Chapter Text
"Can I go outside?"
"Leg hurt."
"Yes, but I have been sitting for so long. I want some air."
A pause.
The human looked at him with tired eyes.
Risotto thought about it. If it was him sitting down for all that time, he would want to go outside too. He needed to walk through the trees, with plants under his paws, and prey's neck breaking with the weight of his teeth. Did humans like that? Thinking about it, he didn't know; but he didn't know about any big, alive thing that wanted to stay inside all the time. Maybe going outside could help more than hurt.
"Okay," he said with his heavy voice. "Will bring you."
Giorno's big blue eyes seemed more blue, and he started removing the furs he was covered with. Human eyes are pretty when they are not dying, the panther thought to himself, black rounded ears stretched forward and long tail moving slowly as he rose on two legs. Risotto went to the non-furred human, watching him put on the warm clothes he hadn't touched for a long time. It was so nice to see him do better. He lowered next to Giorno, putting one arm on his back and the other under his legs. Giorno was so small.
"Okay?"
The human took a breath. "Yes."
With a steady motion, the panther took Giorno off of the soft covers, careful not to hold too strongly, or move too fast. Giorno was very not heavy.
"Hurt?"
Giorno moved inside his arms. "No, it is okay." There was something in his big eyes. Maybe he was thinking. Maybe he was scared. Risotto didn't know, but he thought that Giorno looked less tired than before, and that was good.
"Okay."
Not more than a few steps from the opening of the cave and in the many trees, the panther was unsure. He was very worried, he had never taken a human outside before and thought that maybe they should go back; but when he looked at Giorno, the human didn't look bad, so he kept going.
Carefully holding the easy-to-hurt creature, he walked; the same way he had when he found Giorno some time ago. ...The same way he had when he found the other humans, some of them many, many winters ago. Giorno would not be the same. No human had healed before. Giorno could heal.
It was easy for Risotto's legs to find their way noiselessly; he knew some of the trees since they were no taller than himself. The panther started observing Giorno, then; how he would look at every plant curiously, how he would close his eyes and breathe in the watery air and smells of the outside. Giorno hadn't tried to run away or attack him. At the start, he was scared, but not like other humans, not like other living things.
While time slowly passed, Giorno's words stayed few, his movements small and slow, eyes looking carefully, but less scared day by day. More curious, careful, thinking. Or it just seemed so to Risotto. He didn't know. Not many humans had not tried to hurt him, so he didn't know a lot about them; but he could see that outside, Giorno was careful like a small hunter, and not scared. That was new, good. Risotto liked it.
Walking still close to the cave, the panther felt time warmer, going faster. When he was alone, it felt like pieces of ice sitting on a lake with no air; unmoving, slow, and cold, nothing like this. Time was warm, before. Many, many winters before. Giorno made it an odd thing. Even the trees he knew like himself seemed warmer and newer.
A motion made him stop, worried. Giorno had his arm stretched out, his fingers thin and long. Risotto followed where he was looking, but there was only that hand. "What?" He asked in confusion. For a few of time, Giorno didn't speak.
"The light, is all."
"The… light? What is?"
The human noiselessly thought. Humans did not always answer, but Giorno did. Risotto wanted to know what made him be better.
"It is this." He turned his hand, and looked like he was holding something, but there was nothing. No, maybe he was trying to show the things on his hand. "You know it, it comes from the sun."
"The sun? "
Some more time passed of Giorno thinking. He started looking around, then pointed at a small place not far away, where a big tree had fallen one winter before, and there were few others. "Go there," he said, and curious, Risotto did, standing in the warm bright next to the tree.
"That is the sun. It 'gives' light," Giorno said, stretching his finger to show the thing up above, that made his eyes hurt. Knowing the names of things made Risotto feel a way he had no words to say. It was like he became stronger than that thing, without having to kill it. The thing that was warm, made him see, and woke plants and animals was sun and the things it made when trees got in the way were called light. Looking too much, his eyes had started hurting, so Risotto turned his face away, opening and closing his eyes to make the dark things go away. Did those have a name too? He didn't have the words to ask.
"Do you understand?" Giorno asked. With this many thoughts, Risotto had not spoken to him. Looking back at the human, he thought he saw his mouth turned a weird way; he wasn't sure, because everything was like looking through muddy water. It was maybe something he had seen a long time before, but he did not know the meaning.
"Yes…" The panther tried to remember those words, that something that he should say... Some humans said it, Giorno said it too, Risotto thought he knew the meaning of it… "Thank you." Something in the human's expression changed, he looked like a deer when hearing a noise. Was it bad?
"No problem.." Giorno said quietly, eyes looking for something in Risotto's, before turning away. Was it good, then? Words were not easy, but Risotto wanted to know the names of things, and what humans thought, how they did the things they did and why. He wanted to know more, but the sun was lowering. Hunting time was not long away. There had been no good prey last hunt, so he had to try again. He had kept the last food for Giorno, but he would go hungry if there was no prey again.
"Go back?" He asked.
"Yes," said Giorno. He did not look at Risotto, but deep in the trees.
Carefully with light steps, Risotto did not think of anything, and time went fast, like a small flyer, until they were back inside. Carefully not to make him hurt, he put the human down in the softness and warmth of many furs and cloth covers again.
He would get up, bring the small one some food before leaving to hunt, but a hand took the clothing on his shoulder, and made him stop. Those big eyes were looking at him again. One hand pulled, another hand took the back of his neck. Risotto didn't like that; it wasn't good to touch there, and he wanted it to stop. ...But, there was no attack in Giorno's movement, and he had nothing to hurt the panther with. Risotto wanted to know that this human would not try to hurt him, he- Giorno was different... Maybe he wouldn't…
He didn't like it, but he followed the human's weak pull. Lower, lower. It was not good, one hand kept his clothing, the other stayed around his neck. The panther did not feel safe, his tail was moving with worry, and his ears were folding back. Giorno's face and sharp eyes came closer.
Then, Giorno brought his small head to touch Risotto's, and closed his eyes. It was the wordless word, the one meaning safe. The panther went unmoving and unbreathing, trying not scare the human. There were no bites or scratches or pain; there wouldn't be. Giorno stayed there for some time, like Risotto had, when he found him.
"Thank you for taking me outside," the different human said before going away slowly, letting him go and opening his eyes, trying to look at the panther's thoughts. Risotto let out air from his nose, feeling better, though his face stayed unmoving as he tried to understand what happened, tail moving slowly. He tried to find words again, the ones from before.
"No pobem." He wasn't sure if that was how the human had said it, but he thought Giorno understood because his eyes were more blue, more like life. His turned weird again, and to Risotto, he felt like the sun and its light.