greater is the necessity | d9 train, 88th

a v r i e l .

"Early on Sunday
Out of our little house
We go to places
To go for a walk"

They shoved him against the justice building wall as soon as he was out of sight of the crowds and then frisked him. Avriel was three steps behind, maybe four, he wasn't expecting it, it wasn't like he'd been resisting. His palms had hit the walls first, then his cheek.

Avriel wondered if that was common practice or just a special treat for Nine. Maybe they'd just seen the gun shoved into the back of his pants. The Peacekeepers didn't say anything as they pocketed it, just grabbed Avriel by the arms and marched him into the justice building.

To say goodbye. Maybe that should have been the moment to look Duke and Billie in the eyes and tell them that their parents were dead and Avriel knew why. He didn't though. Avriel just blinked at the both of them and told them where he'd been storing his earnings- inside a bible he'd hollowed out in his room.

They'd find out one day, he knew that, it just wouldn't be from him. He was leaving. He was going on a very long journey.

Avriel runs his hand through his hair to get the longer strands out of his eyes. He's spent years watching the trains come and go but it's his first time on one and he sits down beside the window, eyes sliding away from the factories in Nine. He's alwas been bad at goodbyes.

"Hey."

Fleur Adroxis smiles at him and Avriel stares up at her. Her red dress drapes her shoulders like a lover holding her protectively and finding her pretty is almost factual. It's not as if you'd look at a rose and call it ugly.

He raises a hand slightly and folds his hand open and closed, a silent hello. He wonders if she knows that her cousin hired him once to fix an old comms scanner to help him avoid the Peacekeepers.

And he wonders, "Why are you here?"

He hadn't meant to say that out loud.

But she's already rich, she's already an Adroxis, so why.