"Ren is everything I could have been, had I not succumbed to revenge, and had I not been alone." He slowly shakes his head, wings slightly drooping. "I resented him at first. Told myself I hated him, despite him being the one person I had genuinely connected with in many, many years."

Ridiculous. He knows that now, but hatred was easier at the time. It made his objectives... well, he deluded himself into thinking it was simpler.

"Despite everything, he hasn't given up on me. I won't push him away, but I still don't understand it."