Claudius couldn’t believe Romulus and Dom had somehow persuaded him into doing this. He was wearing ridiculous clothes coming from Rom’s wardrobe, wearing vibrant colors and his hair disheveled. It was certainly different than his usual attire which consisted of black and gold piece for when he was off-duty, and the traditional uniform he wore when he was with Dom, which was ninety per cent of the time. He couldn’t deny that Rom had done a great job, however, because as Claud navigated through the carnival, no one recognized him. It was a relief, not to be stopped by anyone so they could interrogate him about his time at the Choke. The prince had told him he would be at the face-painting booths, and when Claud arrived to that area, he spent good five minutes trying to spot his friend. Finally, he saw him sitting at one of the booths, his face turned to him, a mask painted on the area around his eyes and extending outwards to his temples.
Claudius approached the booth quickly, feeling a little self-conscious about the clothes he was wearing. “I still think this is a bad idea.” he spoke once he was a few feet away from the booth. “You look great, though. That actually really covers up your royal face nicely,” Claud grinned, turning his attention to the woman who had painted Dom’s face. “Can I get something like th–” his words were cut off suddenly, green eyes staring into brown ones. Not just any brown eyes. Hers. Despite the fact that her face was painted, he would recognize those eyes anywhere. He stumbled back, as if he had been shot in the chest, feeling like the breath had been knocked out of his chest. Seconds, minutes, perhaps even hours passed with Claudius simply staring at her, a mix of emotions on his face: shock, happiness, pain, sadness. He could hear his heart pulsing in his ears, breathing as if he had been running for miles, his fingers shaking involuntarily.
“How–how–” Claudius stuttered, finally taking his eyes off of her to glance at Dom. Did he know? Had he planned this? No, it couldn’t be, he looked absolutely clueless. “Rachel,” Claud whispered her name, scared to say it out loud from fear that none of this was true. Perhaps he was hallucinating from eating something spoiled at the carnival. He took a step forward, staring at her as if she could disappear any moment.
“It’s you.” he shook his head slowly, still breathing heavily. “You are alive. How is this possible?”
He had to chuckle at that, but he made every effort to keep still. “A little bit,” he admitted, peeking an eye open when she pulled the brush away and swapped it for some other tool. He closed it before she turned back around. He sat, the patient customer as she finished her work. She was a perfectionist, that much he could tell by the time she was taking with her work. It was admirable, surely. Finding someone dedicated to their craft for more than just the coin it brought the was an odd sort of occurrence, especially among the Reds. “You could say that,” he managed, a mischievous GRIN on his lips as she finished up and he heard Claud’s voice ring beside him.
He opened his eyes eagerly to examine what hell Rom had wrought upon him, and he didn’t find himself disappointed. “I don’t believe you need a disguise with THAT outfit,” he replied cheekily, busying himself with digging into his pockets to fish out a tip for the artist. Dom failed to notice his friends words cut off, just as he’d failed to hear that Claud’s WORLD was crashing down around him, and similarly to how he’d failed to recognize the bright girl with whom he’d spent months in the Choke with.
“THERE it is,” he grinned, finally latching onto the tetrarch he was searching for. He looked up, finally, holding the coin out in front of him, clearly pleased and still very oblivious. He paused, looking back and forth between the two frozen statues in front of him. His eyebrows laced together in confusion.
Dom jumped up from the chair, knocking it backwards in his excitement. “DUDE,” he all but cawed, abandoning formalities and clearly not bothering to take note of the tension and heartbreak that was thick in the air. He was all but jumping around, unable to contain his excitement.
“IT’S HER.” & @sunflcwergirl
Rachel felt him rather than saw him, a familiar presence, familiar warmth, and she knew he was there before even looking up. For a moment, she didn’t want to look up, and though this was a moment she’d been dreading, she felt her heart flutter at the mere sound of his voice—she cursed herself for that. She willed herself not to look at him, to keep her eyes downcast, hating herself for the fondness that filled her at just being near him and not wanting to let that feeling go. All it took was their eyes to meet for her heart to break all over again.
For possibly the first time in her life, Rachel found herself SPEECHLESS. Lips parted as if to speak, but she could not form the words, could not even think them. Her heart beat out a staccato rhythm that seemed to taunt her with all the words she couldn’t bring herself to say, not here, not now. She was like a deer trapped in the cold wash of headlights, copper eyes staring into green and unable to look away; there was a brief moment in which she could have sworn she were falling, stomach flipping, heart in her throat, but the illusion was shattered—as was the hold Claud’s shocked stare seemed to have over her—at Dom’s exclamation.
Startled, she jerked and tore her gaze away, snapping her mouth shut as she avoided looking at either of them, face BURNING. Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP, she wished in that moment to be anywhere but HERE. This wasn’t how she pictured today going.
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