A drop in the ocean, a change in the weather
I was prayin’ that you and me might end up together..
Hope, faith, they were the most dangerous things to run hand in hand with love. Tai had assumed all of his had died the night that Wesley didn’t show up, that his chance at salvation was further gone every minute that ticked by, every second that had left him alone in that alleyway. He’d carried around the taste of this bitterness until he’d arrived in Folie a Deux. It was the only familiarity he knew. It was that...simple.
A lifetime and then some, composed of abandonment issues along with a whole host of betrayal. That feeling created an empty cavity in his chest, until the moment that he’d seen the ghost standing there. It was cruel to have brought them back together after this long, only to take him away - he knew that now, but he wouldn’t have traded it. It was worth the weeks, the months they got to spend together.
It was worth the ring that was sitting in the middle of his desk, the case covered by a mess of frames made out of fresh flowers. Every one had been fashioned from his shaking hands, every one a snapshot of the life they’d lived together, and a testament to the one that he wanted to carry out with him. It was strange, feeling complete again after so long.
Now, he looked at them and he ached. The pain was enough to bring him to his knees, literally. He didn’t know when it was that he’d been crippled, drug down by the weight of the realization that he was really gone this time. Whatever it was that had been reignited in his chest, it all just burned now, the warmth was gone and now he was empty again.
It wasn’t screaming, but the sound he made was that of a wounded animal, tears were staining his cheeks, lips opened and closed trying to focus long enough to force air into his lungs. It was like choking, but at this point he might have finally welcomed death, drowning, burning, any of it would be better than this. It was emptiness in a raw form.
He could remember his mother telling them long ago that you always got one. For her, that one was her great love, the love she’d found in his father. He’d been penning his vows, perfecting his proposal, and that had been inserted there. It had made him smile at the time, but now it was the reason he was gripping the fabric of his own shirt, desperately trying to turn off the way that the memories were vicious, attacking him from every angle.
You are the one, the one great love, for me, it’s always been you. It’ll always be you.
They were words concealed in the envelope scattered in the museum of heartbreak on the desk, words that had been written with the intent of fulfilling them, of speaking them into existence when he asked him to become his husband. For Tai, it had...always been Wes, and the realization that there was no Wes now, it was a different kind of a broken.
It was all consuming, the only thing that could compete with the loss of his family so many years ago, because it was that love that had kept him whole, that had made him feel alive again.
Getting reacquainted with death was not something he wanted to do, but now he didn’t have the choice. The problem was that he didn’t know what was dying, him, his heart, or something else. It didn’t matter, really. He’d curled into himself on the floor, shaking at this point, scarred, and praying to a God he didn’t believe in. It wasn’t for help, it wasn’t for salvation.
Instead, he just didn’t want to feel it anymore. He would have gladly stopped breathing right then and there if it would relieve him of some of what he felt, swearing he could feel the jagged pieces of his heart gnawing at the cage of his chest, begging to be let go. The damage was done, he didn’t have anything left to give, Wes took it all with him, including his will to even exist.
Whoever told you love would heal you, lied. Whoever told you that love was kind, lied. Whoever told you that love would bring you happiness, lied. The only thing love would do is break you, every single chance it got.
Walking towards the greenhouse, Felix doesn’t even notice Tai at first. He’s walking and checking the paperwork in his hands. The order only needed to be reviewed and signed off on before he could return home for a few hours. Or until dark if he were lucky. He smells the cigarette smoke first, something he finds rare these days since everything seemed to be electronic or deemed bad for her. He supposed he didn’t have to worry about either.
Reading glasses falling down his nose, he glances at Tai before shaking his head with a smile. “Ah, I wouldn’t expect any less from the customer service here. I suppose I have a moment or two to spare.” He watches him for a moment before taking the other side of the bench. “Enjoying the weather? Tired of working? All of the above?”
Tai watches the vampire take shots at the customer service, which earns a pointed and obviously dramatic frown from him. Features are crinkled to further display his displeasure, before he’s moving. He sits up, but only to invade Felix’s personal space by leaning his head on his shoulder. It’s friendly, platonic, and it plays into his little performance. “My friend, I am mortally wounded that you would even dream of insulting my customer service. Have you not always left here satisfied?” The question is asked whilst fighting back a grin.
“Both.” He decides it’s the correct answer to the question, it’s the one that probably holds the truest when it comes to honesty. “Hasn’t been much traffic lately, and I was due for a little Vitamin D.” Purposely phrased that way, finally laughing before free hand patted the others thigh. “So, what did you come looking for today, or was it just to insult me?”
She let out a little laugh, the sound riding the exhale as she adjusted where she sat, sitting up to reach behind her head. “I’m pretty sure everyone does, and I’m on the majority of them.” It was a warming feeling, the level of animosity she had here. But, she could do better. Her connections were far less personal than the other, the business side of her actions seemed to overtake any of her own wants and desires. But, in the end, world domination topped that list.
