(no subject)

[latino_menace]

Ramon has been curse free for about an hour. And he's spent it here of all places. He looks around the clearing, trying to remember why he'd come here at all - he knows he hadn't been in his right mind. But it's fitting actually - he'd passed out with exhaustion and stress and in so much pain... and now he's awake, and here...and free.

The first ten minutes has been spent with his head back on a rock, grinning in blessed relief. He'd forgotten what it was like to just be easy in his head again. He'd started trying to sort through it all...and then given up, because he needs distance first, and sleep, and food and...Random.

Shit!

His heart sinks - but he knows the man won't be in their room. He fingers the tarot cards in his pocket, thinking over how they had helped to set him free, and knows that he has to find him. But he has no idea how. He doesn't know which card the guy had snatched up.

So for a while longer, he just sits, trying to figure out what he's supposed to do now.

Comments

[prince-arithon.livejournal.com]

He's checked everywhere else.

Bar, rooms above the bar, lake...all of the lake. Every nook, cranny, hill, and tree around.

Some of them two or three times, in desperate hope that he missed Ramon the first time.

He doesn't want to be here, but he walks into the empty clearing. Grey dust puffs softly as he pads in and gravel crunches.

[latino_menace]

Ramon looks up from where he's sitting with his back against a rock, toying with the chains in his hand. And...he's not really surprised to find that - he feels as bad about torturing Arithon now as he did when he was still cursed. Hell, for a moment he panics, thinking it's come back.

But no. He feels that it hasn't. He just understands now why it was wrong.

So when he sees Arithon, he feels a mixture of things...but remorse is the overriding one.

'It's over.'

A long pause, and he listens to the birds for a moment.

'I'm sorry.'

For everything. Truly, for everything I did to you...

...and even a little sorry that we're not brothers any more.

[prince-arithon.livejournal.com]

He pauses as he doesn't get anything new added, and smiles just a bit. Faint, yes, painful, yes, but a true smile.

"An ama'id, roth."

He responds during a pause in birdsong,

"Random needs you."

[latino_menace]

His head snaps up at that. 'You know where he is?' He's already getting to his feet. 'Is he alright?'

It's the foremost thing on his mind, obviously. At the same time, he realises he's still holding the chain. He drops it quickly, a bit red. And murmurs another quiet, 'Sorry.'

[prince-arithon.livejournal.com]

He pales, he can't help it, at the chain and nods as he turns,

"He came to me. He is sleeping right now. I am not sure what happened..."

A shake of his head, and his hand slips to the back of his neck before he's able to pull it back down and link it through his belt.

[latino_menace]

He curses under his breath because that had just been stupid of him. And he watches the way Arithon is obviously still bothered about what he did, and can't think of a thing to say that might make it better. So he just starts walking, because he really does have to find Random and explain to him.

'He left me is what happened. Because I'm a stupid fucking idiot.'

[prince-arithon.livejournal.com]

"Ama'idan?"

Which, in this case, means "huh?". He glances up at Ramon and fails to find a way to say "It hurts, but I will survive."

"What happened?"

[latino_menace]

He wouldn't even consider lying to Arithon right now, or not telling him anything he wanted to know. And if Random had turned up at his place after the argument...he deserved to be filled in.

'I was worried - had been worried - that I didn't really love him. Because of the curse, y'know? I thought that maybe it was just because of that, and my view was warped.' He takes a deep breath. 'We got talking about it...he gave me a hypothetical situation. And I gave him the wrong answer so he walked away because he thinks I don't love him. And...well shit, I wasn't sure I did until I woke up an hour ago.'

Curse free and thinking clearly, for the first time in six weeks. And the first thing I thought of was him...

[prince-arithon.livejournal.com]

He nods, walking briskly to the bar as Ramon speaks.

"I understand. It is understandable. I will take you to him."

And then he looks up at Ramon,

"But if he needs you to leave, what will you do?"

[latino_menace]

Not leaving him. Notleavingnotleavingnotleaving. Not without him.

He takes another breath and there's a small sardonic smile on his face. 'I'll do what he wants.' A glance at the small prince. 'He's not my property to control.'

See? Lesson all learnt, promise.

[prince-arithon.livejournal.com]

He quirks a faint smile in return and grips Ramon by the shoulder before stepping through the portrait and into the House of Arch. He rushes Ramon to his room's painting, and into that one as well.

I know.