[ maybe he's right — maybe he shouldn't be. maybe he's only a specter existing on borrowed time, a ghost that hasn't yet made peace with his fate, a phantom haunting the living — but he won't find any rest like this, trapped between should and shouldn't be. ]
You don't get to run from that. None of us do. Even if I wish we could.
[ she doesn't get to run from that. there is only so far your feet can carry you, she's found, when they're bound by invisible chains, when you're carrying burdens without anywhere to set them down. her fingers flatten against his cheek, a whisper of a touch — tentative, as though she always expects to be bitten for her efforts. gently, they curl around the slant of his jaw, trying to encourage his gaze to lock to her. ]
Nothing will bring her back. [ except — the whispered chorus in their ears, promising to wipe the slate clean. a mistake, erased. for a moment, she wonders if rei is his — if guilt has guided him here, trying to uphold a promise he had broken. ] But there are other people who are going to need your protection. We always have a chance to do better, don't we? To make up for the things we couldn't do before?
[ it's a question that's slithered through her head too often in the dark of the night, strainng against her chest — where her hope lives. where hope sometimes turns to hopelessness, carving a void through her, once she's struck again and again by the mantle fate has woven together for her. the uphill battle that waits for her, over the horizon, demanding too much of her. ]
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[ maybe he's right — maybe he shouldn't be. maybe he's only a specter existing on borrowed time, a ghost that hasn't yet made peace with his fate, a phantom haunting the living — but he won't find any rest like this, trapped between should and shouldn't be. ]
You don't get to run from that. None of us do. Even if I wish we could.
[ she doesn't get to run from that. there is only so far your feet can carry you, she's found, when they're bound by invisible chains, when you're carrying burdens without anywhere to set them down. her fingers flatten against his cheek, a whisper of a touch — tentative, as though she always expects to be bitten for her efforts. gently, they curl around the slant of his jaw, trying to encourage his gaze to lock to her. ]
Nothing will bring her back. [ except — the whispered chorus in their ears, promising to wipe the slate clean. a mistake, erased. for a moment, she wonders if rei is his — if guilt has guided him here, trying to uphold a promise he had broken. ] But there are other people who are going to need your protection. We always have a chance to do better, don't we? To make up for the things we couldn't do before?
[ it's a question that's slithered through her head too often in the dark of the night, strainng against her chest — where her hope lives. where hope sometimes turns to hopelessness, carving a void through her, once she's struck again and again by the mantle fate has woven together for her. the uphill battle that waits for her, over the horizon, demanding too much of her. ]
Find someone you can save, Tak. For Rei.