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The door to Byleth’s room shuts closed with a soft click as the former mercenary—clad only in her nightgown, boots, and her coat around her shoulders—turns away from it to wander aimlessly into the night.
It had been about a week since she crawled out of a muddy river, gasping for air and with the lingering pictures of the imperial army invading Garreg Mach still fresh in her mind. For her, it had only felt like mere minutes between her falling down the ravine during that fateful battle and her waking up surrounded by a cold current.
But five years had passed. Five years of war and destruction consuming all of Fódlan while Byleth was dead to the world.
And her students...
Her students had all grown up in the blink of an eye. She was so proud of them and the people they had become. Byleth felt as if she had abandoned them at the point where they needed her most, and yet all of them welcomed her back with open arms.
But she still felt strange whenever she looked at them. They weren’t the kids she had in class a mere week ago, complaining about their homework and teasing each other about crushes. They were adults now with five years of war behind them and it had left a streak of bitterness in almost all of them.
Everything was so different and thinking about it all made Byleth nauseous. She had found herself tossing around in her bed tonight, overtaken by her thoughts and unable to sleep.
Which was why she was currently walking through the monastery at night, taking in deep gulps of cool air to calm herself. But seeing the rubble strewn about, highlighted by the occasional torch, only served to remind her of all the destruction she had peacefully slept through.
She finds herself slowly making her way towards the main building, greeting the nightwatchman she encounters on the way to let him know who she was.
Byleth was telling herself that she doesn't really have any goal on this walk. But the truth was that she was currently yearning for the sight of something, someone familiar. She knows it to be a foolish thought but seeing Seteth and Flayn again when they seemingly hadn’t aged a bit was — for all the new questions it created in her mind — strangely comforting when everything around her had sprung forward in time while she herself had stood still.
Her boots make a steady clacking noise which echoes off the walls of the silent monastery as Byleth makes her way up the stone stairs towards a part of the facilities which she is quite unfamiliar with but which housed the familiar sight she was hoping to see.
Relief combined with a new wave of nervousness floods through Byleth when she reaches the top of the stairs and sees a faint flicker indicating a candle on the other side of the door leading to Seteth’s quarters.
“He’s awake,” she thinks, standing in the hallway and trying to calm her breath after her hurried ascent up the stairs.
Byleth slowly makes her way over to the door. Doubts about her disturbing him this late into the evening were starting to invade her mind while she was walking with tentative steps. But she manages to push them all away and—after one last deep breath to calm herself—softly knocks on his door.
“Yes?” she hears Seteth’s voice, accompanied by the scraping of chair legs against a wooden floor, and feels her pulse quicken.
He opens the door. “Flayn is that y-” he stops when he sees the former mercenary in her nightgown standing in front of his door and clutching her freshly cleaned coat around her shoulders against the nightly chill.
She looks up to him. He is silhouetted against warm light, cast by the candles in his room, and wearing only a loose shirt tucked neatly into his pants as opposed to his usual full attire. Something in her softens at the sight.
“I needed to see you,” she says matter-of-factly with a crack in her voice. She doesn’t know what else to say.
“Professor I… please, come in,” he stumbles through his words and steps aside as he gestures for her to enter.
As she passes he asks, “Is there anything I can do for you? Did you have a nightmare?” There is worry evident in his voice.
He softly closes the door behind her and she takes a quick look around the room, realizing she has never been in here before. It was maybe twice as large as her old room by the dorms and way more personalized. There’s a large bookshelf full of tomes and trinkets next to a small desk which houses the candles that light up the room. There is also an unlit fireplace with two seats in front of it, as well as some paintings on the far wall by a neatly made bed but they’re too far away from the light for Byleth to recognize what they depict.
“No I…” she tears her eyes away from her surroundings, struggling to find the words she needs and ending up turning around towards Seteth to search his eyes with hers and repeat, “I just needed to see you.”
Byleth suddenly feels a bit embarrassed and alone, standing in the middle of Seteth’s chambers, still clutching her coat and telling him she needs to see him for no particular reason.
Seteth’s face softens but she can still spot a speck of worry on it as he walks up to her and gently places a hand on her shoulder. “I’m here,” he says softly.
Byleth finds herself giving in to the sudden urge to grab the front of his shirt with both her hands as if she needed to make sure that he was, in fact, still there.
