The river cuts deep quickly past the bank of rocks and mud, a sudden drop with a quick-moving undercurrent, but it's not choked with weeds this close to the bridge, so there's a clear view of the raised, deceptively blue water.
And Arthur doesn't hesitate to sit down next to him, coat tails tucked under his ass and a leg out straight and pressing against Jedao's. "It's fucking awful, not being able to- to get someone," he agrees, leaning back on his gloved hands. "That despite your best efforts you can't- make it make sense."
"I'm not even allowed to try. Anytime I think anything, he's furious that I'm being a condescending prick who's making assumptions without knowing anything about him!"
Jedao laughs, horribly, for the too-familiar irony.
"Like he hasn't been here over a year already. So I'm constantly second-guessing myself and over-analyzing even more trying not to assume, and of course then he's mad about being picked apart. I'm not allowed to guess and I'm not allowed to try to figure it out, and I just feel absolutely insane around him, and he just -"
Jedao huffs out a rueful breath, shoulders sinking back in on him.
"It's not that he hates me. It's just that he doesn't like me, no matter what, even when he's trying to give me a chance for Hakkai's sake. I can't even...I can't even try to be nice, I can't even ask what he'd like, without pissing him off. And...he doesn't owe it to me to like me. I'm trying to be a fucking grown-up about it. But he broke my heart a little, and it hurts."
"At least if he hated you it'd feel... earned, I suppose, quantifiable- or at least fitting, all else being the same." Which isn't a judgement, just... recognition. "But- just not liking you feels like a personal fucking failing."
He scuffs his heel, dislodging a rock to kick into the river. "Is he the kind of prick to say it to your face, or he's just obvious about it?"
"I don't think it's unreasonable to be mad at someone who's not giving you a goddamn chance, but I won't pretend I'm not biased."
He scoots over a little so he can press hip to hip with Jedao and wrap an arm around him again. "I'm sorry. That it's been so fucking frustrating. Not being seen or heard fairly by someone who means so much to Hakkai."
"I was mad at him because he hurt Hakkai's feelings," Jedao says, with a little rueful huff of air. "And mine, too. I wanted a future where he was part of our home, our family - and it was okay he hadn't come around on me yet, but he would eventually, I'm charming. And I never imaged he wouldn't - he loves Hakkai too. I thought he just needed to know he was welcome, that he was wanted. We asked a little before the Narrenschiff. Only he didn't want that future. And I sort of lost my shit about it."
He hums, as a little more of the picture falls into place.
"It's cruel when being charming is the part people object to," he comments quietly, with a wry, tired little self-aware smile. "No matter how genuinely sincere you are, it'll never get through right. So they just reject your entire self wholesale."
"To be fair, I don't think he finds me charming at all," Jedao muses dryly. "And he wasn't trying to be cruel. I was trying very hard not to let him see what a rabid loon I was about it all, so he can't be blamed for not noticing."
But it did feel cruel, that trying his best kept being treated as fake and manipulative, instead of the honest desperation it was.
"And it's hard to know when being a rabid loon about something is the right play," he muses. "Even harder to actually act on it. And being the thorn in the side of someone's existing expectations is..."
He takes a breath and sighs. "Well, I can certainly understand why people hated it when I did it."
And maybe if he never brings it up again, Arthur will carry on in his existing impression that the marriage only bothered him because he was upset about unrelated things, and carry that lie back to John for him with perfect sincerity.
He hums again, and tightens his hug so he can press another light kiss to Jedao's hair.
"I'm sorry," he says, plain and simple. "I know you go out of your way to hide things, but... still. I should know you well enough to check occasionally."
"I wasn't hiding it exactly," he mumbles, sighing a little as he leans more into Arthur's side. "But it's not something I can dump on Hakkai because this is hard enough for him already. And I don't want to...deprive my warden friends of being friends with him and I don't want my inmate friends to stab him."
Simplified, but accurate to a first approximation.
"And I just feel..." A breath shudders out of him. "If feels very stupid and juvenile, you know? Being so upset that someone doesn't like me, like I'm not a notorious interplanetary bogeyman back where I came from. Nobody is obligated to like me. I'm an adult, I can deal with that. Only he's family, so I feel obligated to try. And I'm a competitive bitch and I hate failing this much."
He gives a soft scoff despite himself. "Trust me, you don't have to love your family. The very first crime in the whole fucking Bible is fratricide, it's practically built in to Earth society." He takes a breath, and lets it out in a long sigh. "We tell ourselves we're supposed to, certainly. Family is meant to stick together. But-- you know, just- sometimes..."
