foolishwren | 105. FOURTH WALL POST [Action for Saffron City, anywhere in Saffron City! Video's okay too]

... It's missed you.

_{[And by that.. she mostly means WE'VE missed you. But he probably doesn't need to hear it specifically to know that's what she's saying.]

[She doesn't scoot towards him at first... these weekends are always so strange, and she's a little afraid that if she does something too zealous, it'll break the spell and he'll go away again.]

[So at first all she does is watch him, and then look out across the city herself.]}

... I've got Tricia...

... Not with me, but I've got her...

You do?

_{[That leaves him with a smile and he turns to watch Heather again. He tried not to have favorites in his team, but Tricia was special to him and it makes him happy to hear she found her way to someone equally so.]}

That's good. I'm glad.

_{[There's a small pause following that though, where his smile softens into the usual mild concern he typically has for this girl, and watches her face with care.]}

How are you doing, Heather?

She's a good girl.

_{[And the night I got her I took her out and stole things for the first time in years. It didn't feel good but I did it.]

[But Cooper doesn't need to hear about that.]

[His question gets a long hesitation, because they always used to talk about this. In fact, it's been a long time since she's told ANYBODY how she's been doing. Really how she's been doing. Because he was the only one who knew a fair bit of it... and with him gone...]

[But the answer that comes to mind is 'I'm waiting', because isn't that what she's doing? Waiting for that creep guy from his world to show up and do something awful? She can't say that. That's terrible. And she doesn't want Cooper's brief time in this world to be spent talking about BOB. About all her goddamn problems. She's spent a couple months now getting by without him-- without relying on ANYONE-- and getting to bounce her feelings and issues off of his wisdom for answers NOW feels like dipping back into a drug after getting halfway sober.]

[The withdrawal will be so much worse the second time around. She knows it...]}

... Coop, I don't think you wanna be asking that, okay?

_{[The thing is, Coop can understand to some extent, or at least he imagines he does. They both know he'll be gone after this, potentially forever, and if she doesn't want to talk to him the same way she used to for that reason he has no intention of pushing her.]

[But he's not going to just drop it that easily either. Because he is worried about her - he too remembers BOB hassling her, and while that plays a big part, there's more to it. He doesn't have the ego to assume her world crumbled because he disappeared, nothing like that, but he understands enough to know that it would have affected her. And he doesn't know what ELSE has happened since, either.]}

I do want to ask that. But your answer is up to you.

_{[No world-crumbling, fortunately. Heather's experienced enough loss not to be obliterated by another one-- even if it's probably the most devastating one she's had in a long time. Since Harry went, probably.]

[But it definitely left a big ol' dent in the foundations.]

[She shuts her eyes briefly.]}

... Coop...

... It's bad, okay?

I'm waiting for him right now.

_{[They both know who she's talking about, and the curtness in her voice is something she's NEVER used with Cooper before. ... But there's something kind of desperate and hurt in it. Which is sort of what happens when you're Heather and you're so full of anger but you're trying hard not to vent it.]}

_{[If he's in any way hurt by the edge in her tone, he doesn't show it. He's quiet for a different reason when the next moment passes. Then he says, looking ahead once again,]}

He won't come this time.

_{[He's sure of this. He's all too sure for a whole lot of reasons he won't tell her but she needs to know at least that much. If she can believe him she deserves the calm instead of the waiting game, or at least as much calm as one can muster during one of these weekends.]}

Edited 2013-06-02 01:52 (UTC)

_{[THAT finally gets her to look up at him.]}

... He's not?

_{[It's a baffled, childlike question. You can almost hear the BUH? in her head. She's even quiet for a second or two before-- at long last, a babble more reminiscent of how she normally talks, even if it's a little tense and unhappy, flows out.]}

--I... I even learned how to ride.

Horses.

I can ride Carousel now.

Not that well, but-- I was gonna--

--if he showed up...

_{[He looks back at her, of course, because there's nothing but truth in his face if you don't count everything else, like the weariness and subdued melancholy etched around his eyes.]

[And a bit of pride, too, flashing by. She's resourceful. She had a plan. She's a fighter. But still ...]}

He won't bother you again. _{[That's not an absolute truth, but this is:]} Not if I can prevent it.

_{[That has always been true. The difference now is that if Heather cares to read between the lines, she might find the fact that he DOES have a say now, or at least something like it.]}

Edited 2013-06-02 02:23 (UTC)

_{[The words die in her throat. She looks up at him speechlessly for a moment, her hands clasped between her knees.]

[There's a definite difference, even if she doesn't know the truth behind it. Before, he had never promised to protect her. He'd never once said that BOB wouldn't do anything.]

[He had been completely, 100% honest about his depressing powerlessness when it came to the whole situation.]}

... Coop...

_{[There IS a difference because he doesn't actually feel powerless anymore. He's still the weaker part between him and BOB, he has no illusions about that, but he has opportunities now he never had before.]

