-

Kaddar wakes up to an empty bed very early one morning. It's started to happen more and more often; at first, he had chalked it up to Kalasin's usual moodiness, but there was that time he had found her in the bathroom, throwing up. She claimed drunkenness, and after he carried her back to bed, she slept for the next fourteen hours. It hadn't happened recently, but…

Feeling more than a little grouchy, he drags himself out of bed, pulls on a robe, and begins to search.

He finds her in the bathroom about five minutes later. Sighing, Kaddar walks over, places his arms around her, and sweeps her tangled hair away from her face as she continues to retch. After a while, she starts to cry; he holds her steady as she wobbles a little.

After Kalasin stops, and the only sound left in the bathroom is her sniffling, Kaddar reaches around and wipes the tears from her cheeks. "How long have you known?" he asks, uncharacteristically gently.

"Three weeks," she mumbles, scrubbing at her eyes.

"How long?"

"Two and a half months."

Kaddar remains silent.

"But I don't want to be," she sobs. One slightly shaking hand finds her comb, and she throws it against the wall with sudden vehemence. "I don't want to—"

He's known her for long enough to know that this is going to escalate into hysterics before long. He wraps an arm around her carefully, and half-carries her out of the bathroom. Kalasin has stopped crying, but her shoulders shake with an occasional shiver or hiccup, and she offers no resistance.

He takes her back to bed, and she tucks her head into the crook of his arm. Kaddar isn't quite sure about what to do, so he rubs her back soothingly.

"Why?" she asks, at last, her voice raw. "Why now, why did you do this to me, I'm scared—"

Kaddar hugs her close, stroking her hair, but he doesn't apologize, so they cling to each other, and the empty silence is louder than her tears.

-

Heh heh heh. Fun, isn't it?