Delicate

Chapter 35

Song - To Build a Home - The Cinematic Orchestra

^Lil full-circle moment with this song, please listen and repeat as much as you can - and comment!!!!!

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Damon's P.O.V

My eyes focus themselves on Will's and I's clasped hands. Hopelessly studying the tight grip I couldn't bring myself to relax, not when everything hurt this much.

Goddess, it hurt.

Being here again when things were so clearly shattered hurt more than I'd allowed myself to believe it could. The things I'd felt and pushed down since I left were at the surface once more mixing themselves with Josey's words to create an ugly picture I wanted to escape from.

Yet I knew I couldn't just ignore it, run from it... we'd tried that.

I had to face it and just the thought of doing that terrified me.

But Will was there. Calming me and centering me with the stable beat of his heart while the pad of his thumb swiped across my skin with the softest touch.

The gentle caress alongside his unwavering presence doing more for me than I think he would ever understand.

It let me take a breath in this suffocating space of unsaid truths and misplaced discomfort. This space a place I once thought to be devoid of such things.

I never imagined it'd be so hard to be around them, my own parents.

Sharing myself with them, my thoughts and emotions, that was always hard, but being near them never made me feel like this.

Terrified.

I was terrified. Scared to start this conversation, the one I knew needed to happen, because in the end... I knew it'd break them.

Break them more than they already seemed to be and I didn't want to be, couldn't be, their finishing hand...

"I didn't think you'd care all that much." I start honestly as I let my eyes settle on the center of the table. "When I left, I didn't think any of you would really care that I was gone. H-Honestly, a part of me thought you'd be relieved."

I glance up at dad and force myself to take in the clear heartbreak those words caused, but no matter how much it hurt to hear or admit, it was the truth.

I watch with a tearing soul as the electric blue eyes he'd given me fill quickly as he looked at me with trembling lips.

After a moment, he nods slightly in understanding as he takes in a breath. His grip on Pops hand, tightening to the point where his knuckles paled but he just nodded again.

I look to Pops next, the look in his eyes making Theo howl with sadness as my chest tightened around itself.

The sight of the shattered man who sat behind his black eyes that held mine, swiftly making it so much harder to carry on, to just breathe.

The tightness only growing stronger as I watch a lone tear escapes the corner of his eyes, forcing me to witness the moment the weight of my words sunk in.

My eyes fall back to Will's and I's hands, now desperate to find my anchor as a fresh tidal wave of emotions threatened to capsize me. The clear pain in their eyes burning its way into me as their waves of agony bombarded me from all sides.

I forced myself to focus on Will's stabling touch, force myself to remember that he was here, ready to carry me on through this and after it. He'd be there, with me through it all.