tampered | Log; Complete

Log; Complete

When; Sunday, July 6th
Rating; PG-13
Characters; Boy Blue

playstheblues and the Corinthian

bitingnightmare
Summary; On the eve of a parting, time to say goodbye.
Log;

It was quiet, and that was important. It wasn't cold - although, in Blue's opinion, it should have been. In his opinion the best partings always happened when something was falling; snow or rain, or peach blossoms (but Red Riding Hood had taken the romance out of those, he couldn't look at them anymore). It should have been cold, because he felt cold; well, that wasn't true, he felt numb, which was much more important than cold.

Dressed as he'd arrived, in his blue outfit to return to the Homelands, Blue stood at the edge of the wood. He had left a message for Cori to meet him there, and he knew that the nightmare would come. Everyone else might have their negative opinions, call the nightmare a jerk or a coward, but Blue knew better.

He told himself he wouldn't cry, and so he wouldn't. There was no use for tears.

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He arrived as promised, dressed in the same clothing in which he'd first met Blue... but there wasn't much variation in jeans, a t-shirt, and a leather jacket. Except today, even in the warm summer weather, the Corinthian wore that leather jacket the trumpeter had given to him. He approached that colder circle of forest, where before he set foot in the shade of a tree he could feel Blue's numbness. There wasn't anything either could do about it. It just was.

"Hey," said the nightmare in a half-hearted greeting, as if the longer they pushed this off the less likely Blue would have to leave. Cori knew that wasn't the case.

He rubbed one eye, and offered a hand, as if to shake. "Hey," he said, and took a deep breath. It was hard enough; this was harder than he ever anticipated. It was harder than leaving Ride; maybe because he knew so much more about Cori, because he was so much closer to the nightmare.

"You'll...feed the fish."

His smile was wavering - not fake, just difficult to keep still.

He took Blue's hand and simply held it in his grip rather than shake it. Cori nodded.

"I will, I'll feed the fish," and look after their apartment, and watch out for Ellington, and protect all the other things they'd shared together in the City. He was a loyal phantom for a reason, in this case his nature extended beyond Dream and the Dreaming to one fable. "You'll watch your back," he added, not as a request but as a statement of utmost certainty.

The Corinthian couldn't even feign a smile for him, but neither did he frown.

"Oh," he said softly, almost a sigh, when Cori took his hand. He pulled himself close, and nudged his head against the nightmare's shoulder. "I will;" he assured the nightmare, his words echoing the last ones he had said to Red Riding Hood. "I will, I am Fortune's favorite son."

He moved back suddenly, then. His nightmare, ironically, was this right here. He took a deep breath again. "You'll...you'll be okay, right?"

He knew the answer was no. Of course it was, it had to be.

"You are," he replied, acknowledging Blue's unique place in the world, a supposed immaculate conception from the goddess herself. He really didn't have any reason to question, being a nightmare, a creation at the hands of the Dream King. It was ironic how despite their origins, neither had full control over their destiny. Cori would have put it less elegantly, shit happens.

He ran his fingers through Blue's hair, soft and gold and belying his flint hard nature. Teeth eyes looked up again when he moved back to ask that even harder question.

No.

The obvious answer, but one the Corinthian didn't want to say.

"I'm not going to let anything happen to me that would keep me from meeting you again," said the nightmare, quietly but completely solid. He couldn't and wouldn't break that promise.

Blue heard that soft denial, and he looked up at the nightmare. Everything was set; he knew that. His mother knew Destiny personally; he had never met any of the Endless except Dream, but the Lord Shaper had been kind where he didn't need to be, and Blue appreciated the gesture. But Destiny...Blue never wanted to meet Destiny. He was afraid, if he met the Endless, that he would only be able to be angry.

It was so hard.

At the promise Blue nodded, his hands curling into fists. "I'll wait for you," he said with a deep breath. "I'll wait for you forever, if I need to. I'm an old man; time isn't an issue."

It wasn't. He had waited two hundred years for Ride, and he would wait longer for the Corinthian.

Cori nodded again, believing every word Blue said. The goldenboy didn't like to lie, and he knew the sound of Blue's voice and every nuance in it to know he wasn't lying now.

"The feeling's mutual, Blue," the nightmare managed to smile. It was a lot easier to say that than to say he empathized, though he was sure Blue knew it too. After another brief moment of thought, Cori reached into his jacket pocket and retrieved a small jar. It was cylindrical with an old fashioned antiqued brass lid. He offered the jar to the blond.

