Title:
Catharsis
Author:
dealiberty
Pairing:
Gawain/Galahad/Tristan
Rating: R
Dedication: For
eudaimon,
for being you.
A/N: This fic is complete. A chapter
will be posted twice a week, on Fridays and Tuesdays. Thanks to both
eudaimon
and
trinityc
for the endless support you've given me. Only the Epilogue, which
will be possibly posted tomorrow, to go. Here's to the
redemptive!ot3!smut since the Epilogue is rather bittersweet.
Tristan's gone. Dead. Buried. But not lost to them, never lost to them.
They still feel him - still feel him there. Like a phantom limb. Unseen, but still felt. Part of them.
All the time that they're together, Gawain traces Galahad's scars and they both see him, his eyes, his smirk and his cold exterior, built to protect them both.
"I never liked him," Galahad sobs. "I never learnt to like him."
But I loved him.
"I know," Gawain whispers, pulling Galahad closer. "And he knows."
"Damn him. Damn him for dying. And for still hanging around. Damn him," says Galahad, voice shaking. "It's just like that cheeky bastard to hang around even after he's dead. Just like him," he mumbles through tears.
And really, thinking about it, Gawain cannot help but wonder: do the ones that love us really ever leave us?
As Gawain kisses Galahad, hand trailing Tristan's art, he sees Tristan's face, ingrained in the back of his eyes, fixed in his mind.
Tristan is smiling at them, smirking at them both in that infuriating, beautiful way of his.
I'm still here. I'll wait for you.
No, Gawain thinks, the ones that love us - that we love - never really leave us.
Completed: 28/12/2004
Finally
editted: 05/12/2004
Posted: 07/12/2004
Total wordcount: 23,066