The words shake her down to the furthest reaches of her soul... not because it's a surprise, but because it's just as Tifa thought. When she found him cowering over the ground beneath the storm clouds, when his cries drowned out the sounds of the rolling thunder, and when her fingers reached out to those silvery scales that had spread across his hand, she knew what he had seen.
Yet, even if she had fully prepared herself for it, it still strikes fear within her too. Not for her own safety or life, but for his. She's never dealt with this first-hand before—she doesn't know how much more of this Eustace can handle, or how much it will take before something even worse strikes him. Something worse than these hallucinations and nightmares... Something that neither of them will be able to stop. Tifa has heard the stories.
But she won't allow that fear to cripple her—she can't. The moment that she does, Eustace loses. If she can't keep the pieces of herself together, then how is she supposed to help him?
If she could just find a way to shoulder some of this burden for him...
When his tears fall free, it shakes Tifa out of those dark thoughts, and if she could hold him any tighter than she already is, she will.]
It isn't too late. I'm right here... [she reassures him in a whisper, her own voice starting to crack a little more as she tries to fight that ache in her chest and burning in her eyes, and she buries her face into his hair to hide it all.] You have saved me... more times than I can count. Remember...?
no subject
The words shake her down to the furthest reaches of her soul... not because it's a surprise, but because it's just as Tifa thought. When she found him cowering over the ground beneath the storm clouds, when his cries drowned out the sounds of the rolling thunder, and when her fingers reached out to those silvery scales that had spread across his hand, she knew what he had seen.
Yet, even if she had fully prepared herself for it, it still strikes fear within her too. Not for her own safety or life, but for his. She's never dealt with this first-hand before—she doesn't know how much more of this Eustace can handle, or how much it will take before something even worse strikes him. Something worse than these hallucinations and nightmares... Something that neither of them will be able to stop. Tifa has heard the stories.
But she won't allow that fear to cripple her—she can't. The moment that she does, Eustace loses. If she can't keep the pieces of herself together, then how is she supposed to help him?
If she could just find a way to shoulder some of this burden for him...
When his tears fall free, it shakes Tifa out of those dark thoughts, and if she could hold him any tighter than she already is, she will.]
It isn't too late. I'm right here... [she reassures him in a whisper, her own voice starting to crack a little more as she tries to fight that ache in her chest and burning in her eyes, and she buries her face into his hair to hide it all.] You have saved me... more times than I can count. Remember...?