He shrugs, making a face. "Fuck that for a laugh."
"I don't mean it morally. I killed the closest thing to family I had when I was two months old," Jedao mutters. "And it was the most moral thing I've ever done. But Gojyo isn't...like that. Hakkai loves him, and he loves Hakkai too, even if it takes him another five Earth years to admit it. I can't be the reason he's not in Hakkai's life, even if he never gives me a chance. I can't -" I can't bear that, he wants to say, melodramatically, romantically. But he knows he can bear quite a lot.
And it's fucking hard, to stop himself there. Sheehan had told him off before, just mildly, for trying to push for a solve instead of just being there to listen. But if he wants to do right by his friends, it means fucking listening to the echo of his husband's advice, and not treating his overly calculating friend like he hadn't already tried every single angle.
"I'm... I'm glad that you felt able to talk to me about all this," he says instead, with another soft squeeze. "So. Thank you. For trusting me with all this."
Not just the information, but the vulnerability. Baring weaknesses to him and risking, even especially with Arthur, the threat of venomous fangs.
"I do trust you," he says simply. "Thank you for asking."
It's a relief, even if he's pretty sure he has scuttled Arthur's and Gojyo's chances of being friends. Arthur asked, so it isn't his fault, isn't him being greedy, turning people against Gojyo just so feels less alone. Even if he did it just the same -
Arthur asked, and that has to be okay, for him to accept support when it's offered, and it's a relief to have the decision taken away from him, instead of gnawing anxiously on who to ask, or whether to keep it to himself after all.
It's lucky that Arthur has no reason to seek Gojyo out to give him a piece of his mind directly, but Jedao's so convinced that the man disliking him is his own fault that he doesn't feel compelled to add to it immediately. Though that's not to say he'll hold his tongue if Gojyo starts anything with him.
"And- thank you for letting me check in with you about John," he adds as well. "I know I'm not... at my best, at being impartial when he's upset."
Back into the shoals it is. Can he navigate this without letting anything else slip?
(Should he? The reflexive caution brushes up against the immediacy of reassurances and gratitude, the plain earnest gift of a friend he can confide in, and the cognitive dissonance is - well. Noticeable. He notices it.)
"You were very gracious about it," Jedao replies, not too slowly, even though he chooses his words carefully. "And it was rather all my fault this time anyway." No impartiality required.
"It's not anyone's fault, Jedao, that's why I'm here asking you instead of- of soundly chewing you out for upsetting John," he says. "You're allowed to be upset, and it certainly sounds at this point like it's well justified. John just happened to be some final straw."
Jedao looks away, his mouth pinching like a draw-string purse being scrunched closed.
That's ever so for the permission, he thinks dourly, and don't do me any favors. But it is his fault, of course, and John is upset, and Arthur has every right to chew him out without Jedao being unnecessarily petulant about things on top.
Jedao - locks it all down, squeezes, freezes. Like he could turn all his wrong selfish feelings into little pebbles and pack them up somewhere. Wipe himself clean like a marble countertop.
A push too far, then. His face pinches a little, more with guilt than frustration, but he tries to let it go.
"Confused, more than upset. He feels... misunderstood, about what you think marriage means to him. He thinks that you're pinning a label onto him that he doesn't fully understand or believe in, but he also knows that's not who you are, and the discrepancy there is what's upsetting him the most. Especially when to him this doesn't mean neglecting or prioritising anyone differently."
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Re: A few days after John's announcement
They've finally gotten to the edge of the river; Jedao sits down beside it with his knees drawn up to his chest.
Re: A few days after John's announcement
And Arthur doesn't hesitate to sit down next to him, coat tails tucked under his ass and a leg out straight and pressing against Jedao's. "It's fucking awful, not being able to- to get someone," he agrees, leaning back on his gloved hands. "That despite your best efforts you can't- make it make sense."
Re: A few days after John's announcement
Jedao laughs, horribly, for the too-familiar irony.
"Like he hasn't been here over a year already. So I'm constantly second-guessing myself and over-analyzing even more trying not to assume, and of course then he's mad about being picked apart. I'm not allowed to guess and I'm not allowed to try to figure it out, and I just feel absolutely insane around him, and he just -"
Jedao huffs out a rueful breath, shoulders sinking back in on him.
"It's not that he hates me. It's just that he doesn't like me, no matter what, even when he's trying to give me a chance for Hakkai's sake. I can't even...I can't even try to be nice, I can't even ask what he'd like, without pissing him off. And...he doesn't owe it to me to like me. I'm trying to be a fucking grown-up about it. But he broke my heart a little, and it hurts."
