Who: Jareth & Peony What:Did someone order Feels for lunch Visiting Siana for her birthday Where: The Necrohol When: Today Rating: Mostly tame though Jare does drop some choice language here and there Status: Complete
This time last year, he’d been sitting in his office, discussing a case with his partner. Peony had shown up with a cake, which was the only reason he had known it was her birthday. It had been awkward as fuck, but nice, in a way. Birthdays hadn’t really been something he’d ever really celebrated - when you were one of a couple dozen kids, and no one knew exactly when most of their birthdays were, it was hard as hell to keep up with them all so no one’s got celebrated.
Liana and the Knights of the Peace had been the first ones to celebrate with him and he with them, but that had been short lived. The Guard hadn’t been keen on it, even though he, Aspel and Li had generally marked the passage of another year in some way.
This year, he was entering the Necrohol, a bottle of wine and two glasses in hand. He hadn’t known Siana to drink, but her family had a vineyard, so he assumed that she at least drank that. Back home, he’d seen people pouring the dead a drink and spilling it on their grave. Her grave was empty, but it was the only thing he could do.
It wasn’t like the cold trail had gotten any warmer.
The last time he’d been here, it had been for Siana’s funeral. (She had become Siana as soon as they’d forced him to close the case. Banes was too informal for someone he’d failed.) Even though it had been the once, the path to the empty grave was engraved in his head, and he walked the path resolutely, even though every fiber of his being wanted to turn the fuck around and just leave. He owed her this much.
He would find, however, that he was not the only one to have had a similar idea, for by the time he reached the gravestone, there was already a blanket spread there, and what appeared to be a rather extensive picnic lunch for two laid out. Upon the blanket sat Peony, her eyes closed in what was most likely prayer or perhaps simply contemplation -- but at his approach she turned and offered him a small smile devoid of the surprise she had felt for just a moment at seeing him there.
She should have contacted him this morning, perhaps, but they had had little to do with each other these last several months, and she wondered if perhaps he didn’t prefer it that way. She had to consider however, based on Pyr’s assertions, whether she might not be equally culpable, too -- the thought arose again only now, with her once-partner before her. Perhaps she ought to have reached out first after all. When it came to offering olive branches, she was always the first to do so.
“Good afternoon,” she said, tucking her legs under her, making room on the blanket should he choose to join her. “It seems we had a similar idea today.”
He nodded, but remained standing. He hadn’t talked much to Peony since the city had practically fucking exploded in on itself. Part of that had to do with the fact that it had been his ax that had offed her guildmaster, and part of it was that it was that neither of them had really talked since he’d outed himself as a fell knight. He’d known that she was the religious type, and even though he usually couldn’t give a flying fuck what anyone thought of him, he had started to realize that maybe he did care what she thought.
“Looks like,” he said after a minute. “Didn’t mean to interrupt.” He wasn’t sure what, exactly, he was interrupting - lunch? - but then, he had wine and two wine glasses, so it wasn’t like he could judge.
“You haven’t interrupted.” Peony had met Siana’s sister and mother at the gate, and knowing that they had already paid their respects today, she thought it likely that this visit would not be an inconvenience to anyone. “I hope you will sit with me.”
She did not watch him to see if he settled, instead slightly correcting the small pyramid of fruit she had constructed. “It is good to see you.” Here, especially. “I hope you have been well? My brother often mentions you.”
She wasn’t telling him to get lost, so Jareth took a seat, careful to keep some distance between them. “Been fine,” he said, leaning back. Sometimes, he forgot that Pyr was Peony’s kid brother - the kid was so damn loud he was impossible to miss, whereas he wouldn’t be surprised if Peony could just blend into the fucking background. But Pyr hadn’t mentioned much about Peony (not that he really gave his squire the time to breathe, let alone talk), which only helped him forget. “Busy. Seems like everyone is either taking off or doing Faram knows what.”
Jareth set the glasses next to him and opened the wine bottle. He poured a glass and held it up, looking at the liquid. Red. Seemed fitting to pour red wine over the body-less grave. “How about you?”
