[private] you'll wish for time to turn back around

[elio]

elio

some say I should learn to cry but I only learned how to fight
and I know everything must die but nothing fades like the light

"I wasn't," Elio murmurs on a caught breath, gray eyes trying desperately to convey all the things his tongue cannot. I wasn't, he thinks, and it beats him further into the earth. Bruises well around his eyes, blood trickles down his legs: this invisible force keeps him tied so close to hell that Elio can hardly tell the difference between demon and family. Nashua is family, though, and that is certain.

Nashua is family. Beloved family. A mantra he sticks to until his tongue is no longer fifty pounds of lead in his mouth.

He can't take it, all the unconditional love sitting so readily in Nash's eyes. He's so grown and yet so naive and Elio doesn't know how to express to him how much he admires and appreciates that sincerity; and he doesn't know how to warn him, how to shield him from all the bad and dangerous life will throw in his way. No son of Wolfbane is destined to have a life of plenty and smooth roads, no--Lio is certain they are both doomed to tread on sharp rock and in deep shadow, plagued by predator and desperate prey alike.

Oh, how he longs for Nashua to see life as a beautiful and precious thing. One to cherish and keep close to his chest, but his tongue remains heavy and uncertain. Love is powerful and yet so fickle.

Once again he feels like a disappointment.

"I should have protected you from him," Elio finally states, turning his face away from Nash to stare into the dark bark of surrounding trees. His mouth sets into a hard line.

"I knew the threat he posed and still I disappeared."

@[Nashua]