"Here. For the drive back."

Of course, it was filled with a variety of flavored comfit.

Blue slid the jar into his cloak and pulled out a small, bulky package. "Here," he said. "This is for you."

It was a package of CDs - several of them, a mix of Blue's favorites, Cori's favorites and some of Blue's original work. He knew that the nightmare would remember him, that way, when he was gone. "Don't let anyone else in the music room," he added, "When you open it, you'll know what I mean."

He leaned up, then, to press a kiss to Cori's cheek.

Blue always had to trump him with that ever expansive cloak didn't he? He gave the blond a flat look, because it was tradition for him to give the cloak that look, but it was an endearing look too. He would miss it. Cori traded the jar for the CDs, thinking briefly how Boy Blue had sort of escaped the 40s by not giving him records. However, to really say he'd entered this millennium it should have been a flash drive of some sort! The nightmare found this endearing too.

"Thanks. I won't, baby," he said while tucking the CDs into his jacket's inner pocket. It crushed part of his cigarette pack but Cori didn't care too much for those right now.

Then Blue kissed his cheek. It was the sweetest gesture he could ask for, and so typical of the fable. He would remember Boy Blue this way too. Cori's hands reached up to cup his face and steal another kiss, this time on the lips.

It wasn't conscious, at least.

Blue turned into the kiss and wound his arms around Cori's neck. He pulled himself close. "Don't do anything too stupid, okay? Look for me where you can find me. I promise...it'll be worth it. I promise."

Blue wasn't crying, but his breath did speed up. "I have to go," he whispered. "You'll watch yourself, right? You promise me."

Nothing scared the Fable more than the nightmare's own self-destructive tendencies. It wasn't that he was worried that Cori would do something horrible, but he was worried that Cori would find himself a way to forget by making others miserable.

Blue knew him that well.

"I will, Blue, I promise, and I'll look and look and I won't be stupid," much, he should have added. Cori shook his head for emphasis, speaking in one breath.

Now he had to leave, and it was the inevitable farewell, the one where the nightmare really didn't want to say the word goodbye. Cori had thought about the many ways he could make it seem less painful than it really was. He considered telling Blue that this wasn't goodbye, that goodbye was for people you were never going to see again. He thought about how sickly sentimental he could replace 'goodbye' with 'see you later' because the latter offered some semblance of hope. All of those farewells weren't good enough for Blue.

"I promise you," the Corinthian pledged, his oath as a loyal phantom. He brushed the trumpeter's hair away and kissed his forehead, finally choosing the words he wanted to say.

"I love you."

Blue took the kiss and felt himself tether to the floor, his breath quiet and heavy. He opened his mouth to reply, but he couldn't. What did it matter? He knew all the right words to say but none of them wanted to come out. He knew exactly how to make it better, only he didn't, because nothing would make it better.

He kissed the nightmare again, like he was trying to find something in that horrible goodbye, something that would make him give up his duty.

There were thousands of things that would make him give up his duty; and all of those things were in Cori. But he was necessary, and Blue would never ever let anyone down, not when he was needed. Cori was important - of course he was.

But for this, Cori would have to wait.

"I love you," he echoed.

He made a promise to wait because he could, because he had that privilege of being near indestructible. His uncreation relied on crossing his maker, and for all of the former Corinthian's complaints over free will, his uncreation had been a fair gesture. Blue's home wasn't quite as indestructible, and the man behind that war was anything but fair. Cori understood and he expressed it in the soft purse of his lips.

Without saying another word he parted from the blond and put his hands on his shoulders, urging Blue to turn around and not look back. He would do it too, at the same time even as if the silly gesture could ease their separation.

Blue nodded, and turned, raising his hood.

It was the hardest steps he had ever had to walk in his life. Every thud of his foot against dry leaves made him want to spin around and run back.

Blue was not afraid to die - no matter what anyone may have thought. He was afraid for Cori's loneliness, and for his solitude, but he was not afraid to die.

He walked down into the cold, black night.

He turned around in kind, reflecting each step with a quick tug of his leather collar like it could hide his face or as if his neck really needed the warmth. Just as Boy Blue felt more like a soldier the Corinthian already felt more like a nightmare. He was walking back into his Citadel even when it wasn't really in the City.

Everyday would be exactly the same, he was sure of it. But he would live through it because that's what Blue wanted and that's what they deserved.

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