[Grell is one of the few that he thinks might have cared--her, Ardyn, Prompto, Togusa, and Ari. Everyone else... maybe they would have stopped for a moment, but they would've gotten over it in a few minutes, if it even took that long. Even his parents; they would go through all the motions, but Dante can't really bring himself to wonder if they'd really miss him. It's not a question he wants to know the answer to.
At any rate, he isn't expecting to be pulled into a hug, and there's a sharp breath that escapes him when he is. For a moment he stands tense in her grasp... but then his arms are coming up to almost cling to her, all the tension draining out of his body as he just lets himself be held, his head dropping slowly to her shoulder.
It's a boundary that hasn't been crossed since Ari left, almost a full month ago by this point, and Dante's been trying to hold himself together through sheer willpower as the weeks have gone on. If it were only that, he might have been fine, but the memories and everything they've been through in the past few weeks have rolled all together into a series of nightmares, memories that have twined together in his subconscious in such a way that when he wakes up he can't be sure what's real and what's not--whether he'd been in control of his own body when Toushiro had been killed, if he'd made a genuine mistake or if that presence had been controlling him, using him to attack and try to kill his friends the way it had used him to attack Sora in those memories. Are the bonds he fought against really the sheets of the beds, come to life and binding him tight to the headboard so he couldn't escape, or were they the bonds of that other presence, locking him inside his own body and making it so he couldn't do anything no matter how he threw himself against them?
She isn't Ari and he wouldn't want her to be, but Grell is here and wrapping him in her arms, there and real and warm and Dante chokes on a sob that threatens to escape him, his entire body shuddering.
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At any rate, he isn't expecting to be pulled into a hug, and there's a sharp breath that escapes him when he is. For a moment he stands tense in her grasp... but then his arms are coming up to almost cling to her, all the tension draining out of his body as he just lets himself be held, his head dropping slowly to her shoulder.
It's a boundary that hasn't been crossed since Ari left, almost a full month ago by this point, and Dante's been trying to hold himself together through sheer willpower as the weeks have gone on. If it were only that, he might have been fine, but the memories and everything they've been through in the past few weeks have rolled all together into a series of nightmares, memories that have twined together in his subconscious in such a way that when he wakes up he can't be sure what's real and what's not--whether he'd been in control of his own body when Toushiro had been killed, if he'd made a genuine mistake or if that presence had been controlling him, using him to attack and try to kill his friends the way it had used him to attack Sora in those memories. Are the bonds he fought against really the sheets of the beds, come to life and binding him tight to the headboard so he couldn't escape, or were they the bonds of that other presence, locking him inside his own body and making it so he couldn't do anything no matter how he threw himself against them?
She isn't Ari and he wouldn't want her to be, but Grell is here and wrapping him in her arms, there and real and warm and Dante chokes on a sob that threatens to escape him, his entire body shuddering.
Just... give him a moment.]