Zevulun had expected silence would follow his words as the mare drifted off to sleep. Though quiet did settle between them, he felt her stir after a long pause and opened his eyes, surprised she was awake. His ears flicked forward to catch her words, though he didn’t take his neck away from her body. It was… nice, this warmth and closeness after the chill of the nearly-frozen water and the late autumn evening that had settled over the Falls.
Her first word - “Don’t…” - made a frown to slowly lower heavily over his brow. Zevulun’s gaze reached for her profile, still not pulling himself physically away from her. “—don’t make that promise.” There was a tight ache in his chest, and Zevulun watched her with knowing heartbreak in his blue eyes. “Don’t promise me anything I—” Her voice choked off in a way that told him she was struggling against the rising emotions, even without needing to see the tears in her eyes to be sure.
Zevulun carefully and slowly moved his chin, let the whiskered velvet brush up her shoulder and his warm breath exhale in a softly white, sweet clover-scented cloud over her white-striped skin. He gently bumped a wet lock of her silver hair, the strands all clumped and stuck together like they would be until it dried. Though they shared this raw, intimate moment, they were still but strangers and he was mindful of how comfortable he acted with her. He was here to try and help ease her woes, not add more to them by taking advantage of her in a moment where she was emotionally weak. So, Zevulun held himself from tracing shapes in her skin and only settled his muzzle with gentle weight on her again, letting his occasional breaths be a warm reprieve from the chill of her skin where he couldn’t be pressed against her.
What she said at last, the sentence she spoke, struck him somewhere deep and true. He looked off into the darkness of the Falls and felt all the unfair, unjust sadness that had shadowed his own life leading to this point. The sad, dark stranger was right.
“I wish I could.” He said after a long pause, when he was sure his voice wouldn’t be too tight with the sadness he felt like a rising tide inside him. “I wish I always could have made that promise, and it always would have been true.” There was an ache heavy in his voice. “I wish I could argue and tell you you’re wrong.”
But, he didn’t. She was right. That wasn’t something he could promise her. Life didn’t always work out the way they’d hoped it would. Again, he saw the faces of all those who he’d turned his back on and left behind, and nearly wanted to cry with her.
But this was not about him. This was about her.
“Well, okay,” he breathed softly, pulling through all the heaviness of the situation to try and find some of his characteristic wit and charm, “I promise to be here until you get sick of me and drive me away.” It didn’t have the same punchiness as his playful tone often did, but was instead quiet and introspective and whispered to her ears as his other words had been.
Who had hurt her like this? Zevulun wanted to know almost as much as he didn’t. Was it someone he could hurt back? Not that he should be her dazzling white knight, nor had she asked it of him, but Zevulun hated to see anyone so… broken and alone as she was. The idea of separating himself from her come morning was one that hit low in his gut and brought a bitter taste to his tongue. How could he simply say goodbye to her after they shared this intimate moment of such raw, emotional truth? How could he be certain she was going to be okay? Or, if not, how could he be certain there’d at least be someone - like him - there to step in and help lift her when she fell?
“If… you wanted to tell a stranger what’s weighing you down to get it off your chest, I’d be willing to listen, as long as it takes.” There was likely a chance she wanted to unload all her woes onto him just as likely as it was she wanted to talk about it. “Or you can just tell me to shut up so we can get some sleep.” He breathed the words across her skin, again trying to see if he could help alleviate some of the heaviness in the air around her.
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