As she sought further comfort in lying against him, Castillon found ways to naturally adjust to allow her to sink as hard into him as she wanted. He still touched her here and there, still not meaning for them to be romantic touches, but just because he was incapable of simply sitting there and not providing further comfort. He couldn’t listen to her crumble and crack around him and stay perfectly still. It moved him; she moved him.
His black-lined ears flicked briefly as doubt touched his face, all without knowing the details of the story, as Aura claimed it should’ve been her who was taken instead of them. Further, she blamed herself, and he wondered if this guilt had clung hard to her heart every day since the event had happened. How could she process her grief in such a state? Where every time she thought of them or of the moment happening, self-blame was quick to follow?
Castillon murmured softly behind his lips, not quite making a word to argue, but a noise that immediately spoke to his position on the matter. He knew she wasn’t to blame; or even if her actions caused the events, the intent had never and would never be within her, and so she was innocent. When she pulled away from him quickly he felt his heart lurch, and decided not to wonder why he’d felt such a strong reaction to her moving away from him, brown eyes held on her grief-filled gaze.
H-how… she choked how am I supposed to keep going without them?
Castillon watched her quietly for a moment, sadly. There was a soft sheen of sympathetic tears just on the edges of his eyelids. When he blinked, he cleared them, but it’d been there for a moment. Moved to share her grief with how greatly it permeated from her.
“You keep going for them,” he said, quietly at first, and looked hopefully at her. Castillon did not want to say the wrong thing, and he hoped he wasn’t overstepping, but the words were coming quickly and passionately from his lips as he stretched toward her to look at her more closely and make sure she kept her eyes with his. “You live for them, because they loved you, and that’s what they would want for you. I barely became a father last season,” he said, “but if ever there was a moment in this life that something would either take me or my daughter, I would make damn sure it took me every single time.” His voice became firm, ever clear of his love for his child that would be there for any other children he had in the future. “And I would want her to live a full and happy life, even if I couldn’t be there to watch over it. Because… that’s what our parents want for us, Aura. They want us to be happy and to be loved, even if they can no longer be the ones to do it.”
There was only a small pause before he spoke again and his voice was softer. “I think they wouldn’t want you to blame yourself, or to live with this much pain. They would want the very best for you, Aura.”
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