“It’s just that everything is suddenly so different…” she almost whispers, her gaze cast downwards. “But you,” she looks up at him again and into his green eyes which are alight with the flickering light of the candles, “you and Flayn are still the same.”
She quickly shifts her eyes down towards the hands in his shirt again, not being able to hold his gaze any longer. Seteth lifts one of his hands to cover hers.
“You’re still here,” Byleth quietly confirms to herself and finds herself smiling.
He gently caresses her covered hand with his thumb and raises his other hand to her cheek to lift her head in an achingly tender gesture which has Byleth’s blood running wild.
“I am… and I’m not leaving. And neither is Flayn, for that matter," he says, smiling at her.
Byleth pulls herself up to hug Seteth fully then. She leans up on the tips of her toes to rest her head on his shoulder as she is wrapping her hands around his strong torso.
She feels her anxiety slowly melt away as he runs gentle circles over her back with his hand and she takes in his scent, earthy and with traces of the spices of his preferred teas.
It makes her feel grounded.
--
Byleth’s relationship with Seteth and its development had been a strange one and, to her, it had felt even more confusing ever since her return.
She knew that she found him physically attractive when she first met him and the light filtering through the stained glass windows of Rhea’s audience chamber had hit his features just right as he was arguing with the archbishop about her employment.
In hindsight… her staring at him intently during this argument had probably not helped her case.
She knew that she wanted to get to know him better when she had first seen him and Flayn take their dinner at the table next to hers in the dining hall of Garreg Mach and she had found herself amused by their easy banter and occasional bickering that floated to her from where they were seated.
That was when she first realized that there was more to the church’s strict second-in-command than she had seen so far.
She knew that she wanted to hear him laugh as often as she could when she invited him for tea many months later, after she had safely returned Flayn into his arms, and he let out a quiet laugh at a dry joke that she had made.
Byleth had found herself unable to breathe at that moment as she caught the glint in his eyes and she realized that she may be a bit infatuated with the green-haired man across from her.
She knew that she’d let him take her any way that he wanted when she first saw him fight atop his wyvern on their mission at the Rhodos coast. His eyes were full of emotions that Byleth couldn’t read and he radiated off an aura of almost smug confidence when he—seemingly without having to break a sweat—swung his axe, betraying the firm muscles that must be hiding away beneath his robes.
Oh but he did break a sweat and when he came up to her after the battle and jumped off his wyvern, with a face red from exhaustion and stray strands of hair plastered to his face, she fully realized she was done for. Seteth told her that the last of the stragglers had been routed and the area was clear but Byleth barely registered a word of what he told her.
--
And now here she was, five years later, in his arms by candlelight and grasping onto him as if he’s the only thing still tethering her to this world.
She didn’t know anything since she returned. Something in her relationship with Seteth had changed.
Byleth found that Seteth was often near her. Almost like he was when she first arrived at Garreg Mach what felt like a lifetime ago. Except this time instead of scrutinizing her every move, she felt that he was there to look out for her. And while she could see that five years of war and trying to keep Flayn safe and the entire Church of Seiros afloat on his shoulders had worn him down, she could also see the new softness in his features whenever they were alone. It made her want to drown in him.
She pulls away from their embrace slightly to look up at him. There’s that new look in his eyes again as their faces are inches apart and a dam inside of Byleth breaks in that moment.
She leans in, softly pressing her lips to Seteth’s and closing her eyes. She tries to pour all of her despair and affection into the action when she feels that she has no other way to express it.
She feels him gasp against her mouth at the sudden gesture and she slowly pulls away again to look into his wide eyes. An anxiety that she may have overstepped her boundaries after all starts building within Byleth and she’s about to excuse herself and quickly flee the room before she’s caught off-guard by Seteth grabbing her head in both of his hands and diving back in to kiss her back fervently.
That action combined with Seteth’s teeth teasing her bottom lip goes straight to Byleth’s core and she lets out a soft groan, bunching her hands up in his shirt once more and parting her lips for him.
She tries to commit every facet of him — his taste, his smell, his everything — to memory as his eager tongue slides against hers with an enthusiasm that makes her thighs tremble.
Kissing Seteth was something which Byleth had imagined more times than she cared to recall, and having the real thing warm and solid against her — blindly following her to ensure that they wouldn’t break contact when she slowly starts to stumble backwards in search for something to lean against — was threatening to do her in.
