Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Repentance
She was not sure when he came in, floating in that semi-aware state that was between sleep and wakefulness, but she came fully awake when she heard him start to whisper to her, his voice hoarse with pain.
"You were dead, Belle," she heard him whisper. "You were dead. I found you, found your grave. Gods, Belle, I found your grave!" His voice shook with a kind of horror and she heard what she thought might have been a suppressed sob and she almost did not hear his next words. "I held your body, I dug you up and held your body, you were dead and nothing, and nothing I did could bring you back!" She felt his hand on the side of her head, fingers twining through her recently washed hair. "I'm sorry. So sorry," he whispered hoarsely. "If I had known… if I hadn't been so stupid and cowar-"
Every word made her chest tighten with sorrow for this man she could not remember, this man who had thought she was dead and was so torn by it. She grasped his wrist, and he choked off mid-sentence as she turned to face him. He was kneeling by her bed, his eyes amber in the moonlight, shining with tears that tracked over his roughened cheeks. She didn't know what she could say to him that would alleviate his pain; she wondered if once she had.
So she slid her hand up his arm and grasping the material around his shoulders, pulled him towards her. He crawled up on to the bed, on top of the bed clothes, and proceeded to wrap himself around her, tucking her against his chest and under his chin, his arms banded around her, and he held onto her almost desperately, like she was to disappear into thin air if he did not. "I'm sorry, so sorry," he whispered.
"It's okay," she whispered back, staring at the small expanse of skin his dress shirt – he had yet to change – exposed of his chest and slipping her arms around him to rub gently at his back. "Its fine, you're here now." It was a small pittance of comfort, forgiveness that she could not really give him because she could not remember his transgressions.
But it felt right to be like this, curled up with him.