#evelyn.

-MKD

Nope! And it won’t be for at least a day, Mikayla Carolyn Du-Silva.

1. will you love me in december as you do in may?   1863.     during the american civil war, jack finds himself in china. he travels often and doesn’t like staying in one place for long. he takes a job as a fisherman, thanks to his strength and durability, and he keeps to himself. spending so long on the docks, jack accidentally gets involved in an opium trade, and is hired as a handler and transporter ; he takes the job for extra money. on a warm day in spring, when jack was finished delivering a load of fish, he sees mei, a woman with flowing black hair and petal lips that always turn up at one corner, painting in a corner of the market. she told him he smelled like the ocean and laughed. she was the first woman he was able to fall in love with, and they fell in love deeply. despite mei’s family refusing to give the couple their blessing — seeing jack as nothing but a poor fisherman, as well as having some suspicion of his connection with the drug trade — the two got married in secret and settled down in a home jack built for them. mei only had to ask once for jack to stop associating with the opium dealers, and he was out of the business. however, him leaving made the trader furious. he sent ten men to jack and mei’s home to take jack down. while fighting them off, an eleventh snuck into the home and killed mei — a death for a death, since jack killed one of the dealer’s men during their first altercation. jack finds mei’s body and carries her back to her family before disappearing to another country.

chano: I know, I know.

evelyn: You speak filipino?

what does he know of the world? 

that he has never been too far out of these four walls, and if so, never for long - that it is too big and he has had to start as many fires as he has had to put out to see the sunrise today - that he has been through this five times and that it is never kind - that it is undeserving - 

that it is the girl before him but not like this, but smiling - that it is a woman who found him in a city made of volcanic ash - that it is sparklers and birthday candles and bonfires and warmth - that it is two girls he has worried too many times - that it is too kind for the likes of him - 

the world is a home, and without her, the world is not the same to them. 

“she’s not hurt. she’s not - she’s fine.” ignore the frazzled look of the usually composed woman, ignore the haunted look she gave them all, one by one. “she’s still alive. she’s just - “ 

in the moonlight, only a few flowers bloom wide. he’s nearly gone through half a pack since fei’s apparition left them, and the smoke trailing from his mouth doesn’t seem to be stopping soon. 

“ - she’s disappointed. in us. fuck, i - “ he doesn’t want to ask what to do, doesn’t want to be helpless, can’t be - needs to be an answer, a fucking result for all he was meant to symbolize. not nothing. not nothing. not to her. to either of them. 

a deep breath. more smoke. he’s so tired. “we’re on the right track, at least. with the ley lines. but she said something escaped - so even if we closed them right there’s still more to it. but we’re onto something. anything.” is it enough? is he enough? he doesn’t look at evelyn, just sinks short nails into palms instead.