Welcome to Gaia! ::

It had been a bit of an internal struggle for Peyton on if, and when, she could pay Taym a visit. obviously she wanted to see him. Worry had settled like a constant weight on the dainty Sun, combined with every other concern she was carrying as of late.

It has been fine for the first few weeks the Death had been gone. Peyton had missed him, of course, but life had carried on more or less normally. Then the text had arrived, early morning mission to round up and destroy the remaining Insanity titans that were still stomping around the island. Routine. Normal. There had been enough of them, it should have gone off without a hitch, but first the fruits and veggies(she still didn't ******** know), and the headless body, Moon hunters running all over.

Some one had mentioned the Sahara. That was all it had taken to get Peyton to the lighthouse and through the portal. Straight into the belly of the beast.

She was still having nightmares. Bugs, dead bodies, blood and bile. Deep enough to drown in. The worst were the ones where she had to watch them all burn, screaming out in agony, the air thick with the stench of burning hair and flesh. There were dark circles under her eyes like bruises.

That had been the turning point. The thing that had ripped her away of her happy oblivion and forced her to see what sort of horrors Taym was facing. It had been what inspired the flood of texts that had spammed Taym's inbox while he'd been gone.

And now, as much as she knew he'd be annoyed by it, or even pissed, it was what had her walking resolutely down the hall in the infirmary(where she had spent so much time over the last week) towards his room. Her left hand was wrapped around the handle of the runic carrier that housed Quint and Jessel, she was taking America's advise. When she reached his door she only hesitated a second before knocking.

She didn't immediately notice the wound.

Instead she took in what was familiar, what was normal, what was comforting. The words weren't unexpected, the rasp was new. It was that that drew her attention down to his throat, and the sight of that angry, painful mark put a lump in her own. Unconsciously, her right hand came up. tracing along tanned skin that no longer carried the crescent moon marks of fingernails that jack had left on her neck.

She had to swallow before she could talk, and her voice had that heavy quality to it that suggested tears could be expected in the near future. "I thought maybe they'd like to see you. They missed you." Now she moved closer, hand falling back down to her side and disappearing into the sleeve of the jumper she was wearing. The kittens in their carrier were placed on the table next to his bed, turned so the door was facing him. "They were angels," she said it to keep from saying something else. "America said we should rename them while you were gone, but we didn't." She laughed, short and forced, poking at a paw that had slipped between the bars.

The horrible urge to climb up onto the bed to hug him was damn strong. Strong enough that she gripped the metal rail that edged the mattress until her fingers were molten.

"Is that the only injury?" She didn't point towards his neck. It was obvious what she was referring to.

Only one, he'd gotten out easy. Somehow that managed to be both comforting and not. The mark on his neck was a vicious thing, and her eyes kept jumping to it. Least til he was reaching out a hand to wiggle skeletal thin fingers through the cage bars.

He wasn't Angry, or annoyed, or any other emotion she'd been expecting from him, and that in and of itself was also worrying. No, she hadn't really wanted to suffer through the exasperated chiding and instances that he was fine, and she was silly for thinking otherwise, but this? This she wasn't sure what to make of it.

"What?" She blinked, drawing back from her thoughts and focusing in full on the man laying on the bed beside her. "Oh, yeah last week, but not anymore. All the burn victims have been released as of a few days ago."

Had he been asking about her? Or had America just filled him in on everything that had been happening while he was gone?

"No, burns don't ******** around." It made her smile, but not like she was happy. She'd also been relieved about not being injured, but it had been tangled up with the guilt. She'd probably had the most exposure to the nasty in that pit, and had walked away unharmed.

The apology had a sobering effect, and she looked away from his face, down the length of the blankets that covered him. "It.." Was very distressing, that was for sure, but she understood. "Yeah. It's better to say something, than nothing." But it didn't matter anymore, because he was back, he was home, and he was more or less in one piece. Soon they'd let him out of here, and everything could go back to normal.

Maybe.

Whatever he'd seen, it had been traumatic. It probably stayed with him. She was having nightmares from one instance, one bad mission. He'd faced worst.

Again her throat felt tight, eyes hot, and she didn't stop herself this time from crawling up into the space beside him and giving him as best a hug as she could with the way he was laying. It was brief, unless he made some move to make it last, but it was tight. Tight as she dared with him laying in a hospital bed.

Sat back on her knees beside him, she gave him a helpless shrug at his accusation. "A month can be a long time." It had sure felt like a long time. Maybe not at first, but once the s**t had hit the fan it had felt like the days and nights had stretched on and on. The sleep deprivation likely didn't help.

Noah's name drop was enough to narrow lilac eyes at the bedridden Death, and she resolutely settled more stubbornly on the little square of bed she'd climbed up on. Drawing her legs out from under her so she could loop her arms loosely around them. "For one, I'm not curled. For two, Noah isn't stupid. He knows how much you mean to me. Why would he get mad at me for hugging a friend that had been gone for a month, and came home hurt?"

At least she wasn't touching him now.

Pale eyes rolled at his assessment. Not the first time he'd said it, certainly not the last. He was right, in a way, there were a lot of things she had very limit, if any, experience with. Understanding boys, dating, all of that was out of her league. It was easy with Noah, he was as out of his depth as she was, and they were learning together, moving at their own pace.

Her hands slid up her shins until she could knit her fingers over her knees, and her chin came down to rest on the backs of them, pale eyes resting on his face, watching him talk, the way he glanced towards the carrier but otherwise ignored the kittens he was usually very affectionate with. Odd behavior for him, but he'd just come back from something awful - so she assumed, at least - and maybe something had happened to make him just a little more leery of anything made of Fear.

Exasperation had glossed lips twisting, and she gave a soft exhale. "Okay, not stupid, but he's reasonable, and he's understanding." There was the slim chance she was giving the poor boy more credit then he deserved in this. She honestly didn't know if seeing her perched on the edge of Taym's bed might upset him, but logically it shouldn't.

The unspoken addendum was heard loud and clear, and she made a face at him, not sure whether to be annoyed or grateful.