Baatar runs a hand through her hair but he doesn't be know what it's like. The true agony of waiting. Waiting on the curb or a sidewalk, on a dark and desolate street, for someone or something that won't return.

Kuvira thinks about it often and it still hurts just as much now as it did back then. Maybe even more so now that she is older and has a full understanding of what had happened.

Her parents wanted a child.

They wanted someone to love and cherish.

They, however, didn't want a problem child.

And that is what she had been. Rowdy and hard to control. Fussy and hyper and unwilling to clean up her own messes. She supposes that some things don't change. Though she isn't very hyper anymore.

She is actually rather somber and still these days.

She curls herself up on Baatar's bed, still not quite able to process that they had or fathom why they brought her into their home again.

Less so, she can understand how Baatar could take her back. How he could sit there rubbing comforting circles on her back.

She wipes at her eyes and tries not to shed any more tears. But he doesn't understand how irreparably broken she is. Doesn't understand the complete torment that comes with having to live with knowing that you'd ruined and broken the lives of most everyone.

He couldn't truly know that completely hollow and cold sensation that settles on when a day of abandonment turns into three days. And then three days into a week.

He doesn't know how it has shattered her.

How it has controlled every aspect of her life in some way or another. It controlled her just about as well as she had once controlled her empire. But her empire had become as fragmented as she has always been.

Baatar stops combing her hair with his fingers. Instead, he takes her hands and stroked the backs of them with his thumb. When this fails to coax a reaction from her, he lays down next to her, pressing his chest against her back and resting his chin on her head. She feels his arms looping around her torso. It is the sort of warmth and affection that she has been deprived of since she was abandoned at eight years.

He kisses the top of her head. "You're going to be okay. I promise."