside his brother in the way that they probably never had. Not before this. “It was a mistake.” He realizes several moments later that he’s spoken a half-formed thought. It had been in his head and on his lips in two different capacities. “I missed too much, not being here.” The children had all grown, the children were having their own children, his parents were dead, and nothing was right anymore. The only thing that hadn’t changed was his spot on the mountain, and at least he had that to be thankful for. That, and Sleekwing.