Board Thread:What Would You Do?/@comment-28718853-20180311231404/@comment-36855838-20190423215547

I look her right in the eye, my gaze is not desperate, or even angry, merely broken, defeated.

"I was a total dickwad, and I'm sorry Rose."

She looks taken aback.

"What, no excuses? You don't have somebody else you'd rather blame it all on?"

I yank my arms out of the ogre's soft, smooth, yet sweaty hands, and run my hands through my hair.

"No. Sure I hung out with the other guys, and they were all total assholes too, but I had a choice, I could have been nice to you if I tried, but I didn't."

She looked almost furious, as if she had expected me to be incapable of introspection.

"I felt guilty for years after I realized what I'd done, but I never looked for you, I was sure you'd never be willing to forgive me. I settled down with a very understanding Minotaur, and then The order killed her and locked me up."

A single massive tear rolled down my cheek, and then the dam burst.

Faster than I could blink, she was on me, her arm around my shoulder, a handkerchief in her paw.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know, you have to understand I was-"

I half laughed, half sobbed, my throat shaky and slightly raw.

"It's fine, it's hard to see somebody as a person who can grow and change, when all they ever did before was hurt you."

I made a point of looking at a pile of order banners which sat burning in a circle of stones.

The others followed my gaze, and an uncomfortable silence settled over the tent.

"We humans are all really screwed up, aren't we? Carrying the hate of our ancestors on our backs and punishing the descendants of long dead enemies. I wish I could say I was something better, but here I am."

I reached up to hold her hand, and she squeezes back while I blow my nose.

"Thank you, Rose. I really am sorry."

She pulled me in for a hug.

"If you decide you want to marry again, Steve, both of my guards are currently single."

I felt two hands gently touch my shoulders.

I looked the woman on my left in the eye, the gleam in her eye, mature yet joyful, it was the very same thing I had seen in my late wife.

"Would you like to sit with me for a while?"

---

Later that evening, after she was off duty, we did indeed sit together, watching the sun slowly set behind the mountains.

Who began the kiss is anyone's guess, but we both continued it until our lungs needed air.

---

I'm not quite happy with how this turned out, maybe I'll alter it later.

Edit:

Added some stuff and altered the hamfisted aesop.

Probably more hamfisted, but whatever.