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[knightbynight]

Bruce isn't happy about the announcement that he's been paired off to Zerxus. It isn't personal; he wouldn't be happy about anyone having his file.

He's just... differently unhappy with this particular pairing. It would always feel like his privacy and autonomy were being stripped away, that he was being made exposed and vulnerable, losing agency and control. This case? It feels like the balance is being thrown and he's losing something else -- a friend, or at least someone who could have been one.

He doesn't seek the other man out when he is informed, but he doesn't avoid, either.

In fact, he parks himself on the deck railing with a cup of coffee and... waits (and, really, broods).

Comments

[knightbynight]

"What does it do?"

He's not missing the sentimentality. He's trying to figure out how to approach it, or if he's going to. If not is more or less kind. If he's going to express sympathy or engage with his own emotions - or one or the other or neither.

And he's absolutely using question to stall or time on that.

It shouldn't be that complicated.

But it is.

[withintenfeet]

Once, a very long time ago, he might not see exactly what is happening here. But he knows - he knew - a mind so painfully, beautifully similar to this. In a way, he's cupping a piece of it in his palm right now.

"It's...a sort of container. Not for anything physical. Memories, emotions - love, and friendship. So that whatever happened, however much time may pass, she'd know that it would win out in the end." His voice has gone soft and distant, as if he's reciting something.

These were not words he knew, before he pressed the locket to his chest and closed his eyes. This was a private moment between two old friends.

"One of the last things Laerryn ever did was give this to me."

[knightbynight]

He gives Zerxus a moment, respectful of the moment - and perhaps a little awed and touched by it. Which is as at odds with what he says next as the near reverent, soft, tone he says it in.

"You're a lot of sentimental - and incredibly stubborn - fools, aren't you?"

[withintenfeet]

"Laerryn would throw a Firebolt at you if you called her that." His voice is just as soft, and the amusement in his expression is desperately warm. "Well. She'd accept 'stubborn'."

That is very much not a disagreement. Laerryn was one of the most brilliant people he knew, and second in foolishness only to himself.

[knightbynight]

"I was hoping it would be the sentimental she would object to." He'd hate to start questioning the company Zerxus keeps now.

Or his assessment of them.

"You, of course, are all three."

[withintenfeet]

"Of course." Utter lack of shame on that one. "Does Earth have that saying about pots and kettles?