I'll save you a seat with a view

Jude

Somebody ought to corrupt me on the dance floor
And take me home

To be known, seen, and accepted as he is now is all Jude can ask for. It's not a person he's proud to be, and at times he wishes Noe could have known him before the devastation wrought by the careless actions of others, but he's finding that regret is a useless weight around his ankle that he hasn't quite learned to cast off - but maybe someday soon.

His eyes stay turned to her as they walk, politely riveted as she speaks. It's the only time Jude has ever been graceful - when he stops thinking so much and just lets his body move, distracted by something more important than his own existence. Noe brings that out in him a lot. She probably doesn't even mean to, she just holds court so easily with her tone and presence that it's magnetic. Even when he aches with envy and a wanting so deep he can taste it, Jude never looks away.

"That's amazing. Do you think maybe I should ask Safrin for a snake too? Maybe Mika can have a friend," he proposes, faint humor coating an otherwise hollow proposal. He can hardly take care of himself. No sense in dragging some other poor creature along for the ride. Besides, Noe is the closest Jude has ever found to 'a part of me that I didn't know existed that just clicked into place one day' as she had put it. That's all he needs for now.

- Fin

Show me all my desires and dark sides
And pretend by night's end you won't leave me alone