After leaving the ruins of their Detroit home, Aether carried them to a place overlooking the city's devastated skyline. The elevated position provided distance from the immediate destruction while still allowing them to see the scope of what the apocalypse had wrought on their hometown.
Arthur dismounted and helped Charlotte down, both of them standing silently for a moment, taking in the view of broken buildings and abandoned streets.
But Arthur's attention wasn't on the city. He was watching Charlotte—the way her shoulders remained tense, how her eyes kept drifting back toward where their house had been, the careful way she held herself as if afraid of breaking down again.
He'd seen that body language before, during the darkest days of their homelessness. When Charlotte was holding things inside, processing pain she didn't know how to express.
