18. » spam

[tolaywaste]

[Alex is praying. He's in the chapel with his head bowed, like he's been since just after lunch, and he thinks he's gonna stay until dinner. It probably won't help in the grand scheme of things, but it's quiet here, and that's what he wants. Space to think. Or feel, maybe.]

[He woke up to a flood that drew the very worst memories of his life out of him, laid them on display for anyone at all to see, and now that the smoke is clearing he finds himself in mourning again. It's unexpected how much he misses Pietro, like a sharp pain between his ribs. He wasn't a brother, wasn't important in the same way that Ben or Sean or Armando are, but he was - is - important. He understood things implicitly, things about family that Alex doesn't like to explain.]

[So Alex isn't sure what he's praying for, exactly, other than Pietro's safety. Maybe his, maybe Anya's, maybe nothing in particular. All he knows for sure is he doesn't want to leave.]

Comments

[tolaywaste]

[It isn't - in Alex's mind - obsolete. It is a thing that had one purpose and evolved to have another, not totally disparate, purpose. Here is the thing: Ben is kind. Has always been; will always be, in one form or another. This is a manifestation of his kindness, a presentation of it to the world, a tendril reaching out to warmth.]

[Kindness begets kindness, and kindness thrives from kindness given. Alex has never been one for metaphor, but he thinks briefly of a tropical flower, uprooted and transplanted, requiring nourishment. Particularly fragile, but no less vital for all that.]

[The thought scurries away quickly. He'll forget it soon.]

[For the moment, he watches Ben in his silence and then in his thought, and when words come, he smiles.]

Yeah. I'd like that.

[warisart]

Thank you.

[Ben draws a breath as if to say something else, but when he reaches for the words, he finds to his pleasant surprise that everything has already been said. He exhales slowly, quietly, and sets his chin back down on his knees, content.

It's a strange feeling, one he's only just become accustomed to knowing with any kind of regularity or presence of mind; he used to feel it, when he was closest to the Lady. When Zack came back and things were good between them, as rarely as that happened. It's good, now, to know he can relax into it. That he can stay.

So he says nothing further, and he doesn't move except to breathe, and merely enjoys the company of his best friend and a peaceful, beautiful place in which to do so.]