[ HESITATION ] // (cora needs eden to accept that this isn't necessarily a safer alternative, and there is a very real risk he could also trip & fall down first 😔)
| Memes :: This One |
Prompts :: [ Almost ] Holding Hands
[HESITATION] :: The sender reaches out towards the receiver's hand but stops just before touching.
Walking through a place he'd never been before always made him a little extra slow - especially if there were organic structures like tree roots or unexpected obstacles like displaced cobblestones to contend with. Admittedly, it did take a little of his focus away from conversation as he picked his way along with his white cane, bare feet choosing their places carefully as he tilted a listening ear skyward to chat idly with the quiet man beside him. But despite this and their vast difference in height, Cora was a very considerate walking companion. Eden was sure this must be a ridiculously slow pace for the other man's long legs, but if it bothered him to go so slow he never said a word of it. Instead they shifted fluidly between amicable quiet and occasional descriptions of things nearby, especially when he paused at an odd sound or slowed down to contend with a tricky area.
Even without the physical contact, the spirit could still feel it - the ambient warmth given off by a living person, aborted movement, a gentle hand almost taking hold of his own. It was such a shy, tentative gesture that it made the spirit mentally pause, listen a little closer to try and get a read on what the other was feeling. Perhaps he was thinking about when they'd initially met, how everything that the larger man did frightened him due to the sheer difference in stature; or, perhaps he was wary of offering help due to his own propensity to misstep or fall. It made something like fondness pinch somewhere in the stillness of the revenant's chest, so he pretended to not notice it a moment or two before speaking up.
" Cora ? " his voice was scratchy and small in the odd, ambient quiet that seemed to surround this guy wherever he went, " could you hold my hand ? . . . Sorry, the terrain's a little difficult - I think I'm mostly just slowing us down this way. "