Re: A few days after John's announcement
He scuffs his heel, dislodging a rock to kick into the river. "Is he the kind of prick to say it to your face, or he's just obvious about it?"
Re: A few days after John's announcement
With his fist, once or twice, although usually when Jedao was trying to provoke him on purpose.
"I was an asshole too, for a while. I was so mad at him, and it wasn't fair. But now I'm just..." He shrugs a shoulder. Sad, and humiliated.
Re: A few days after John's announcement
He scoots over a little so he can press hip to hip with Jedao and wrap an arm around him again. "I'm sorry. That it's been so fucking frustrating. Not being seen or heard fairly by someone who means so much to Hakkai."
Re: A few days after John's announcement
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"It's cruel when being charming is the part people object to," he comments quietly, with a wry, tired little self-aware smile. "No matter how genuinely sincere you are, it'll never get through right. So they just reject your entire self wholesale."
Re: A few days after John's announcement
But it did feel cruel, that trying his best kept being treated as fake and manipulative, instead of the honest desperation it was.
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He takes a breath and sighs. "Well, I can certainly understand why people hated it when I did it."
Re: A few days after John's announcement
And maybe if he never brings it up again, Arthur will carry on in his existing impression that the marriage only bothered him because he was upset about unrelated things, and carry that lie back to John for him with perfect sincerity.
Re: A few days after John's announcement
"I'm sorry," he says, plain and simple. "I know you go out of your way to hide things, but... still. I should know you well enough to check occasionally."
Re: A few days after John's announcement
Simplified, but accurate to a first approximation.
"And I just feel..." A breath shudders out of him. "If feels very stupid and juvenile, you know? Being so upset that someone doesn't like me, like I'm not a notorious interplanetary bogeyman back where I came from. Nobody is obligated to like me. I'm an adult, I can deal with that. Only he's family, so I feel obligated to try. And I'm a competitive bitch and I hate failing this much."
Re: A few days after John's announcement
He shrugs, making a face. "Fuck that for a laugh."
Re: A few days after John's announcement
"I don't want that," he says instead, quieter.
Re: A few days after John's announcement
And it's fucking hard, to stop himself there. Sheehan had told him off before, just mildly, for trying to push for a solve instead of just being there to listen. But if he wants to do right by his friends, it means fucking listening to the echo of his husband's advice, and not treating his overly calculating friend like he hadn't already tried every single angle.
"I'm... I'm glad that you felt able to talk to me about all this," he says instead, with another soft squeeze. "So. Thank you. For trusting me with all this."
Not just the information, but the vulnerability. Baring weaknesses to him and risking, even
especiallywith Arthur, the threat of venomous fangs.Re: A few days after John's announcement
It's a relief, even if he's pretty sure he has scuttled Arthur's and Gojyo's chances of being friends. Arthur asked, so it isn't his fault, isn't him being greedy, turning people against Gojyo just so feels less alone. Even if he did it just the same -
Arthur asked, and that has to be okay, for him to accept support when it's offered, and it's a relief to have the decision taken away from him, instead of gnawing anxiously on who to ask, or whether to keep it to himself after all.
Re: A few days after John's announcement
"And- thank you for letting me check in with you about John," he adds as well. "I know I'm not... at my best, at being impartial when he's upset."
Re: A few days after John's announcement
(Should he? The reflexive caution brushes up against the immediacy of reassurances and gratitude, the plain earnest gift of a friend he can confide in, and the cognitive dissonance is - well. Noticeable. He notices it.)
"You were very gracious about it," Jedao replies, not too slowly, even though he chooses his words carefully. "And it was rather all my fault this time anyway." No impartiality required.
Re: A few days after John's announcement
Re: A few days after John's announcement
That's ever so for the permission, he thinks dourly, and don't do me any favors. But it is his fault, of course, and John is upset, and Arthur has every right to chew him out without Jedao being unnecessarily petulant about things on top.
Re: A few days after John's announcement
"Well if you're going to make a face about it, you might as well say whatever you're thinking to mine," he comments tartly.
Re: A few days after John's announcement
"How upset is he?" he asks quietly.
Re: A few days after John's announcement
"Confused, more than upset. He feels... misunderstood, about what you think marriage means to him. He thinks that you're pinning a label onto him that he doesn't fully understand or believe in, but he also knows that's not who you are, and the discrepancy there is what's upsetting him the most. Especially when to him this doesn't mean neglecting or prioritising anyone differently."
Re: A few days after John's announcement
"Well, I'm confused too," Jedao says finally, and it sounds stupid and sulky even to his own ears, for all that it also comes out raw, voice creaking.
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