Rooted [Taichou/Henrex]

How...pathetic.

That was the only thought that traversed the thoughts of the Hybrid boy as he allowed his emotions to take the helm of his actions. It was so utterly pathetic, to him. To allow himself to be consumed by something like this. Time had passed, and he still had not been able to truly say that he was over the experience. But, there was still the fact that he had hidden most of his mind, heart, and emotions away after that happened. Mere days, or even hours after it had happened, he had locked himself up.

Dedicating himself to forcibly keeping his mind off of the painful cluster that it was, he had began pretty much torturing his body with absurdly long self-training sessions that would bring his body beyond his normal limits, and inflict horrifyingly large amounts of physical pain towards him. But, here he was. In the middle of Europe, with Taichou Ryakketsu -- his old friend -- and he just broke down crying because of that. He cursed himself over and over again within the confines of his own mental fortress, his body now unable to keep the tears from falling.

He didn't even bother to wipe them away. But, the sobs soon came to a halt as two arms wrapped around him, pulling him into a tight embrace, causing the male's eyes to shoot open in surprise, the pale liquid that resembled the emotion of grief blurring his vision, and burning his cheeks. Quiet, hushed, but quick inhales came from Henrex, his mouth releasing the violently taken air as quick as it had entered his system. Feeling the half-Demoness' hand gently drape over to the back of his neck, and her other arm rising to the middle of his back, his ears barely heard the whisper.

But, his mind registered the words that she gave him, her tone firm, but soothing. As the girl's attempts to comfort the other half-breed sunk deep into his nervous system, and causing his brain to send out waves of signals all throughout his body, altering his behavior based on the emotion that he was slowly drifting towards. As the panicked breathing began to slow into regular, deep breaths, Henrex could feel himself reverting to what him, and some others could refer to as a "normal" state for his mind to be in.

Taking in a slow, but deep breath in, he felt the muscles in his body relaxing, and loosening from their previously tense state. He hadn't...even noticed that. Flicking around in the sockets from left to right, Henrex's grey and red eyes soon found solace from peering in a downwards direction. A small sigh left him as his arms that had been wrapped around Taichou the entire time loosened their iron grip. So much of his body had reacted without him even knowing or realizing this fact. Closing his eyes and breaking off the already mildly long embrace between the two, the back of Henrex's hands dragged across his lower eyelids, ridding his face of any more tears that would try to fall.

"...I'm sorry. You must think I'm pathetic, acting like this."

His head lowered, and his hair fell in front of his face. He truly was ashamed of his current actions. Suddenly, the sound of two cups clinking against the object that they sat at caused Henrex's left eye to quickly move over to see what had occurred. Seeing the steam rise from the two new cups of coffee that had been set down, his eye soon flicked over to the waitress who had done so. As the pitch black void set itself onto the girl's form with unnatural speed, causing her to jump slightly, Henrex's eye soon moved back to where it had been before.

His hand slowly reaching out and wrapping his pale fingers around the thick glass handle of the coffee, before bringing the beverage close to his chest, holding the bottom of the cup with his other hand, before lifting it to his lips and taking a quiet sip. The flow of the combination of sugar and coffee itself caused his nerves to suddenly feel a jolt of energy within them, and his body began to relax. The quick sip of coffee was definitely something that he needed so that he could calm down, even if it was by the slightest.

"So -- how...have you been?"