Byleth’s back hits the wall next to the small desk Seteth kept in his chambers and she lets out a grunt at the contact. Their lips part for a second in which they both gasp for air. They look into each others’ eyes in the low firelight before Byleth brings one of her hands up to the back of Seteth’s neck, softly pulling him back in as he offers no resistance, letting them continue right where they left off. She explores his mouth, running her tongue over his slightly pronounced canines which she had found herself fixated on whenever she was lucky enough to catch one of his rare laughs.
The tall man lets out a low moan that resonates through Byleth as his hips rock forward, pressing her against the cool wall even more and grinding his clothed length against her belly.
“Seteth,” she whimpers against his mouth, surprised at the need in her voice.
Suddenly he places his hands firmly on her shoulders and pulls away from her lips, leaving her to look up at him, paralyzed with lust and with a tingling sensation on her lips and between her legs.
“This isn't wise, Byleth,” Seteth states between heavy breaths, trying to keep up the pretense of reason as his wild eyes flicker back and forth between hers and with his hands still warm against her shoulders. She feels as if she’d float away if he let go of her.
“I don’t want ‘wise’,” Byleth answers, her breath matching his, “I want you.”
Seteth sucks in a shivering breath at her words, burying his face against her neck as if trying to avoid her eyes but still not yet ready to fully pull away.
“You don’t deserve this,” he murmurs against her skin, causing a shiver to run through Byleth which only adds to the tension that had been building within her over their make out session.
“You deserve a nice dinner and proper courtship before…” he trails off but she could still feel his breath hot against her neck.
“Before you pin me against a wall and have your way with me?” Byleth offers with a hint of amusement in her voice.
Seteth pulls back from her neck at that and looks back at her with a chuckle. “Well… yes. Amongst other things.”
His expression turns somber then and he glances sideways before he pulls away slightly.
“But you don’t deserve me taking advantage of you at a weak moment. I apol-” he was cut off by Byleth pressing a finger to his lips, causing him to startle and look back at her.
“Seteth,” she starts, “tell me if you’re not ready for this. But I just want you to know that five years ago, I would’ve let you bend me over your desk and fuck me senseless at any given moment,” she feels his sharp intake of breath at her crass but honest words against her finger, still pressed against his lips. She slowly drags the finger down his chin before placing her hand against his chest. “And that hasn’t changed much,” she adds with a whisper.
Seteth closes his eyes and leans his head back while murmuring something under his breath as if he was sending a quick prayer to the goddess.
Byleth was ready to further convince him how much she wanted him, but that proved unnecessary as she suddenly finds herself with a face full of Seteth, his lips crashing back against hers once more, all semblance of restraint gone.
His hands, so much larger than hers and so strong, find purchase at her hips after moving down her sides and hold her as he grinds his hips against her in search for friction once more with a low groan.
Taking his actions as an invitation to explore Seteth’s body in return, her hands start tracing his broad shoulders, still hidden beneath his shirt, and move over his chest down to his abdominal muscles which she can feel moving beneath her fingertips as he shifts against her.
Seteth moves away from her mouth and plants sloppy kisses down her jaw and against her neck, making her gasp when he slightly scrapes his teeth against her skin.
“We should move somewhere more comfortable,” he murmurs in a soft voice. “I can’t image that wall being too nice to be pressed against for such a lengthy amount of time.”
“Oh?” Byleth replies, her voice slightly teasing as she continues, “And where do you suggest we move to?”
Instead of replying, Seteth hoists her up with his strong hands beneath her thighs, seemingly without any effort, before stumbling backwards towards his bed. Once the back of his knees hits the edge of the bed he sits down with her in his arms so she was now straddling him.
Byleth wastes no time in kissing him again, slowly thrusting her hips forwards in his lap. The low moan he breathes into her mouth in response makes her want to do nothing more but to push him down onto the mattress and move aside just enough of their clothing to ride them both to completion.
But no. She wanted to savor this moment. Take all the time she could and explore this thing that had built up between them and find out exactly what it was.
Seteth’s hands start sliding under the coat still clinging to her shoulders, pushing it back at an achingly slow pace as if to ask permission to take this further; to still give her the opportunity to change her mind. When the coat hits the floor with a soft rustle, they break apart to catch their breath. Their faces are still incredibly close and Byleth is delighted by the red on his cheeks and his labored breath mingling with hers, knowing that she is responsible for these things.
