Welcome to Gaia! ::

The sun had fully set by the time he'd made it down the secluded path that led to Moon Haven's gates. Zhane had considered it a good sign that the guards had let him in without question....it meant, if nothing else, that Nani hadn't been vocal about not wanting to see him.

He stopped on the main path, leaning heavily on a tree trunk to catch his breath as it tore in and out of lungs that felt like they were on fire. All right, so maybe running most of the way there hadn't been the smartest idea he'd ever had...

Whatever shot Krista had warned him about at the clinic that might make him feel drowsy may have been a factor as well...he wasn't sure. He really didn't care at the moment, either.

At the sound of diminishing footfall, he lifted his head, looking about himself for the source. He looked behind himself just in time to catch the tips of a pair of gossamer wings moving out of his line of sight.

He'd made it in time. Barely.

"Nani!" he called, shoving off of the tree trunk and running to catch up with her on legs that felt watery beneath him.

When he reached her, he opened his mouth to speak, only to double over, hands on his knees, to resume panting. Holding up a finger, letting her know he'd be with her in just a second, he concentrated on getting enough wind back to get out a sentence before finally drawing back to his full height.

"Nani, listen..." he began, swallowing through a dry throat. "About earlier, I'm so sorry. I had no idea he was gonna do that."

"I'm fine." he promised her, though leaned gratefully into her support, holding her close. A long minute passed in silence before he tried to talk again.

"I thought he and my mom were gone for the weekend. I really did. They left this morning...." For the moment, he was going to count himself lucky she wasn't angry....or at least, didn't appear to be.

He drew back from her a bit, shaking his head. "It was ugly, I'll be honest." he admitted. He debated simply leaving it at that, but knew he couldn't. That entire blowout was directly related to why he was here. And why he was going to explain what he planned to explain.

"He said he didn't want us seeing each other anymore. But then he went completely off-base with his reasons. So I called him on it, we yelled at each other and..." he hesitated, swallowing again. "....and I left."

One omission for what was overall an unpleasant string of events wasn't too bad.

At what she'd said, his heart sank. "Nani, no....no, don't blame yourself." he said, pulling her close once more, trying not to start seething all over again at his father.

"You thought it was okay because it is okay." he assured her, resting his head on hers. "Nothing that happened today is going to change anything and I'm not gonna just stop seeing you because he's decided he has issues with it."

"I love you too, Nani." he whispered, brushing a kiss over the side of her head as he tightened his hold on her a bit.

He wanted to leave it at that. He really did. He wanted to go back inside with her, finish what they'd started earlier, and worry about sorting out all of this mess in the morning, but....

"....and that's why I came to talk to you." he forced himself to say.

He squeezed his eyes closed, getting his thoughts in order. The fact she was already blaming herself for today didn't bode well for what he wanted to tell her. No matter how gently he put it, there would be something for her to snag onto and translate into being her fault.

When he opened them again, he began to speak. "I spent most of the afternoon in the woods thinking. About everything." He drew a deep breath "And I came to a couple of decisions. Remember what we talked about on that first date we went on? Me and my parents not really knowing anything about what we were or where we came from?"