He was nothing. No less than even that… a failure as a son of Ferrus Manus. He had once been a captain, a man of success, drive, and worth, he'd been respected and feared. Now though, here he was slumped in an ally of a hive city he didn't even care to know on a planet he cared less to know. He closed his eyes, his body trembling as he felt something no true space marine should ever feel… the weakness of hunger.
"Here…" even as he heard the voice, he knew someone was standing there… probably a curious young fool coming to look at what he mistook for an iron hands space marine.
"Listen mortal…" he began opening his eyes to look his observer in the eye "you should not…." The words caught in his mouth… as he laid eyes on her; she was human, and she was young… yet she did not appear afraid of him, she didn't flee, she didn't tremble, she didn't even backstep when he looked at her… she just stood there, her face the warmest expression he had ever seen from a human.
"Here…" she repeated, her voice soft and, incredibly unafraid, "Aren't you hungry?" only then did the former Iron Hand register the loaf of bread she was offering him. The space marine had never seen such a food type before… but even he could tell, from the faint trace of warmth that clung to it in the coldness of the ally…
"Freshly made…." He muttered in utterly stunned surprise…
"of course, it is silly" the girl observed warmly, offering the loaf just a little bit closer.
Suddenly he froze, his trembling ceasing utterly as the full implication of what the girl was doing hit home in the former Iron Hand's mind.
Several moments stillness fell… then as though utterly uncaring of his own unworthy… he took the bread… consuming the whole recently made thing in one gulp. Its taste was beyond anything the space marine had ever eaten.
"So… do you like it?"
He answered before he could even think, looking his gifter in the eye…. "Considering what I've eaten over a lifetime of war…" he smiled truly uncaring now… "I'd deem it special."
The girl smiled back… "just like you."
At that he froze again, not out of stunned denial or sudden anger … but out of disbelieving shock at the words. "I'm not…"
"Your wrong you're incredibly special, you being you is what makes you special, so never forget that."
Even as he heard her, he smiled. He forgot it all then; his lifetime as a warrior of the Iron Hands legion… his glory… his success as a captain… even his distant and now uncaring father. In that moment all that mattered to him were the words of someone who he could tell cared.
"Who are you?" he asked, almost unaware he was doing so….
"My name is Musubi…" she said her head lowering into a bow. "what's yours?"
He bowed his head in return and spoke a name he'd almost forgotten… his mortal name…. "Orphamiel Sherus."
He hesitated an instant, then added "and… Musubi… thank you."