“You’re beautiful,” he breathes and dives back in to press his mouth against Byleth’s neck. She throws her head back to give him better access to her soft skin. As he moves to press little kisses to every inch of her neck that he can reach, she can feel the scruff of his beard against her sensitive skin and it causes a pleasant shiver to run through her. Seteth now starts exploring her body in earnest. His hands softly move up her thighs and beneath her loose nightgown, which had bunched up at her hips in her current position. His fingers are a bit colder than the skin beneath the cloth, but not to the point that it feels uncomfortable, and he leaves a trail of goosebumps on her legs, her hips, her lower back. Byleth closes her eyes and simply enjoys the attention she is being given in this moment. One of her hands moves to the back of his neck to lightly thread her fingers through his thick curls and he hums against her neck in appreciation.
Meanwhile, Seteth’s hands wander further up her body, memorizing each muscle, curve, and scar they encounter on their way, until his thumbs graze the sides of her breasts.
“No bra,” he breathes the realization against her neck and pulls back to look at her with an eyebrow raised in amusement.
“I… just left my room very spontaneously tonight,” Byleth tries to defend herself. “I didn’t plan this, I swear.”
Seteth shakes his head with a slight chuckle before looking at her again with a smile and a new glint in his eyes. “Well, I’m not complaining either way.” With that he moves to press his lips softly to hers as he starts fondling her heavy breasts in his hands and she breathes in a gasp against his open mouth. With strong hands he massages her soft flesh and presses one of his thumbs against her nipple, stiff from both the cool air and her arousal, and gently rolls it in circles.
Byleth can’t help the moan that escapes her at that and she presses her mouth against his more desperately in search for a real kiss. She moves her hands to the collar of Seteth’s shirt and starts to frantically fumble with the buttons. As much as she had enjoyed the slow exploration of her body, her patience was starting to run thin and she finds it unfair how much of Seteth is still covered beneath cloth.
Sensing her desperation, Seteth breaks their kiss and moves to help Byleth in his undressing, quickly tucking his shirt out of his pants and pulling it off over his head before throwing it to the side. He then helps her out of her nightgown, tossing it into a similar direction to his own garment as she quickly removes her boots and lets them drop on her coat behind her. .
They stop for a moment to take in each other’s new exposed skin. Blyeth slowly lifts her hand and carefully drags it down his bare torso.
“You have more scars than I imagined,” she whispers.
“Oh?” Seteth replies with a smile. “Pray tell, how much thought have you put into imagining my naked form?”
Byleth feels heat crawl up her neck at her accidental confession. “Just a little,” she murmurs, her gaze fixed downwards to where her fingers were still threading through the soft hair on his chest.
He lets out a breathy laugh at that and leans down to press his forehead against her sternum. “And to think how worried I was that any advances from me would not be welcomed…” he kisses her soft skin once more. “How much I held myself back…” strong arms wrap around her and Byleth soon finds herself on her back with him looming above her.
He kisses her with in an intensity that made Byleth shiver and she desperately pushes her hips up against him
She quickly pulls off her panties, now leaving her completely exposed as he lays down beside her and slowly drags one hand down her body and between her legs, which she willingly spreads for him. He drags two of his long, slender fingers through her folds once and Byleth grabs unto him and the mattress beneath her at the sensation.
“You’re so wet already…” he murmurs, slowly exploring the topography of her sex with his fingertips.
“Well, I have been in alluring company this evening,” she replies, eyes closed and fully lost in the soft pressure of Seteth’s fingers on her.
What a surprising chain of events her little excursion had turned out to be.
Finally his thumb starts pressing against her clit in earnest and when she throws back her head in ecstasy Seteth immediately takes the opportunity to press wet, open-mouthed kisses against her neck.
She can’t help but just lie there and drown in the pleasure of the moment. Soft sighs of his name escape her and she canters her hips against his hand. One of her hands has found its way into his green locks—his face still buried against her neck—while the other leisurely kneads her own breast. It was a heavenly moment and Byleth could’ve stayed in it forever. But suddenly Seteth stops his ministrations and pulls his face away from her, leaving her to groan at the sudden loss of stimulation.
