After Aather!

[followtheblackrabbit]

[hijinks go here]

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[followtheblackrabbit]

[a bit heavier against him, tugging on his jacket]

It's been a lot. And fast, really really fast. For a while I just felt like I was stumbling after you, but you were pulling me along too, and you never let go. I don't know what to do with everything but I know that I can follow you, I can rely on you.

Though now . . .

It's really quiet here.

[likeawritingdesk]

. . .

[moves to put his arm around Oz, pulling him closer to him, more against his chest.]

It is quiet.

I know as long as I'm with you, it's fine. But...

The two of us... weren't alone anymore, were we.

[followtheblackrabbit]

[pressing close, moving to slide his arms around his waist]

We weren't. You had Peridot, and I had Ruby, and we both had Lelouch.

We still do, I guess. They're just a lot farther away now.

[likeawritingdesk]

. . .[deep, more contented sigh, auto soothed...]

I feel spoiled in that regard... to be so upset over just a temporary separation when we know what could happen otherwise. What we've already been through...

Hell... we'll even be able to see Elliot.

[followtheblackrabbit]

We will. And Alice and Leo too. We'll have to have a big party with everyone once it's all done.

[likeawritingdesk]

Yeah...

Everything will be fine.

[followtheblackrabbit]

Definitely.

But for now I have you all to myself.

[likeawritingdesk]

[hff]

You've always had me.

[followtheblackrabbit]

[looks up, reaching up to frame his face in his hands]

I'll always have you, too.

[likeawritingdesk]

. . .

[/////

leans forward to bump their foreheads, letting out a breath he'd started to hold]

[followtheblackrabbit]

[leaning back against him, breathing in, slowly]

I love you.

[likeawritingdesk]

[closes his eyes, absorbing that...]

You're . . . wonderful. Your strength, your weaknesses, what you've doubted and what you've stood for. . .

I . . .

[followtheblackrabbit]

[flushing, his face hot and he shivers, threading his fingers in Gil's hair]

Gil—?

[likeawritingdesk]

. . . Do you want to hear? About who I was, long ago.

[followtheblackrabbit]

[nods slightly]

I want to know.

[likeawritingdesk]

[settles with him still just as close, murmuring quietly to speak.]

... Vincent and I were always together. Our mother... likely got rid of us. We were an attraction in a cage before we escaped. From then we lived on the streets, mostly in hiding, thanks to Vincent's red eye... as a "child of misfortune," he was conveniently blamed for all the wrong in the world.

... We did anything and everything to get by.

[followtheblackrabbit]

[staying close, listening, he purses his lips and swallows, completely intent on what Gil's saying]

Gil . . .

[likeawritingdesk]

It was really miserable then. I know... I thought about abandoning him, and I know in my gut that. . . he would have just. . . [let me. . .]

. . . But I never did. Instead I just did all I could. Killed, whored, stole... everything... ugly in the world. And Vincent suffered so much. I just wanted us to be okay.

And one day, when we were sure to die together, Jack appeared. He came and saved us, cleaned us up, and brought us to the Baskerville house.

[followtheblackrabbit]

Then you became Glen's servant.

[likeawritingdesk]

Yeah.

More than that. I became his successor.

[followtheblackrabbit]

[nods]

Jack showed me some of that. While he was fighting Leo.

[likeawritingdesk]

[hrrngh holds him a little more securely against him.]

. . . We were pretty happy then. Like a dream.

Glen was really gentle and kind. And Jack... I never thought there was anything cruel in him.

It was easy to get twisted up in his story with things only half-remembered.

I think... Glen felt it. But he wanted to believe in him too.

[followtheblackrabbit]

[slides his hands down, holding to Gil's shirt]

Jack was . . . it was all because of Glen's sister, Lacie. Everything he did was for her.

[likeawritingdesk]

Lacie? . . .

Glen's...?

[followtheblackrabbit]

[nods]

She was a child of misfortune, like Vincent. And—I think she was Alice's mother as well.