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"You know… we were probably born to our clans around the same time.” Tamtey’s warm voice was low, meant only for his ears, as they sat together side by side outside HQ.
So'lek stilled. He had not really thought about it. But yes, it was likely. Tamtey looked out over the forest, the last of the sun filtering through the treetops.
“Sometimes, I like to imagine… if the RDA had never come, and I was just a Sarentu traveler, and you just a Trr'ong hunter…" She paused, her eyes still fixed on the horizon. "How different our story could have been.” She placed her hand close to his, her pinky reaching out to brush his thumb.
A small current ran through him at the touch, settling beneath his ribs. There was no denying how she made him feel. He knew she felt it too. He did not pull away, but he did not reciprocate the touch, either.
Because now was not the time, and it never would be for them.
They were at war, and while she had slept, he had aged. Grief and revenge had carved a wound in him that would never fully close. Maybe the young, eager Trr’ong hunter could have loved her the way she deserved, but that was not him - not anymore. She deserved something else. Someone else. Someone who could heal her sorrows and trauma, not pull her deeper into them. He had too many scars, was too damaged.
Her voice pulled him out of his thoughts.
“But then I realize, that we most likely never would have met at all in that case. So I can't help to think that, despite it all… I’m glad all of this brought us together”, she said softly, looking up at him.
He met her eyes then, her tanhì shimmering in the evening light, and he had never seen anything so beautiful.