'Jules' mind went back under the moonlight and night air of Baldwin's Fine Arts Center Garden, where intense anger shifted into an intimate moment of curiosity with a blow of the wind.
Maybe two flames weren't supposed to be that close when raging...
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"Baby I am who I am, I'm gone be who I be."
- DMX
* trigger warning: heavy gore and torture
RAHEM COULD FEEL the rapid jumping of his heart as Jules' murmured softly against his chest.
Honestly, he'd never told anyone, out-right , about his father — nor the things that came with his family history.
Mel, Melanie — to be formal, did more of her own research behind Raheem's back as he let her into his home.
Even then, things weren't as dangerous as they were now.
Then — Rah was still in school, Amador was at peace, and there weren't any large expansion deals on the table like there was currently.
Things were steady, and now they're not.
He'd wanted to tell Jules with everything fiber in his being. Yet wanting to do something and acting on it are completely different things, all influenced by one aspect.
Urgency.
And as Jules said, this was urgent.
Raheem just didn't know how she'd take it.
He didn't know if she'd flee away from him in fear of what could happen, or even if she was someone he could trust with this information.
Jules wasn't exactly the "ride-or-die" type of girl, she'd jump out of the car before it would flip off the edge — and rightfully so.
She wasn't his mother; someone who'd endured so much for Blade since her twenties.
There had been many events that Sheila wasn't proud of, many that still scarred her — but she did it all for her charges to the game.
It would be selfish of Rah to want Jules' to risk her life for his families' dead skeletons and walking demons.
Yet, it seemed like that avenue had already started to take it course, tonight.
"Are you going to be honest with me Rah?" Jules asked while nestled in between his arms, "Cause right about now it seems like you're faking me out, just like everybody else."
"I ain't everybody else." He assured, "And you're gonna' get enough to trying to talk like me."
"Then prove it," She offered before turning to him, "Be real with me."