“I have been much the same as before,” she said. A politically correct answer if ever there was one, for her guild had serious troubles, and they both knew it. Still, things seemed a bit brighter today than yesterday, and that was something. The state of the city, unfortunately, was not showing the improvement of the state of the guild. “It has been a difficult time for many, but there is always time to visit with a departed friend.”
Siana would be glad to see them both here, Peony thought, perhaps even pleased to see them in each other’s company. They had worked well in concert -- she and Siana, then after the fading of misunderstandings the three of them, and finally she and Jareth, in their way.
“That’s… good.” What else was he supposed to stay? It wasn’t like they’d really talked in months, and he’d never been one to actually ask her about the shit that went on in her life. She and Siana had been friends - she and Jareth had never been much more than acquaintances. “Less incidents with mages lately.” Hadn’t that been the last thing they’d talked about?
Briefly, he closed his eyes. Drink’s on me, he thought and poured the drink on the grave, careful to keep the wine from splashing on the stone. He turned back to Peony. “Want a drink?”
“No, thank you. I must return to my office after this,” she said. Besides, there were only two glasses; it would be tasteless to take from the deceased. “Perhaps you might like a rice ball, however?” She held up the secondary container, the one meant for herself. “The filling is quite sour; Siana had a fondness for pickled plums.”
She paused a moment, giving him a chance to serve himself before she responded to his earlier statement: “Time dulls memories, and anger takes energy that many people now choose to expend elsewhere. We have kept ourselves quiet and as helpful as possible, and thus the issues have begun to resolve themselves.”
Peony hadn’t been kidding - the rice ball was sour as fuck. Still, he chewed and swallowed and took another bite. He hadn’t know that Siana had liked sour shit - there had been a lot about her that he hadn’t known.
“And it’s not like there hasn’t been a whole slew of other shit to worry about,” he added, sighing. Giant cactuar attacking the city, people trying to rob the motherfucking treasury, kids being sold into prostitution. “I’m glad… you’ve been… well.” And fuck, that was awkward, even if it was true.
“I will say much the same,” she said. “I know you have been working on a great number of things, from the news I read and hear.” Some of them seemed quite worrisome, but they were not matters of magic; much as he had not engaged her services, neither had she offered.
(Although they had never been friends, she still felt the distance keenly, perhaps moreso now than in their months of silence.)
He shrugged. “No one’s been angry enough at me to want to kill me,” he replied, uncomfortable. “Except maybe Pyr, but he’s too tired to do anything about it.” The thought brought a grin to his face as he pictured his occasionally disgruntled squire running lap after lap. He was going to have to change up the training menu again soon - it was becoming too easy for the kid, and the last thing he wanted was for Pyr to stagnate.
“I do not think so.” She began to peel an apple, and her eyes were on her hands, but she smiled very slightly as she said, “He is very fond of you.”
“No fucking clue why. If my mentor made me do half the shit I make him do…” He trailed off, shaking his head. He knew that Pyr liked him, in some weird ass way - the whole fucking thing with the cookies had tipped him off - but he had never understood why. Not that it really mattered; he’d train the kid, keep him from getting killed, and make sure he got to class, and then be done with him.
If the thought of that made him a little sad, he ignored it.
“Has Si-Banes’ family been by yet?” He hadn’t wanted to run into them; they’d been the ones to call off the investigation, which had made him feel like even more of a failure.
A more suitable topic than the detour to Pyr, though Peony could not think that Siana would have minded. Still, she said, “I saw them departing when I was on my way here. It is only us now, unless another surprise visitor happens by.” Although she had been a quiet woman, Siana had touched many a life in unexpected ways. “I am nearly through,” she added, offering him half of the apple she had peeled. “I will be on my way shortly, if you desire some time alone.”
Jareth shrugged. “Hadn’t planned on staying too long.” Just long enough to pour the wine and have a glass. Which reminded him… The clean glass was still sitting next to him, so he grabbed it and poured some of the bottle into it, taking a sip before scrunching up his nose in distaste. “Not sure how the fuck you drank this shit,” he said to the grave before taking another drink.
“I’ll walk out with you,” he told Peony. “If you don’t mind the company.”
“I don’t mind.”
It was not the mending that Pyr desired, no doubt, but perhaps it was a start.