Zinnias, Aramanthus, Nightshade, and Honeysuckle explode in a contained space, filling it with color and scent. Absolutely breathtaking. Belladonna's choices of course. Could there be a more beautiful arrangement? Dancing and laughter surround us. Echoes make the music seem more joyous and wild. Friends and family talking, laughing, singing, crying. God it's a beautiful sound.
Heaven graced me with the privilege of knowing him. I would never have survived or thrived or lived my life to the fullest without his help. Just thinking about what the world could have done to me without him makes me shiver. Knowledge and wisdom and joy and charity all in one package. Love like I'd never known before he took me in.
Maybe I could have become who I am without him. No one can tell. Only, I know how hard he had to work to teach me. People never saw the wild creature he took in until I was tamed. Quiet, patient, stubborn thief, that's Jean-Luc. "Remy, petite, don' let dem win. Sometimes de only way t' win is t' ignore de bullies. T'ieves don' need t' be ashamed."
Until I was wandering the world alone I didn't know how much having a family meant to me. Vistas and movies and games are only fun if they're shared. When I was banished from Nawlins, my heart shattered into shards so tiny that they disappeared in the maelstrom of anger and pain in my mind. Xavier's crew helped me find a tiny part of it, and that will help me survive losing the man I thought could never die. "You'll always be in my heart, and whispering in my ear and laughing in my memories, Papa," I whisper as I place a tiny "X" in a circle on the corner of this, his hidden crypt under the city he made his own.
FINIS