Guardians.

Comfort.

Trigger warning-talks about self-harm, toxic behaviour. Possible urges for self-harm.

Sam

Sam walked silently as she was guided to her tent, when they got there she dismissed her guard and went inside Roman was sitting staring at nothing on their bed.

"Knock knock?" Sam does and he looks towards the door "is this the tent of Sam and Roman?" She asks and he nods slowly, she smiles and silently sits on the other bed "great so this should be mine then"

Roman froze as he processed what she had just said, "Sam?" He asks quietly she nods, "hey Ro" a look of sadness and pain dawned on his face. She went to sit beside him "can I touch you-" before she could fully ask he crashed into her sending Sam to lie on the bed as roman hugged her, "why?" He asks.

She knew where this was going, "why didn't you go?" His voice cracked she took a deep breath before answering "because I was worried about what would have happened when you all saw me, especially Virgil. I didn't want you getting even more hurt. Having Robyn go was more ideal than hear you two push each other away" her voice was soft, like a mother comforting their child, Roman needed it.

She rubbed gentle circles on Roman's back as he stayed in the hug, he didn't cry but he just needed the contact to know she wasn't leaving again. This went on for several minutes just silence while Sam comforted her broken ward, her eyes glowed a gentle red which made Roman relax like putty in warm hands.

"Roman, we need to talk about some things if your comfortable with doing so," she says softly, he hums "what about?" It was louder than he spoke before, "what's been happening this last year and a half, and also options that could help, I already know you want to see a couples therapist and that great, I'm proud of you both but... I could fix all of the pain that both you and Virgil have if I were to do something... I'd just need your permission" she says silently.

Roman frowned confused "why me? Why not Virgil?" She smiles sadly "because he would freak out if he found out what I was thinking about doing. He's my brother after all," she says carefully, roman understood what she meant. when they did visit, Virgil never allowed sam out of his sight which made sense to why they didn't know of sam and Robyn's relationship till they got married.

"I see, what- what about the year and a half do you want to talk about," he asks getting out of the hug and sitting next to her as she sits up a slight wince but nothing too major.

"I want to talk about the self-hate and self-destructive behaviour you're going through," she says Roman paled as he heard those words he looked like a deer in headlights, Or like he got caught stealing the last cookie out of the cookie jar, if it wasn't such a serious matter Sam would have laughed but nows, not the time.

"Wh-what about it?" He says going back to the tone he had before, he was tense, like an over-turned guitar string that was about to snap, she takes his hand softly and rubs her thumb on his knuckles, the green in her eyes fading to a comforting red.

"It wasn't your fault Roman-" "it was, it always is, you can't lie to me Sam, it was my fault for being here I regret everything that I've said that I've thought when it comes to your brother. These past couple years to get him so angry at me it's my fault that I can't love him the way he needs or wants.

He doesn't want someone to care about him he wants someone to leave him be and I can't do that, he doesn't want me to care, ask him what for lunch- to hug, why am I his soulmate if I keep getting blamed? I just want this hate to end, we were fine before you disappeared before I proposed to him" a tear slowly went down his cheek as Sam listened to Roman vent and blame himself, his eyes went to a mix of blue and green and glowed slightly.

She squeezed his hand gently getting him to look at her the blue-green going back to his original emerald, "Roman, listen to me now and listen to me well" she says gently getting him to look into her eyes that swirled pink and red, "you were not in the wrong, Virgil is. He is wanting to fix it but you can't be near him until he does something to make you less panicky because of his smell. Take a breath and think about how you treated him, you gave him love, kindness, compassion and more time than naught you overlooked all the anger he had,

And yes over time you needed an outlet, I'm not mad. I considered that too when it started to involve myself too but no one would leave me alone long enough to actually go through with it." She said and Roman looked away anxiously, hand going to where he had scratched the day before.

The urge came back it made his skin crawl having that desire to his claws to come out and dig them in and draw blood.

Sam notices a glint in his eyes and she gently takes his hands hers were emitting a mist of cold that crawled up his arms that made him shiver and the urge started to fade.

"Virgil, as he said, is we are damaged, all three of us are broken in some way, but I can help with some of yours, Virgil will need to talk to someone about his anger. But you cannot do this alone, please I know it's tough but you have Patton, logan your brother and Janus for Petesake-"

"what if there isn't a way to fix it? Sure you said that you can help but as both you and Virgil said 'we are damaged' what if Virgil can't fix his temper, I don't want to be near anyone anymore, I scared to get them mad at me too, I don't want to bring them down why did he change in the first place?" sam sighed looking away, "I have a theory on why Virgil started being aggressive and why he blamed you for me leaving"

Roman looked at her confused but allowed her to keep talking.