Summary: Imagining if JJ did propose to Kiara before they went to Morocco.
Warnings: light swearing, sad and angsty Kiara
“What are we doing about this blue crown?” asks Rafe.
“Nothing,” Pope answers. “We’re done with this bullshit.” The pogues had been arguing with Rafe for the past few minutes with no end in sight.
“Don’t you need the money?” he asks. He’s in it for himself, but he can’t find it without them.
“We’re done with this. We lost him. JJ was their brother!” Kiara screams at Rafe. “And he was my fiancé!” She’s taken aback by her own words. She let it slip. The pogues fall silent. Their eyes scanning Kiara.
Kiara looks down at her empty hand. She bolts.
“Kie?” JJ shouts, trying to find her.
“Jayj? I’m out here,” she answers. Sitting on the couch outside Poguelandia.
JJ finds her sitting alone. He starts pacing in front of her.
“Do you really think Groff is your dad?” she asks.
“I don’t know,” he admits, sitting down next to her. “We do things similarly, you know?”
“Yeah,” she nods her head. After a moment, she lays her head on his shoulder. They stay like that for a few minutes, with JJ eventually laying his head on hers.
All of a sudden, JJ gets up. “Wait here,” he says.
“Where are you going?” Kie asks.
“Be back in a second,” he says.
Kie sits waiting in the moonlight. She can hear Groff on their porch steps. He’s groaning in pain, but she can’t bother to care. Part of her wishes he never showed up. JJ’s life didn’t need to be turned upside down again.
JJ comes back and sits down next to her.
“Where’d you go?” she asks.
He takes in a deep breath. “I know I don’t say this a lot,” he starts, “But you know I do.”
“Yes. I love you.” JJ has always had this thing about not being the first one to say it out loud. As though he’d make a fool of himself by being the first one.
“I love you too,” she adds. “What’s going on?”
He pulls out a ring. It’s nice. It was a thick band, not one you’d typically see on people from the Cut. Not one they could afford either.
“Okay, fine, I stole it when I went a little crazy after the city council meeting,” he admits.
“Of course you did,” she laughs. He smiles at her giggle; a part of him was worried she’d be upset.
“It’s for you,” he holds it out. “After we find this crown, I want to marry you.”
“Yes. No crazy wedding, just us and the pogues at the church. I’m not one for commitment, but for you I’d do it, Kie. I love you.”
“I love you too,” she says as JJ puts the ring on her finger. She leans in and kisses him. It’s not messy, it’s passionate and tender.
“‘Til death do us part,” she says, her forehead still connected to his.
“‘Til death do us part,” he repeats.
“Kiara?” John B shouts from inside. “There you are,” he says, sitting down next to her on the couch outside Poguelandia.
“Rafe thinks he can just get away with being here? With us? Like he can replace JJ?” she scoffs. Her face turned sour.
“No. That is not gonna happen,” he reassures her. “I won’t let it. None of us will.”
Kiara nods. She’s still looking down at the floor.
“Fiancé?” John B questions.
“Right,” she laughs, thinking back. “Yeah, uh, JJ asked me to marry him on this couch. It was that night before all hell broke loose,” she recalls.
“I was surprised too, but he had stolen a ring when he went on his rampage through Kildare. Gave it to me and told us we’d get married after we found the crown. We said until death did us part, John B,” she took a deep breath. “And it did.” She took another breath before it turned into a wracking sob that took over her whole body.
John B got closer to her and held her tight. She cried into his shoulder as he rubbed circles in her back. After a few moments, he started crying too. It was quiet compared to Kiara’s heavy breathing.
He couldn’t shake the thought that he’d never see JJ smile again. Or tell him a stupid joke. Or see him grow old. It all hit him too fast.
Kiara and John B sat there like that for a few minutes. Silently crying together and mourning JJ.
“Guys?” Pope came out to the porch. “Everything okay?”
John B and Kiara quickly sat up and wiped their tears. “Yeah,” John B answered.
“Rafe just left. Sarah made him.”
“I’ll go check on Sarah,” John B says. “You gonna be alright, Kie?”
John B goes inside and Pope sits down next to Kiara.
“He’s gone. Like forever. I won’t get to see him grow into the guy that he wanted to be,” her lip quivers.
“I know,” Pope says. “I know.”
“I just want the pain to stop,” she cries out.
Pope comforts her again. He puts an arm around her shoulder and lets her stain his shirt with tears.
There’s nothing he can do to make her feel better. He can’t bring the love of her life back to her.
