@agentwang asked : 🍻 + “ how come you keep running away ?”
🍻 ╱ DRUNKEN CONFESSION.
── “ really ? YOU’RE asking me that ? ” he grins, smug. talking to each other usually isn’t part of the agreement. seems like it never takes more than a few syllables for him to piss ivy off, so often she won’t give him the chance. clearly she’s already indulged in a few drinks before his arrival--- he doubts she would have reached out at all if she hadn’t ---and so when he’d walked in and seen wine open on the side table, he decided it was only fair for him to even the score, taking a few long pulls straight from the bottle.
jace supposes he’s somewhat prompted the question, ACCIDENTALLY--- good timing, he’d said when she’d let him in, caught me on my way out of town. he wonders if it’s a hint, now, if she REGRETS asking him over, trying to goad him into continuing his running just then. they’re never so subtle, though. between them they’re catastrophic, a different variety of chaos than the sort he usually surrounds himself with though just as volatile. there’s no room for nuance, here. if ivy wants him gone, certainly she’d be taking the opportunity to shove him backwards to the exit, leave him with a few choice words of annoyance while the door closes behind him.
the wine’s gone to his head faster than he would have hoped, and he distracts himself away from running his mouth, setting to move about the room. jace makes himself aimless, as if he doesn’t know why he’s there, touching along the corner of the table then over to the edge of the bed, looking ANYWHERE but at ivy. he can feel her eyes on him, and he smirks again, knows his obvious pause in answering will make her roil. “ what, you wish i was around MORE ? ” jace laughs, an amused kind of scoff. he points the bottle in her direction, like an accusation, a challenge, then takes one last drink before returning it to the table. “ don’t act like you wouldn’t love it if i stayed gone. ”
that’s the deal, he thinks. ivy doesn’t want him to stay, and so it’s SIMPLE. they can indulge in whatever this is without consequence, without some heavy threat of expectation hanging over either of them. being hated, he can handle. jace can be exactly what she believes him to be ; arrogant, reckless, infuriating, asshole, any other descriptor she’s thrown to him over time. and then he can be gone. jace doesn’t need to wonder what she’ll think of him, he doubts she thinks about him at all. with his inevitable vanishing in the next few hours, she can be glad for his absence. it suits him well.
there’s still a bit of sober sharpness around the edge of his thoughts, allowing him to bite his tongue before he says anything further, though is tipsy enough to give ivy a complacent smile as he looks to her--- suddenly, an act like he’d forgotten she was there altogether. she’s still lingering where she’d let him in, and so he approaches, crowding in until her back hits the wall behind her. jace KNOWS this game, prying personal questions aren’t meant to be a part of it. “ anything else were gonna ask ? because if you just invited me over to INTERROGATE me, agent, i’ve got other places to be. ”
percy smiled. ivy was one of the people he respected most in this world--he knew what it was like to be a double agent. and he knew the consequences of it all too well. this team would be nothing without her. he turned to face her. “thank you, ivy. really. it means a lot.” percy sighed. “i know i don’t say it a lot, but i’m glad you’re here. you’re a vital part of this operation, regardless of what some of the others may think.”
hii! just in response to that anon, i think the reason why we have such deep connections is because we LOVE to plot!!! and we are super super super excited to finish out our lil family and i know all of us have plots we're dying to fill. so yeah!!!! we're excited!!! come join us!!! we love you already!!!!
i couldn’t agree more !! listen to lucy, she’s right & she should say it.
