FicWad

"Don't misunderstand me. I just wanted my dog back."

It isn't that I'm noble. I'm not. I never have been. I've been a thief.

A bastard's sire.

An assassin.

I've never been a law abiding citizen, a husband, a father, or anything else. I might have been in love, somewhere in all of that, but it was long enough ago that I've forgotten.

It's certainly not because of her. It's not because her laugh reminds me of her mother or because she has her mother's sun-gold hair. It's not even because her language, coarse for any age, let alone hers, reminds me of a partner she never met and has no blood ties to.

It's not because to leave her would have been to end the "good life" I wished on her. All lives end, eventually. Even mine. This would be as good a time as any for her to die, now before she learns what it is to love someone, to lose someone, before she can strangle her emotions, become more like I am.

I've never been a father.

I never will be.

I just want to keep the only partner I've ever had who won't ask anything of me, you know?

Kill me.

Love me.

Give me part of yourself.

The dog only wants food and water and the occasional scratch behind the ears. Beyond that he doesn't care and he'll follow me anywhere, just because I'm me and he's fine with that.

That's all. It's not complicated, so don't try to confuse things.