Video.

[king]

I've been wondering, Scorched.

[ Arthur has been training since before the sun rose: it's visible in the flush across the bridge of his nose, the way his blond bangs are sticking dark to his temples, the slouch of his usually straight-backed posture. But he needs a break, a distraction from his own mind, from the questions that have been plaguing it without concrete answer. ]

Say that the Door started — temporarily — working the way that all doors should, and we could all trip merrily back to our own worlds.

[ A breath, considering whether he's really going to ask. Despite his slightly laconic tone, he knows how depressing some of the answers he'll get will be. But he still wants to know: ]

Would you stay here in Anatole?

Or would you go home?

Comments

[video]

[wotcher]

[ Yes, Arthur. Really. ]

That's not what I asked. If you could remember, would you go?

[video]

[king]

I'd rather forget.

[video]

[wotcher]

I wouldn't.

[video]

[king]

Are you sure? To remember all of this, and never be able to have it again...

[video-private]

[wotcher]

If I could remember, people might not have to die.

[ Selfish, Tonks. So selfish. ]

[video-private]

[king]

Like Remus.

[video-private]

[wotcher]

Yeah, and my Dad.

Me too.

[video-private]

[king]

I'm sorry, Tonks.

[ There are no cozies over the Forge, but the look he gives her is sympathetic. ]

[video-private]

[wotcher]

It's not fair, Athur. Mum gets stuck all alone with a child to raise.

[ But it's not fair, not exactly, that it's her mother getting stuck alone. It's a part. ]

I don't want to die. I don't want anyone to die.

[video-private]

[king]

No-one does, I imagine. This city offers us that much, at the very least.

[video-private]

[wotcher]

Does it make me selfish?

[video-private]

[king]

No. No, not at all.