"Have you told anyone else of this, Jupiter Jones?" the question was necessary, even if Grey could guess the answer.
Curled into their side Jupiter gave a laugh. It was not a pretty thing. It sounded half hysterical.
"I can't. It sounds crazy."
Grey could only laugh as well, the same note of hysteria in their own vocalizations. A series of chirps escaping them before they could stop themselves.
"Well, I suppose the rest of the Keepers of Earth will be content that they are doing their job."
Silence met their response, and Grey wondered at what thoughts were going through Jupiter's mind.
"Grey… I was going to reassign you to a district out of Chicago, with a new number and letter completely, one where you had fewer interactions with humans for your own safety. I was going to make it as if you as you are had been sent to the Moon Refinery for some reason or another."
Grey realized that Jupiter had intended to hide them. Willing to risk exposure of her status as a Recurrence… To protect them from their reckless actions. Erased their history, perhaps, of being one of the last Keepers from Seraphi's Earth. She really doesn't know of the Cleansing afterward. The thought made them hurt. She would have to learn of it. She would have to understand what other horrors that the Verse had done in the aftermath of Seraphi's weakness and cowardness. Grey wished to spare her the pain, but ignorance was the folly of her predecessor and her Brood. It would not be the folly of Jupiter Jones.
"What do you want?" asked Jupiter, against their skin.
Grey, again, tried to think the last anyone had asked them such a question. Not even during the Great Experiment had such a thing been directed towards a Keeper.
"I want to stay with you," An impossible wish before, to stay beside any one human for too long. It put Grey and the human alike in danger of death.
Green and brown eyes gleamed with more tears as they looked up at them. This time happy. Grey too felt tears gather in their eyes.
"Then you will. As long as you want to, you will be with me Grey."