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“Do you recall,” she said. “When we were young, when you, Mina and I would play house together?”
Jonathan hummed, head still bent down with silvery locks obscuring his eyes, preventing Lucy from seeing his expression. The only other indication that he had heard her came from the slight tilt of his head in her direction.
She continued.
“And do you recall how Mina and I would portray the husband and the wife, while you were our son?”
The slight upward twitch she catches on Jonathan’s lip egged her on, even though he had not responded aloud.
“Oh, my mother would have had a fit if she’d ever overheard us, no doubt. How inappropriate, she would have bemoaned, even if it was merely pretend, hm?”
The night was quiet in a way that set both of their skins on edge. The noise of far-off wildlife, unlikely that they were wolves, but the sound resonated with them all the same, and in doing so kept both of them from sleeping.
Lucy rubbed at her arms, feeling her skin pimpling up from the cool night air through the fabric of her nightgown.
She turned her head back to Jonathan.
Reaching a hand forward, she parted the silvery locks of his hair, just a touch. Enough to see his eyes. He blinked, slowly, but made no attempt to stop her. She glanced down and noticed she could still see the mark on his neck - faded, hardly the kind of scar that would stand out to anyone who hadn’t known what had occurred. One that matched her own.
“Do you ever wonder…” she began. Paused, as she retracted her hand.
“Do you ever wonder what type of lives we would be living if none of this had occurred?”
Jonathan remained silent for a few moments more. Then, he finally spoke.
“I would still be sporting dark hair, were that the case, Mrs. Holmwood.”
She laughed, gently.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes, you would look properly in your years, wouldn’t you? And I…”
She trailed off. She would be different, she knew. In what way, she suddenly ran short on words.
“You,” Jonathan suddenly spoke up. “Would likely not be up in the late hours of the night keeping my company all alone, I believe?”
Lucy stared at him for a brief moment, before closing her eyes, letting out a positive hmm, and then rested her head upon his shoulder.