★ // your friendly neighborhood assassin

[burninglight]

Who: Ardyn + open
What: Someone missed the Assassin Festival and he's making up for it.
When: General period around Halloween because time is fake.
Where: Around the Station + Annex
Warnings: Reckless behavior on high places, but it's fine he can fly.

[There is a menace in Keystone.]

[Don't look up, because nearly anywhere you do a hooded figure in black is lurking. Possibly on top of the fridge or sitting on the top of a bookshelf in the library like he's fucking Spiderman or something. More alarmingly, he could be found perched on the edge of the viewing deck or casually walking on the railing of the Station's roof. It didn't look like he was unsteady or liable to trip--in fact he seemed pretty coordinated.]

[On occasion he'd remember to take the hood off--and sure enough it was clearly Ardyn, messy hair having gotten long enough to tie in a slightly uneven braid. At least he was clearly having fun, even if it probably looked like he was courting death by risking falling clear off the damn buildings.]

Comments

[burninglight]

[this is fine and not at all a complicated clusterfuck of emotions]

...Leonard? Are you okay?

[motherfucking_ghost]

Okay.

[Very much not okay, small and inflectionless and very much in the middle of a shutdown.]

[founderinglight]

...Up and with us, polestar. Don't disengage.

[burninglight]

Hey. [Ardyn stepped in front of him--blocking Izunia from sight for the moment as best he could--raising both hands to frame his face gently.]

Leonard--you're alright. I'm here, so come back to me and focus.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Nn- [He's tense under those hands, jaw tight. His hands ball at his sides, and so he shoves them into his pockets.] 'm here.

[burninglight]

Everything's alright; you're safe and I'm not going anywhere. I can throw him off the roof if you want, but he'd probably just warp right back. [He brushed a careful, light touch along that tense jawline, voice quiet with a hint of a laugh to it.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Stop. I'm here. I've been here.

[burninglight]

[Ardyn pulled back almost like he'd been burned, clearly startled.]

S-...sorry.

[motherfucking_ghost]

'm not-- [he doesn't want to take his hands out of his pockets right now, so he can't wildly gesture with his arms, so just--big elaborate shrug.] Gone or away, I'm just quiet cuz I'm wrong and you're right.

[founderinglight]

[Behind Ardyn, Izunia makes a frustrated face for a moment and spins a spoon rapidly between his fingers before letting it vanish. Okay, game face back on.]

And isn't the entire subject how neither of us thinks that's inherently true and we don't want you to do that?

[burninglight]

I don't...I don't understand. Is there something wrong with just correcting a misunderstanding?

[motherfucking_ghost]

No. [which one, numbnuts] It isn't, and there isn't. [oh both okay]

[founderinglight]

[Congrats, Church, Izunia is now pacing out his frustration in the back of the frame behind Ardyn's head.]

It was a rhetorical question.

[burninglight]

...

[Ardyn backed off a little further, folding his arms like he was withdrawing instead of in a show of annoyance.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

You are right, too. I'm the only one who sees this as a battle.

Guess I didn't realize that 'til now.

So. Guess I'll just have to stop fighting.

[founderinglight]

That it's not a battle doesn't mean it isn't an engagement. 'It takes two' and do on.

If you want to talk about me seeing your issues in the show, we can do that, but you've got to be engaged with it.

[burninglight]

Not fighting doesn't mean just...closing off.

[motherfucking_ghost]

You defended him. Him! You defended him and agreed with him and I'm the one that's wrong. I'm fighting a fight that nobody else is fighting. I don't understand that. I don't. I don't understand.

[founderinglight]

Then ask.

[burninglight]

I-I didn't--

[Ardyn almost seemed to shrink back, stunned.]

I wasn't defending him, I just...I was just stating a fact, I wasn't defending anyone!

[motherfucking_ghost]

A fact. [He's glaring daggers at Izunia.] Is that what it is. A statement of fact.

[founderinglight]

[Gotta at least be glaring smallswords to make an impact on this one.]

I can't speak for anyone else. But that I don't consider this a battle, that I don't think of you as an enemy - of course that's fact. You're my brother's husband. I trust you with the safety of someone who was once my entire world. Would I do that if I did think you an enemy?

[burninglight]

...

[Ardyn shut his mouth and looked away, trying very hard to figure out how exactly he'd fucked this one up.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

I have to trust that you're not gonna do anything to fuck up my husband or hurt him. So yeah. From personal experience, you could.

[founderinglight]

I couldn't. And trusting someone to not fuck things up is a good degree below the trust I put in you, because I trust you to pull him back when things do, inevitably, get fucked up.