@infectd asked: ❛ will you still look at me like you do now? ❜ ( haha ellie before she spills on what happened in seattle )
ㅤmouth dry, muscles tensed, he recognized the feeling her question set into motion: DREAD. he'd had a million questions that had turned into a million scenarios the longer she was away. she was tough, made of steel & bone. of all the horrid images his dreams had conjured in fear of losing her to whatever threat she'd found, he'd never once stopped to think that she might be the one her threats feared. the effects of whatever she had seen, whatever she had done weren't lost on him. there was a distance in her gaze that had been growing for years; the shadows beneath her eyes weren't easily touched by sleep. and she was worried that he would be the one to judge her.
ㅤunder better circumstances, it might have been laughable. how could he, truly? he understood the fear, lord knows, but she wouldn't face a reckoning sitting before him now. though that stubborn line stays put between his brows, the rest of his expression softens. the lines at the corners of his eyes & lips smooth, and he ducks his head to meet her gaze. " hey ─── there is nothin' you could tell me that would change the way i think of you. " he readies himself against the shock, promising now to simply listen, not react. he owed her much more than patience. " you can tell me . . . whatever you're ready to tell me, and i promise that you will still be the person i think you are when it's over. "














