[PRP] in the grey (melany & jeremiah)

[azuredreams]

Sometimes one just needed stop and breath, though there was precious little of that. It was a rare moment that saw Jeremiah out at an small enclosed market (it had a little bit of everything and was, for the most part fairly quiet and not busy). With everything that was going on, he was taking the time to make a few things, get them ready and create something that would potentially help lift moods.

Too many of them were falling and quickly (there was too little time left).

With a basket on his arm, Jeremiah was finishing up his selection and moving on to pay. Or he was until the smell of ripe fruit pulled him towards another area.

shibroswol

 

[shibrogane]

There was a smallish dark-haired girl peering over the display of fresh berries. Her hands were in her pockets, her arms were empty, just window-shopping. But her face was familiar from Ezra's photograph on the listserv, for all her smile had been traded in for a closed look. Her expression was like that of a hunted animal, focusing on nothing but the next few hours of survival.

Melany turned away and started to melt into the crowd.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah's mind was on tarts, those ones with little berries on top of them, before he looked up. He stared, though he did not mean to, simply because he had not expected to see her here. The expression on her face, the way she carried herself, made a knot tighten in his stomach.

It was almost enough of a distraction (that and telling himself it was her) that he missed she turned to leave but he moved to follow her, trying to keep an eye on her through the crowd. He did not call out, not yet, but he was not stealthily following her through the throng of people.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Melany noticed him only a minute or two after he started following her. The expression on her face opened a little: to panic rather than to any kind of relief. She ducked through the crowd. She was smaller, lither, and much less intimidating; it might have worked.

It didn't. When Jeremiah stopped between booths, she lashed out and grabbed his wrist. The cooling anesthetic of her powers spread from there, through clothes and all--but there was no sensation of danger--only that coldness as any powers he had been using to keep track of her began to shut down, and the others following from there.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah was, once he had truly lost sight of her, simply going to let it go. It was better to not bother her and, ultimately, he was not the kind of person who would have pursued someone panicked. She was alive and that was enough.

It meant he could simply leave but as he stopped, meaning to check his basket and then check out, he caught sight of a flicker out of the corner of his eye. The familiar way magic helped him notice the little things but it was too late (not often was it that he was snuck up on but he was in this moment). Reflexively his fingers gripped back but the coldness - different than his own and unexpected - made his grip loose and his vision black at the edges. Except it was not truly blacking. It was the world shifting back to the way the world had been seen before magic had changed it for him.

The power was fading but what was alarming was the way it seeped everywhere. As if it was taking.

"Melany," he let out a breath, composure maintained, "I just wanted to make sure you were who I thought you were and alright." In this situation, there was little to do besides cut straight to things. "My sincerest apologies," he added, "for following."

Definitely should have called out.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"You look like her," said Melany, her expression vague and slack with terror. "You look like her, did she send you? I stayed away from Shiloh like she said, I haven't gone to the police, but you--you are the police--did Eve say something? Are you going to arrest me? Please, I don't want to hurt anyone else--"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"No," Jeremiah replied immediately, mind already whirling to Minerva. "No one sent me and I'm not here to arrest you." Bloody ******** hell. Even if he had seen Eve, they had not necessarily spoken at length about what happened.

"I know you don't but I truly was just trying to see how you were doing."

Obviously not and worse off. Great job, Mercer.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"I--" she paused for a moment, didn't release her deaths-grip on his wrist "--I'm okay, I just was going stir-crazy, I... I'm staying with a friend where she can't find me, you can't tell her where I am."

Melany stared up at him, gray eyes searching his face for something, anything. "Please. I don't want to hurt anyone. I'm scared if she finds me again, I'll go away and she will."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Don't say more than that," said Jeremiah almost immediately. "The details don't need to be shared if you're somewhere safe." Better he did not know regardless.

"I'm not telling anyone anything. No one, alright?" He was still gripping her hand lightly back, despite her death grip on him, and the eerie feeling that still remained (things felt missing). His expression softened, opened and was meant to be reassuring.

"I told you I would do something if anything else happens and I meant it. Keeping her away is for your safety just as much as anyone else."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"You don't even know who she is," Melany cried. It drew stares. She ducked her head, hid her face, until the attention passed. "You don't even know who she is," she repeated, softer. "None of you can do anything about it."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah leaned briefly, the basket set down and pulling his handkerchief from his pocket. It was pressed into Melany's other hand. "I only have assumptions of who it is. So far as I know, there's potentially at least two people who are after you."

One that was, essentially, within her and another that was not.

"We are trying to do something about it. Soon." Then, in another breath. "Melany, I want to help you but you'll have to share some of what you're dealing with for me to do anything."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Melany watched him cautiously, and didn't do anything with the handkerchief except ball it up in her free hand. "I don't trust you," she said. "I don't know you."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Jeremiah," he replied instantly. "I only know you distantly. Mostly due to mistaking you for someone else." His head tilted.

"If you want, let's move somewhere where we can sit-" There were places scattered; little benches that people walked by. "- and talk. You can keep a hold of me." His fingers pressed gently against her arm again. Did it bother him? Probably. Was he going to fight it? No. "... and you can ask me questions instead. Whatever you'd like."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"I don't know you," repeated Melany, "telling me your name doesn't tell me anything about you, you might be working with her, the one that's following me--" She stopped and looked around, half-panicked.

She said, "Why were you following me? I don't understand."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"I don't even know her. Her name, yes though I am not entirely certain of that, but who she is? Why she's doing this? I've no clue." Jeremiah used his free hand to pinch his nose a moment and then let it drop back down. He was not entirely sure it was wise to speak her name, for worry that it would cause something.

"Your friends with Shiloh, I am too," he said quietly after a breath, "and he cares about you. Worries too. I wanted to make sure you were doing alright so I could let him know. I would give my word that I mean you no harm but that may not mean much." Talk - words - was cheap. Action was better. "Nor do I know of a way to let you know my intentions in a way that would let you know they were the truth."

Her looking around, the panic, could not be missed but at this point he had not yet managed to ease her down.

"Yet I assume you are the one I talked to on the listserv and I said then that I would help. It still stands."

shibrogane