Gage’s stomach flipped. If it hadn’t been empty, he swore he would’ve thrown up.
With his cane folded in his right hand, he held Roz by the back of his arm and allowed him to guide him through headquarters to where Scar decided to have their ceremony.
The entire facility was silent, too silent, as if all personnel from every department were somewhere waiting for him to come through the doors.
“Crap, crap, crap,” Gage whispered.
White Ravens
Scar
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Scar paced.
“Will you calm down, damn,” Ex grumbled.
Scar ignored him.
“I’m gonna’ fuck this up. I know it. He’s too good for me. He’s eventually gonna’ end up hating me and—”
Meridian slapped him across the left cheek so hard it made white light flash in front of him.
“Ow, fuck!” Scar held his jaw, glaring. “What the hell, Meridian?”
“All your whining is getting on my nerves. Now shut the fuck up.”
Meridian grabbed him by the back of his neck and started fixing the collar he’d been yanking at.
“Ugh, you’re the worst best man ever.”
“Thank you, I appreciate that,” Meridian said, “But now’s not the time to compliment me. Focus on Gage.”
“He’s probably half way across the country right now.”
“He is if he’s got some self-preservation, Gandalf,” Ex chuckled.
“Xavier, I swear to god,” he snarled. “Say one more fuckin word.”
“Hey,” Meridian gripped his chin and turned him to face him. “You two were forged in the goddamn fire together. He’s your ‘is.’ So stop talking stupid.”
Scar froze.
Meridian’s voice was all rasp and ferocity.
“Gage is one of the greatest men I’ve ever met. His decency and faith in goodness brings something to this brotherhood that none of us knew we needed…until he came.” Meridian held his stare without blinking. “And you’re right. He’s too good. But, he’s one hundred in love with you. None of us know why, he just is.”
Scar nodded, still rubbing his stinging cheek.
Meridian’s darkness— the emotionless killer— was the same as always, unable to be anything else. He held no warmth, but the blunt truth of his words calmed him.
“Okay,” he muttered, rotating and checking his jaw for injury. “You didn’t have to hit me that hard.”
“It worked, didn’t it?”
Meridian stood tall beside him, wearing black-on-black everything. His designer suit was sleek, clean lines, no tie, with a single red spider lily pinned to his lapel, representing the necessary deaths he brought to the world.
Ex stood a few feet to his right—also in all black but opting for a black rose pinned over his right pec, honoring his evil lover—looking amused at their exchange.
Grace was in all black as well, waiting behind him, still as stone, his broad shoulders built for the suit jacket he wore, with a chocolate orchid in his lapel. Valor’s mint-green hellebore flower in his lapel was the same color as his partner’s eyes.
