They both carried so much pain in their bones if he also would have joined her upon the other side. He moved in closer, though didn't quite touch her yet, saying that she couldn't get rid of him. Her broken eyes flickered upward, sadness mixing with comfort. And, the metaphors which fell from his mouth (while violent in nature) were laced with the support she needed to cling to the idea that he was hers to call a brother.

He says that they were not the family which had disappeared, that the same expectations could not continue forward and she can only nod her head as he apologizes for not finding her sooner. But Valiance decides that he has to punish himself, for being part of the reason she was being chastised. She clung to his words, not recoiling yet, but biting down instead and taking the somewhat sharper words. Her jaw trembles, just a little, and then she nods her head. "I-I'll t-try…" she whispers, before pleading for him to wrap his wing around her. She wanted comfort, comfort that she knew well - both from Quil and from Kaj.

She presses in closer as soon as his wing wraps around her spine, and she pulls Valiance in closer as well, shielding him with both her neck and Kaj's wing. She pleads with him, begging for him to realize that he had a place as much as he was pleading with her to realize the same. He said he would never reprimand her for yelling, that it made him proud, trying to lace in humor. Carefully, she presses her maw against his chest, allowing a few more words to slip from her lips. "Why? Because I'm so tiny it's comedic?" she muses, golden eyes flickering upward without moving her head - Valiance pressing in even closer to the pair.

Alas, as she cries about Quilyan he gives the answer she had hoped for. That something else had kept him away, that he wouldn't do it on purpose. And, if Quilyan had - for some God awful reason - that he would challenge him, that he would be on Res's side. One more tear slides down her cheek before she can no longer cry, and it is met wit his muzzle against her cheek. "Thank you, Kaj…" she breaks a little, voice choking in the process, "I just don't know how many more I can lose…" There is a shudder before she tries to meet Kaj's gaze, a harsh line creasing her features as her ear falls, "I can't lose you too. I can't lose you and you can't lose me. We have to be there for each other." Strength, a new strength in her words that wouldn't have been possible before. "Let me be there for you too, Kaj. Let me shoulder some of the burden. We can take each other's pain… we can help each other thrive…" a messed up system, but she wanted so badly to help him too. She knew she had to, if he was willing to so rashly throw away his life as she had been.

Alas, he says that she wasn’t a doll or an ornament. That he had been the one raised to be used, that he understood. She presses up against him, maw trying to massage out any knots in his shoulders, to offer comfort to not only the emotional but the physical pain. "You already are more," she breathed, before he promised that he would do all that he could t help her become what it was that she wanted. "You always will be more…" Confidence, for she whole-heartedly believed that he had become so much more than a tool - that he had become akin to the Gods, a respite from the pain. He wasn't perfect, but he was there and he cared and he could think for himself, for others. "And I will help you stay more… I will help you be who you want."

But she's tired, and her words are fading from exhaustion, breathing slowing down to an easy rhythm now that the anger had completely subsided. "Stay with me? Rest a spell? I can give you herbs when we return. It would do us both good…" she says, voice hazy as sleep tries to take over.