milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

gren,
julia

(no subject)

There's no saxophone case this time, and no benign grin.

Time is running out.

As he spins around to face the bar proper, he lets out a sigh of relief. Who was that woman, and why did she try to kill him? After all that? Was it just because of the bounty? Or was it because of Vicious? Or both?

Crazy bi... He leaves the thought unfinished. Like he has any right to call somebody a bitch; she was just doing her job.

He thinks.

Well, Faye won't be getting out of those handcuffs any time soon. He should be safe here for a while.

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"Me either." He laughs, and it's a genuine laugh. Surely, the brandy has nothing to do with it.

Let this night be full of laughter. Gren knows full well it's a romantic notion, but he is a romantic. He always has been, and he will be until his dying breath.

"We should do this more often." She knows there may not be any time for them to do it ever again, but she says it anyway. It brings her hope. She still needs that.

"Julia."

His voice is just a little harder, a little more serious. "What do you want?"

What do you want, comrade: from me, from anybody?

"If there were no limits: what would you have?"

If you weren't dead...

"Is 'a normal life' too cliche an answer," she asks with a slight laugh.

"I have no idea what normal is, Julia." Gren sets down his spoon; the ice cream dish is empty. "I've never known normal. I don't think very many people do."

Shaking his head, he stands. "My conscience might be making a fool of me, Julia, but I think I need to get back to Blue Crow and let Faye go. Or at least make sure she doesn't decide to shoot up everything in my apartment."

He fingers the music box in his pocket. "And... I have one more thing I need to do before tomorrow."

She looks up at Gren. "I understand."

She stands and, without asking, she moves into him slowly, embracing him.

"I hope this makes you whole again."

The embrace catches him by surprise; it takes him a moment to recover long enough to return her hug.

I'm whole enough to be two people, Julia. But he only thinks the words and doesn't say them at all. Instead, he pulls back and smiles at her. "Thanks for fixing the music box. It would have taken me all night."

That's a lie; he's dexterous enough to play a saxophone and he's dexterous enough to fix a music box. He just didn't want to.

He kisses her softly on the forehead. "Goodnight, Julia."

When he turns to the door, his eyes fill with tears.

She blinks back tears of her own, and even though he's long gone, she says in a small voice. "Goodnight, Gren."

She wonders if she'll ever see him again.

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