Xenogears: 30_memories
Billy was asleep when he decided to go, but he stopped in anyway to say goodbye. He made a sweet picture, curled on his pillow and sleeping the heavy sleep of the innocent; Jessie sat back on his haunches beside the boy's bed and tried to formulate words to express himself. Even if the boy was sleeping he wanted his words to mean something, and the right thing, but he couldn't think of a single sentence.
"He'll miss you," said Raquel, leaning in the doorway. He could see her shadow in the dim light cast over the boy's legs. "I'll make him keep up with his practice like you wanted, but I've never been any good with guns. You know that."
"I know. Dagger woman. Sharp and sudden." He didn't have to look back to know that she smiled.
Wisps of blond hair spilled over the pillow -- so fine, like Jessie's had been once, before repeated inexpert haircuts administered with his own impatient hands had brutalized it. He wanted to stroke that hair but he was afraid of waking the boy up.
"Take care of him for me," he said to Raquel.
He didn't realize until he was well gone from there that he hadn't said anything to Billy at all. Well, he told himself, it's not like he would have heard anyway; it's not like it would have mattered. While he was on his reconnaisance he would think of the right words to say, and when he returned he would let Billy know -- perhaps when he was awake.
He told himself that every day for the next six years.