He watched her as he slowly released her hand. It was a difficult thing to do, and he did it with reluctance. He wanted to keep hold of her, in fact he wanted to pull her into a hug again. He wanted to hold her tight for the rest of the day, the rest of the night. He didn’t want to let her go. Aurin had wrestled with feelings like that for years now, and his will always won out over his desire. Today was even more difficult as he watched the look that crossed her face. It would have been so very easy to escalate things right now. He knew how he could do it. He knew exactly what it would take. Which is why he didn’t do it. She didn’t deserve something like that.
It had been years since he realized that he had begun to think of the mage that was so important to him that way. It was one of the reasons he kept himself away from her, to not hand the temptation to act on those feelings. As she watched him in those few moments of silence after he kissed her hand, he gathered the tattered reminds of his will to resist that same old temptation. He smiled quietly towards her before he slowly stood up from his crouch. He should be leaving, before that temptation got the better of him.
At the sudden threat though he laughed. A deep, and honest laugh and was tinged with surprise. “You would, wouldn’t you?” He asked as he smiled down at the woman. His blue eyes were full and bright before he reached out to take the shirt. “Alright. I’ll take it, if you’re going to be like that about it. I’ll just have to find something else to leave you. Instead of my shirt.” He couldn’t let her try to wrestle the shirt back on like she had done before when they were kids. He knew that might break whatever reserves of will he had gathered. He knew he should be going, before he acted on the impulse and desire of his own body.
He knew there was desire there, though he could never pinpoint just where it had begun in the past. He had done what he could to deny it and when he couldn’t do that anymore, to simply burry it. He wouldn’t let it out, not now. Not when he didn’t know just what the next few days would hold. He didn’t want to cause the woman any more trouble, no matter how much he wanted to hold her. She would have her own story, her own adventures, and he refused to ruin that for her.