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He could hear her take a slow, painful breath. He should’ve thought of something better to say…not that it would do any good…

“Alright.” She said, as if taking in all the information she’d been given. He bit his lip, not sure if he should say something or just shut up for how “helpful” he’d b – Alessio flinched as a hand rubbed his arm, but he looked up to see Leana smiling at him. Not optimistically or anything like that, but in a way that somehow made him feel less alone. He relaxed, glancing uncertainly at her hand.

Then she moved closer and swung her arms around him. Alesio nearly yelped, tensing to keep from falling because he’d nearly jumped back. Tentatively, he held her as gently as if she were a bird, completely engulfed in the warmth of her squeeze. A little paralyzed by it to be honest.

“I’m not sure what you’ve been through,” she said “but I’m sorry.”

Alessio blinked, his eyes moist.

For several seconds he floundered to find a response or, well, to frantically coax himself into a familiar numbness. But he finally let go of trying to “fix” his emotions and just held her a little tighter.

It was quiet until she spoke again in a whisper,

“In the future? Don’t ever lie to me.”

I didn’t!?

Oh. Wait…

“I – Sorry,” Alessio stammered. He hadn’t even wanted to admit the possibility they wouldn’t find Nithel, he had to…

But she wanted the brutal truth, not whatever he was ‘supposed’ to say. That was oddly a relief, except that he still didn’t know what to say and now he couldn’t mimic normal people’s lines…

After a minute or two he tried again,

“I’ll keep searching until we find your father,” Or I die or something like that…She’d want to hear him say that.  “I believe we’ll find him eventually, but if we don’t…”

Completely honest, she asked him to be completely frank and honest with her. He hadn’t even addressed the possibility himself of actually losing Nithel.

“…I honestly don’t know what I’ll do.”

She’s strong…

A lot stronger than he was. What else had he been suppressing or lying to himself about? Alessio couldn’t think of anything encouraging to say so he didn’t say anything after that.

 

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