there is no shortage of work that can be found when it comes to this job — and that is exactly why cain has stuck to it for so long. the paperwork is endless; there’s always something that requires his attention. busy. if he wants, he can always end up busy. it helps pass the time that he’s trapped with. it helps keep his mind off of certain things, keeps darkness from flooding his every thought. cases have become more and more tedious over time — laws have changed, most of them for the better, but every once in a while cain can’t help but feel like humans are trying to take a few steps backward, like they are trying to make things all kinds of difficult just for the sake of doing so.
he spends most of the morning tied up in court. cold. precise. specific. his time on the stand is always quick, to the point. people find him intimidating and things fall into place easily enough — another day, another run-around, another attempt at putting those guilty of his own sins behind bars. marcus pierce is well known and respected and there is nothing for the defense to try and sink their teeth into. today’s lawyer is new. fresh. a little nervous, despite having the education necessary to pass the bar. cain doesn’t go easy when questions come. there’s something of a reputation for that, now — for snapping at the dumber questions, for being short when he can. details are given. his officers are protected. the case gets one day closer to being done and the day itself moves on.
that means returning to the precinct.
and that means avoiding one detective elijah ross, at all costs.
to his credit, he’s done very well so far.
kept himself from reaching out.
from trying.
from doing anything too foolish.
hazel eyes keep haunting him, but they are a ghost he’s well-acquainted with.
sometimes he goes out of his way to glance into his office.
sometimes he makes a point of looking for his files first in the piles on his desk.
sometimes he stops to listen when he hears him chatting with one of the other detectives.
deja vu. it hits him every single time and it’s never kind. it’s been a few hundred years. it’s been so long and yet cain’s heart falls into its old patterns — its old habits. elijah. that’s his name, this time. a new name. a new face. but it’s the same soul. cain knows this; he’s always known this, whenever they manage to cross paths. there have been times before, times where cain has done everything in his power to run from fate — to avoid the pain of losing this soul before it makes a new round again, but he’s found that the harder he fights, the worse things manage to turn out. god has his plans and elijah ross is one of them — a cruel joke, a punchline that cain is always the target of. over and over again. they do this. inevitable. his heart is too soft, even after all this time. his own soul begs. it nears elijah’s and it’s like hearing the notes of a favorite, forgotten song. it all comes back in a rush and cain feels foolish to love so easily, every single time.
so many lives. so many deaths.
cain thinks he’s changed until he finds himself staring into hazel eyes.
until there’s a coffee on his desk and his mind is blanking.
“is there sugar in that?” it comes instead of a ‘thank you’ — a bit accusatory. a bit of a bite. being unkind won’t help his case and he knows it; in the instances where he has tried to prevent them from circling each other in the past it’s only made him all the more miserable until he’s able to try again. it’s better to let it run it’s course. sometimes? things don’t even end up going the way his heart aches for. sometimes he’s only a small part of this soul’s life. he doesn’t know if that’s better — doesn’t know if that’s easier. he just knows he’s missed this. the slight smile comes, a little rare around the precinct itself. “i’m testing you. should there be sugar in that?”
