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Stay with me.
Fear settled in Rycroft Philostrate’s chest when Vignette Stonemoss had been herded into the now barricaded Carnival Row.
Stay with me.
Panic started to grip his heart as he held her hand over the fencing and barbed wire and told him not to make trouble; that she’d find a way out.
Complete and utter dread and fear of losing her, of losing everything again had him shaking. He was terrified of losing his home as she turned and walked away from him to go and help the Fae that had been shot out of the sky like a game bird.
Stay with me.
Stay with me.
Stay with me.
The words he'd repeated to her as he was being pulled away in the jail cell rang in his head over and over. The words drowned out the cries of the others around him, the whistles and the shouting of the officials as they forced Puck, Fae, Centaur, any person who wasn’t human into the new Carnival Row.
He watched as she tended to the Fae, pressing something onto the wound as the woman writhed on the ground, her wing hanging uselessly at an angle it shouldn’t be.
His eyes never left Vignette as he followed the barbed wire fencing toward the guards, time seeming to slow as he tried not to let himself drown in the feeling of loss.
The mantra that continued to play in his ears was interrupted when he heard the guard say something to him. “I told you mate, just Critch. Move on..”
The inspector blinked and finally looked away from Vignette, only to settle his steely gaze onto the man in front of him. “I am Critch.” The look on his face dared the guard to make him ‘move on’.
He stumbled through the entryway, ignoring how he’d been pushed into the Row; his eyes settled on her again. Only her. Always her.
He’d only managed a few steps through the crowd before Vignette turned and saw him, then ran to him. Their arms wrapped around each other, holding one another in a bone crushing embrace as they stood amongst the people filtering in. The two of them clung to each other, the both of them hardly able to breathe as they held the other so tight.
They pulled back to look at each other, his hand cupping the side of her face, as her’s mimicked on his opposite. They hugged each other and he buried his face in the crook of her neck, eyes squeezed shut as he panted like he’d run across the entire Burgue. His hand was on the back of her head while hers squeezed his neck, his shoulders.
They pulled away from each other, just holding her face, his thumb running along her cheekbone, brushing away a tear before he brushed his lips against her brow.
After they’d helped get Fleury back into the Tetterby Hotel and patched up the injury, they managed to find an empty room in the brothel and locked themselves inside of it.
“Why did you do it?” Vignette asked as she looked at him from where they sat on the bed. Her voice was quiet, almost breaking. They were sitting next to each other, legs hanging off the edge of the bed, arms wrapped around the others, fingers laced. Vignette’s thumb brushed along his scraped knuckles, her brow resting against his temple. “I told you I would find a way out.”
“I wasn’t going to lose you,” he murmured. He turned his head, his dark eyes finding hers in the dimly lit room, He sighed and reached up to cup her face in his hands again. “I couldn’t...not again. I couldn’t take the chance that you wouldn’t get out of here...I wasn’t going to-,” he licked his lips and shook his head, “I’d let you go once because I was too much of a coward to go with you and I wasn’t going to do that again.” It was his turn to have his voice to crack as he spoke barely above a whisper.
“Oh, Philo…” her words were barely audible as she ran her hands down his face. She traced along his eyebrows, careful not to hurt the cuts that marred his skin. One of her hands followed his cheek before she pushed her fingers up into his hair. He let out a ragged breath as she touched him, swallowing thickly as he leaned toward her, his body seeming to collapse into itself..
The last few days had been trying and he was tired. So tired.
He felt Vignette move and he followed, letting her lead him up to the top of the bed where they both laid down, sharing the same pillow, foreheads pressed against each other. Philo closed his eyes and let out a long breath through his nose, his arms going around her waist as Vignette continued to stroke his face. “You weren’t goin to lose me…”
“You don’t know that,” he shook his head though didn’t pull away even a fraction. “I’ve spent enough time away from you and I don’t want to go one more moment without you. I won’t.”
“You sap,” she teased, trying to lighten the mood even though everything was falling apart outside of the room they were in. Regardless, her words caused him to let out a breathy chuckle. He let the quiet settle around them again, pulling her closer, if that were even possible. He brushed his nose against the side of hers.
They lapsed into silence, and Philo spent the time listening to her breathe, soaking her in, his fingers moving against her, both of them unable to stop touching the other. He wasn’t sure how long the quiet around them lasted, but he was the one to break it. “I love you,” he whispered his lips brushing against hers as he spoke.
She gave him a tight lipped smile in return, leaning forward and pressing a light kiss to his mouth, hands holding the back of his neck, thumbs tracing his jawline below his ear. “I love you.” Vignette’s forehead came back to rest against his own. “What are we going to do? Where are we going to go?”
He shook his head, “I dunno,” he told her truthfully. “But we’ll figure it out together..”
Stay with me.
Stay with me.