Aoba Seragaki ([personal profile] scrappyblue) wrote in [community profile] orendalogs 2018-11-15 03:39 am (UTC)

Declan could let his feet dangle. Aoba sat cross-legged. The view was incredible, but felt…less secure than the girded windows of the Mariner. Though he knew without thinking it that he was safe with Declan at his side (well within distance to grab him if he did a stupid thing like slip), it was similarly instinctive that he kept his legs up on solid dock. Just in case.

But although Declan’s introspective nature was no longer a surprise, it remained one in the sense that Aoba wondered gently at how his passing remark had prompted the Guardian to speak so. Ren had popped his head out of the smaller, gear-matching bag that Aoba carried him in for such excursions as these, and the man rubbed between his ears in idle contact as he listened to Declan speak.

“…Family is more than just who you’re related to, you know,” Aoba offered in turn when the Titan was done. “Family is important, but you don’t have to be defined by your blood.”

Turning his head, he considered the Guardian with a smile. “You’re…kind of a contradiction, Declan, do you know that? To talk about wanting to belong so much…if you and all the other Guardians don’t have connections like that, I can’t help but think the only thing stopping you is yourselves. Maybe the Traveler brought you back because you were the soldiers the world needed, like you said, but I don’t see why being soldiers should bar you from having the connections you’re looking for. Like…you just need to look a little harder, right here and now, instead of waiting for it all to be over.”

Now it was Aoba’s turn to ramble. He looked ahead, not even sure if he had a point, but allowing himself to answer Declan’s thoughts with his own.

“It doesn’t seem like you’re fighting a war the same way they did in the old times. You’re not all out on a front line waiting to win before you can come home. You come home after every mission. What stops a Guardian from having a family waiting for them, if not themselves?”

…Are you talking about yourself? Because it sounds like you’re talking about yourself.

Wait, what? No! Oh, no….

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