“Wait, Byleth, I have to ask,” he says in a tone of voice that was way too close to his everyday stern demeanor.
“I- yes?” Byleth asks, suddenly unsure.
“Is this- Have you… ever done this before?”
Byleth blinks. Of all the questions she had expected this wasn’t one of them. Though there were way worse ones he could’ve asked.
She gently caresses his cheek. “This isn’t my first time, Seteth, don’t fret. I’m familiar with this.”
He nods. “Good... good.”
An air of awkwardness washes over them and Byleth says the first thing that comes to her mind to break through it.
“What about you, Seteth?”
He blankly stares at her before replying. “Byleth, I am a father. ”
Byleth throws him a lopsided smile and a shrug. “You never know.”
Seteth chuckles incredulously. “Come here,” he murmurs before pulling her into a kiss and returning his hand between her legs.
Byleth had said that she was familiar with this kind of thing, and that was true. Mostly.
She was familiar with sex for sure, having had some casual encounters during her traveling days, but she wasn’t familiar with the other aspects of this particular encounter.
Never before did she have this kind of history with a partner, never had she found herself smiling against the lips of another person like she did right now, and never before had she felt such a wave of emotions crash over her as when Seteth leans back slightly when two of his slender and oh so long fingers enter her to watch her face for every reaction as he skillfully moves them along her walls, all the while his rough thumb is still dancing across her clitoris until she is wailing beneath his touch.
By the time her orgasm catches her, she is clinging to him and moaning into his hair while Seteth is whispering sweet nothings into her ear with his, still woefully clothed, erection pressing against her hip.
He slowly removes his fingers from her once she starts twitching from overstimulation. She watches in a post-orgasmic haze how he turns around just enough to wipe his fingers on the bed sheet behind him before settling down next to her again. They lay there while she catches her breath, panting into the space between them..
Intoxicated by the smell of him, mixed with the tell-tale scent of sex, Byleth leans in so their mouths meet in a sloppy kiss which he gladly engages in. Her hand moves down the length of his body until she brushes the tent in his breeches. Seteth groans into her mouth and moves his hips against her, clearly pent up.
"I think it's time for you to get some attention, don't you think?" She asks and he makes an affirmative noise and quickly moves to remove the clothing on his lower body all at once, kicking it off the bed to be forgotten.
Wasting no time she finally gets her hand on his shaft, feeling it smooth and hot in her hand and giving it a few tentative strokes and coaxing a low hum out of the man next to her. She wanted to explore him in the same way that he had explored her. Move her hand over him and memorize every little detail about how he reacts to each of her movements, make him come undone with just her touch. But she had long since run out of the patience for that tonight. She'd have to schedule that for another time.
If there was ever gonna be another time. Maybe he'd regret all of this once they're done; kick her out of his room and never look back.
She quickly bans the traitorous thoughts from her mind before they could settle in; Whatever was going to happen after this could wait. She lets go of his cock to frame his head in her hands and he turns to plant a reverent kiss on her wrist.
The aftershocks of her first orgasm still made Byleth’s cunt twitch but despite that she can’t help but whisper, “Please, Seteth, I need you.”
“Anything for you, Byleth,” Seteth says, pushing her onto her back and settling between her spread legs. “You’re finally back in my life and I will give you everything you want.”
“Then give me your cock.”
Seteth responds solely with a low growl before following her request by slowly sinking his length into her wet opening. They both groan in unison at the sensation and once he’s fully sheathed inside her, Seteth leans down to hold onto her tightly.
“Are you alright?” He murmurs against her hair.
“Yes… yes. Please, move!” Byleth is almost embarrassed by her pleading. But the borderline sinful sensation of the head of his cock dragging against her insides once he starts to pull out again lets her forget all sense of pride and she throws her arms and legs around his back so they’re now as close as can be while still giving his hips room to move.
“Five years,” he pants as he builds a steady rhythm with his thrusts, “Five years I’ve thought I had lost you.”
“Seteth,” Byleth moans his name against him, it is all she can do in her current state.
He pulls himself even closer against her. “There were so many things I had regretted never telling you, so many thoughts I had never shared...Byleth...” He trails off and picks up his pace even more.
