"I can do this!" Niobe blurted at Dominik's rising protest.  "I can't do this anymore! My life is falling apart, Dominik, I don't know who I am and the way I feel about you...!"

She raised her hands to her head and let them fall again.  Why did he have to pressure her about this? Why couldn't he just walk away? Why did he have to care so bloody much.  She was feeling sad like someone had died. 

"It isn't right.  It's fecking with my life.  I need to get straight here, mate.  I need to get steady.  You drive me mad, Dom."

Niobe Ninefingers was done crying.   She had to shore up and stand on her feet and take control of her life.  And be apart. And where did he get off being hurt about all this?  He'd got off free! He was glad they did it! She frowned at him from across the room.

"You should go."

It came out nearly a whisper.  Even though she wanted to say it like a warrior, she said it like a mouse.  She swallowed a lump in her throat.

"Please just go."

Dominik tensed from the shock of her sudden, fervent declarations.  He stared at her, bewildered, already grieving though he had no idea what was happening at all.  He'd mistaken her strength for something... he wasn't sure what.

Strings of words stood out to him above the rest though, evidence that they couldn't possibly be breaking up for good:  "The way I feel about you . . . . You drive me mad . . . ."

He almost didn't hear the rest.  The can't do's and don't know's and I need's all but disappeared behind her other frantic words that hit him straight in the feels.  How that all ended with him having to leave, he'd never know.  Dom was getting used to the idea that love was a thing you strove for, and could never fully embrace when you wanted it most. 

Right now there was nothing that he wanted more than to have her in his arms again.  He was colder since she'd risen.  He lingered on the floor sulkily gazing up at her with pathetic eyes, remembering her bright natural scent and wanting to ask, how long?  How long do I have to wait?  He wanted to protest, to make her see reason.  But his mouth couldn't form the words. 

He wasn't that daft, though; she'd been clear enough that she wanted him gone... for now.  So after a moment of quiet stewing, of a growing sadness stirring, Dominik leaned into her cabinet for support and slowly rose to standing.  He averted his gaze like a shamed puppy.  He kept wanting to say something but none of his options sounded very good in his own head.  He couldn't bring them forth into the world, so he kept his gob shut and let her be the boss of them. 

He walked very slowly away, as though he might stop and refuse to leave at any moment.  Dominik paused to fish something out of his pocket, placing it with the satisfying sound of a collapsing metal chain on her kitchen table.  It was a talisman necklace, for her birthday.[1] 

Perhaps it had already begun its work by sending him away!  Dominik looked back at her with his big brown eyes before he left.

"Absit omen love," he said quietly.  "I'll be waiting, for when you want to come round....  Think about it."

1.

Polyvore