OTA

[willysilver]

It was a lovely night by all accounts. The weather was just cool enough for a jacket, the breeze making the leaves flutter and twitch. The moon hung bright in the sky, nearly full, and in the park there were people enjoying the night.

Willy was out busking tonight, though he had no heart for it. No joy, no enchantment. Tonight, as for the past nights, he sat on the edge of a fountain and he played sorrowful songs of lost love. He understood them now. He had never truly understood love, that much he had come to realise since Fin had departed. He knew desire and passion, he knew friendship, he knew possession, but he had never understood partnership or equality or even the necessity of respect. He knew now, though.

It was a hard learned lesson. His music wasn't the only thing lacking enchantment. His own visage was ashy grey, his luxurious hair drooped flat, the curls dull and limp. There was no light in his green eyes, they were flat and dull and dark.

His fingers strummed the strings mournfully.

I've stolen all the stars to make a wish we can fly
Away, away up high to that old place in time
Where our pictures never fade and our hearts don't lie
Won't you stay a while and watch our world go by
I'll keep holding on to you and your Saturday smile

Has our Autumn died
Help me find you again

I think it's love
I think it's love
That gets us through
All our goodbyes
So when we die
Think of love
I'll think of love
And thoughts of you
To lay me down
I think it's love
That keeps us new

If only it could be the very first time
Kiss me like it means something inside
I don't want to leave and I'm afraid to find
Our fate die in a dream and let me know you're not mine
Lie a little longer, my Saturday smile

Has our Autumn died
Help me find you again

I think it's love
I think it's love
That gets us through
All our goodbyes
So when we die
Think of love
I'll think of love
And thoughts of you
To lay me down
I think it's love
That keeps us new

The people who passed nearby were struck by the power of the fae's melancholy. He mourned not only his lost love, but the fact that he couldn't find him. He had visited the hotel many times but now the Phouka and Winter had gone off to make a home of their own and Fin did not come or go from the hotel anymore. And the longer he was gone the harder it became to feel him with any specificity in the city of millions. He knew he needed to find Fin to speak to him, do make what repairs he could, but he could hardly find the energy to even strum the stings tonight.

Comments

[alcuin]

Alcuin turned his body towards the man, moving a little closer to him on the bench.

"And you can... tell? That I have some um, some part of me... I've only recently found out. I don't know what it means yet. I don't really know much of anything."

[willysilver]

"Your blood sings with the soft melody of it," Willy said. "I recognized it from the moment I met you so long ago."

[alcuin]

Alcuin blinked at him. "We've met? Before this?" Then something occurred to him and his eyes went a little wider. "Was it when I was... I'm told I spent some nights on the other side, I just don't remember it. But that was years ago, before I knew anything."

[willysilver]

"I wear a different face now," Willy replied. But his eyes were the same emerald green they had always been.

[alcuin]

"I... I guess that explains why I don't remember you," Alcuin said. "I'm sorry. I feel so stupid. All of this makes me feel like I just don't know anything... what's your name?"

[willysilver]

"Willy Silver," he replied. "Do not lament...I do not recall your name either. "

[alcuin]

Alcuin looked surprised. "Willy Silver? I... I went on a date with you. Two years ago. But you were different. You're fae? And you can just change your face?" There were suddenly more questions he had as well, as things clicked together, seeming impossible.

[willysilver]

"Yes. I can," he nodded. A slight smile played on his lips briefly, then he thought of their date and what he had done to him, this pale boy, and guilt settled in. His enchantment - enslavement - of this young man was too much like what he had done to Finlay and it made his heart break all over again.

[alcuin]

Things that clicked together. And one of them was timing.

"... that was right before I found out I'd been going to the other side at night," Alcuin said, his words slow. "I was exhausted for a week, I didn't know why, and I still don't know what happened to me..."

[willysilver]

"You were in servitude," Willy replied. "Winebearer to my kind. You were never harmed."

Not that that made it any better. Not now that he had had an epiphany.

[alcuin]

Alcuin blinked at him in disbelief. "Why?"

[willysilver]

"You made a wish," he replied simply. "Servitude was your repayment."

[alcuin]

"A wish?" Alcuin blinked at him. "I don't know what you're talking about. And..."

His confusion and disbelief turned to a flash of anger on his face. "Do you know how scary and confusing that was for me? And you don't even remember my name?"

[willysilver]

Willy sighed and hung his head.

"I do now," he replied. "I have had an enlightening these past weeks."

[alcuin]

More pieces clicking into place.

"Oh my god," Alcuin said. "You're Fin's Will."

He didn't even know what had happened between them. Only knew the bits and pieces he'd gotten from Winter. But he knew that Will had done something bad. And how many fae musicians named Will could there be in this city?

[willysilver]

His head snapped up at that and he looked at Alcuin sharply.

"You know Fin? Have you seen him? How is he?" he demanded to know.

[alcuin]

Well, that answered that.

"I haven't seen him," Alcuin said. "Though I've seen Winter. He told me that what is wrong with Fin, it's your fault. What did you do to him?" He sounded angry. He already was, finding out what the man had done to him. But he liked Fin, too.

[willysilver]

Willy sighed and wilted a bit more. Heartache radiated off him like heat, perfuming the air with petrichor and ash.

"I have done the most awful of things," he said. "This man I love beyond measure, I used him as a pawn. I gave him away for a night in exchange for servitude from a mortal. A mortal too foolish to know better. And in doing so I broke all trust, all faith. I did not think. And now I do nothing but think. And regret."

[alcuin]

Alcuin's mouth dropped open. "Gave him away?"

One of his hands balled into a fist at his side. During this conversation he'd been itching to slap Willy more than once, but the despair and regret radiating off of him made it difficult.

Plus, there was the little voice in the back of his head commenting: Gave him away for his own gain? Sounds an awful lot like what Anafiel did to you...

[willysilver]

Willy took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

"Yes. I gave hom away as if he were mine to give. The fae do not regret, as a rule, and now I find myself regretting that act and all the hundreds and thousands of moments that lead up to it when I loved him as mine, but did not love him as his own."

[alcuin]

That... was insightful, at least, but Alcuin suspected it was too little too late. He thought it would be for him. But then, how could you know that?

"That would be difficult to forgive," he said.

[willysilver]

"I am expecting impossible," Willy said softly. "I am fading. If I cannot win him back I will become Bean Sidhe and caoine and foretell the coming of death."

[alcuin]

Alcuin had no idea what those words meant.

"I hope that there is a way for you to both be okay," he finally said. Which he meant. Even if they were okay apart. He did not wish harm upon Will, despite what he'd learned about him tonight.

[willysilver]

"We shall see," Willy replied quietly. A large part of his fading was due to his lack of hope. Of course the distance between he and Fin played a role, but without hope for the future Willy was losing his battle for corporeality.