Dead Empress Backwater i hope you find your peace [tw]

Eros' physical recovery had gone well, and still he did not move. Whatever the others thought was or was not wrong with him, the truth was that he could no longer find reason to act at all. The only thing that kept him sustained, forcing down the bare minimum of food and water, was the hurt in the eyes of those that still came to encourage him. He wished they would let him go instead.

'Eros?'

The voice was different and familiar both, but hearing his name called when no one was even around was by now a mundane occurrence. Usually, though, it was a relative's voice. @Ally's, or Vanadis', or Archer. Even what he remembered of Sephrina. It had been a long, long time since he had heard Seri's.

He felt movement nearby, and again his childhood friend spoke. Eros' head lifted, and his empty eyes found his face but still held disbelief. Yet the image didn't blur or shimmer, it was solid and real and known. The deposed leader raised further, onto the elbow of his uninjured foreleg.

"Seri?"

And so I tell myself that I'll be strong

Seri Donata

and dreaming when they're gone

Seri expected to find him bleeding or on the mend, perhaps the strong scent of sickness around him… but what he saw was so much worse. What he saw was… there was a sadness that lingered in his eyes as the man looked to him, a question in his voice as Seri nodded. “Yeah, Er… it’s me.” He offered softly to him. “I… your dad said that I could come say hi.” He explained briefly to him, though there was a lightness, almost cautious tone to what he said.

“I wanted to see you again.” He added softly, second guessing himself as he almost added ‘one last time’ to the end of it.

“What are you doing in here? Are you sick?” He asked, his voice still soft through it all. It hurt, to see anyone he cared about hurting or sick or ill… and he had to be one of those, given where he was located. “I’ve missed you.”

Seri answered, and in such a familiar way. Appearingly still always ready to go back to smiling, readily hoping that nothing was really as bad as it seemed. Eros blinked as the memories in his head and the emotions in his heart both began to stir, sluggish from disuse. He was really here. Right here. Eros could reach out a paw and touch him if he wanted.

'Say hi.'

'What are you doing in here?'

'I've missed you.'

Something deep in his skull, behind his snout, began to pinch and twist. His eyes burned with the desire to mist, and his throat suddenly felt full of sentiment. His teeth remained fixed together against the swell, and his gaze lowered to his right foreleg. His tail moved somewhat as he answered, almost like it was trying to lazily wag.

"... I broke my leg."

It was not something that could be discerned by looking, and had he been more diligent in his recovery, it would have almost been as though it hadn't happened at all. All in all, he was... lucky. Anyways, his condition didn't matter.

"Wh..." what questions did he even ask? "Are you... ?"

He couldn't really bring himself to finish, because he already knew the answer. There was a reason Seri had not simply said 'I'm back.'

Someday, maybe you'll see the light