Summary: Jin left first, then Jo. It's only fitting that he should leave too . . . right?
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Innocent Venus - Constancy
He wasn't planning to stay long. What use did the Hime have for Gora now that she had lost her prince but found her kingdom? He only followed them because he still hadn't been paid. All that creeping around and getting beat up and shot at with not even a scrumptious meal to show for it. Beacause of them he had even lost two frogs - and the tastiness of a frog was not something to be underestimated. So Gora climbed in the helicopter beside the little princess and dreamed about plates heaping with golden fried frog legs drenched in black bean sauce.
Instead he got a bath. For the second time in less than a week, rough hands robbed him of his clothes and dumped him head over heels into a pool of steaming water. Only the mention of freshening him up for a banquet convinced Gora to actually scrub a little with the soap. They gave him a pile of unfamiliar clothing (What if someone found all the little treasures he had secreted away in his own garments?) and left him to change.
Fresh scrubbed and unrecognizable without his cheeky grin and trademark cap, he was steered towards the banquet hall. Considering most of Logos had been brought to rubble, Gora had no idea where the pirate captain had found this place for a victory feast. Then he saw the piano in its cage and realized it was the bunker, quickly restored. It felt weirdly like they had come full circle again. Only Jin and Jo weren't there any more. But he told himself he didn't care, and accompanied by a little Gora cackle it didn't even sound like a lie.
Hime was there already, looking the part in a white lacy dress with her long hair done up in awkward ringlets. Her face brightened when she saw him; Gora already wanted to run away but there was nowhere to go. She grabbed his arm and across the room he saw Toraji and the blonde ex-Phantom lady waving to them. The floor inbetween was filled with milling bodies (mostly the captains and crew of the Waku ships that had fought with them in the rebellion). Gora thought he might have recognized some faces of the Levinas rabble he had tricked on his last visit here.
He stalled his feet. Maybe it would be best if he just skipped through the kitchen on his way out, stuffed all the food he could fit into his jumpsuit. A life of slipping through back trails and making his own way suited him far better than this socializing stuff. Why hadn't he left like Jo had, with a cool smile?
But she wouldn't let go and her persistent tug on his arm lead him through the crowd to the high table with the pirate captain, that mayor dude, and the former Phantom chick. The princess's mouth sparkled at him, saying 'Come on Gora, let's be happy too,' but her eyes held a sadness. Her fingers dropped from his arm to his hand and Gora felt the stiffness in her touch. Even the Hime felt awkward and alone without her two protectors. No, with the destruction of the Gladiators she was not a Hime any more. Just another little girl.
Without meeting her eyes, Gora curled his fingers around the small hand clutched in his and shovelled the newly arrived appetizer (no, not frog legs) into his mouth using his left hand instead.
FIN ---
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