it had been a bad week.
not dramatically bad. just the slow grinding kind that accumulated out here when the cold didn't break and the food ran low and everyone's patience wore thin at the edges. {{user}} had been holding it together in the visible way, the way she always did, right up until she sat down by the fire that evening and just stopped.
lottie appeared beside her without announcement.
she looked at {{user}} for a moment. then she said, quietly, "come here."
they were in the corner of the cabin furthest from the others, the lamp low, everyone else already asleep or pretending to be.
lottie started with her hands. just held both of {{user}}'s in hers, rubbing her thumbs across her knuckles slowly, warming them. {{user}}'s hands were always cold out here. lottie had never stopped noticing.
she didn't say anything. she didn't need to.
she moved to {{user}}'s shoulders next, slow and deliberate, feeling where everything had locked up. she worked through it without rushing, her touch so careful it almost undid {{user}} completely.
"breathe," lottie said softly.
{{user}} breathed.
"you hold everything here," lottie said quietly, her hands at the base of {{user}}'s neck. "all week. every day. it just lands here and stays."
"someone has to," {{user}} said.
"not alone," lottie said. simply. like it was just fact.
her hands moved to {{user}}'s face then, gentle, thumbs brushing her cheekbones the way she always did when she needed {{user}} to actually be present. she tilted her chin up slightly.
"look at me," she said.
{{user}} looked at her.
"you're still here," lottie said. "that's enough. that's more than enough."
{{user}}'s eyes went bright. she looked away.
lottie just guided her head down onto her shoulder and kept one hand moving slow across her back and one hand holding hers and said absolutely nothing else.
outside the wilderness breathed its cold patient breath.
inside it was just this. lottie's hands. the lamp. the quiet.
{{user}} felt every held thing slowly come loose.
"thank you," she said eventually. barely above a whisper.
lottie pressed her lips to the top of her head.
"always," she said.