SATURDAY, WEEK 3 / POST TRIAL

[killerfang]

[ The trial was long, and dragged on and on, and the longer it dragged on, the more dire it became. For him. For her. For their life, together. By the end, he'd realized it inside before anything was announced - he was going to die. It was as if his long years of being the Angel of Death had made him sensitive to it; he could see his death in the eyes of the people around him, in their words. And he knew he had failed. The rest of it was a blur as he retreated into the safety of himself.

But he can't hide for long. He isn't the emotionless husk he used to be. Nino is here with him. Nino is dying because of him. Never in his life has he failed so miserably, so desperately, so pathetically. All of his attempts to change the course of fate merely drew it towards him, angrier and faster than before, and now he is left clutched in its jaws, with Nino suffering because of him. It's a good thing that he is dying; he cannot imagine a world where he survives and she does not.

But imagining a world where she dies at all is more painful than any wound he's ever taken, and it's about to become a reality. The life he promised her. The protection he swore her. It was all gone. He'd broken his promise to her again; he'd stolen her life, her future, her friends. He mourns her more than he could ever mourn himself.

When he sees her that night, it's all he can do not to prostrate himself before her. He has half a mind to give her one of his daggers and tell her to kill him - but he knows her well enough to understand that would only upset her further. He can only hang his head, standing stiffly, a quiver in his shoulders that he's never felt before. ]

I... cannot keep my promise. I have failed you. Nino, I failed you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry...

Comments

[learnings]

[... She won't be alone. Throughout all of this...

It's hard to work up a smile, but she can at least muster up some form of happiness, deep, deep in her heart. Because even if it's terrible, and wrong and cruel...

At least they'll be together.

At least...]

Like you promised...

[Jaffar will stay by her side.

Just like he promised.]

Please... stay with me. I don't ever want you to go. [And wherever they're headed from here...she wants to be together, if nothing else.]

[killerfang]

[ her words sink into his heart like so many stones weighing him down. The more they talk like this, the more final it seems, the closer the end draws - he feels it pulling at him already. He doesn't want her to go. That thought cuts through him with sudden clarity, overpowering the regret, the anger, the self-loathing. For once, he has a selfish thought. Being with her is all he has, and he doesn't want to lose it. The emotions he barely understands are swirling inside of him. Right now, he doesn't need to be the Angel of Death, and she doesn't need to be a witch's scorned daughter - they can just be Jaffar and Nino. Just a boy and a girl. With no future and no past.

He parts from her a little bit - enough to let him move - and hesitates, looking at her simply, face drawn in resignation, melancholy, determination, a mix of feelings that rarely surface on him. His hand moves to his pocket; then it stops and goes to his head, instead, pulling his cowl back so that he can't hide in its shadow. Then it returns, and from his pocket, he pulls two small objects that he presses into her hand, movement a little shakey. ]

... Take this... He told me to give it to you... Nino.

[ he doesn't explain who. this isn't how he imagined it. he never imagined it at all. But Jacopo's insistence moved his stone heart enough to push him to action. They're rings. ]

[learnings]

[It hurts to see his face like this, honestly. Sadness, resignation, melancholy... they're not emotions that usually showed on his face. And while Nino's glad that Jaffar's been able to feel more... the truth is that seeing these emotions in particular hurts.

Because she knows that in the end, their happiness and warmth wasn't meant to be.

No matter how hard both of them had fought for it--no matter how much they both wanted it.

Still, Jaffar pulls back and pushes his cowl, back, and she tilts her head a little, blinking as she does so. She can't imagine what Jaffar would have to give her now; where they're going, objects aren't going to help them.

But...they're rings. Slowly, Nino looks down at the rings in her hand, blinking slowly, and it takes a moment for it to sink in. She'd never had a normal family to teach her these things, after all. No mother to talk about what it would be like when she found the man she'd want to marry, no siblings to tease her, no fairy tale romances to read. But she had Lloyd and Linus, Legault and Brendan Reed, and between them all...

She knows what this means.

For a moment, her fingers close over the rings, clenched in a tight fist--and then slowly, shakily, she breathes out and uncurls her fingers, lifting them both so she could admire them.]

Oh, Jaffar...

[They're a promise. An assurance. They're a guarantee that even if they're simply going together into death...they'll still always have each other.

It's not quite the fairy tale romance proposal of anyone's dreams--but it's enough for Nino, and quietly and shakily, she smiles.]

These are...for us? [It seems so hard to believe, and yet...at the same time, it seems so wonderful.] They're perfect.