I'll save you a seat with a view

Jude

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

Jude stretches his arms above his head, hands clasped and expression crinkling as he bends like a willow and pops his back and shoulders in the cold, pale sunlight outside the Temple. He had lost track of time praying and is now stiff and a bit sore from the old-fashioned pews and benches in the historical building behind him. Lanky as he is it's not like he's accustomed to comfortable seating but he truly thinks they picked only the worst options. 

Exhaling heavily as he drops his arms, Jude looks around as he waits at the corner, standing just off the pathway in the grass as he waits for Noe. Their schedules are both rather non-existent admittedly but they try to have a sense of normalcy here and there, and today is the day they normally meet up in this spot before deciding then and there to do...something. Usually visiting a cafe or just walking around until they're ready to head back to the house. 

Jude can't stomach calling it 'home'. He spends as much time outside those walls as he can honestly. It's not that he's unwelcome - he knows he isn't - it's because he feels like such a burden. He doesn't even want to start unpacking the weird tangle of feelings he has for about Koa, or the feeling of being childish and reliant upon the stability of others, or the general weirdness of living in the same house as his best (arguably only) friend. He's not exactly sure what he's doing with his life right now. It's why he's here at the Temple more days than not, stubbornly praying to Safrin and celebrating the Old Gods in Dahlia's territory while he tries to figure that out. 

Blowing on his cold fingers as he curses with the realization he's forgotten his gloves again, Jude sweeps his eyes over the passerby to try and find Noe in the moving bodies.

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

Noe

It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me
At teatime, everybody agrees

Noe was a little worried about Jude.

Okay, fine, she was a lot worried about Jude.

After all, the poor kid had just lost his dad. No matter how crappy a father Harper had been, he was still Jude's only father. Having lost her mother, Noe could relate.

And aside from that, as far as Noe knew, Jude's moms and brother were AWOL. His best friend had left him after emotionally cheating on him. And she rarely saw him out with anyone other than her. It really seemed like he was all alone save for the Carpenter family, and as much as Noe adored him, she figured that couldn't be the healthiest way to deal with his grief.

So their little meet-ups? Absolutely the most important part of Noe's week.

Today, she hurried along, bundled up in a parka, gloves, and a hat with a fuzzy little ball on top that wasn't, strictly speaking, a necessity - it wasn't that cold - but was too cute to leave behind. Mika had twined herself around the girl's neck, for all the world looking like a thick, black necklace if not for the bright eyes shining out from under Noe's hair. This would be her first time meeting Jude, and the mata mata had picked up on Noe's myriad feelings about her best friend.

Spotting Jude in the crowd, Noe waved a gloved hand and shouted his name, pushing through the throng until she arrived at his side. "Heyyyyy," she grinned, looping her arm through his and pulling a spare set of gloves from her pocket. "Here, before your fingers fall off."

I'll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror
It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero

Jude

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

Noe finds him first - as seems to be her way in the history of their friendship - and Jude's eyes snap to her, tracking her progress through the throng of bodies. He doesn't have much to protect these days outside of himself, and sometimes it's just...nice, feeling like he can repay the Carpenters somehow by doing this small service. Not that Noe needs him to look out for her. Clearly she's more prepared than him on most days if the gloves she extends toward him are any proof.

Smiling wryly, Jude takes them and slips them over his red-tipped fingers without dislodging her from his arm. They fall into step quickly, Jude accustomed by now to shortening his stride to account for their height difference. "Hey yourself. And thanks - I keep leaving a pair by the door to try and remember them, but it just won't stick." They taunt him every time he returns with frozen hands but apparently the shame-enforcing approach doesn't work either.

Even the swift way she links up with him wouldn't distract him from the winged snake curled around her shoulders - though it hides well beneath her dark hair. "Oh! Well - hello there, who's this?" He stumbles awkwardly, stuck between curiosity and congratulations.

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

Noe

It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me
At teatime, everybody agrees

If one were to ask Noe, she would say that she and Jude took care of each other, thank you very much. After all, wasn’t that what friends did? Look out for one another, watch each other’s back, protect one another from all that threatened? And though there wasn’t much to threaten them here - well, aside from the Family, she supposed - that didn’t mean that it wasn’t nice to have each other to rely on.

These days, it often felt like Jude was the only person she really had in that regard. Koa was always gone, it seemed, and her father, while well-meaning, wasn’t the best company sometimes. But now Jude was there, and some of her loneliness had faded away, and she was all the brighter for his presence - even if she regretted, on his behalf, that which had led him here.

Ah, but now she had more than just Jude - she had Mika! As though to remind her, the little mata mata slithered out from her spot around Noe’s neck, weaving her head back and forth in greeting as she flitted towards the young man that her bonded was clearly so besotted with. ”Oh, this is Mika! I found her in the Celestine,” Noe said proudly. Mika hissed, flying quickly around Jude’s face as though to observe him more closely, then returning to the warmth of Noe’s hair. ”Isn’t she adorable?”

I'll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror
It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero

Jude

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

They sustain each other in their otherwise lonely lives, and that's all Jude could have asked for in finding a soft place to land in Stormbreak. There are memories here that are nearly as painful as the ones in Torchline, but Sohalia's ghost is one he's used to sharing space with, and Noe has an uncanny ability to notice when he does. It's better than moving somewhere completely alone, he's sure of it. Though he is man enough to admit that his insides cramp a little with envy as his best friend introduces him to her new companion. Not that his face shows it, smiling in the warm but subdued way he's adopted these days - the greatest level of joy he can manage, and entirely what Noe deserves to receive.

Jude goes a little cross-eyed trying not to falter in his steps while also trying to take in the snake suddenly flying in front of his face, which makes him laugh slightly at his own gracelessness - and Mika's cuteness. "She is! I'm happy for you both." Squeezing his arm tighter around Noe's, Jude smiles down at her. "How does it feel? Everyone in my family has always had companions, but I have no idea what it's like to be bonded." The pang travels up into his chest at the unintentional double-entendre, but he doesn't let it show. Noe doesn't deserve his seemingly endless angsting, especially not during such an exciting turning point in her life. And Jude is tired of being such a downer. So he's a lonely fuck, who cares? His best friend deserves all the good in the world, and he won't let anything rain on her parade, not even himself damn it.

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

Noe

It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me
At teatime, everybody agrees

Jude’s happiness for her was all that mattered to Noe. Even if she’d been able to read minds, she’d have understood that his loneliness was more than skin-deep. And if he was jealous, she’d have known that it was nothing personal… it was just him being human and feeling all the feels that he was allowed to have.

In any case, his warm but subdued smile was one that Noe was used to seeing - and, frankly, was all that she’d ever known from him. After all, their meeting and subsequent friendship had been forged through the many trials and tribulations that life had seen fit to throw at him. She didn’t know the gentle, happy soul that Sohalia had once been privy to; she knew him only as he was now, and that was enough for her.

”It’s, like…” Noe scrunched her nose, thinking. ”It’s like, all of a sudden I have all these thoughts and feelings that aren’t mine, and I just know they’re hers. Like there’s a part of me that I didn’t know existed that just clicked into place one day.” She wasn’t really sure how else to explain it. Mika hissed softly in agreement and encouragement. Apparently it was more or less the same for the little mata mata.

I'll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror
It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero

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