[chessverse] in between the lines [for rachel]

[diemwnt]

He doesn't like to admit it, but now that it's over... Cadogan wakes up every day a little bit grateful for the war. Not for the pain and suffering, not for the good lives lost; not for anything he can begin to share out loud. There's simply something settled in him for having actually fought for this place. Something solidified in his knowledge that this is where he belongs, that he's with people who at their core are just like he is.

And, well, it was good to have properly found his place. It hadn't been Jack of Diamonds. It hadn't been as a lieutenant in the combined army that had risen from the four former Suits. In the end, it hadn't even been in the Castle that remained.

He's a soldier again. He's waking up every morning and allowed to strap his pistol and his knife and his sword into place, to spend his days with men and women who think on the scheme of the hive he does, to be half building and half staring out at the world they won't let destroy them again. It's invigorating. It's fulfilling.

And it means his lips can smile when he sees an old friend approaching, actually let his lips pull up into a visible grin. His hand lifts in greeting, and his eyes actually spark with something that might be cheerful.