Despite their closeness he still manages to thrust into her with a force that betrayed all of the pent-up despair and longing that was also evident in his voice. The room is soon filled with the moans that the both of them let out with every breath and the smacking of skin against skin. Byleth feels her second orgasm building quickly inside of her. She balances on the edge for a few agonizing moments in which she thrashes around in Seteth’s arms until she falls off with a scream, barely muffled by his shoulder. Her fingernails dig into his back muscles when he continues to fuck her with all he’s got, his movements becoming sporadic and sloppy, letting her know that he’s close himself.
“Seteth,” She rasps once she’s found her bearing again, her voice rough from exertion, “I’m back… and I’m yours, always will be for as long as you’ll have me.”
With one long and low moan Seteth finally lets go himself. He quickly pulls out of her and she feels the spill of his seed on her sweat-slick skin.
He rolls off of her bonelessly and lies on his back, trying to catch his breath.
Byleth lets her eyes roam over his body, sweaty skin glistening in the candlelight and his fucked-out cock half-limp and covered in her slick lying on his quivering abdomen.
“Goddess above, Seteth,” Byleth whispers after a few seconds of silence between them. “That was amazing.” She moves to wipe at her eyes where some tears were threatening to spill from the overstimulation she had received.
“I- I wasn’t too rough, was I? I’m afraid I lost myself there.”
“Hush, Seteth. Stop worrying for just one moment. You were perfect and you deserve to let go sometimes, I for one very much enjoyed it.”
She reaches out and gently runs a hand down his cheek and along his beard down to his chin where she holds it to lean in for a soft kiss, quite different from the passion-filled ones they have shared so far.
When she pulls back he glances down to where his cum is still sticking to her torso.
“I will get you something to clean up with. Wait here, I’ll be right back.” With one last peck he removes himself from her and the bed. She lies back onto the soft covers and revels in the smell of him that clings to them as she watches in pure adoration how a naked Seteth made his way across the room to a dark door which Byleth hadn’t spotted during her stay so far. He disappears and soon re-renters the room with a damp towel in hand which he holds out for her to take.
“I’m afraid this may be a bit cold, I apologize,” he says as he sits down on the edge of the bed and watches as she starts by wiping down her face before moving to her body.
“It’s fine, thank you,” she smiles at him. Her smile soon falters a bit before she asks. “I’m- I’m allowed to stay the night, yes?”
He blinks at her before exclaiming. “Of course! How could I send you away after…” He gestures between them to vaguely summarize their passionate endeavours of the evening.
Byleth laughs at that and grabs one of his fumbling hands in hers. “I just wanted to make sure.” She looks down at their joined hands. “I’ve never had something quite like this, this all feels new to me somehow,” she admits.
Silently he looks down at her from where he sits before asking, “Byleth. What do you want this-” he squeezes her hand, “what do you want us to be?”
A heavy question that Byleth doesn’t quite know the answer to. She knows they were still caught up in a war with many hardships ahead of them. The world around her still feels strange and not like the one she had left behind. But thinking about facing all of that with Seteth by her side —with him there to lean on, to find comfort in during these times — it made thinking about those things a little easier.
“I guess I mean what I said,” she finally says tentatively, “I’m yours for as long as you’ll have me.”
It’s now Seteth’s turn to be lost in thought before speaking.
“There’s so much you still don’t know about me,” he murmurs.
“Then tell me,” Byleth says firmly, sitting up in bed to be closer to him and having the wet cloth fall into her lap. She ignored it and just focused on the man in front of her. “I want to know you, all of you.”
He takes another few seconds to think. “Maybe we can arrange some time tomorrow between duties to talk over tea. Just the two of us. For now we should rest... and also that would give me the opportunity to decide on where to start.” He smiles wryly.
“I think I would love that, yes,” Byleth replies.
Seteth plants a kiss on her forehead before taking the bothersome towel out of her lap. “Settle in, then. I’ll be right with you.” With that he stands up and makes his trip across the room again. On his way back he blows out the candles on the desk so now only the faint moonlight remains.
She feels him settle in under the blankets behind her before strong arms wrap around her and his chest presses against her back.
“Good night, Byleth. Sleep well,” he presses one last kiss against her shoulder.
“You too, Seteth,” she replies and leans back against him.
Byleth still feels like a ship lost at sea during a storm, but the man behind her is like the quiet eye of said storm, giving her a brief moment of respite just by being there for her.
She desperately hopes that he would still be there for her once the waves had settled.