[ All of Miles' breath escapes him in a rush. Simultaneously nostalgic of and aching for Gregor's presence, he welcomes that familiar-yet-different surge of water back into his head. He relishes in the complexity he can feel over the link. Hell, even Gregor's multi-tiered nervousness about what to do is its own kind of beautiful. Miles doesn't know the answer to any of that, but neither does Gregor. If neither of them know, then surely that means they can figure it out together, right? It's what's keeping Miles afloat here, anyway.
His own mental landscape is similar yet changed as well. The cliffs are starker, the drops from high to low a little sharper, and the omnipresent sense of an audience in the back of his head has done his self esteem no favors. Piotr's double-edged gifts continue to cut him in this version as it did the first time around. The fears are slightly modified now: fear of his powers being discovered, fear of undermining the Imperium, fear of destroying everything his father (and Gregor) have built. This is another wildly dangerous thing to add to the pile ...
The other noticeable change are Miles' memories, of course. Of everyone affected by the timeline changes, Miles has the most difference between the two sets of memories. Growing up with Tex alone would have guaranteed that, much less the telepathy. (And Bothari is alive, and they're going to rescue Mark--) He's still himself, absolutely, but he has more than a small amount of discrepancies to work through.
But most importantly ... he remembers that golden thread of love between them. It glimmers there now in the bottom of his psyche, dimmed perhaps by recent uncertainty but no less present. He extends a tendril of his own rose gold affection to Gregor as he reaches out to welcome Gregor into his mind. Warm, brilliant sunlight streaming across in all its glorious radiance. Physically, he leans in close to Gregor, his head tipped up towards the taller man's face. ]
I love you too, Gregor. [ The words come out as a murmur, this close. ] God, I love you so much.
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His own mental landscape is similar yet changed as well. The cliffs are starker, the drops from high to low a little sharper, and the omnipresent sense of an audience in the back of his head has done his self esteem no favors. Piotr's double-edged gifts continue to cut him in this version as it did the first time around. The fears are slightly modified now: fear of his powers being discovered, fear of undermining the Imperium, fear of destroying everything his father (and Gregor) have built. This is another wildly dangerous thing to add to the pile ...
The other noticeable change are Miles' memories, of course. Of everyone affected by the timeline changes, Miles has the most difference between the two sets of memories. Growing up with Tex alone would have guaranteed that, much less the telepathy. (And Bothari is alive, and they're going to rescue Mark--) He's still himself, absolutely, but he has more than a small amount of discrepancies to work through.
But most importantly ... he remembers that golden thread of love between them. It glimmers there now in the bottom of his psyche, dimmed perhaps by recent uncertainty but no less present. He extends a tendril of his own rose gold affection to Gregor as he reaches out to welcome Gregor into his mind. Warm, brilliant sunlight streaming across in all its glorious radiance. Physically, he leans in close to Gregor, his head tipped up towards the taller man's face. ]
I love you too, Gregor. [ The words come out as a murmur, this close. ] God, I love you so much.