04-04-2020, 08:34 PM
The threat of tears tore like shards of glass. Raffe hated to bear witness to pain just as strongly as he was incapable of turning away from it, and for a moment his chest pounded with panic when Nox’s face pressed against his neck, ready to catch but desperately uncertain he would be enough. His entire being lurched with ways he might ease the burden. But the man was silent, eyes dry when he finally lifted, if strained with the effort. It took Raffe a second to shake out of the moment.
Most of his youth had been spent looking out for kids younger than him. Even Kallisti had its own misfit family dynamic, one of many reasons Raffe had been drawn to the place above the other venues he had worked at over the years. Sometimes Oriena had to be handled carefully, when she was even around, but he’d grown roots there nonetheless. It was something of a talent of his to do so in even the most tenuous of soil.
For now he didn’t dwell on the horror. Not the sounds Nova had made, or the glittering of all those eyes, or the reasons Nox had felt it necessary to sever his own arm. He didn’t think about how pissed Sterling’s parents were going to be either, for needing to pick their sweet daughter up from a burlesque house on the edge of the red light district. A rather more pedestrian problem, all things considered.
“You kept that plant safe, right Sterling?”
She was sat on the edge of the pavement, dutifully ignoring the two men. None of them had had time to process, and for now Raffe chose to forge ahead with as much nonchalance as he could muster. Given the origins of his scar, it was not as difficult as it seemed. Little truly phased him, or if it did rarely for long. He grasped Nox’s hand like it was the most natural thing in the world to lead them out of this shadowy underworld, and beckoned for Sterling to follow.
Most of his youth had been spent looking out for kids younger than him. Even Kallisti had its own misfit family dynamic, one of many reasons Raffe had been drawn to the place above the other venues he had worked at over the years. Sometimes Oriena had to be handled carefully, when she was even around, but he’d grown roots there nonetheless. It was something of a talent of his to do so in even the most tenuous of soil.
For now he didn’t dwell on the horror. Not the sounds Nova had made, or the glittering of all those eyes, or the reasons Nox had felt it necessary to sever his own arm. He didn’t think about how pissed Sterling’s parents were going to be either, for needing to pick their sweet daughter up from a burlesque house on the edge of the red light district. A rather more pedestrian problem, all things considered.
“You kept that plant safe, right Sterling?”
She was sat on the edge of the pavement, dutifully ignoring the two men. None of them had had time to process, and for now Raffe chose to forge ahead with as much nonchalance as he could muster. Given the origins of his scar, it was not as difficult as it seemed. Little truly phased him, or if it did rarely for long. He grasped Nox’s hand like it was the most natural thing in the world to lead them out of this shadowy underworld, and beckoned for Sterling to follow.