He feels needed, with the soft murmur of his name on her breath, the gentle push of a velvet muzzle against the slope of his shoulder. A long, low sigh escapes him— one he does not know he passes in relief. The simple, sad joy of being needed— it is a sensation the Elephant would not soon forget.
”Give me a reason to stay.” Her words, spoken on an exhale, were an embarrassed plea ushered from a shaking body. The ivory skin beneath his lips pinked with her flush, but his own eyes were drawn to her trembles. Amid the tranquility he had found in this quiet embrace, something ugly once again roused as he saw her quiver beneath him.
He could not name this feeling— it was akin to the sensation he had felt when using another for information in his past life, but not quite the same. Regardless, he needed her trembling to stop; he needed her…
”Give me a reason to stay.” They echoed in his skull, which rested silently above her neck and withers. Was the herd not reason enough? Was he not? No, that is not what her breathy, shaking question inquired. He knew that. She, in all her self-doubt, needed a verbal confession. He took a deep breath, slowly untangling himself from her— he had to watch her face as he spoke these words.
Backing only enough so that their faces were close, he paused at the sight of her tear-bright eyes. Navy pools probed her sapphires as words, both selfish and sincere, began to quietly rumble from his chest, “If you will let me, I will be your reason. In my past, I have been a brutal— a ruinous force. But here, for you…” his husky words pause, beseeching eyes searching hers, “I don't want to be those things. I want to be… more.” His own admissions seemed so paltry in the face her own, but they were what he had to give.