The battle ends. The struggle ends.
Life continues.
-o-
"My house is not a meeting place," says Will. But he is smiling.
Harriet has pulled Shirley over to a seat by the dinner table and is trying to braid her hair, while Chloe looks on in amusement. Senel and Jay are discussing something in a corner, well out of the way of Moses and Norma, who seem to find an incredible amount of enjoyment in chasing each other around the room. (Will keeps breakables upstairs these days.)
"--yeah, so we were..." Senel pauses. "Hey, Jay? Are you listening?"
"Idiot," Jay mutters under his breath. He is not referring to Senel.
-o-
Jay is growing up, a little.
It isn't just that he's two inches taller (Norma complains about this all the time, since she now has to look up at him) and his voice is a little deeper. There is something about him, something indefinable, that has changed subtly. Moses feels like he has to work twice as hard to get Jay to jump to his taunts, because more often than not, he simply turns away, that patented I-am-better-than-you-bandit smirk pasted to his face.
So if Moses' attention now flickers to Jay before Jay insults him, and not after, then it's only because those insults have become rarer. If he could tell you all about Jay's movements (jerky, but carefully measured: efficient) and the way his left eyebrow quirks up when he's amused and his eyes close briefly when he's happy, it's only because he's trying to figure out what tactics will still work on him.
If he is looking at Jay this time, it is only because of that.
-o-
Jay has always been looking at Moses. The difference lies in the nature of the looking.
These days, he feels the need to keep his glances to where Moses cannot see them (or isn't paying attention, which happens less these days, for some reason). He feels it's become dangerous to engage Moses, to mock him... to watch him, as he has done before.
He isn't quite sure why that is. He tries not to think too much about it.
-o-
"He's avoiding you," Norma says.
"No, he ain't."
"Red," she says patiently, "everyone else says they've seen him at least once this week. Except you. Obviously, he's avoiding you."
"But--why?"
Norma pats his arm. "Oh, Red," she says. "Let's start at the beginning, okay?"
-o-
Now, at night, Moses approaches the Orosoren village with a little unease. The artificial lighting and faint mechanical creaking sounds are a bit disconcerting to a man who has spent much of his life outdoors. As he approaches Jay's house, each step echoes through the small cavern.
Moses stops at Jay's window and tosses a stray rock at the sill.
The window opens. "...what are you doing here, bandit?"
"Nothin'. Just thought I'd stop by."
"First of all, bandit, it's nearly midnight. Second of all, I have a door."
"This way's faster," says Moses. In truth, he'd decided that the last thing he needed involved in his...love life...were a bunch of talking otters.
"Breaking my window is--never mind, I should know better than to expect intelligence from you. What do you want?"
There are several seconds of silence while Moses weighs his options.
"Well, bandit?"
Moses tells him.
Several more seconds of silence follow. Jay gets this flabbergasted look on his face, and starts glancing around for cameras, or Normas, or anything that might pop out suddenly and say, "Just kidding!"
"I'm serious," Moses says, after a moment.
"A-are you," says Jay. His voice is shaking slightly.
"Yeah."
There is a long silence.
"...out of the way, bandit." With only that as warning, Jay jumps down from the window, landing gracefully on his feet.
For some reason, Moses finds himself kissing Jay. For some reason, Jay finds himself kissing back.
-o-
The confusion ends. The misunderstandings end.
Life continues.
FIN