[He feels like a child. Maybe that's appropriate. He is a child. He knows he is. He's never been allowed to be one, and he's spent so much time and energy pretending he isn't--even when his friends found out, he still had to be the Fon Master. Still had to watch out for the world.
And Sandalphon's hands on his shoulders are so heavy and warm and he wants to hold onto them and not let him go anywhere else.
Ion cries--for the first time in his life, for himself.]
[He lifts his head and takes in the mournful sight. Ion's tears, the bandages—all the scars Ion must be hiding on that small body. Useless though he may be, Sandalphon will fix this the only way he knows how.]
I know you don't. And . . . there are others who want you to live.
[He knows, and it should be so easy but it isn't. He's always been so doomed, felt so helpless to stop it. And even though this place has been like a second chance at life, from the first moment they arrived it became the same cycle. Sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, until he had nothing left. Until his life was gone.
Why does everything expect this of him? How can everyone want him to live when the world wants to badly for him to die?]
I don't want to disappoint them. I want to stay...I want more time. I'm so afraid. I'm so sorry.
[Ion slumps over even more, wanting to bury his head between his knees.]
no subject
[He feels like a child. Maybe that's appropriate. He is a child. He knows he is. He's never been allowed to be one, and he's spent so much time and energy pretending he isn't--even when his friends found out, he still had to be the Fon Master. Still had to watch out for the world.
And Sandalphon's hands on his shoulders are so heavy and warm and he wants to hold onto them and not let him go anywhere else.
Ion cries--for the first time in his life, for himself.]
I don't want to die.
no subject
[He lifts his head and takes in the mournful sight. Ion's tears, the bandages—all the scars Ion must be hiding on that small body. Useless though he may be, Sandalphon will fix this the only way he knows how.]
I know you don't. And . . . there are others who want you to live.
[He'll fix this.]
no subject
[He knows, and it should be so easy but it isn't. He's always been so doomed, felt so helpless to stop it. And even though this place has been like a second chance at life, from the first moment they arrived it became the same cycle. Sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, until he had nothing left. Until his life was gone.
Why does everything expect this of him? How can everyone want him to live when the world wants to badly for him to die?]
I don't want to disappoint them. I want to stay...I want more time. I'm so afraid. I'm so sorry.
[Ion slumps over even more, wanting to bury his head between his knees.]