SageRecluse Possessive Son: Despite his intentions of never returning to Sage, Truthless Recluse can't help but miss him, and some part stings at the fact that Sage doesn't make moves to beg him to return, to beg him to let him see his children, simply dropping off an apology and three gifts before leaving them alone, only coming every few weeks to check in and see if they need supplies, never stepping out line like he used to. It's as if he agrees that they're better off without him, a defender of a snake.
Mostly because the Sage does agree, a fact that he does admit to one of the cathedral's caretakers when they ask.
(He did get jumpscared by the fact that they spoke. He sort of assumed that they were spirits and couldn't talk.)
I'm gonna combine this ask with
(Side note, I know it's, like, fifteen au's too late, but should I use some kind of...idk personalized line break? Idk just thinking about literally anything except for packing for my trip)
"You've been coming by often..."
Sage looked up from his clasped hands.
"Have you...lost someone?"
"Several." Sage answered softly. He looked back at his hands, "My husband...and our two children."
"Hm." The soot sweeper hummed, "May I?" He gestured to the space beside him on the pew.
"Oh, please." Sage nodded. It's not like he ever comes here with someone.
The soot sweeper sat down and sat his broom to the side. After a beat of silence, he asked, "What happened to them?"
"Hm?" Sage looked back up at them, "Ah...I...I didn't trust my husband's judgment. Our children suffered for it...and he..." he sighed, "left with them."
The soot sweeper said nothing.
Sage briefly wondered if the soot sweeper had any features under their veiled robe, or if they were merely an apparition that could manifest themselves just enough to perform their duty.
He didn't think asking was polite, so he kept his thoughts bundled up in his fists.
Antsy from the silence, he continued, "And, yes, it is my fault. If I had just...listened to him..."
"Are they gone?" The soot sweeper asked.
Sage paused and frowned, "No...But I know they've been by here." He eyed Veiled Lily as she whispered a candle out of existence. "I just...haven't the guts to take the next step."
"Why do you come back, then?" The soot sweeper asked.
"Because," Sage shook his head, "Love? It is something that I have had a lost and had and lost and," he sighed, "I want my husband back, more than words can say. I ache for him. I want to know our children, to raise our children with him. But...I am a coward. I do not know how to apologize to him. I do not know if he would even accept my apology!" Sage buried his head in his hands.
"You truly loved him..." the soot sweeper said gently.
"Loved? I still love him." Sage perked up, "He challenged my beliefs and made me defend myself in ways no other cookie dared to. He is stubborn and prideful and beautiful and sweet." Sage remembered their many arguments and debates that ended in heated make outs.
The soot sweeper stayed quiet.
"I am sorry, I have taken up too much of your precious time." Sage shook his head, "I will be on my way shortly."
The soot sweeper continued to stay quiet as he stood up and picked up his broom.
Sage watched him pick up his broom and frowned. The soot sweeper wore fingerless gloves, and what parts of their fingers were exposed were, well, covered in ash and salt and soot. But...they appeared to be...
Sage slowly turned around in the pew and looked at the two hooded figures several rows back.
They were small, probably unable to even touch the ground. And one kept their head on a swivel while the other one whispered.
He stood up slowly, already shaking his head in disbelief.
There was no way his husband and children had been here all along.
He walked down the center aisle and slowed as he approached their pew. He couldn't see their faces (the veils over their hoods prevented it), but he could see their hands.
A small Vanillian hand signed things into a small Blueberry-Doughed hand.
Sage's mouth went dry as he walked by the pew. His heart hammered in his chest and he stopped. He turned back around.
The soot sweeper was back to diligently sweeping.
The two children stayed seated.
One of the hooded figures gasped and whipped around to look at him.
Sage walked back over to the pew, "Pure Starberry?" He squeezed into the pew, "Is that you??" He knelt down.
"Sage — wait!" Veiled Lily stopped her work and lifted her skirts to hurry over to them.
The little girl curled up away from him, and the little Vanillian held his arm out as if to shield her, "Ah!" He made a sound as if to stop or ward Sage back.
"Pure Starberry, i-it's me, daddy," Sage tried to reach for her hand.
A hand landed on his shoulder and pulled him from the pew, "Get away from them!" The soot sweeper stood between Sage and the children.
That anger, that passion.
Sage's heart stopped, "Clusey?"
Veiled Lily squeezed into the far end of the pew and knocked against the chair. Both children began to scramble back towards her.
