Later. Later that night, alone in an unstained room, he'll open another. Read a letter. Days after, still drunk and sore for the space beside him, he'll pour it into the fire.
A better man — rather: a more present one — might have offered the bottle sooner. But now he stalls, recalled abruptly from his work (every whine broken from Leander's chest punctuates the swipe of cloth against board). It takes a moment to process, to hand it over and brace Leander's head.
It isn't Leander he looks to now for a decision; it isn't Leander's decision whether to drink. Not if it might disrupt her task. Rip free that careful thread. ]
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Later. Later that night, alone in an unstained room, he'll open another. Read a letter. Days after, still drunk and sore for the space beside him, he'll pour it into the fire.
A better man — rather: a more present one — might have offered the bottle sooner. But now he stalls, recalled abruptly from his work (every whine broken from Leander's chest punctuates the swipe of cloth against board). It takes a moment to process, to hand it over and brace Leander's head.
It isn't Leander he looks to now for a decision; it isn't Leander's decision whether to drink. Not if it might disrupt her task. Rip free that careful thread. ]