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Kelsier sat up on a high up rooftop, playing with a small brass earing, throwing it up and making it dance in the air with delicate Pulls and Pushes.
The earing was a simple thing, just a little round stub with a point but it felt heavy in Kelsier’s hand despite it’s size. He’d been about to go to bed when he found the earing next to a vial of metals he’d left on his bedside table. It was an ungodly hour of the night, but Kelsier had dressed again and head out to one of the tallest buildings in the city.
Over the months he’d found the little metal earrings in the oddest places in a variety of different metals, under his pillows, in his shoes, in drawers, under clothing, pinned through his mistcloak, and once even at the bottom of his wine glass.
The mists curled around Kelsier, fingers of it dancing over the earing and threading through Kelsier’s fingers.
Kelsier finally put it on.
“Long time no see,” Kelsier said.
The mist swirled, pulling away slightly but in it’s place Kelsier felt a presence at his back.
“Well I know you’ve been busy,” the man said sitting himself down besides Kelsier.
“How have you been, Ruin?”
A smile played at Ruin’s lips. “Same as always, better now that you’re here.”
“Do you just spend all your time watching me?” Kelsier said with a smirk.
“Not nearly enough of it.”
“I’ll have to find a way to live longer then huh, give you more time?” Kelsier said “I’m sure I could manage.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Ruin said. He leaned his head over to rest on Kelsier’s shoulder.
They stayed like that for a long while, nothing around but them and the mists. They didn’t say anything to each other. They spoke some nights, quiet odd conversations that always seemed to remind Kelsier exactly how much power Ruin held, and they always seemed to remind Ruin just how short a mortal life could be.
But there were no words tonight, the only sounds the gentle whistle of the wind, and eventually Kelsier fell asleep.
The next morning he woke up in his own bed, the brass earing gone and an ache in his heart that never fully went away even with the passage of time.
Ati for his part watched Kelsier wake up and go about his morning from afar. He wished he could come closer, he wished he could make Kelsier breakfast, that they could lie there in bed together long past any reasonable hour. He wished for a lot of things, but the power wouldn’t allow it. Ati felt unexplainably drawn to him but could never stay for too long for fear the power would force them apart. He sat and watched as Kelsier went about his day, thinking—not for the first time—that it was all so unfair. When he’d first approached Kelsier he hadn’t expected him to stay, but it’d been over a year and Kelsier hadn’t shown any signs of wanting to call off whatever it was between them. It hurt to know that however this went it would hurt them both, and the power seemed to love that all the sweeter.
As Ati turned his attentions to other maters he wondered what his life might have been like if he’d never picked up his Shard.