[ calm down ] sender pets receiver's hair and tries to soothe them after a scary situation - fablesti <3
@imugeis 🥰🥰🥰
He could be well spoken when given ample time and space to read over his feelings and take the time to act… It was rare Nidhogg clamored to the surface as he did in the wake of Fable receiving her body back.
He tries very hard not to think too hard about the fact that he was unable to discern that it hadn’t been her… it felt like a failure, but in reality it was a consequence of sequestering himself from her.
The Scions wanted her up and ready to go and he had stood his ground (lance tight in hand) that she was to be given reprieve.
Funnily, no one wanted to argue with him.
“Estinien…” her voice was raspy and crisp from inside the tent and he loyally went to her without an onze of hesitation.
“You look terrible.” Carefully the lance was set upon the ground and he knelt to the ground beside her crunched form. Somehow she looked smaller, her knees pulled to her chest and a blanket around her shoulders. Never once, even in the wake of her fight with Zenos and her body limp, had she looked so… fragile. Estinien reached out with a brief pause until she gave a nod of permission and he eased her hair down from how she had it tied up. He eased the braids apart, fingers carding through the strands in silence and gentler still teasing the knots apart in the locks.
By the end of his ministrations she was trying her hardest still to keep her eyes open. “You may rest, I can see to it you are not disturbed,” he reassured, but he felt her fingers wrap around his wrist with an insistent squeeze.
“If I go to sleep will you disappear again?” she didn’t seem all there when it was asked, but still the words had Estinien’s heart in an aching grasp.
“No… no, I shall remain right here until you wake again,” he promised quicker than he could consider if he might be needed elsewhere. She was asleep propped up against his chest as soon as he finished speaking, it seemed the last of the adrenaline had left her body and finally forced her to rest. And he was trapped under her until her body or Hydaleyn herself deigned Fable had had enough.








