Emrys was entirely unprepared for what happened next. A moment ago she had hesitated to touch him, and now she'd nearly thrown herself into his arms. His hands came up to wrap around her back on instinct while his mind struggled to make sense of this. He felt an overwhelming rush of emotion, too many tangled together for him to sort through. He didn't understand what she was doing, so he didn't know how to react. None of the feelings rushing through him resembled relief — whatever this was, it didn't feel like a resolution. Was she still in disbelief, and was trying to convince him to tell her some 'truth' she still believed he was hiding? Was she trying to convince him to give her some sort of promise that he could change his ways moving forward? Was she grieving what she now believed to be well and truly beyond her reach? Was she too overwhelmed by it all to be thinking straight herself?

His chest was so tight he couldn't have spoken, even if he'd had an inkling of what to say. His heart was racing, despite how still they both were in that moment after he'd accepted her into his arms. He wasn't sure exactly how long it took him to decide what to do next, but after some length of heavy silence, he moved his hands to her face and kissed her as deeply as he could. He kissed her as though it was their last — which it might very well be.

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