'You're right. We should.'

'I'll make some tea and coffee.'

'Thank you.'

Kayo pulled on the sleeves of the soft angora cardigan she'd put on for comfort. The gentle wool was soothing on her nerves as much as it was on her skin. She watched Scott make their drinks and followed him through to the rarely used office.

That Scott had chosen to do this in the office didn't fill her with confidence. But then, for better or worse, Kayo guessed this wasn't a conversation either of them wanted their siblings to stumble into. She was more than relieved when he took one of the comfy chairs in front of the desk rather than the one behind it, and she took the one opposite, picking up her cup of tea and observing Scott as he sipped his coffee and gathered himself.

Scott watcher Kayo and tried hard to gather together his thoughts, what he wanted to say. This time he was going to be more careful how he spoke, even as he was aware that whatever he said was going to hurt them both.

'I want to apologise.'

'Scott?'

'I am sorry. What I said last night, what I did…I'm sorry. I was out of line and I – I'm so, so sorry.'

'No – Scott – I should be apologising to you…'

'Please, Kayo. Hear me out. I love you, and I promised I'd never hurt you, but I failed at the first hurdle. I can never apologise enough for not being the man you deserve.'

He looked down at the mug in his hands. The liquid was shaking and before he knew it Kayo had discarded her own drink and was kneeling in front of him, one hand gently removing the cup while the other cupped his cheek and wiped away the tear. He closed his eyes and leaned into her touch.

'You didn't fail me, Scott. You didn't. It was me who failed you. I should have been brave and told you from the start. But I was so scared. Scared that you would think I was just like him, like my uncle.'

'I would like to say that I'd never think that, and I never have. All those times you went off-comms when he was around, all the times you disappeared, I never once even considered that as an option. But I can understand your fear. I played right into it with how I responded to you.'

'And I cannot blame you for that. You were right, I should have told you.'

'I think our issue is deeper.'

'How do you mean?'

'You don't trust me.'

Scott said it in the saddest voice and Kayo thought her heart would break. She was still on her knees, still had one hand on his knee, and she wanted nothing more than to reach forward and pull him into her arms and banish the sadness from his eyes and voice, but Kayo found she couldn't move.

She'd never considered that this was a matter of trust, but Scott wasn't wrong. She had issues of trust, sure, she knew that. It just never occurred to her that the issue went that deep.

It was Scott's turn to slide to his knees in front of Kayo as she leaned away from him slightly. He took hold of her hand and held it gently and wiped her tears away with the other. From her slight startle he realised that Kayo was unaware she was crying.

He pulled her in gently and held her while she cried silent tears and they sat on the floor until she'd cried herself out.

Kayo disentangled herself from Scott and lent back, a self-conscious small smile showing.

'Sorry. I've made your shirt wet.'

'Hey, hey! None of that now, it's fine.'

'I'm sorry. I'm sorry anyway.'

'I know, I know. Me too.'

They both sat back against the chairs and regarded each other.

'Where do we go from here?'

'I think, I think we need to take a step back.'

'A step back?'

'I love you, Kayo, and I'm pretty sure you love me too, but a good relationship needs to be built on trust. You need to be able to trust me and I need to be able to earn that trust.'

'Oh.'

'I don't want this to become a problem for us later, Kayo. This isn't me saying everything is over, this is me saying we need to, I don't know, reset our relationship.'

Kayo took a breath. And another. It wasn't what she wanted but Scott was making sense. She found herself nodding.

Scott stood and offered a hand, helping her to her feet. She reached over to stroke his cheek, desperate to take that sad, broken look of his face, but stopped herself halfway.

She smiled bitterly and turned and left, her heart sinking with every step and ignoring the sound of Scott swiping everything off the desk and his howl of pain.

Sorry...