Or, in this case, town domination.
Fingers were delicate as they untied the string that held her patch in place, carefully untangling it from her hair before it was set in front of her. “That level of carelessness has the potential to haunt us both, and you know it.” a situation she was currently trying to handle.
“There are enough rescues and residents on their last leg here. A few empty promises would grant you whatever you need, henchmen wise.”
“It’s not as if I have spent much of my time socializing beyond the connections I’ve already made, or outside these books. Which, for the record, is how I like it.” His desire for social butterfly status had died the minute that Wes had walked back into his life. Sure, many thought it was obsessive, unhealthy, maybe even disgusting - but he didn’t care. His love life was hardly up for public debate, and the field in which his fucks to give about it was barren.
He pushed back the desk chair, standing up to take a step into her space. Hand reached without permission, fingers barely touching the part of herself that had been hidden from mostly everyone else. Magic danced at his fingertips, allowing the emptiness to be soothed for a moment, fixing a temporary glamour to look at her, to pretend that reflection could stay forever.
“I will find someone or I will find an excuse to go myself, but it will be handled and you will get what you want.” He didn’t do it because he was indebted to her, because he was scared of her, he did it because he cared. That was a dangerous game to play in this town, but this was different, at least for him. “And whenever you achieve your dreams of world domination remember I don’t wear sweatpants, nor do I take orders well. Just leave me on an island somewhere, off the listen of assholes to be snatched.”
She was frustrated, but for several reasons. The main being that she couldn’t bring her own powers back before the town came as a whole. It was a missed opportunity on her part, and that failure was worse than most. Watching him, there was a little slouch in her shoulders, an ease in the way she sat. For once, free of the patch that was almost always against her face. Someone had the ability to negate everything, and while it may had just been Folie this time, the likelihood that it could happen again, either here, or elsewhere. She shared his sentiment.
“I’m not entirely sure what gave you the idea that I have henchmen at my disposal.” She had so few people she trusted to run her paperwork, let alone something as sensitive as this particular topic. “Are they expected to return intact, because I can give you a list of people I’d prefer not to make it back to town.”
“As far as that goes, I have my own list.” There were several of the towns occupants that he too would have liked to see disappear. It wasn’t like the man was capable of forgiveness when it came to certain things. After all, Jaxon, for one, would never be granted the chance. He’d rather watch the reaper burn than look at him, but that was neither here nor there. If he could trust him not to kill his boyfriend, he sure as shit couldn’t trust him to accomplish this.
“The keyword it that they need to return, as for their status when they do, that’s not my problem nor is it yours.” While Tai was far more personable than Citali, they shared sentiment on certain things. It was the one thing that had managed to bring them together more than once, and the thing that allows him to actually call her a friend, no matter what ridiculous nickname may follow that.
“Call it boring, but it might not be as hard to get there as one would think. It’s all about who you know, and between the two of us, almost every door in the world opens to some degree.”
Asa had come to the greenhouse in search of something- anything- he could transplant onto the dirt mounds he’d left at the graveyard. While his magic hadn’t been working, he’d had to dig them back up himself to put corpses back, and it wasn’t a clean job. He’d stopped at the flower shop in town already, only to discover the damn wolf there didn’t keep anything in dirt- nothing with roots.
“Oh, no, feel free to finish your break, love.” Asa answered with crossed arms and a raised brow, stepping past the other into the greenhouse, “I’ll be eagerly waitin’.”
No one was willing to eagerly wait for flowers, or plants, for that matter. The commentary was strange to him, evident in the way that face was made as he drew another sharp inhale from the cigarette. He was obviously more than his fair share of stressed out, but there was more than enough reason for that. There were things he needed to be perfect, and for once it was important that nothing went wrong, that there was no mess and instead he was allowed this happiness.
That, however, was not the focus for right now. Instead, he finished with his little break and reluctantly pulled lithe frame from the bench, sitting up first. Feet dangled only momentarily before they were hitting the floor, and heading inside the greenhouse.
“Alright, how can I be of service?” He asked from the door, leaning lazily.
“I don’t know.” He repeated the words, well aware that they were useless, and above all, no where near what she wanted to hear. Instead, it was all he had to offer her. Thankfully, she’d long since lost her ability to shackle him with some kind of fear. Instead, he was more amused with her frustration than anything, that - or he shared it. The stripping of their magic had managed to ruin quite a lot of things, and for one, he never wanted to see Wes subjected to that again.
A sigh dropped from his lips before he was pushing back the chair from the desk with a nonchalant ease, as if there wasn’t the weight of tension in the air around him. “But we’re going to need to find out because if somethings coming, I hardly want to be deaf, dumb and blind. I need to send someone out to collect some things, do you have a free henchman, Godzilla?”
Tai was much more welcoming than some of the other people that roamed the streets of folie a deux. Perhaps this was in part because of the fact that his sponsor, his ghost had reminded him who he was before he’d buried his feelings. Wesley was a lot of things, and Tai appreciates every single one. Maybe, just maybe, this was another way he paid homage to the love he’d been given back, to the second chance. Whatever it was, it was the reason he’d stopped in front of the not so familiar face.
