Chapter Forty-One

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Kweide-

The moment they had returned to their room that night he had expected to sleep. Perhaps have a small discussion before they rested, as had become customary between them. Instead, he had to hold her as she sobbed into his chest. Holding onto him so tightly he could only wonder if she was hurting herself.  "What is wrong Skylar?"

She cried a little longer, shaking her head before she spoke, "everything!

Then she cried some more and he held her until there was nothing left of her distress to show. What could have bothered her so much for her to be so overwhelmed like this? His hands rubbed soothing circles on her back as he pondered the dilemma. "Was Kayla's condition worsened when you left?"

She wiped at her eyes and grabbed for the cloth he procured for her, "No... she just, she told me that she's not coming home with me. She's staying." Skylar wiped her face of the snot and tears that she could.

Kweide continued trying to soothe her but he kept his mouth clamped shut. How could he comfort her?  As she eventually calmed down into sleep he lay awake thinking. He mulled over the novelty of a new thought that had snuggled it's way into his brain. He, wanted Skylar to stay too. 

He looked down at her sleeping form. His vision was blurring a little more now than it had been a moon ago but he could still see her face tucked into his side. She finally looked at peace. His clawed digit gently glided over her cheek to push her hair away from her face. 

He couldn't help but wonder, was it possible she would she would miss him?

————

"Kweide?"

He looked up from the leather he was tying together and set it down. "Yes Skylar?"

"I found something under the-" she paused, eyes widening as she tilted her head, "what's that?"

He looked away as he moved the item beneath a spare fur, "it is the stuffed creature... for Kayla."

"A teddy bear?" Skylar walked closer and set an oddly shaped metal object on the bed as she picked up the barely recognizable toy. "Why?" He couldn't quite explain it, but he could see something different in her eyes as she waited for him to answer. Something soft but also...yearning. There was a right answer to her question. But what was it?

"I..." he hesitated, careful as he picked each word, "I wished for her to recover and you told me about the bear she liked so I... made her another one. I thought it might-". He stopped talking. This was a bad idea. He felt foolish now as he tried to take it from her grasp.

"Go on," She held the bear tighter and he lowered his hand. It wasn't like he'd pry it from her if she didn't give it back.

There was a moment of silence, "-I thought it might help. Somehow." He mandibles flexed in annoyance when she didn't say anything. Why ask him? He turned to her, expecting to see humor on her face or maybe nothing at all. Instead he saw her smiling at him so tenderly that his heart began thundering in his chest. "It was all I knew I could do."

"It's enough," Skylar replied. He watched as she stepped closer and placed it back into his hand. "I know she'll appreciate it." Her small fingers reached up and gently tilted his face towards hers.

What was she doing?

He sat still like a statue as she leaned down and kissed Kweide's mandible and then his cheek. Like a fire dying brought back to roaring life he felt a strange sort of heat flood his body. Intense and seemingly from nowhere. He turned to look at her better but she was already pulled back, reaching for her strange device despite the fact he could hear her heart thumping abnormally.

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