in which julia makes gifs for her friends ☆ﾟ ↳ lilac by @stellargios
Trying to explain her love for Jaime felt like trying to hold water in her hands. Impossible, infuriating, and—in the end—an entirely futile effort. How could she possibly convey in words what it was to love him? How could she ever make Dany understand? Naerys knew that she loved Jaime in the same way that she knew she needed to breathe air in order to live. Loving him had been her lifeline for so long that even after all that had happened between them and the hurt they’d brought one another, Naerys couldn’t unlove him even if she tried—and she had tried.
But her sister had asked for an explanation, so she would do her best to find the words to describe it. “I loved Jaime Lannister the very first day that I met him…”
Klavier really should have expected something like this.
What was it that his family used to say about him? Something about having the best luck about the worst things, he thought, and wasn't that delightfully prophetic of them. His first case was the resounding success that collapsed the courts into the dark age of the law, his band gave him all of the fame he could ask for with decreasing returns on creative satisfaction, and his best friend of several years ago was standing in front of him in the hall on his first day back as a prosecutor.
His best friend who he had not spoken to since he left, and who was staring at him like he was a stranger. Klavier Gavin's luck struck again.
He didn’t know why he was surprised. Nearly seven years was plenty of time for a new degree and a new badge no matter how devastating the setback had been at the time, and it would have been ridiculous to expect Sebastian Debeste to be anywhere else after the work he put in. Klavier knew that time didn't stop for other people, just because he'd been gone - but it was a different feeling, confronted with the evidence that he'd missed things. He'd missed seven years of things, and in that moment it felt like a wholly unnecessary move.
Sebastian had grown his hair out. The ponytail was pulled around the side of his head, brown curls falling down the front of an outfit that said "professional" more than "student." He'd traded in the extendable pointer for a real conductor's baton, and his straight-backed posture seemed more relaxed and natural than a show at being something he wasn't. And he was tall - Klavier had stood at least a head above Sebastian the whole time they were at Themis, but Sebastian had inherited his father's height after all and was at least eye-to-eye with Klavier, if not a little taller.
He wasn’t sure he even really knew this person anymore, and the only person he could blame for that was himself.
"Ah," was his breathtakingly eloquent first syllable, followed by a too-long pause before the stunning follow up of, "Sebastian. How... nice to see you."
"Klavier." Was it worse that his voice was the same, that Klavier could tell from the way that Sebastian shifted his weight and glanced beyond him that he was uncomfortable? Even the things that were the same were different, because that voice used to greet him warmly and that hint of discomfort had always been directed at someone else. "I, uh, I hadn't heard you'd gotten back?"
He wouldn't have, he didn't say, because Klavier hadn't called. Not when the tour took off, not when it ended and they were recording at a studio that was maybe twenty minutes away if traffic was good, and not when Klavier decided now was a good time to upend his life again, because success just wasn't enough to keep him from looking behind him. He barely remembered that one last call, and he didn't remember at all if he'd said goodbye at the end of it. "Yeah, decided to keep the news off of social media for a while. No need to bring chaos to the office on my first day, right?" He flashed a winning smile, and only realized his mistake a moment later when Sebastian's frown deepened.
It was the smile he used for cameras and audiences, and something in Sebastian's face said he'd realized that. "Right. How com- ...considerate of you."
For a (nostalgic, silly) moment, Klavier wanted to know what the wrong word would have been. It was the kind of thing that used to get Seb mocked behind his back, but Klavier always found it kind of charming - a very human mistake from someone so anxious about being more than he was. Sebastian could make whatever claims about his skill he wanted to and puff up his chest like a little bird when he got praise in class, but Klavier preferred the boy who once accidentally called Professor Courte a first-rate protractor to her face, hidden behind all of the bluster and distraction.
It was too soon to say if that boy Klavier used to know was still in there, or if this more-refined version of his friend was a hint that Sebastian finally found a way to let that part of himself go. He could find out, he realized, and it would be as easy as letting the shine of stardom drop and asking if he could show Klavier around the office. If he was back anyway, if he was really thinking about making a second go at the prosecutor thing, then wasn't he allowed a second go at this, too? If Sebastian would let him. If they weren't too different now.
But that wasn't really what he was here for, was it?
"For heaven's sake, Klavier, I'm not asking you to give up your life for me. Keep that ridiculous band of yours if you really must. All I want is for someone I trust to keep an eye on my former subordinate - surely you've heard who he went running off to, and what that implies about his credibility. Surely you won't sit idly by while your brother is falsely imprisoned, or does upholding justice not mean as much to you anymore?"
He'd been back for five minutes, and it had only taken three of them to knock him into uncomfortable territory. Seven years of careful avoidance, and he hadn't gotten as far as the elevators before he was right back where he started. The whole ridiculous plan had been a mistake; let Kristoph prove his own conspiracy theories. For now, Klavier needed a quick getaway and a few hours of hiding in his office, away from the unfair distraction of those big, brown eyes.
"We could get coffee sometime?" Sebastian was fiddling with the baton, twirling it between his fingers instead of bending it to a dangerous degree. The smile on his face was nervous, but it was definitely a smile - small and unsure, but hopeful. Klavier felt pinned by it. "I mean, I'm sure you're busy so if you don't have time for that, I get it. It just seems like a nice opportunity, since you're in town and I'm... also. In town." The smile was not less genuine, even if it was starting to look a little strained.
"Coffee?" Klavier managed.
"Or tea. Or, uh. There's a new smoothie place down the road." The smile was very strained, and Sebastian twirled the baton faster. Alarmingly, Klavier felt the vice-grip on his chest tighten a little. "Yes fantastic, Sebastian, offer him a smoothie, Kay would be so proud." The mutter, which Klavier definitely wasn't supposed to hear but was too loud for him to ignore, coaxed something genuine to his own face.
An excuse. He needed any excuse that gave him time to dash for the elevators and freedom. Anything.
"I missed you."
Klavier didn't know which one of them said it. It hung in the air between them, almost echoed in the quiet hallway, and he knew the wide-eyed look on Sebastian's face was exactly mirrored on his own. It didn't seem to matter where it came from; it was true, either way.
Well, Klavier thought, somewhere between a dizzy kind of happy and a frantic kind of nervous, You're really in it now. Say hello to your day job for a while, rockstar. "I could do coffee," he said. "Or a smoothie, if you had your heart set on that."
Sebastian chuckled, and it sounded exactly like Klavier remembered. "Coffee is fine. I'm in the middle of a case right now, but maybe tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow, when it finally sinks in that I have to get up early all the time, now? Sounds perfect." And, because Sebastian was starting to eye the elevators again and that felt like too little to leave him with: "I'm glad it was you."
"Me?" He cocked his head to the side; when his hair was shorter, the gesture would make his curls bounce. As it was, it still made him look like a curious bird, a description he pretended annoyed him when Klavier teased him about it.
"The first person I ran into, getting back. I'm glad that was you."
Nia spent the rest of the evening to get to know her surprise family! It was a little awkward, but once the twins started babbling and telling stories about aliens, everyone get pretty into it. Unfortunately, their evening was cut short - after Harlow and Peter’s argument, Harlow wanted to get out of there.
