milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Hel enters the bar, brushing slush off her boots before she heads for the fire. She's had a lot to think of lately.

Most of it hasn't made her smile, but she's done a lot of thinking.

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"Perhaps it is simply...simply a crush."

She's grasping at straws,

"You should return to her. See...see if being away from me makes it stop?"

Hel has a life full of hard things to do, hard things to say. This is the hardest, and her right hand creeps over toward him, stopping on the floor half-way.

He looks down, closing his eyes for a moment.

"If you think it best."

"It would let you know?"

She says it quietly, looking up at the rafters with an expression of abject pain,

"And...you would not have...done anything that you would regret."

Like touch her. The monster child of a traitor. Like love her. Not really.

He's silent, for a few moments.

Then, quietly: "you're right. I... I should find out, for certain."

His voice is far from steady, far from pain-free.

"I'll return, if I can, Hel. I swear."

"Return if you want to."

Her voice shakes as well, and she touches his elbow gently,

"Just be happy, whatever you choose."

He smiles at her, a little.

"I wish I could give you the same gift."

Her face is sober when she looks at him, and she says quietly,

"I have been loved by one such as you. Even if it does not last, it makes me happy."

Softly, he says, "even if it does not last, it was true while it was here."

Someday she may even convince herself to believe it.

He hesitates again, then leans forward and softly, very softly kisses her, just once.

"It is true," he whispers.

And then he stands, and with one last, sorrowful look at her, he leaves.

She watches him leave, until he has gone to wherever it is that he is going.

And then she weeps into gloved hands.

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