Hmm I noticed a sudden influx of reviews/favs/follows, which was an interesting trend...either that last chapter was particularly good, or it was because the DVD came out last Tuesday. As much as I'd like to flatter myself, I think it's the second, which still makes me happy since more RotG fans = more potential fanart/fanfics to go around! Hehe
Also, I'm sooo sorry for the somewhat slow updates, and I'm trying to be very strict with myself to never go more than 2 weeks without updating. I think I didn't break that yet lol...but next chapter I do promise to have within a week!
Art: New art up on deviantart, entitled Kiss II (creative, I know). A possible preview of what is to come XD It does have a mature filter on though, so unless you have a deviantart account you won't be able to see it. Sorry!
Chapter notes: Sooo, I was kinda on the fence about doing Jack's POV during the first half of Never Let Go, but decided to go ahead anyway thanks to Rosie Denn's request. Enjoy!
One Last Time
He watched Jamie mope. He watched him cry. And all the while, never had Jack felt like he had so spectacularly failed as a Guardian. He himself was directly responsible for stealing the joy out of one boy's life. He was the reason Jamie didn't smile anymore.
Still, he waited and waited for Jamie to move on, trying not to think of how painful that moment would be. He probably could have made it easier for himself by avoiding the other boy altogether, but somehow Jack felt he owed it to Jamie to watch over him until he knew he would be okay.
And then, Jack told himself, then he would never visit again. It had only been three weeks - a meager fraction of his life span, yet how many times had he been tempted to give in and show himself? With his rapidly weakening self control, there was no way he wouldn't give in at least within the next few years. Maybe in a decade or two, when Jamie would surely have settled happily with someone else...
Jack clutched at his chest at the sudden pang in his heart. He squeezed his eyes tightly shut, his immortal body still able to produce tears that froze into tiny gems before falling to the ground. The image of the brunette smiling, laughing, being in love with someone else...it made him feel worse than when the other Guardians turned from him in disappointment. Worse even, than the loneliness that had festered and built over the course of 300 years.
But at least he'd have an eternity to get over it. Jamie was the one who had a limited life span, one that would be filled with difficulties if he selfishly decided to stay in his life. No, better that he experience this temporary pain so that he would be free to find someone else...someone mortal like him...
It was a reasonable, logical thought process that seemed to make far more sense when he was by himself. At the moment though, watching Jamie screaming to him from the middle of the frozen lake, all Jack could really think of was how miserable they both were, and the unexplainable feeling that he was being a coward somehow.
He watched, pained, as Jamie slowly sank to his knees, staring through the ice as if he could find hope in the frozen depths below. The sight was eerily familiar, and the pale haired Guardian was suddenly reminded of the blurry image of his sister, crying and calling his name from the surface of the frozen lake. Even as he sank further into the darkness, watching her fade away, he had wished with all his heart that he could comfort her one last time.
At that moment, three weeks of his hard kept resolve completely disappeared, and Jack found himself jumping onto a passing breeze.
I'll just talk to him...one last time.