Chapter Text
Everyone seemed to settle into their post-Gommage lives fairly easily compared to Gustave. Without the Monolith looming over them, his friends were drunk on the possibilities that time offered. They had decades now. They could grow old. Things weren’t perfect, of course. Maelle was working hard to rebuild Lumière and its population but was unable to resurrect anyone whose chroma had been tainted or already repurposed by Aline or Renoir in their fight. This meant that Pierre could not be restored, but Sciel dealt with this surprisingly well. Gustave suspected it was because she had been spending a lot of time with Lune.
It had been a little over eight months since Renoir was defeated. Gustave figured that Lune would eventually tell him about her romantic pursuits when she was ready and actually took a break from their work. He and Lune were still researchers for the Expedition Academy but the Academy at large was as drunk on possibility as everyone else and preparing for a new kind of Expedition. The small island that Lumière was on would not sustain what was sure to become a growing population. Expedition A would be leaving for the Continent in about six months to scout for resources and identify new locations where Lumière could expand to.
Lune did not want to waste any of her newfound time. She needed preliminary material samples from various locations around the Continent to prepare Expedition A but could not be away from the Academy for long between lecturing their growing number of new recruits and readying their new lab. Gustave was the obvious choice to collect samples on her behalf, but it would have been irresponsible for him to travel alone. Maelle unpainted the most dangerous nevrons, but many smaller ones still roamed, and one person could easily be overwhelmed or suffer an accident with no one around to help.
Painting reality as they knew it took a lot of time, so Maelle could not accompany Gustave on the trip. Sciel claimed she could not come because she was spending all her daylight hours readying Aquafarm 4 for operation but Gustave suspected she actually did not want to come because the person she was spending her night hours with would not be there. He could not find it in himself to fault her for that. Gustave wished he could love as easily as she did but dying changed him in a way that made it more difficult for him to love himself, forget having a relationship. He and Sophie gave it as best a shot as they could after she was restored, but they simply couldn’t connect the way they did before. Gustave was harder now. Colder. More guarded. Sophie was still as beautifully soft as she was before being Gommaged, and he did not want to take that from her. He was glad to be there for her as a friend but knew there was no shot at romantic partnership for them. Luckily, she understood. She always did understand him.
That left one person Maelle trusted to accompany Gustave to the Continent. The other member of her inner circle who hadn’t completely settled into post-Gommage life either: Verso. Gustave had not gotten to know Verso very well over the past eight months. Other than his public performances, he was somewhat of a recluse and rarely attended group gatherings. From what Maelle had told him, Verso only attended group gatherings if she absolutely begged and pleaded for him to spend time with others. Gustave disliked that he distressed Maelle like this but also could not fault him for not being in a celebratory mood. The man was in a bizarre and tragic situation that few people knew about, much less truly understood or empathized with. Gustave was not sure if he one hundred percent understood Verso, but he did empathize with him. After all, Gustave was rarely in a celebratory mood since being restored either, but he held it together for Maelle’s sake. She was virtually a god now, but she had just turned 17 and therefore he was still her Guardian.
The only real conversation Gustave and Verso had before leaving was the night before they departed on their trip. Verso had come to the home Gustave shared with Maelle and Emma to stay in their guest bedroom so Esquie could take them both in the early morning. After the others went to bed and as Gustave was showing him to his room, Verso grabbed his arm to stop him from leaving.
“I feel like I should go over a few things before we leave,” Verso said.
“Like what? Do you need me to apply any pictos for you? I’m not as good as Lune when it comes to putting them on skin but if you want them on a weapon I’m—”
Verso cut him off. “No, I have the pictos I need. I actually wanted to talk about… injury?”
Verso seemed to be dancing around something he would have preferred not to talk about, but Gustave had no patience for that at a late hour when they had an early morning and long day ahead of them. “What about it? I reviewed the Expedition First Aid Handbook this week and got by fine in fights until your father decided to interfere with that.”
The expression on Verso’s face softened but not in a good way. More like ice cream that had been left out in the sun. He looked defeated and somehow sadder than usual. “I just want to make sure we’re clear about resources,” he said with exasperation. “I insist that no matter how hurt I get, you do not use any tints on me.”
Gustave was confused. “I know you’re immortal, but I’m not entirely sure how it works. Obviously we met post-Gommage so we have never seen battle together. Don’t you still feel pain?”
“You need those for yourself or rather I probably need them for you.” Verso said matter of factly. “After all, I’m really on this trip to make sure you make it back in one piece. I don’t want to disappoint Maelle. I would appreciate it if you would make my job easy for me. If I am badly injured, don’t bother intervening. Just let me die and drag me to a safe place to camp so I can recover.”
Gustave noted that Verso avoided his question regarding pain but was more annoyed to hear him outright say his job was to be Gustave’s bodyguard. Maelle had not directly said she wanted Verso to accompany Gustave because he could literally be a shield, but it made sense. Gustave had been woken up by Maelle in the middle of the night on more than one occasion after she had a nightmare about his death. It had become routine to hold her to his chest while she cried it out, reassuring her that he was alive and well and with her until she gathered herself.
Gustave wondered what Maelle could have possibly said to convince Verso to accompany him on this trip but decided not to press it. He had a lot of questions in general but instead said “Okay. I don’t like that but I understand. If you want one last shower in civilization before we depart, there are towels in that drawer.” He left, gently shutting the door behind him.
Maelle got up early to see them off. Gustave noticed that she looked tired.
“How kind of you to get up when I know you hate mornings. You should have slept in,” Gustave cracked.
Maelle shifted uncomfortably. “No, I couldn’t sleep anyway and wanted to make sure I say goodbye.”
“Maelle, it will be okay. I’ll be back in a month and if something truly awful happens, Verso will be there to help. Esquie can always fly us back in an emergency too.”
Verso stepped in to join the conversation. “I will keep him safe. Could we hug you goodbye? Dawn is here and I don’t want to keep Esquie waiting even though I don’t think he really has a normal concept of time.”
Maelle inhaled. “Yeah. I’m ready.”
She hugged Verso first. She didn’t look Gustave in the eye before moving in to hug him, but Gustave saw the glint of burgeoning tears threatening to fall. She squeezed him tightly and he squeezed back. Gustave felt a tingle run up his spine and could have sworn he also saw a Gommage petal out of the corner of his eye, but he dismissed that as his own anxiety getting the better of him.
Maelle separated and stepped back. Verso gave Gustave a long look, looked at Maelle, looked back at Gustave and said “I think we should get going.” After a final exchange of “I love you” between Maelle and her odd collection of brothers, Verso and Gustave left to meet Esquie.