conning: (NealC 007)
Neal Caffrey ([personal profile] conning) wrote2023-12-09 01:05 am

AND YOU WERE THERE, and YOU were there....

He wakes up in the wrong place. That, he knows. He knows it the same way he knows his cheek is resting against stone, the way the air tastes like night time and high altitudes.

Slowly, he blinks his eyes open, staring at the wall of the alley for several long seconds until he realizes that's what it is. He's in an alley, with cobblestone paving, with architecture that he doesn't quite recognize. Everything aches, everything, from his crown to the bare soles of his feet.

He rolls onto his side, then it's onto all fours, onto one knee, stand. He doesn't walk so much as lose his balance in a forward direction, stumbling into the street in an emerald green suit that would be quite at home in 21st century Manhattan.
withintenfeet: (taking all the shattered ones)

[personal profile] withintenfeet 2025-03-29 02:15 am (UTC)(link)
"Never." It's a fractured whisper, and he takes a moment to steady his breathing again before looking up at Laerryn, taking in what she's saying just a beat too slowly. Nydas - is busy, or sleeping, is almost certainly fine but it's another thread of anxiety in a maelstrom of restless dread.

But Loquatius is coming, and he distantly registers how wretchedly complicated that is and how Evandrin wouldn't even know and -

As always, his husband's voice brings him back to himself, to his best self; it's barely a heartbeat later that he murmurs, "Of course," and resists temptation just enough to place his kiss on Ev - on Neal's forehead before pushing himself up on unsteady legs.

"I. I'll watch out for Quay." One last squeeze of Evandrin's hand, and a much lighter one to Laerryn's elbow, and he's given them their space.
withintenfeet: (let me help)

[personal profile] withintenfeet 2025-03-29 02:53 am (UTC)(link)
Almost always, Loquatius is an effervescent whirlwind of a person. Zerxus has seen him waltz through battles of words and blades and fireballs alike, heard him puncture centuries of tension with a dozen words or less.

He most have heard something, in Laerryn's voice. There's a grim intensity to him now, a focus sharpened into something uncanny, and those gleaming silver eyes only turn more piercing as they take in his friend's expression.

"What's going on?"

Zerxus explains as much he can, walking Quay up to the room, but he can feel the moment it all really hits: seeing Laerryn there, clinging to composure with her fingernails, tender and brittle and so horribly, beautifully stubborn.

"Well, fuck."
withintenfeet: (let me help)

[personal profile] withintenfeet 2025-07-17 07:04 pm (UTC)(link)
That pain is his fault. It's his fault and he doesn't regret it as much as he should, isn't ready to forbid it out of hand, and what does that make him? For a long moment he and Loquatius both stand there, still as stone, frozen in what losing the love of their loves has done to them.

Then Quay hurries forward, just to the edge of the couch, and rests a feather-light hand on Neal's forehead. It's enough to shake Zerxus out of his spiral, so he can kneel down again and take Neal's hand.

"He's using healing magic, too." It feels a little different, he knows, in ways that are hard to describe. "I know - I know you're letting this happen but it's hurting you."
withintenfeet: (i want my tears back)

[personal profile] withintenfeet 2025-07-18 04:59 am (UTC)(link)
The strained sigh of relief hurts, a little bit, and he can almost feel Laerryn and Quay exchanging a look over their heads.

"...So would he." Evandrin took risks - of himself above all else, but he sent people into horrible danger when he had to, when the stakes were high enough. He'd have known without being told that the city was at stake, and there's clearly so much more. "We - I don't know how much worse it's going to get."

There are so many promises he can't make.