masterofstlouis | (no subject)

(no subject)

He's dreaming.

He knows this because he doesn't dream.

And since the last thing he remembers is going to bed at Milliways, and he's now walking through the halls beneath the Circus, it's not too difficult to figure out.

What is difficult to figure out is why now, after 600 years, he would be dreaming at all.

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Her smile is gentle as her thumb rubs lightly at his lower lip.

"Ah, mon merle noir, if I could meet her, I don't think you would be with her," she murmurs. "It seems you both have changed much, and it brings a heavy weight to my heart knowing my death brought you both so much pain... separated you when all I ever wished was to keep you together. I am sorry, Jean-Claude... so very sorry."

He nips playfully at the pad of her thumb. "You have no reason to be sorry. It was my own short-sightedness and foolishness that led us all to this fate. Your heart should not bear this burden."

Edited 2009-10-29 05:51 (UTC)

Julianna gasps, and then smiles at him.

"And yours should? You have not forgiven yourself. Has Asher forgiven you? Forgiven himself?"

She gives him a playful whap with her fingers against his cheek.

"I forgave you, even as I prayed you would save us."

He shakes his head.

"How can I forgive myself? More importantly, why should I? My guilt is all I have left of you, save the memories. How can I let that go?"

"Oh, Jean-Claude."

Julianna cups his face.

"Your guilt is not all you have left of me. The memories, yes, and I know you keep those close, but you have Asher. He loved me too. Your guilt -- as well as his, I'm sure -- should not be what ties my memory to you. I would rather it be the love you hold for me, the love he holds for me, not guilt."

"It seems the one is bound up in the other, cherie," he says sadly. "And I feel I cannot untangle them without destroying both."

Julianna laughs softly.

"Mon merle noir possesses a flaw? Surely not, for he would fight against anything in the dark that frightened me, or hold our goldfinch through the night when fears would rise and take hold of him."

She rises up on her toes and kisses him softly, sighing against his lips. How long had she wished to that again?

"I forgive you. It is time you forgive yourself, mon amour."

Edited 2009-10-30 12:28 (UTC)

His hands grip her waist when she lifts up, pulling her against him, and he kisses her as he had done so many times in the past and had never thought to do again.

Perhaps some day, he thinks, knowing somehow that in this place, she will hear him. But not yet.

He can still taste her on his lips when he wakes.

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