[Video]

[wineandwomen]

[When the feed clicks on, a clean Cross Marian is setting something down on the edge of the roof of the apartment building before he sits on it. He's sitting on a towel he nicked from a hotel he had stayed in across the river, the Exorcist General sat there, holding an umbrella in one hand to keep the rain off and a glass of wine in the other. The

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1/?

[tothelastbreath]

[Oh, look who's back―]

1/2 [offline]

[tothelastbreath]

[It is, and while Allen would have been unsettled by that simple gesture a few months ago, now it's filling his ribcage with a flash flood of things he cannot name. All he knows is that they ache. Fists clenched, he lowers his head to hide the sudden, painful twist of his mouth, voice a wet rasp against the back of his throat.]

―Stupid Master, blame yourself for always turning up when I'm looking a mess.

[Or just a plain wreck, like he was all those years ago; head bowed, never looking anyone in the eye.]

2/2 [offline]

[tothelastbreath]

[―Unlike now, as he lifts his head, letting the wind sift his bangs aside to meet Cross' gaze with pale gray eyes that remain utterly dry. Not the slightest sheen, gold or otherwise.]

[in the same tone of voice that had Cross calling him a cheeky upstart before, but is really just Allen finding his own way:] And you're one to talk about haircuts.

[So his hair's growing out, what of it. Cross seems to get along just fine with long hair. There was a time when Allen wouldn't be caught dead admitting to bearing any similarity to Cross at all, no matter how physical or shallow, but (or perhaps 'because') deep down, he has always been a little too much his master's apprentice. And he's okay with it, now. Proud, even. Although it's a pride saddled with ingrained reluctance and too many complications, it's there and growing strong. Cross―his Master―made the choice to stand up to Central and was murdered for it, but he's left an apprentice behind.

"You're the only one who can walk your own path," Cross had said