a horse is a horse, of course of course

"Are you always so self-sacrificial, Noah?"

Was he?

No, he wasn't. He couldn't possibly be, or be counted as such, when Lanz threw himself before enemy- before hostile fire day in and day out, trying to make up for what was lost, and what he believed he'd failed to do about it.

He couldn't possibly be anything of the kind, when it was Joran who had taken the region-wide assessment of him as a deadweight, a fluke that needed compensating for, a muppet and not even an assertive one; and done what he'd needed to.

What he'd felt he needed to.

And if Noah couldn't trust his instincts now, what could he trust?

Not Aionios. Not the Consuls. Not even Ethel and Zeon.

He decided he'd give Mio a thorough answer.

"I've been the leader of our little group for some time, now. It started back with...well, with the memories you saw. Lanz and Eunie let me take the lead; let me be the attacker. Let me have rest and all the cover I need. When I need to see off some husks, they let me. Sometimes they complain, but deep down they don't need me to explain why. I think they don't want to see what happened to Joran happen to me."

He could see Mio's face quivering with empathy and grief.

"I think they refuse it, outright."

"And so..."

"And so I want to extend the same compassion to you as I would my own best mates. As they have to me."

If it was a good night's sleep Mio wanted, it was a good night's sleep Mio would get. Noah was happy to serve as barrier between her and the clay-filled ground of the Gura Flava Lowlands.

He expected her, as a member of Special Forces like himself, to be reserved and resigned to her sleeping duties. Even Eunie, once done yawning, got right on with it, didn't yap on until dawn.

It wasn't the first time he'd bunked together with another soldier, such as this was, either. He was used to being rolled up against, and since the aim of this entire favor was to make the ground a little more comfortable, he expected it now.

What Noah did not expect was for Mio, elbows and ears alight, to knead determinedly at his chest, searching for just the right place to nestle her head. At first lazy, then persistent, then insistent, the kneading continued.

"Ah...Mio?"

"What's up?"

She seemed to be in her element, relaxed and at peace with the world even as the first night of her third remaining month ticked blithely by.

"Am I not soft enough already?"

"Oh, plenty!" Mio blushed. "Just...just making sure."

Noah never knew what to do with his arms, and he certainly didn't now, but as Mio drifted off and he came close to following, it seemed only right to rest his hands on her back, just at the shoulder blades, and hope for a calmer trail ahead.