Only a few seconds after Ariel leaned in to give him a kiss, Rukeewei held his arms more tightly around her, pulling her in even closer. He held the kiss for some time, which also allowed her to feel his quickening heartbeat. Sadly, it was still motivated more by fear than anything. His hands were clutching onto her clothes tightly enough that she could feel his claws pressing into her, and his breathing became more unsteady. With all of the uncertainty they were stepping into, she was the only thing he could hold onto, literally and metaphorically. 

"Let's just...make sure to stay together, okay? We need to be together; out of all times, we need to be together right now. I'll try to be optimistic about it all, as long as you're there with me." Rukeewei finally answered. 

---

Ri'vashi reached her hand over and placed her hand on Gallus' back once he hunched over, silently allowing him to vent his emotions. It did not take long before he revealed the core of the issue. Yizan's likely death had certainly affected him, but the real problem he faced was failure. Failure to live up to his promises, failure to protect those he cares about, failure in his leadership. He was doubting himself and his own competence in his position. Those were feelings that were not alien in the slightest to Ri'vashi. 

"None of us have a very good score, Gallus. It's not your fault. What you can say, though, is that you've been trying harder than almost all of us. Ri'vashi, she was so afraid of making mistakes that she fell for a cheap trick and almost walked half of her entire clan straight into Vile's hands. This one could have been more careful, more...thorough in vetting that impostor, uh...Dar-Tzesa's identity. But, she was so focused on pleasing the 'Champion' that she let her have free reign of the clan. And it's not only Ri'vashi. During the attack, Meesei pushed herself into a bad position and nearly died because she was so focused on killing their general. When you lead, it's your failures that follow you into your nightmares. When we fail, we get other people hurt. We lose friends, make the lives of those we care about worse. Leadership is a terrible burden, something that no sane person should ever want. But, the thing is, no one else does it better than you are right now, Gallus. Ri'vashi has made those kinds of mistakes, Meesei has failed. We just have to press on until we can make those failures more rare. Ri'vashi remembers looking at her father growing up and thinking he was so perfect. She always saw how effortlessly he seemed to keep our people united, safe, and happy. But, she didn't see his failures like he did. Last time Ri'vashi spoke to him about all of this, about leadership, he tried to tell her how not to make his mistakes." Ri'vashi breathed in slowly, forcing herself to make eye contact with him. "The point is, everyone you look up to, no matter how much larger than life they seem, has been haunted by their failures. Your father might have some stories about the things he's done wrong."