[PRP] a pack of smokes (sonny & jeremiah)

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah's hand pulled away. The handkerchief was set aside as he slowly reached for Sonny's hands.

"They're not- It isn't. What wears their face isn't them." He coughed - tongue feeling heavy still - head turning away as he gently worked at moving their hands away from their throat. If they didn't want to, he would stop.

"... and you could, you really good. The world is at your fingertips, Sonny, all of it, but would that make it better?" Shiloh and America were both good, were both people who tried their best, and probably would not want them to do something like that.

... because of what it might do to them in the long run.

shibroswol

 

[shibrogane]

"It was theirs when they did this to me," said Sonny. They wiped their face on their sleeve, let Jeremiah take their hands. Hopefully he would ignore the tears leaking from the corners of their eyes; the redness there only emphasized the green. They looked a lot like Liam in that moment, his features refined to fit a more feminine face. "It's not fair."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"No," he said quietly, holding their hands in his own a moment. These hands, one of them at least, were not the ones that had been inside his chest. They were familiar and not, just like their face was.

He looked at them and he did see Liam. More Liam than Renard, though it had been the other way around before this moment. "No," he repeated, "it is not fair." Their hands were given a gentle squeeze before he let go and put the handkerchief into them instead.

"Use that- your jacket is nice. I think, instead of telling you my troubles, how about you tell me something I can help you with? Things are often tied together."

shibrogane

word count to here: 2482

 

[shibrogane]

Sonny rubbed the handkerchief over their eyes and then balled it up in one hand. "I wanna be free," said Sonny. "I don't care about not leaving the house. I have books, and my friends visit me, and I have my Papa and my father. But I want to be able to talk about whatever I want and not have to worry about being summoned like a dog or made to promise stuff I don't want to promise. I don't wanna strangle in my own throat."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah looked them over as thoughts turned in his mind. "That," he said slowly, "is very understandable."

Mostly because, in his own small way, he knew he was unable to talk about one person and their magical status as a Principal. "Wouldn't you be if we opened this cage? Put an end to the cycles, you would be free to be with your Papa and father?"

They all would. Wouldn't they?

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Yeah," said Sonny, on a sigh. "But I don't think I'd be me, either. I'm shaped by the cage. Whatever shape it takes, I change to match it. What if when the cage opens, I cease to exist?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"That," said Jeremiah slowly, "would not be something we would want. Not Shiloh, not America, not myself- You've already been changed, you deserve to live and be free like anyone else."

Regardless of how they were born, regardless of everything. Though suddenly he thought of the doppelganger of himself he had seen in other ashdown - the one who's eyes had a strange light - and the knowledge that Ezra had given him months back.

"What can be done," his voice was soft, "to let you be who you are meant to be is what we'll do." Her name was Ascension because, if they let her, she could ascend. Jeremiah was where he had always ended up when it came to Sonny: worried about what the future meant for them.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Sonny shrugged. "Sometimes I think about how peaceful it would be to not exist. I don't think I'd mind."

They poured more tea, and sipped it, looking out the window. "No one can go through life unchanged. I've just changed a little more obviously."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah gave a small nod of his head, shifting away and rolling his shoulders. "Yet would the world be better without you? Or would we be lesser for it?"

Worse, would they be the cause of it in the end.

"Most obviously perhaps," he replied, lips pressed together for a moment. This was not the lonely girl he had known, the one who had put her hand into his chest and held his heart, the one who had fallen apart in the sky as they watched and jumped into a void. This was someone else, someone younger, someone who was not so jaded.

Or it seemed so and he wanted to believe it.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Sonny shrugged again, but didn't say anything else. They leaned out the window, holding a cigarette between two of her elegant fingers.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah let out a breath and sighed. A huff of laughter, a wry chuckle, escaped a moment later. "At least that carton of cigarettes won't go to waste."

He took his seat and then took a sip of his tea.

"It wasn't you but I did say I would come by one day just to smoke with you. Just because and not needing anything," he looked over to them, "and while apparently my smoking is a thing of the past, if you don't mind, I'll keep you company a bit longer. Maybe you could tell me about a book you've read?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Sure," said Sonny, and they did, explaining all about Alanna the Lioness and her adventures. It was exactly the kind of story Sunny would have told, focusing entirely too much on the magic and not enough on the cat.

It was nice.

azuredreams