The tears started then. They were slow coming at first, taking long enough down his cheek that they had time to become cool but still Konstantin felt as though they had been wrenched from him after so many months of deliberately chasing numbness. He had never thought that his sister, much loved though she was, would be the one to make him feel safe enough to-what? He certainly wasn't fine by any stretch of the imagination but something felt as though it had shifted - minutely perhaps, but nevertheless the tears felt like they had brought something forth.

"You're always kind," he said, leaning into Zelda's embrace. "And wiser than me by far. You took your chance."

---