#theosgreco

[kassiopeanolle-blog]

♥

♥: Reacting to the other one crying about something

“Theo... Theo!” Kass was panicked, racing over to him as soon as she saw the tears. Immediately, she checked him over, arms and legs and torso and head, looking for the blood or the gash or the bump or the bruise. Something physical that would explain the pain, something that would explain his crying. “What’s happening? What’s wrong?”

Then it hit her that maybe this wasn’t a physical pain post battle, maybe it wasn’t a hole in his body or a scrape on his skin. His heart and soul could be hurting, and that Kass was not so good about patching up. “Shit...”

It had been a hard battle, lots of death, bloody, and then seemingly for nothing because they’d barely gained any ground. In the thick of it had been the trio, two of them with blood singing, the other with guilt ringing. She ached for him in a way she could never feel herself, her empathy curdling in her stomach as she reached for him.

“It had to be done. It had to, Theo... You’re still a good person. The best person. We still love you.” She tried to soothe, stumbling over her words, petting his hair as she held him. But at the end of the day, she worried that it wasn’t enough, that it would never be enough. Because Kass was a monster, relished being a monster, chose to be a monster. So what good was a monster’s love to a boy so desperately trying to be anything but what she was?

[caldergliacon]

DATE: FEBRUARY 25 TIME: 9:30 P.M. LOCATION: THE GATHERING HALL OPEN TO: @theosgreco   

            He was an immovable object, implacable at Max’s side. Until he was relieved from duty to “attend” the feast, of course, but Calder preferred not to think of that inevitable end point. He liked being near Max, but more than that, he liked to know where he belonged -- at her side. If he was gone from that post, everything became uncertain. As a guard, there were protocols. Which one was easier to navigate? It was no wonder he gravitated toward one over the other. 

            Nonetheless, it grew boring after a few hours. He had neither the patience nor the kindness held in Max’s smallest finger, let alone in her entire heart. Instead, he found himself drifting, watching those around him with an air of purpose that suggested he was keeping an eye out, while instead he tried to understand them. Who found excitement amid all this grief? Then again, if everyone found this feast so exciting, was there any grief left to protect? 

            Calder turned back to the next guest near Max only to find that Thelonious Greco had been one of the many called back from the front lines. His mind immediately flashed back to their childhood, where he’d been a boy who delighted in the sound of Max’s laughter, even if it had been provoked by Theo. It wasn’t jealousy, not really, but something close and ugly that reared its head at the reminder. He had not been allowed that childhood. He had watched, always, feeling awful and obsessive and inhuman, but he was not a child that ‘played’ very often. It was for other people, with no higher calling, as his father would have said.

            He did not begrudge his princess her friends, however, and was happy to see a smile on her face. As they spoke he scanned the room once more, always on the lookout for an unseen threat, a suspicious figure among the crowd. He was absorbed enough by the task that he didn’t notice when Theo walked up beside him until his shoulder brushed Calder’s just slightly. Cal turned his head, but he didn’t speak. If Theo had come for conversation, he was sure he would be unable to guess the topic anyway.

[kassiopeanolle-blog]

❝ i need you by my side. ❞

“It’s a good that I’m not going anywhere.” Kass said softly, tracing patterns against his scalp as she lightly smoothed her fingers through his hair. It was almost laughable to her to think that she could ever leave him, that there would be a time where she’d stop needing him. “You idiot, I don’t know what I’d do without you.” How just like Kass.  She was completely unable to admit anything sweet or vulnerable without insulting him first. She couldn’t let anything just be a soft moment. It wasn’t like her... but Theo was helping. God, where would she be without him?

“... I need you too.” She said, biting back the instinct to barb and joke her way away from the emotions and seriousness. “You and Tavvy are my best friends.” Kass pressed her kiss to his forehead before leaning back, disentangling her fingers from his hair but letting his head remain on her lap. “I’ll always need you.”