Tired. God, he was so very, very tired. The last few days... hell, the last month had been difficult for Aurum, whether it be dragging himself through night after night of insomnia, or worrying constantly about others. Moth was back home now, but her short kidnapping had been enough to instill a sense of anxiety down deep beneath his pelt, manifesting as a wild, untamed itch that forced him to be ever vigilant, even as his sanity slipped further and further away. Roy and others had certainly been trying to make him get the rest he so desperately needed, but it was just so... hard. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw something different. He saw Snarl and Vathmos viciously fighting, with he and Miller in the middle. He saw Moth being dragged away by an unknown assailant, desperate and screaming. He saw the Pitt, a cloud of darkness and gore led by a man who hated him, coming down upon Tanglewood. The visions constantly plagued him, and all he wanted was one night of decent sleep, where he didn't feel like he was pulling apart at the seams, with all of the trauma he had stuffed deep down inside finally trying to spill out like stuffing. To add on top of all of it, he hadn't seen Crowley in weeks, the demon vanishing from the public view just as quickly as he had reappeared. They had a brief reconciliation, but it was obvious the male wasn't keen on sticking around, so Aurum could add him to the ever growing list of loves that had taken his heart, run with it, and then crushed it underfoot.

He wasn't sure what his goal had been when he left home that morning, or if he had even really had one, but all he had known was that he needed to move. He needed to just go and go and go until his legs and lungs finally gave out, and maybe then he's finally be able to sleep. Either way, eventually the thick swampland of Tanglewood gave way to unfamiliar territory, the loner lands enveloping him in a warm canopy of different scents that he mostly didn't recognize. He wondered if one day he would ever smell something similar to his pride out here again. He desperately hoped not. Heavy golden paws continued to just aimlessly shift him along, moving the proxy of Tanglewood steadily forward until eventually things began to grow familiar again. Uncomfortably familiar. He was getting closer to the Pitt, he realized with a start. His body had just been on autopilot, and had sent him in the direction of the enemy group without his input. Ears pinning down again his skull, the male sighed heavily as he sat, looking down at the shifting sand beneath his paws. He would turn and head back soon enough, he just needed a moment to breathe.

Aurum was just staring down at the sand, his eyes faintly glazed over in thought, when suddenly the sand dipped in front of him, crushing down in the shape of a paw. He blinked a couple of times in utter confusion, his mind seemingly struggling to catch up and put together what was happening, when suddenly the invisibility fell from the male in front of him. Almost immediately, Aurum recoiled in surprise, letting out a soft shout accompanied with a small puff of fire. He fell backwards, having to flap his wings a couple of times to avoid going straight back on his spine. When Draekon began to sniff at him, he leaned backwards, his one blue eye narrowing as he hissed defensively. He didnt recognize Draekon in this new form, despite the similar patchy fur. He didn't have enough information to go on, so Draekon was just an unknown assailant as far as he knew. As such, he growled menacingly, "H... Hey! What the hell! Do you think it's funny, just sneaking up on somebody and sniffing at them? Because it's not! You better goddamn watch it, or I'll fight you!" It was a bit of a childish threat, but he was caught off guard and exhausted, so he wasn't exactly operating at 100 percent.

Aurum's words had come out in a rush after he had been startled, and he found his chest gradually rising and falling to recatch his breath as he stared down Draekon, seemingly waiting for an answer. However, instead of receiving one, the other's eyes just moved downwards, filling with disappointment. As soon as Draekon spoke, Aurum felt his breath catch, and his chest clenched painfully, like someone had just punched him in the gut. Draekon's voice might've been a bit different, but it had the same cadence and purpose behind it that he remembered. The proxy seemed utterly frozen for a couple of seconds as Draekon pouted at him, seemingly more worried about his necklace rather than him. He finally seemed to regain his voice at this, mumbling weakly, "Draekon...? You... what... you left me." He didn't even have it in him to be that angry about the necklace thing, since he was just so overwhelmed and confused.

Aurum was in no way used to Draekon speaking in full sentences. Back in the days when they had been together, Draekon had spoke to him mostly through grunts, chuffs, and single words, and that had been enough for him. It had sometimes made things somewhat difficult, but it had been fine. They didn't need that many words to communicate. Now, however? The sentences were good. They were useful, even though they only generated more confusion inside Aurum to add to the feedback loop, his mind becoming muddled with not only confusion but also Draekon's distress and guilt. He took a deep breath inward through his nose at this, trying to calm himself down. It worked, but only somewhat. Enough for him to speak, anyways, "You... Draekon... you didn't even say goodbye." His voice broke somewhat at the end, a lump forming in his throat and his eyes stinging unpleasantly. His claws curled down into warm sand, as if he were desperate for some kind of hold on something. He couldn't look Draekon in the eyes, his chest too tight to even think about lifting his head.

Aurum was practically shaking as the other explained his thought process, his chest tight and the lump in his throat growing larger and larger. Draekon was technically right in that it had led to him being where he was now, but that still didn't mean that he was happy about it. He had lost a man that he loved, who he thought had abandoned him because he wasn't good enough. The lion let out a soft, weak, pitiful noise, and tears began to roll slowly down his cheeks, half clear and half fiery, hitting the ground and roasting the sand beneath it. He let out a hiccup before he spoke, his voice strained through crying, "I thought... I thought that you left me because I wasn't good enough for you. I thought you abandoned me because I wasn't a good enough boyfriend. Like everyone else abandons me."