#hienraina

Even now, Raina looks small, twitching restlessly in their sleep. Patchy ears shed fur of white and gold, once long deep brown hair cropped short to remove the pallid hue that had bleached it. What horrors had they experienced in that land?

Hien's hand reaches out for them as they whimper, curling in on themselves as if to hide, only to hesitate.

The scar on their ribs, a gift from the Garlean Prince himself, was another reminder of what had occurred. Skin felt as cold and stiff as marble, blemished white with veins of gold, like the kintsugi his mother was always fond of. It was beautiful, yet his wife viewed it with horror.

He cups their face, Raina waking with a jolt, panting with fear and a horror in their eyes Hien doesn't believe he's seen since Tsukiyomi.

"I'm here, it's just us." He whispers, smiling softly despite the sheer force of the grip they place on his hand. It will bruise. "You're home, my love, you're home with me."

Their grip eases, dark eyes softening with grief as they looked to the hand that cradled their face, turning to press a kiss to his rough palm.

"Might I know your nightmare?"

It's a request, as always, voice soft and inviting, not wish to push their boundaries. Married they may be, but that was still no excuse to upset them further.

"I was a monster." They whisper after prolonged silence, Hien ready to accept their need forsecrecy once more. "I... I drowned a world in light and massacred this one all to..."

They pause, swallowing thickly before looking back to his face. "All to get back to you."

He doesn't understand, not fully, most words lost on him without full context, rubbing their cheek bone soothingly as Raina broke down into tears once more.

"It's flattering, you know, to hear I am worthy of destroying worlds for." He half jokes in a whisper, chuckling himself as a sob laced laugh escapes from Raina, followed by a light push.

"Hien, it wasn't a-"