till the end.

“ no, i’ve never been religious. ”

his family were only religious for appearances sake & even that was a long time ago for him. 

“ what about you, what do you  believe ? ”

aurel pauses, her eyes finding the sky, lip between her teeth. what did she believe in? it’s never been herself, & now, she’s not sure what’s left to believe in. so that’s what she says.

he doesn’t even realise she’s talking to him at first, though he quickly catches on ; kai is somewhere far away from himself & from this place, lost among his thoughts & inside of his own head. he wonders if the fatigue will ever go away. he wonders if she’s said more to him than what he’s heard. 

“ yeah, i do. ”

“you’re not afraid of heights, are you?”

she looks over her shoulder as she passes him on her way to the ladder that leads up to the next balcony. she leans against the railing, peering up towards the roof.

the request is sudden but hardly surprising. their friendship is made up of things like this, after all – tenderness out of the blue. frankly, she doesn’t need to do much more than ask but the nudge of her foot certainly moves jax along ; he shifts on his old couch cushion, legs spreading to make room for her to sit before he turns with a half-smile.

“sure – com’ere.”

she’s glad jax knows how to deal with her hair, even when she doesn’t. a haircut is long past due, but she finds some kind of comfort in the length, the way it brushes just past her shoulders. jax has often been the one with the longer hair in this friendship, but for the time being, aurel’s taken his place. (not that jax is replaceable, not at all).