vin.
The lack of a response to her comment about meeting his mother was the only confirmation she needed. Of course she’d have been upset with this… arrangement, whatever it was. Given the seeming importance of child-rearing to their society, choosing to be with anyone but another Kariian—let alone someone who wasn’t even Galra—was probably seen as a colossal waste of time and potential. Just being in his company should have made her feel special, chosen, in a way. But at that moment she felt noting but small, insignificant under the weight of that… responsibility? No. That wasn’t it.
Or maybe it was. Before meeting him, she hadn’t ever felt the pull of another person beyond the need to be polite. Inoffensive. Sendak was another experience entirely, one that constantly kept her on her toes out of a desire to keep him contented. Yet most days she felt like she was tripping over her own feet, saying things without realizing their impact, offending when she meant nothing of the sort. She could excuse it as ignorance, being of a species that had only ever seen the bloodthirst of the Galra when they’d come to pluck people from their homes.
By all rights, she shouldn’t have felt remorse for saying such blunt things, assuming his people were somehow incapable of an emotion as basic to everyone as love. But it was a thought that fled the moment he looked at her, reminding her in one, simple motion why it was that she wanted to try harder, to better understand him.
She held his gaze for a moment, awestruck. Paralyzed, even, by the sudden heaviness in her chest. Her eyes flicked away, down toward his natural hand. Cautiously, she reached for it, her small fingers curling over the side of it and clutching gingerly.
“She hasn’t found anyone else, even after all this time?” She met his eye again, her grip tightening with the knot in her gut.
“ no. ” the idea of simply moving on from that sort of bond is unthinkable. sendak frowns, but doesn’t make a motion to pull his hand away from her, rather curls it to the side, allowing her easier access to clutch at it. you are so tiny, he thinks to himself, glancing at her slim digits barely just wrapping around his palm.
“ sometimes a bond can be made with more than one, but the decision is final. one does not wear a ring, or a necklace, to represent their devotion; they wear a permanent wound. ” he looks away again. “ your people must think us mindless beasts, only fit for killing. i suppose it is not easy to stomach the idea that such a species would value something such as love on such a high level. ”
