Defensive Love (Complete)

Chapter 10... Contact

"I'm not going to give you my full childhood or my problems or dramas."

"Hrm."

"But I just wanted you to know a little about me. I know you probably really didn't want to help me and I would have been okay if you would have said no. I would have found another way to get here. I hate hoping for things but I really do hope he's here. He's all I have left now.

My family was not rich or poor. We were a bit in the middle. We struggled sometimes but we would always be okay. Mother always said I grew up a really happy child and that she never saw me with a sad face. She never knew that I only pretended to be happy most of the time. As a child, I was not liked much among the people in our little village. Possibly it could have been that people could see I was not normal. I didn't know I had any kind of power. To this day I don't remember ever having or using them. Most people didn't talk to me and barely looked at me. I guess now I see it was because they could tell I was different in a way. They didn't know what it was but they could feel it. Why they felt it was a reason to shun me, I don't know. It bothered me a lot at that time. A few months before father dropped us in the woods, mother had told me she had planned for the three of us to leave him. She never said where and we never got a chance to go. I wish we could've left sooner. I wish she hadn't died protecting me." She wiped her face and stopped herself from crying. "I wish I could've protected her instead."

"She would have never wanted you to die protecting her."

"I don't like being here without her. She protected me my whole life and in the end, it killed her." She went silent. Kratos wanted to say something to make her feel better. He knew better than anyone what it felt like to lose people you loved.

"Do you want to talk about you?" She asked. Any other time he would have quickly said no and ended the conversation there, this time he gave it a thought. He did not want to open up to her but he did want to say something about himself.

"I am not from here." He said.

"I kind of guessed that. You don't look like the gods here. You stand out a little. Not in a bad way... I'm not from here too."

"Yes." She looked at him then back at the fire. She scooted closer feeling a bit more comfortable. "You're not a bad person. I didn't think you were but you were so cold to me in the beginning that I thought that maybe you didn't like me. Now I see you just don't like people."

"I do not."

"Yes but you're not 100% opposed to helping others."

"I help only if it benefits me."

"Hm... then what exactly do you expect to get from me? You turned down my money earlier. What else could I give you?" She asked. It was a genuine question. No hidden meaning, no sexual undertones, she really didn't know what else he wanted. Kratos had no answer for her and asked himself what did he want. He concluded that he didn't want anything from her, he only wanted to help.

"In this case I-" he started. She waited for him to finish. He didn't.

"In this case maybe you are only being nice. It's in your heart, I can feel it." She placed her hand on his forearm. His body stiffened but he didn't pull away.

"I trust you and I trust that you can be a nice person no matter how cold you act." Should I? She thought. She leaned her head on his shoulder before she could change her mind. He didn't stop her.

"Your lack of conversation skills make you a great listener Kratos." She closed her eyes. "I haven't told Freya any of this. I mean I couldn't remember it before."

"It is late, you should sleep."

"Will you be joining us?" She asked.

"No."