#if any of this seems ooc pls bear in mind i am a sap first and a human being second okay

[kazamajun]

two of you I gotta admit are correct. alas. some (hopefully) good stuff under the cut tho. ⬇

"I was told you had died." Kazuya utters once his breathing evens out. A ridiculous notion, that she could have been slain by the same creature that had taken out other - in his eyes, inferior - martial artists. But, she had vanished without a trace and the boy genuinely believed her dead. Knowing Jun as he does, Kazuya was aware she would not voluntarily have left the boy alone; nor sent him to his own monster of a father had there been any alternative. Thus, he had accepted the news for truth and with no small measure of grief, albeit buried deep. Reconciling that with the fact that something he'd believed for seven years was actually untrue, has him more shaken than he'd care to admit now that the more immediate danger was over and there actually was time to process it all. His wings flare slightly with agitation.

"I almost did." Jun replies with an open honesty. Recalling the sensation of being close to death was far from pleasant, but divulging the memory is a necessity, she knows. "Calling upon the power here I defeated the ogre that attacked us, but it had fatally wounded me in turn. The voice of my ancestors guided me here to rest, and… this place kept me from death until I could heal. Protected me." As she elaborates, her hand raises from Kazuya's shoulder to lay along his cheek. Even armoured as it is with demonic cartilage, his bone structure is still familiar and the feel of him is soothing. She does not miss the way he ever so slightly tilts his head and leans in to the touch.

For Kazuya it is a strange thing to be cared about so openly. To have one so dedicated to you yet who asks for nothing in return. Even all these years later, Jun's first act had been for his welfare, and done without question. It causes an ache, tugging at that carefully compartmentalized sense of loss where all these years without her had resided. One of his hands comes to rest over the top of her one gracing his cheek, lingering there briefly before he gently lifts her hand away and presses a small kiss to her wrist in wordless response and acknowledgement of her selflessness.