Chapter Text
It's Gommage Day in Lumière. Or rather, un-Gommage day. Verso stands beside Gustave, the other man's arm wrapped comfortingly around his waist as Maelle’s brush moves and person after person reappears before them. Gustave has been a solid comfort, ever since he made the choice to step in and save him from his father. He's been the one to give Verso hope when all hope seemed lost. The one to convince him that there might just be a way for all of them to survive. This day is only possible because of Gustave, and Verso knows his heart is irrevocably lost.
Sciel stands beside them, holding hands with Lune and Pierre, both women beaming with pride as they watch Maelle at her work. They've been through so much, and only come out the stronger for it.
Pierre and Gustave’s sister Emma were the first two Maelle brought back. Then she returned everyone lost in that final Gommage. Now, she uses her powers to reach back through years of deaths and Gommages, returning all she can.
She can't restore everyone who passed since the Fracture. Only those whose chroma was not used up in the war between her parents. Even so, every life restored is a win. Slowly the harbor fills with people. Families and friends reuniting, coming together in joy rather than sorrow. Gustave leans against Verso, holding him tighter, and Verso can't help the small shiver of fear that runs up his spine. He's finally found somewhere he feels he belongs. Someone he loves enough to risk it all and fight for their chance to truly live. But this Canvas isn't kind enough to let him keep it. Not to him, at least. Not for the pale reflection of a dead man, a painted copy who has always been and will always be the second choice.
He hadn’t expected the end to come this soon. But come it does, in the final person to appear on the end of Maelle’s brush. A woman, with kind eyes and a beautiful smile, who lights up the minute she sees Gustave.
"Sophie!" Gustave gasps beside him, arm falling from around Verso's waist to reach for her. She runs to him, and he picks her up, spinning her around before folding her into a tight hug. Sciel joins them, running forward to pull them both into her arms.
Verso tugs his jacket closer, cold from the loss of Gustave's warmth at his side. The woman leans against Gustave, pressing a kiss to his cheek, and the look on his face… Verso knows that look. Wonder. Delight. Love. It's how Gustave looks at him. To see it directed at another… he knows what it means. He has a choice. He can fight it, go out kicking and screaming and making everyone miserable in the process. Or he can bow out gracefully. Concede defeat, and step back so that Gustave can be happy.
"Sophie and Gus have been together forever," Pierre tells him quietly, watching the reunion with a smile. "Even after they broke up, we all thought they'd get back together someday. I'm glad she's back. She's always been a good influence on him."
Verso nods, and makes polite small talk with Pierre as the festivities continue. Every time he looks at Gustave, it's like a knife through his heart. But he'd known he wouldn't be able to keep him, not forever. Something like Verso is not meant for someone as kind and good as Gustave. He deserves better than the broken, twisted, possesive kind of love that is all Verso knows. So he reaches deep inside himself and puts on his favorite mask. He doesn’t want to cause anyone any more worry, and he is very good at pretending to be okay. If he pretends hard enough, perhaps he can even start to believe it.
Lune gives him a look, when she sees the carefully crafted smile on his face. But he shrugs her off with a joke and a laugh, diverting her attention to plans for the city’s rebuilding and future Expeditions out to reclaim more land on the Continent. He doesn’t see the way she looks at Sciel when his back is turned, or the worry in Sciel’s eyes when she looks back. All he can see is the joy in Gustave’s face as he holds Sophie in his arms.
He slips away before too long, giving Maelle one last hug before she departs the Canvas and taking his leave, citing exhaustion and discomfort with the noise and the crowd after years of solitude. They don't protest. He's sure they're privately glad to see him go. This is a celebration for Lumière, after all, and he is nothing but an outsider.
He goes to his own little apartment, the same one he used to rent above Mathilde's. He's glad, now, that he refused Gustave’s offer to move in with him. It would be so much harder to let him go, if he had to see him every day. Idly he wonders if Sophie will go home with him, his traitorous mind showing him images of the pair together in the bed he and Gustave had once shared.
He's fine. He'll be fine. It is enough that Gustave will be happy. He has a chance at the life he always wanted, and Verso will do everything in his power to make sure he gets it. Even if that means walking away and letting another take his place. Not his place. The place he'd only borrowed for a little bit, now returned to the one who always should have held it.
He throws himself into the work to rebuild the city. It's easy enough to get lost in it, the hard manual labor tiring him out and leaving him too exhausted to even think at the end of the day. He makes himself useful wherever he can, especially the more dangerous jobs. The riskier the better. Better by far for Verso to take on the risk, when his immortality remains intact despite Maelle’s best efforts. She has promised to return and remove it, just as soon as she learns how. But he does not know how long that might take.
So he keeps busy, taking any shift that will have him. He avoids going to Gustave, or even Lune or Sciel. He can't bear to hear Gustave’s apologies, the final words spoken to end what had been between them. No more can he bear the way Lune and Sciel look at him, the worry in their eyes that they should save for someone, anyone, better than him. He'll fade away. Out of their lives and then out of their thoughts, until all he is to them is a memory. It's better this way.