Katrie
She came utterly undone, Rav’s gentleness completely unexpected. A single touch from the Shienaran was all that it took to reduce her into a sobbing incoherent mess, Katrie feeling as if her mind simply melted away, taking with it the last shreds of her battered self-control.
The world blurred in the moments before she squeezed her eyes shut, burying her face into the warm curve of muscle that met between Rav’s neck and shoulder. Large, fat tears rolled down her cheeks, staining her face, dripping off the ends of her nose and her chin. The last remnants of her pride would not let her lean into him anymore than she already was, her hands going up to cover her face in the vain attempt to… hide? Stupid stupid girl. It was far too late for that.
Tears scalded through her fingers, the taste of salt coating her lips and tongue. She felt… a brush of something along her hairline, tentative at first, before the sensation became solid hands, the tenderness of Rav’s motions at odds with the calluses that caught against strands of her hair. Katrie felt herself break further apart.
She tried to tell him how sorry she was, but the words were mangled beyond recognition, her body nearly convulsing with the violent release. An eternity passed before the flow of her tears slowed, enough so that she could breathe through her mouth without feeling hot droplets of salt splash against her lips and teeth.
“Rav?” Her voice was thin and weak, her throat feeling gritty and raw. His hands stilled just above the nape of her neck and then were gone. She lifted her face slowly, letting her arms drop limply to her sides. She felt… exhausted and empty. Her head felt heavy, her neck wobbling as if it struggled to bear the extra weight. She could barely hold it up. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize,” he said quietly, something about the set of his shoulders… the way the blue-grey eyes bore into hers… this was something new, some changed facet to him that hadn’t been there before. Or maybe it has and I was just too blind to see it. The thought was eerily lucid and far too coherent, given her current state. “We’ll fix this.”
She nodded once, having better sense than to ask How?, wiping her hands on the sides of rumpled white instead. Katrie attempted to mop at her face with the banded cuffs at her wrists but soon gave up as the slow trickle of tears continued on unabated. The small noise in the back of her throat was all the acknowledgement she gave to it and soon, red-rimmed, bloodshot sable eyes went back to Rav, the Cairhienin Accepted studying him unabashedly. She flushed when she realized that her tears left a very obvious trail of glistening salt and moisture along his shoulder, down his chest, and his torso. Thoroughly embarrassed, her lips parted to apologize again, but the look Rav leveled at her made her quickly reconsider.
Katrie glanced over to the window behind him, and out into the night sky beyond. She could see her face, looking nearly as pale as the dress she wore, nearly as pale as Rav’s back, from way the light illuminated and reflected against the window. A little gasp sounded and her eyes went round. Without thinking, she reached out, her hands going to grasp his shoulders. To her surprise, Rav didn’t resist as she turned him half-way around.
Her face crumpled again, almond shaped dark eyes tracing over the puckered scar that slashed across his shoulderblades. The trickle of tears intensified. One of her hands slipped down from his shoulders, her fingers outstretched as if she would touch the slightly raised skin, but she stopped just before she made contact. She pulled her hand away, biting down on her bottom lip. She wanted to ask what had happened, but still couldn’t shake the feeling that she had no right to ask him for anything. From the corner of her eye, she could see that he was watching her through their reflections in the window.
The chuckle was faint when it sounded, but it hung, suspended between them. Rav slowly shrugged himself free, turning back to her. He pulled her into the circle of his arms again, Katrie feeling a fresh wave of tears start as she was undone all over again. "Don't worry about that. Let's focus on you tonight."
