Follows after may you build a ladder to the stars solo(s) by Kuropeco
It had been some time since Auguste has been open with him - with any of them, really. Colin might have said the disconnect came from Auguste being head-over-heels with that Chase fellows, but he knew better. Knew that it had started with Caedus sending them to Negaspace, with Thyrmr following Mont Blonc there, with each of them having to engage in war on a larger and far bloodier scale than he'd experienced before.
That encounter had changed so many, himself included.
So it wasn't surprising that Auguste withdrew. Sad and distressing, but unsurprising.
What did surprise Colin was waking to find Tribble staring at him from atop what looked like a letter.
Colin wondered at what it contained, a low twist in his gut starting up.
Letters had classically not boded well, in his experience. There was no help for it but to gently shoo Tribble off the crinkling paper, to carry it into the kitchen while he started his new Keurig to brew a cuppa, to leave it on the cool counter while attending his morning toilet. Only when his morning coffee was ready would the missive been read, while curled up on the couch with toes dug in-between cushions for purchase.
As he read, Colin's brows drew down and close. It was as he feared, another letter full of bad news. Another letter from someone he dearly loved saying they were leaving him...and without having the guts to say it to his face, in ********." Not again, not this bullshit again! How? How the hell do they expect me to take this s**t? Colin rose and began pacing, the offending letter held in shaking hands.
"Didn't have the balls to tell me to my face. How ******** dare he--" It didn't matter that Auguste's words had been pretty, or that he'd meant well by leaving note that he was heading off to places unknown. What did matter was the way it called up anger, memory of past hurts pressed against this new. Björn had pulled the same cowardly letter-writing bullshit back when he'd broken up and left Colin, now Auguste was doing much the same and no amount of sweet words would have soothed his ire.
Stomping about, Colin read the letter once, twice more. Then aloud, angrier each time. Tribble woggled her way through the hall to see what had upset her person, but then skittered back into the bedroom and under the bed to hide from the irate blond. A beeping from his cell phone reminded him that there were other things to attend to and that he should do his exercises and eat before going to DCBC for practice and work.
As the shoved a measured portion of chicken breast and veg into the microwave to heat, he glared once more at the letter he'd set again on his counter. Perhaps one day he'd be less upset, but for the moment all that Colin had for such things was ire.
"God save me from cowardly men."
Word Count: 503