The soot sweeper stood firm.
Sage reached forward and grabbed their veil. They didn't stop him from pulling it down. The veil evaporated like smoke in between his fingers, revealing a tear-stained, exhausted Truthless Recluse.
"Recluse!" Sage yanked his husband into his arms and then up off of his feet, "O-Oh my dear Recluse!" He spun him around, "My sweetest, my darling!"
"Sage! Put me down!" Truthless Recluse snapped.
"No! Never again shall I let you go!" Sage shook his head. He sat Truthless Recluse down on his feet and cupped his face in his hands. He wanted to kiss him. He wanted to scream at him. "I have searched for you tirelessly!" He exhaled, "I have sent Black Sapphire away, and searched endlessly for you!" Unable to hold himself back, he kissed Truthless Recluse.
Truthless Recluse squawked indignantly as his lips were assaulted, but as much as he wanted to push away, he didn't.
"Come home!" Sage pleaded between breathless kisses, "Please! Anything — everything you want!" He dug his nails into Truthless Recluse's hips, "Say it, it's yours! Just," His kisses grew more desperate, "Just come home!"
"Sage.." Truthless Recluse tried to squirm, "S-Sage!" He relented himself to being kissed. He...he missed his husband...
When Sage finally pulled back and rested their foreheads together, Truthless Recluse laid his hands on the lapels of his vest, "Sage..."
Sage looked at him with those stupidly beautiful eyes.
"I can't go back...I can't trust you with our children." Truthless Recluse frowned. "I love you...but I won't put them in harms way..."
Sage's eyes widened, "I'll...I'll kick Black Sapphire out! Force him to live with his mother! You'll never have to see him again!"
"No, Sage..." it was too little, too late for that.
How many of their babies had Black Sapphire killed?
And what had his husband done to stop him?
"But I will change! I will keep you safe! I will listen and never question your judgement again!" Sage pleaded. "I — I'll go right now! I'll confront him and kick him out and we will never see him again!" Sage promised.
Sage pressed another desperate kiss to his husband's lips, "I will be better! I will protect you and our children, and any other babies we have together."
"Please!!" Sage practically begged.
Truthless Recluse couldn't remember a time Sage had begged (well, outside of bed, that is). So, he said nothing.
Sage took that as an agreement, "As soon as it's done!" He kissed him again, "I will bring you home!" He flew out of the cathedral before any of them could stop him.
"Son, as much as I've loved having you here, I cannot allow you to stay if you're going to continue to threaten my sugar angels." Eternal Sugar frowned, Sugar Glaze Berry on her hip. "I've been told you tried to feed your brother to my cookievorous plants! And when the sugar angels tried to stop you, you threatened to have them crumbled!"
Her oldest son looked at her with an impassive gaze, "Oh, is that what I fed to the plants? Honest mistake. Truly." He smirked, "He's simply the same size as their fertilizer bags."
Sugar Glaze gasped and buried his face in his mother's feathers.
"Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous." Eternal Sugar shook her head, "You know, your father and I have defended you from the rumors of you trying to crumble your baby siblings. But when you do things like this, it makes it hard."
"I never asked to be defended." Black Sapphire huffed, "And besides, they clearly didn't crumble, so I see nothing wrong with what I did."
Eternal Sugar gasped. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"Sage..." her ex husband.
"Father..." Black Sapphire actually looked scared.
"You...did try to crumble them." Sage looked at him as if seeing him for the first time ever.
"Father, wait, I only —," Black Sapphire stood up.
Sage took a step back, "You...You had us all fooled...but not Recluse." He shook his head, "You...you crumbled all of your baby siblings. Some of them never even had a chance!"
"Father, I can explain!" Black Sapphire pleaded, quickly realizing he was losing control of the carefully crafted narrative he'd been living in.
"You are no son of mine." Sage shook his head. "And you are banished from my Spire."
Eternal Sugar's heart broke as she flew to stand beside her ex husband, "And you are hereby banished from my Garden."
Black Sapphire looked at his parents in disbelief, "You're choosing THEM over ME?!" He shouted.
Sage frowned, but said nothing as he flew away.
Black Sapphire couldn't believe it! How had his carefully crafted plan go up in smoke like that?!
Black Sapphire turned in the direction of the Barren.
He'd known all along the former Virtue would crawl to his dearest friend's side. He'd purposefully led his father's search astray to avoid him ever finding them.
Looks like he found them.
But Black Sapphire was quicker.
