Malachi Azure
As Kai looked at Jess, he knew showing up there wouldn’t have been easy for her. Especially after the last time they saw each other, when he unknowingly stumbled across her being undercover, and it was clear that there wouldn’t be anything more between them. Seconds, minutes, it didn’t matter, they stood there until the silence was broken by Scarlet. He didn’t know what to say to Jess. Even though he made the decision to show up at her door, he had no idea what he was going to say to her. He looked to Scarlet then back to Jess when she asked if he had somewhere to sleep. He gave a slight shake of his head. “Not yet…” Though, he never would have expected that she would let him come in for the night. She let him in, and made sure Scarlet was safe and sound, snuggled in asleep. “Thank you.” For the first time, in Kai didn’t even know how long, he was able to simply let out a breath, knowing that his daughter was safe and nothing would happen to her.
It had been rough for Kai for a while. Guilt and self hate had built up so much over the years to a point that he couldn’t bury it any longer, which only added to the losses he had experienced that year, and now exhaustion was the icing on the cake. He didn’t have it in him to plan ahead for anything, even for a place to try and sleep. Not that he would’ve even slept much anyway. Between taking care of a newborn, and the way he couldn’t distract himself from his pain whenever he did manage to catch more than a couple minutes of sleep, he was running on fumes. He was exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally. He didn’t have it in him to fight, especially not when Jess had every right to be mad at him. “I’m sorry Jess, I know I shouldn’t have come. And no, I don’t need to call anyone, especially not Evangeline. I don’t want her to have any idea where I am, and Akielah knew I would come here…” Kai let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair, which would have left it visible that there was now only one ring left on that hand, the ring Jess had given him on his wedding day. He never expected he would have a chance of anything with her again, but that ring was a reminder of a different time, a better time. It was a reminder to himself of who he wished he could be, and what he should have done. “I… I don’t even know why I thought coming here was a good idea… I just… I wanted to see you. But I… I wasn’t thinking…”