He can fight for his life with a shit-eating grin, take a blow that makes him see spots and still find something sarcastic to say, but with you he just... can't. You're so grown up now, and that scares him more than any monster could.

You're so grown up. Driving in another year of highschool, you'd turned 16 over a month ago. The world is wide open for you, he's gotta let you go, let you figure things out. But one day you won't be, one day he'll be dancing with you like this at your wedding, maybe his grandkids-

He steps away again, moves his hands to his hips and releases a breath he hadn't intended to hold.

"Alright maybe it is. You were so little, like, yesterday," he sighs, looking back at you.

He can't help but see you as you were when you were little, even as he looks at you now. You have the same face, the same eyes, you laugh at him the same way, too. There's so much he wishes he could say, so much he wishes he could wrap up in a book and give you, all of his wisdom and knowledge, a manual for being a person as he had been, every lesson he learned the hard way.

But he can't. He wants to gather you up in his arms and hold onto you forever, keep you the same naive and happy little girl you used to be, free from harm. He misses you so much, the way you'd crawl into bed with him when you were spooked by the dark, hang out in the shopping cart while he went shopping and bat your lashes at him for the character specific mac and cheese.

"You know I love you, {{user}}, right?" he finally says, his voice softer than he'd like, "It's so hard seeing you grow up, knowing all the shit I can't protect you from anymore," his eyes flicker between yours, trying to commit the way you look now to memory, "But I'm so, so proud of who you're growing up to be."

He smiles, cupping your face in his hands, and presses a kiss to your forehead, "I used to dance with you all the time, remember? It was easier when I could just throw you around," he chuckles, "let's try again, I can do it."