jonathanparagon | (no subject)

(no subject)

"Andrew? You in here?"

Jonathan peers around the door without waiting for an answer, relaxing when he sees his friend. "Hey."

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Andrew rubs his chin. "Or Gunn," he offers. "He was a lawyer."

"Well. Kind of. Does he still have that knowledge since we turned against Wolfram and Hart?"

"Some of it, I think? Like, not the encyclopedic knowledge they dumped in his head, but a really good baseline awareness."

"True. He's probably the best person to ask first, then."

Andrew nods. Takes a shaky breath.

"I don't know where the knife ended up," he says, "but I'll find it."

"We'll find it," Jonathan corrects, and he's looking at Andrew with tremendous warmth. "In this together, just like always."

That makes him smile, even if the smile shakes a little too.

"Last I saw it," he says, "Buffy had it. I don't know if ... if she took it with, or if anybody else did."

"Do you feel like you can ask?" It's an honest question. "Or we could try locating it. If it did get brought out, it's probably somewhere in Council headquarters, right?"

"Yeah," he says. "I, I'll ask."

A beat.

"If nobody packed it that last day, though ... you know what happened to Sunnydale, right?"

"Yeah." He looks down. "But it might still be under there somewhere, even if it's in pieces. I'll dig it out if I have to."

"You mean we will." Quietly.

"We will," Jonathan echoes, then reaches across decisively to clasp Andrew's hand. There's a lot more in the gesture than he can voice in words.

He stretches his hand out to grasp Jonathan's, grips hard.

(His left hand. It's been a long time since he's consciously thought about the feel of the knife in it.)

Jonathan squeezes just as hard.

"Thank you. I thought you might... argue."

"I wanna talk to Weyland." Very steady, almost grim. "Before you go through with this. I want to be sure this isn't gonna be another bad deal like we got with Q."

Jonathan considers this for a long moment, studying Andrew's face then nods. "Okay. I don't think it is, Weyland isn't known as a trickster like Q, but... okay."

It isn't even trickery that he's afraid of, exactly. It's more ... missing something important. Something that should have been obvious.

There's always a price.

"I hope it works."

"So do I. But there's no reason to think it won't, that I can see, and..." He smiles very faintly. "I need to believe it will. Gotta stay positive, and all that."

"Yeah," he agrees, more firmly. "Absolutely."

And if it turns out there is some hidden price ... well.

He'll just have to do what he can to make sure he's the one who pays it, that's all.

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