Granted, he was busy, but she did look like the kind of lost that danced right on the line of helpless. That, and he could smell it. The wolf on her, mixed with something else a little harder to place. It had been a long time since he’d met another hybrid, so maybe this was a little more meant to be than he’d first assumed.
Settled on the cement bench that had long since been a staple outside of the greenhouse, he was in full drama queen mode. That was plain enough to see, what with the way that body was stretched full across it. Cigarette was pulled from his mouth, allowing for a long exhale, appreciating the way the smoke curled in the wind for a moment before there was the realization that someone else was approaching.
Granted, he wasn’t exactly expecting customers, but it was a business, so you know. Head turned to the side to study the approaching face, waiting until they came into view to speak. “Yeah, no...I mean go in there if you want, but it’s going to be a minute if you were expecting me to move.”
With his shop closed down for the time being due to being the only one willing to work, Hal had found himself with time on his hands- and found himself somehow, still surrounded by flowers. He leaned against one of the tables in the hybrid’s greenhouse, listening to the other speak. He grabbed up the sheers, leaning over to offer them to Tai.
“You say that like we’re not dogs at all times.” Hal said with a chuckle and a smirk, “I’ve still got him howling through the house just fine, wolf mojo involved or not.” He leaned against the table once again, “How’s everyone on your end doin’?”
He’d easily taken the sheers he’d requested. Hands were busied, occupied by the task. It was nice, kept him from fidgeting out of sheer nervousness. It wasn’t that the whole blackout thing bothered him, shook him, it was more of how it had affected those around him.
“Howling.” He Repeated the word with a poignant disgust clinging to the tone. It was clear with the way nose wrinkled, too. “You really are a dirty old man.” Observed, finding his normal grin before the question came. That, seemed to clear everything almost immediately. “I’m fine with it, Wesley is very much not, which I can’t say I blame him. He knows what it’s like to stay unseen, untouched, and it kills me to watch him feel so alone when he’s standing right next to me, but I can’t find anything. There’s nothing of how to fix this in anything I’ve read.”
Hal was a friend, a better friend than he would usually have admitted to, which is why it was easy to look for him. He didn’t require all the extra reassurance some of the others would, or the effort. The only one he reserved that for currently was Wes, justifiably shaken by the whole you know, loss of his entire corporeal being bit.
“Hand me that.” He was pointing to a pair of sheers next to the wolf, ready to continue methodically plucking all the best blooms for his little pet project. He needed this, the routine, the normalcy. “How are you and 69 Chevy holding up? Put a real damper on the puppy play, I imagine.”
“It’s fine.” Spoiler alert: it was not fine. Tai was well aware that nothing about the current predicament was fine, especially not for Wesley who was stranded in such a hard state to begin with. It was his job to reassure him though, his job to make sure that if there was comfort to offer, he would provide it. Tai didn’t mind this, he was more than willing to give the world, or burn it down, if it was all for Wes.
“No, I mean seriously. It will be fine. It’ll come back, and even if it didn’t, I would love you anyway, and no corporeal body changes that, you should know that. But, I will...find a way. We didn’t come this far to turn back now, and I have plans for you, Mr. Devereux.”
She takes their linked hands and kisses the back of his before settling down. She realizes she’s missed seeing him. Not many people in the town – other than Margeaux or Rhys and Wattson – really cared what happened to her in one way or another. But Tai was warm in a completely ridiculous way. He was one of the first people to put his arm around her and take her in. She’d never forgot the meal or how happy he made her feel.
Eating another few fries, she watches his face. The smile’s returned easily. She shakes her head before laughing a little too loudly for public, but she finds she doesn’t care. Not when it’s with Tai. “I was not ready to fuck for an upgrade. I was merely curious. And I can’t say it isn’t one sided. She’s…” She trails off with a stupid smile. Catching herself, she clears her throat – cheeks now a lovely shade of red. Her eyes widen as she plucks the menu from him. “Asking him to marry you isn’t ridiculous. It’s romantic and soft. Tell me everything. Can I help? I can tell you want a flash mob.”
He eyed her with a little bit of disgust at the mere suggestion that he would have proposed with a flash mob, even if it was sarcasm. While Tai was the king of questionable choices, that was never going to be one of them. That look didn’t last long though, and eventually allowed a grin to crack through the hardened exterior.
“Well, I’ve been spending most nights making these flower frames..picture frames. I don’t think he even knows I still have the pictures I’m going to put in them. Us, before all this happened, all set up in the library which I’m sure is going to be a giant pain in the dick, but for the smile he’s going to have? Entirely worth it. Gross, I know.”
“First I don’t have an identity outside of Wesley, and now you want to know about me. Cute, really. The most under appreciated thing about me is what I’ve done to survive, and what I’ve been through.”
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