Cry Havoc!

“I don’t deserve to be loved, not anymore.” She recognised he had made an attempt but she was still mad, she wasn’t done talking yet. “I always helped you, you knew that and you chose to not get my help anyway. If you’re not going to stay then go get your stuff and go, I left everything the way you left it, the dogs will be happy to see you.”

"Alright. It will only take a minute." And a minute it took, even though he was hobbling. Gathered his stuff up in his satchel, gave the two hounds more attention than he had Luna just a moment ago and then out the door again. He half turned and gave her a look that was rather hard to read. He opened his mouth to say something. "Scipius, Diana. Come." Then he stumbled away. He was gone again. And the worst part about it was that he didn't feel bad about it. Not anymore.

It still wasn’t good enough. “Look at me. You’re not sorry. If you were sorry you would’ve told me about this and we could’ve worked through this together. Why did you ask me to marry you then? How did you think abandoning me here would fix anything? You don’t even know what happened, do you?”

"I know I can't love you Luna. Not like you deserve." He shifted the weight over from the crutch to his leg with a grunt. "I wanted to fix myself. Turned out I couldn't. And here I am now, crown prince of assholes. You shouldn't have waited because the pay-off was terrible. If you are still waiting for a punchline... there ain't one. I'm sorry..."

“Oh…” Her voice cracked before she cleared her throat, glaring into his eyes. “You don’t want to even look at me. I need you to look at me and tell me why Cato, I waited all this time for you and you just want to run away again, that’s not good enough! I deserve to know why!”

"I uhm..." He searched around inside, ruffled through his mind for answers. It had been a long while since he went away, many months before he diceded to come back. All that time and he still didn't know what to tell her, despite spending all of the last couple of weeks of travel trying to come up with an answer to this very question. "I don't feel anything for you Luna. I fucked up. I tried to find the Malpais, thought he could help me. I never found him. I'm sorry..."

"I couldn’t move on. Being alone suited me." She watches his movements with a pained expression, weighing what she’s about to say heavily before she spits it out. "I’m guessing you need somewhere to stay?"

"Not really. I came to gather my stuff... hoped you wouldn't be here." Why couldn't she have been out? He didn't want to look her in the eyes right now. He just wanted to leave. "I checked, shack is still empty. I'll be just fine there. You shouldn't have to take me back in."

She gives him a nod before looking down at the dirt, steeling herself. “You were gone for so long and they told me I should just give up and move on.” Her lip quivers. This was going to hurt. “Why are you here? W…What happened to you?”

"You... should have. Moved on. I'm no good..." He swings the stump of his right leg as if trying to scrape the ground with his non-existent foot, only to slowly come to stop, brows knitting together. "I had nowhere else I could go. I got mauled pretty badly by a yao guai up in Utah..."

"It’s my kid." She’s sure to keep most of him hidden, a grumble being heard as the child longed to know the commotion. "I….Is this real?"

"Your kid... yeah, of course." He scratched his chin nervously, as he had done before. Of course it wasn't going to be easy... "It's real. Why wouldn't it be?"

She holds her baby close to her chest and shakes her head.

"No, no. I’m dreaming! You’re gonna fade away again, any second now."

"Is... that the kid?" He raises a brow, almost as if appraising a fish he just caught in the river. "Our kid?"