There was little resemblance between the pair, as they aren’t blood, but it doesn’t matter. They are family. He was the only family Jaws ever had, the only one who’d even tried to raise her. Rade hadn’t done badly. He’d cultivated confidence and more than a little sarcasm in the child. She would forever be grateful for him.
Rade flinches. Jaws’s heart drops. She’d startled him. He didn’t want her here. Her mind races. The girl’s ears flicker, brow furrowing for just a moment. But when Rade reached back out to her, Jaws relaxed. She let go a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. Jaws buries her face in his shoulder, but keeps herself from collapsing on him. Barely, but she remains on her own feet. Her dad is grey, and probably a sawhorse by now. Jaws wouldn’t want to knock him over.
I’m here, and she’s trembling. She feels the grind of bone on bone as Rade shifts his weight, and Jaws rests her chin lightly on it. Maybe the warmth would help… she could hope. As he looks down to her, Jaws looks up-- the eyes of a child still, after all these years. There’s a glimmer as he jokes with her, the sarcasm bringing a giggle to her throat. He tugs at her forelock, and Jaws buries her muzzle into his good shoulder and blows a raspberry on the spot in return.
“Nowhere else you belong,” Jaws corrects. She is close to the man, unwilling to let go. “I realized there’s nowhere else for me either.” She reaches to pick out a burr from Rade’s mane. “It’s weird, coming back after all these years.” Jaws traces the man’s face with her gaze, taking in how the years had changed it. He looks weathered, grey now. His eyes are the same. She really has come home.
mare. smokyblack. 15.2. floydxclytie. |