lifeaftr | home sweet home? (closed)

Entry tags:

home sweet home? (closed)

Who: Leonard Church and Agents Washington, Texas, and Maine
What: Meetings, reunions, and definitely no awkwardness.
When: shortly after the April intro log
Where: Islet #4, Cottage #3
Warnings: canon typical language

[ What's better than a group of space marines with lots of interpersonal baggage? Plucking them all from different points in time, then shoving them in the same house and seeing what happens.

MINGLE POST. Make your own top-levels, tag around, go nuts. ]

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[ She turns her head back to look at him, scowling. ]

Fuck off, okay? I was just trying to—

[ She cuts herself off. ]

You know, whatever. Go somewhere else, just go away, see if I give a shit.

[ Which is, of course, her way of saying, 'please stay with me, I want you here,' but who ever said she was good at expressing her emotions? She'd tried and it had turned into an argument anyway. ]

That's about the most you thing you've said this whole time. I'll stop fucking staring. But I kinda live here, so you're just gonna have to put up with me being here.

[ She shakes her head, rolling her eyes again. ]

The hell is that supposed to mean? If I said it, it's a me thing.

I mean the nice thing you've been doing, which, again, that's not a bad thing, just...a thing to get used to, for me, who isn't used to you being nice. It's fine, it's okay, there's just a lot of weirdness going on.

[ She arches an eyebrow. ]

Look. I just figured we had some shit to sort out and being a bitch about it wasn't going to help. If that's too 'nice'—

[ she says the word like she's talking about something filthy or distasteful ]

—then I don't know what to tell you.

[ She's incredibly frustrated now. It seems no matter how they reunite, it always goes wrong. ]

Okay! Okay. We'll...sort out our shit and you don't have to be a bitch and I'll try not to be an asshole. It'll work out. 's just a weird point we're going through right now.

[ That seems to mollify her. She had been gritting her teeth, she realizes. She relaxes her jaw. ]

Okay.

[ She looks at him for another moment, then stifles a sigh. ]

Okay.

[ She turns and walks over to sit on the bed. ]

Come here and sit down and we'll talk.

You want--you wanna work it out right now? Like, right now, sit down and talk about shit?

[Whatever happened to repressing everything until it becomes therapy-worthy? He's starting to miss those days already.]

Um. Sure. [He comes over and sits, awkwardly.

[ She sits back against the wall and curls up, her knees in front of her chest. Rolling her eyes, she watches him as he perches on the edge of the bed. ]

We don't have to if you'd rather not. I just thought it'd be good to. But hey, maybe it'd be better to wait until we're fighting about something unrelated and then drop bombshells on each other to piss each other off.

Man, I'm already doing that with Wash enough as it is; I don't need that on another front.

Okay, so...okay. [He drums his fingers on his knees.] Where do we start?

I don't know.

[ It's been well over a year since she saw him last and she's experienced too much in that time to have immediate-aftermath-of-the-EMP stuff on her mind. Actually, the main thing she keeps thinking about is how she's moved on without him, how she had a boyfriend on the Moira before she woke up here, and how hard seeing him again is under these circumstances because of that. All stuff she's definitely not going to address. ]

I don't want to compare you to other versions of you, so...

[ She shifts uncomfortably, placing a hand on her mouth. ]

Maybe this is a mistake. Goddammit.

[ She moves onto her knees, tucking her feet underneath herself, so she can shift to be right next to him on the edge of the bed. ]

Just...

[ She takes his hand, like earlier, hangs on to three of the fingers. ]

...forget it.

[ She doesn't know whether he can tell she's omitting things by the expression on her face, but really, when is she ever not omitting things? ]

...No, c'mon, let's actually give this a shot, okay? It...it might be too soon, and we're both kinda fucked up, but at least let's try and put some effort into it, okay? [He lifts her hand and gives it a gentle squeeze in return.] Not like you to give up at the word 'go'.

So. Maybe first thing is, uh. Other versions of me. Be...because Wash already said I got... [replaced] That Epsilon lived on and sort of got adopted to be like me. So, yeah, I don't want you to think of me like other potential versions of me when I'm just...me. All I knew before waking up a month ago was the EMP.

You. In the Meta's head. And all...the others, besides Epsilon.

Wait, Epsilon what?

[ She had never been told this part by the Washington she had known. She plans to address the rest of what he'd said but first, that. ]

Uh...the guys never took Epsilon to the UNSC, and Caboose got him to wake up and he thought he was me?

Wow. Wow. I knew they didn't take him and turn him in, but not that part.

[ She shakes her head. ]

That really does mean we died for nothing, doesn't it? Nothing at all.

Literally the only part of the plan that went as planned was us dying. Not even Wash died. It's assloads of bullshit.

It is.

[ She pauses to go back to what he'd started with. ]

Okay, so other versions of you. From what I know of alternate universes, you all lived similar lives but with minor differences. Which means you, you know, you're different. So yeah, I'll be careful not to mix you up with either of them.

[ She rubs her thumb against his fingers. ]

Time was so short when you joined us. In the Meta. We didn't have enough time to...you know. Do this.

Wait, differences, like how--like, was I human? Was I a woman? Was I a hot human woman?

[You know, the important questions. Don't ask why it's there his mind jumped to.]

Yeah I, uh, I guess everyone else was also vying for attention, and...I know it felt like a long time, but it wasn't enough time, and it was...pretty overwhelming. [He says it with a light, nervous laugh, raising his other hand to his head to rub for a moment. He doesn't think about it. Tries not to think about it. They all felt like family. They all felt like him. Like they belonged.]

No, you were a guy. Both times. But human, yes.

[ She declines to answer about his hotness level either time. ]

I bet it was. Theta was so excited. They all were, in their own way.

Edited 2019-04-12 22:24 (UTC)

I'm...sorry. That it ended that way, that the last time we saw each other before then was me yelling at you while you fucked off on a ship and blew up, that it took over a year to find you again.

[ She looks over at him, squeezing onto his hand. She really hadn't expected to hear that from him. ]

Leonard, I...

[ She wants to apologize too, but not for taking off. Just for how things ended up. But distinguishing the two is more words than she wants to express. Which is usually the trouble with her, isn't it? She releases his hand just enough to be able to drag her grip to his fingertips, and she curls her fingers around his, as well as she can considering his hands are the robot's gloves. She looks away, huffing a little. ]

I'm not good at...that. Apologizing.

What, and you think I am? I mean, yeah, I said it, but like actually saying it is still really hard, and I don't...know if I should even apologize cuz I don't know what I could've done to fix any of it anyway. Besides maybe not going on Wash's stupid suicide mission. Everything was just so...out of my hands.

[ That shames her into silence. She does feel she should apologize too, especially as parts of it had been her fault. But she was only doing what she felt was right, and what else was a person supposed to do in life?

So she frowns, and she moves to sit properly on the edge of the bed instead of on her feet, and she settles back in. Her hand had separated from his when she moved and she doesn't return it to holding his. She's lower now, next to him. She braces her hands on the edge of the bed and leans forward a little. ]

Me, too.

[ It's said very quietly. She doesn't look in his direction. That's as close to an apology as he's getting right now. ]

...We always sucked about talking about the important shit, huh? [He keeps an eye on her out of his periphery but makes a point to not...well, stare at her.]

[ She frowns to herself, not aware she's doing it. ]

I know. It always seems easier to...not.

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