The touch to her hand pulls her out of her private seething, glaring at anyone and everyone who looks in their direction while Balthier gets dressed. She knows she can't block all of him, but she'll deter anyone she can from staring too long in her own way.
Tonight might be a little worse than solitary. While that had been longer, and absolutely unfair and disgusting, at least she only had to worry about herself. Aerith had needed to hold herself together under terrible circumstances before, and while no part of her liked it, and everything she wasn't letting surface now would come out in some way or another later, she knew how to do it. But, Balthier had also been put through this particularly nasty wringer and it's harder to keep the way her heart breaks for him stuffed down.
When she looks back at him, that anger is gone from her expression, replaced by a gentle, somewhat sad smile. Instead of taking his hand Aerith steps closer to Balthier, wrapping her arm around his back instead, staying close enough to be leaned against if he needed help keeping himself from falling apart.
"I don't live far away, we'll be there really soon." She wants to ask if he's alright, wants to apologize for putting him through that, even if she knows tonight she'd been the lesser of two evils, but Aerith doesn't know if he can hear it right now, nor is she sure she can bring herself say it right now. It all feels too fresh.
Instead, she walks, leading him away from that field and towards the big prisoner houses, beating the familiar path back to the new place she's going to try to make a home out of for as long as she's stuck here. The house is rundown, and maybe even a little creepy from the outside, but there are signs of improvement already, someone's been clearing out the overgrowth and there's light coming in from one of the front windows. Spotting it, Aerith puts on a little bit of speed, eager to have her front door between them and the rest of the prison.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2022-11-10 03:58 am (UTC)Tonight might be a little worse than solitary. While that had been longer, and absolutely unfair and disgusting, at least she only had to worry about herself. Aerith had needed to hold herself together under terrible circumstances before, and while no part of her liked it, and everything she wasn't letting surface now would come out in some way or another later, she knew how to do it. But, Balthier had also been put through this particularly nasty wringer and it's harder to keep the way her heart breaks for him stuffed down.
When she looks back at him, that anger is gone from her expression, replaced by a gentle, somewhat sad smile. Instead of taking his hand Aerith steps closer to Balthier, wrapping her arm around his back instead, staying close enough to be leaned against if he needed help keeping himself from falling apart.
"I don't live far away, we'll be there really soon." She wants to ask if he's alright, wants to apologize for putting him through that, even if she knows tonight she'd been the lesser of two evils, but Aerith doesn't know if he can hear it right now, nor is she sure she can bring herself say it right now. It all feels too fresh.
Instead, she walks, leading him away from that field and towards the big prisoner houses, beating the familiar path back to the new place she's going to try to make a home out of for as long as she's stuck here. The house is rundown, and maybe even a little creepy from the outside, but there are signs of improvement already, someone's been clearing out the overgrowth and there's light coming in from one of the front windows. Spotting it, Aerith puts on a little bit of speed, eager to have her front door between them and the rest of the prison.