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Jeremiah finds them a path home, worn and tired and concerned. The door is pushed open and Algie, who still does not quite touch the ground with his steps, is tugged inside.

"Precious," he says, turning to him once the door is closed. He presses a hand to his cheek briefly and then leans in to brush a kiss against his forehead. It is warm, not chill, because for once they had been together and not apart.

Except for-

"Let's get out of these outfits, hm?" It is a rare thing when Algie has checked out like this and it concerns Jeremiah but there are steps and things he can do and-

Jeremiah, in all honesty, was trying to not pay attention to the fact that his husband looked like something he would have seen when he had - much younger - broken up parties at the rare abandoned building.

The blood he could not ignore but for once it was Jeremiah focused, Jeremiah looking after Algie. After all he had removed himself, not that long Adoelle had been killed and Melany attacked, because his head and spun and some sense of self-preservation kicked in to stop him from having a seizure.

"Come on," he reaches and smooths a hand along Algie's jaw, thumb rubbing to clean away that smudge against his jaw. "Out of these outfits, a hot shower, perhaps some tea." He tugs lightly, once he's got them both out of their shoes, down the hallway and up the stairs to their bedroom.

Jeremiah reached for Algie's hand once he let go a moment, tugging it to his cheek and holding it there. "You'll forgive me, precious, if I don't believe you." There was nothing there and that-

That was how he knew.

It was one thing to suspect the way the other compartmentalized but another thing to be able to feel it. The last time something like this- Jeremiah did not want to think about it.

"... but you will be, yes," he said in a soft breath, face turning to press a kiss to the other man's palm. His stomach twisted and there was a weight there, a sense of failure, that he was pushing away. Dawn had not quite arrived, not yet, and the cats were curled up together asleep on their bed. Jeremiah tugged Algie into the room, already working on getting him out of his clothing.

After all, he had been the one that helped put it on in the first place.

As he helped the other undressed, he removed his own as well. The bullfrog mask was laid somewhere, along with the broken crown that had been on his head, because it was past. Jeremiah internal theme that he had followed had been more poignant than he had realized.

When Algie's hand touched him, warm and there, he sighed. "Alright," he murmured. Blue-green eyes - no longer that reflective glow they had been in other ashdown - looked him over and nodded. His other hand slid along Algie's shoulders, rested briefly against the beat of his heart, before he was sliding it along the tattoo there along his chest.

The worry was obvious now, the touch of sadness, but Jeremiah could not project like his lover; he could only soothe with words and actions. "Never," he said softly, pulling him close. "It's what she wanted, Alg. You did something that most would have balked at. Something I'm not quite sure I could have done." He pressed his face to silvering hair, lips pressed to it. "This isn't-" A breath escaped and he pulled back to look at him. "You are more than just this night and this moment ... and I support you through this and beyond."

... and if people thought ill, if they judged, then there would be words but from Jeremiah there was just his warmth, presence, and support for the other.

It was enough to know Algie was there, behind his own walls, than worrying he had shut off entirely. The other usually kept to himself, after Jeremiah had been a guinea pig, and it was only in unguarded moments of them together that normal everyday feelings would come through.

Or moments where Algie was deliberately trying to get Jeremiah's' attention.

He preferred the other man have his privacy when so much seemed to not be that in their lives with either those who assumed too much or those that simply knew too much and they did not know how.

"I don't know," Jeremiah answered honestly, "I really don't. It's often not until later that the other options reveal themselves, if they do." A hand smoothed through his hair and he finished unbuttoning his own shirt. "The cage has been weakened but it's not fallen entirely and-" He let out a breath. "Things will not change here until ..." He looked over to Algie, expression gone neutral. "... Heliodora is gone as well."

Out of his own shirt, he held a hand out to the other once more to take and lead him towards the master bath. His expression softened, other hand reaching to touch Algie's cheek and smooth against the silvering hair at his temple. "We cannot do the what ifs, precious. They'll undo us both."

Because with them when one fell, so did the other.

Jeremiah apparently still glittered a bit from where the magic of the ball had decided he was not sparkly enough and there were also a few of the glinting gems of the water sprites in his hair. Algie, it seemed, had managed to avoid most of that.

He wrapped his arms around the other, chin resting on the top of his head, and let his eyes slide shut a moment.

"Something like that," he muttered in response, almost a little darkly but reached similarly for the other to further undress. "We can finish stripping down in the bathroom." Fingers slid up along Algie's body, a finger finding it's way under his chin and tilting his head up for a brief kiss. "Come along, precious."

Then he was backing up towards the bath, leading Algie there with the kiss and that finger under his chin.

Jeremiah exhaled sharply, blue-green eyes darkening but he could deal with cheating hands. In the best of ways.


There was a tray of tea on the edge of the bed, Jeremiah actually stretched out across it on his stomach and watching Algie lazily. The tension had left, no longer as on edge as he had been before, and he smiled briefly at his husband.

Mostly because he was grabbing for his feet so that he could press his thumbs into them and rub. It was an idle motion, his thoughts no longer as dark but certainly he could mull over the other details of the ball now without the other things clouding them as much.

Jeremiah smiled a bit when he heard that grunt, intent more so on rubbing Algie's feet and working his thumbs into the arch. His own notebook was laid out on the bed as well, his carefully written notes that contained what they had learned and heard from others.

His head rolled a little bit at the mention of Mina, lifting up enough to get a quick glance before he refocused on his task. "I still don't-" he let out a breath. "I don't know what that means for us. For her."

Never mind that her Court was still not her Court.