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“Mind if I join you?”
Draal started a little, tearing his eyes away from the setting sun to see who had addressed him.
The pink changeling who had stood tensely by the ring of trees, silhouetted partially in the fading orange light, looked expectantly on. Draal felt his breath catch in his throat momentarily, as her luminous green eyes glanced around pensively.
“Be my guest.” he smiled slightly gesturing to a patch of grass next to where he sat watching the sunset, and Nomura cautiously set herself beside him.
They sat that way, in a tense silence, staring at the sky fading to dark and the colors dance across. Things had been… strange between the two, ever since Draal had been freed from Gunmar’s control. Draal spent his days training the remaining Trollmarket citizens who now camped in the woods, preparing them for the inevitable confrontation with Gunmar and his Gumm Gumm army. Nomura in turn spent much time walking in the human world, training the young Trollhunter. The two hadn’t interacted much, and when they had it was choppy and odd, neither knowing what to say or how to say it.
After seeming hours of staring at the sky, Nomura took a sharp inhale and turned her focus on him.
“I’m… I’m sorry.” her eyes glimmered with something imperceptible as he turned to meet her gaze.
Draal blinked in surprise.
“It must have hurt you, and I couldn’t afford to fail then. Whatever it was we had, I destroyed it, and perhaps that was in part to convince myself I couldn’t have it.” she laughed bitterly, glancing back at the darkening sky, “if I could do it all over, I would have never-” her voice faltered, and she glanced down at her hands.
“You know, I never stopped loving you.” Draal watched a shadowy bird fly across the sunset in the distance.
Nomura looked back up at him, confusion written across her face.
“Even after everything,” he placed his natural hand over hers, smiling gently, “I can’t help it.”
He rose to his feet, pulling Nomura up with him, as the changeling’s eyes widened, spiraling green windows of questions he wished he had the answers for and perhaps, (he hoped against all odds) love.
Their breath mingled in the night air as he lightly pressed their heads together, stony noses grating against each other, eyes closed in a split second of peace.
Then Draal pulled away, glancing at Nomura’s thoughtful expression, hoping his eyes weren't betraying him and that he hadn't made things so much worse.
“I've missed this.” He muttered, moving his prosthetic to brush her hair lightly.
Nomura let out a soft sigh.
“Do you think we could try again?”
Draal smiled in return and touched their heads together again tenderly.
And for a while as the owls called and the stars grew bright, it was just the two of them in the forest, love brighter than the sun that had since fallen below the horizon, and hope dancing with the colors still left in the sky.