[On the whole, he feels stronger, and this is with good reason. He thinks that in time he can learn to navigate his new reality enough to help make a difference.]

[He's already started. He found the way back here before BOB did.]

[Of course, there's a reason BOB isn't here right now, and that is a reason he doesn't think he could ever share with Heather. Even though there might come a time when he should.]

[He touches a hand to his mouth, a subtle gesture of ... a few little things. As much as he feels better in spirit, his soul is old and weary and has seen too many years and yet it's entirely new and much too young.]}

I found the place he comes from. _{[It sounds like the start of an explanation but it stops there.]}

_{[It's easy to forget... that time has passed. That someone doesn't just disappear into a motionless limbo when they leave. Heather goes silent briefly, a sort of awed silence.]

[Because... he WOULD, wouldn't he? Of course he'd be able to crack the case. To hunt the monster down. Of COURSE he would!]

[Her next question is ... surprisingly calm. But blunt.]}

Is he dead?

_{[Because Heather logic = find the place the monster comes from and then MURDER THEM IN THEIR OWN HOUSE]}

Edited 2013-06-02 03:24 (UTC)

No.

_{[He's surprisingly calm in that answer, too. He wouldn't lie to her about this - BOB isn't dead. He doesn't even know how to go about killing him.]

[And there's the fact that Coop knows better than anyone how wrong an attempt at action behind enemy lines can go.]

[But there's a pain in him too and even if it's not immediately apparent, it's there in all of him. A pain he's accepting all too willingly. He can still see the drapes at the edges of his vision when he so much as blinks and he knows he has to be trapped between them. It hurts that that's his fate. But he has to accept his position and do what he can from there, not mourn the other two worlds he made his homes any more than he has to.]

[All of that colours that single syllable. Then he sighs and tells the closest thing to a lie he feels like he's ever told.]}

But he's not here.

_{[It might not be the whole truth... but, well, to a scared, grieving friend who's had to accept the fact that he wasn't around to help her anymore (not against the monster from his own world, or ANYTHING for that matter)... it might be just the right thing to say.]

[There's a moment where she just sort of... nods, as though taking in the information... and then without warning, she leans over to throw her arms around the agent. Tightly.]

[... Possibly uncomfortably tightly. All scrawny appearances aside, the kid has a strong grip.]}

_{[He reels back a little because no, he wasn't prepared for that at all, but he wastes no time in wrapping his own arms around her and hugging her back despite the somewhat awkward angle.]

[He missed her so much. She's one of the people who mattered the most to him here and there's an undeniable relief to him in what she just did, because he'd much rather spend this time close to her in the way they used to be than as wary strangers who once shared a past.]

[He hugs her and he still feels bad that he's not telling her the truth but he's so damn sure it'd only cause more harm than not, so ... now, he just wants to make sure she's okay.]

[He'll disappear once more and he needs to know she'll be alright before he leaves.]}

I missed you, _{[he tells to her hair, a murmur of sorts. Has to direct that phrase to HER, at least once. Her personally. Cause she matters.]}

_{[Heather'd had some significant losses before. Phoenix, Rise, Kaito, Old Snake.... her father...]

[All of them had hurt in their own special way, and she wouldn't be forgetting any of them any time soon.]

[But losing Cooper had been like a physical punch to the gut. Like a mugging. Staggering home with blackened eyes and dealing with the fact that someone who'd become so personal and familiar to you that being without them felt like being without the photos of your kids in your wallet or the charm your late grandmother had given you a few months before she passed was the closest emotional approximation that Heather could make when it came to describing losing Cooper.]

[You get too close to something, perhaps without even meaning to, and you take it for granted.]

[And you stop knowing that it-- or they-- can still be taken away from you when you're least ready for it.]}

... Coop, I miss you so much.

_{[It's not the first time she's said something croaky like that from the depths of wherever she's buried her face against his suit, but it's the first time in AWHILE, anyway.]}

Edited 2013-06-02 23:04 (UTC)

I'm sorry I left, Heather.

_{[He knows it wasn't his choice but he still says it like it is - although not because he blames himself. It's not an apology he expresses but a kind of condolence. He knows how he would have felt if he'd stayed to see HER disappear, after all.]

[He breathes out in a slow, soft sigh, and hugs her a bit tighter before aiming to pull back a little.]}

I wish I could stay.

_{[The childish part of her wants to ask "Why can't you?"]

[But she knows that's not how it works. And it wouldn't be fair to ask him that... even though there's that targetless, frustrated resentment bubbling up inside.]

[She lets him pull back a little bit, loosening her own arms so that she can pull back as well, and actually look at him.]}

... It's stupid.

I didn't--

.... I thought of all people, you'd...

... You'd still be here...

105. FOURTH WALL POST [Action for Saffron City, anywhere in Saffron City! Video's okay too]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject