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Asyl utterly collapsed once the door shut behind Aria and Istina. Ein caught him, and they were piled against the door like a barricade.
“I’ve got you,” Ein said quietly. “Do you want to sit somewhere else?” There was no answer. Not that they were expecting one; the question was more to fill the silence than anything else. “Okay. I’m going to move us to the couch, alright? I’ve got you.” And they did, though it took several minutes to get comfortable.
Blinking back their own tears, Ein sat hip-to-hip with Asyl and put his head on their shoulder. They still didn’t quite understand the information gathered from Heaven’s Egg - that was Aria’s thing, she seemed like a specialist in… Whatever the heck was going on there - but they knew loss. They knew pain. Asyl was absolutely drowning in it, and Ein felt their heart squeeze for a moment as his shoulders shook. What could they say?
“This sucks.”
…Not the most eloquent of condolences, to be sure, but Asyl sputtered out something resembling a laugh anyway, so Ein counted that as a win.
Asyl pulled Ein into a front-facing hug, hiding as much of his face in the nape of their shoulder as possible. That’s when he started to really break. Ein just rubbed his back and hummed a little tune, knowing that sometimes just being an anchor was all that was needed in the throes of grief. Based on how little light there was coming through the glass-panes on the door, it was close to dark by the time Asyl pulled back.
“Thank you, Ein.” He dabbed at his eyes with a cloth.
“Do you need me to stay?” Ein tilted their head, pink hair falling over dark eyes.
Asyl sighed. He wanted them to stay, but he’d never admit it out loud. “No, no - I just need a good night’s rest and I’ll have things well in hand here. Thank you for the offer, and for not judging my moment of weakness.”
“Though it may feel like that, grief isn’t weakness, Asyl. Thank you for sharing your grief with me. This will stay between us; traveler’s honor,” they put a loose fist over their heart as they stood up. “I’ll come check on you soon.”
“Wait for my next letter,” Asyl cautioned. “Wouldn’t want the townspeople to get any… Misconstrued ideas on which to start gossip.”
“Misconstrued?”
Asyl smiled a little, shaking his head. “Don’t worry about that. I’ll write to you soon,” he said as he walked them to the door. “Oh, but before you leave…” Asyl put a hand on their shoulder and gave them a chaste kiss on the cheek. “Thanks again.”
Ein’s dark skin flushed. “Y-you’re welcome. See you soon, I hope. And seriously, I’m here for you. Come by the farm any time, and if I’m not there, the faeries will know where to find me. Okay?”
“I’ll take you up on that. Here, let me at least walk you to the monolite.”
The chatter between them was more light-hearted now, even as a few people approached the two of them to express gratitude for the monsters being gone. Mercifully, nobody asked about Tiella. Ein wasn’t sure if Asyl could take it if they had.
“Oh. We’re here.” Ein blinked.
Time flew so fast when she was with him - how had that happened?
“Safe journeys home, Ein. I’ll see you again soon.”
Before they could say anything else, Ein’s hand was on the monolite, and they found themself by the steps going up to their house in Bird’s Eye Brae. Aria was making dinner and a large grin overtook her face as Ein walked in.
“Not a single word.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything…” Aria whistled in faux innocence.
Ein just laughed as they changed into more comfortable clothes for the evening. It was good to be on the farm, but in these small hours, home felt like a certain little house in Nemea.