Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 5)

(I love the playlist! Definitely gives Man-Haunted-by-his-past vibes that are perfect for him!)

Remember Ky Ruiarc: live.

She would. Not for herself. But for them. She owed them that much.

(Thanks!! I pulled out all the stops for that one; I needed it to feel ancient.)

Gaius sighed heavily. He didn't want to make a spectacle of his apology, but he did have to do it. He grabbed his cane, then opened the hatch and stooped, balancing on one leg while he punched a hole through the snow. It wasn't too high thankfully, and he made short work of making a hole big enough to crawl through. The gust of cold from outside made Regulus whimper, and Gaius quickly boosted himself out of the tent. He shut the hatch and smoothed the snow back over it. Squinting at the fire, he staggered to his feet and approached.

Ky heard him and looked up. She sighed softly and looked back at the fire. She didn’t feel like dealing with this now. But she owed him an apology. So may as well get it over with before they had an audience.

Gaius came up to her, resting on his cane. "May I sit?" he asked, gesturing to a log.

“Please.” She finally looked up and gestured invitingly at the nearby log, still startled at him asking rather than just sitting without her consent. Gave her a choice in the matter.

Gaius eased himself down, setting his cane to the side and warming his hands. He glanced at her, then back at the fire. "I owe you an apology for last night," he said quietly. "It was immature; neither us benefited from it. I'm sorry."

“It wasn’t your fault,” she murmured, even more surprised by his apology. She was the one clearly in the wrong here, not him. “You didn’t do anything wrong, I was just childish. I’m sorry.”

Gaius shook his head. "You should have eaten, but I could have tried to help more...efficiently. Challenging you like that accomplished nothing."

“Well… it’s over now.” Ky shrugged. There was no point in arguing who it whose fault it was. They were both allowed to feel guilty about it, she supposed. She took a deep breath. This was a harder apology. “I’m sorry that I’ve been sulking. You’re all helping me and I’m being ungrateful and I’m sorry. I’ll try to be pleasanter moving forward.”

Gaius shrugged. "You have a lot you're going through. We can't expect you to be happy with the situation."

“Even still.” She shrugged again, glad he wasn’t upset with her. “You’re not responsible for my emotions. I’ll do better. I promise.”

Gaius dipped his head; wouldn't get anywhere by arguing. "Aren't you cold out here?" he asked.

She shrugged. She was frozen clear through. “At least there’s a fire here.”

She mentally kicked herself for adding the ‘here’ to the end. She shouldn’t have done that.

"As opposed to...?" Gaius took a stick near the edge and stirred the embers. She had gone out, then?

She shrugged, deciding to play it cool. “A snowbank? I think the one from last night got buried.”