creator_raven | (no subject)

Entry tags:

ace,
oom

(no subject)

Long after Raven has finished his cigarette, he returns to his room.

It should be a quiet space.

Things should be messy, but just as he left them.

Instead, there is the sound of breathing, and a pyro/cheetah curled in the middle of his bed.

He is less surprised than he should be.

"Ace."

She can probably hear the smile in his voice.

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Ace doesn't want to wake up. The bed's warm and comfy.

So she whines at him.

She also mutters: "Go soak y'ead, I'm sleepin'."

But they kinda get mixed up together, as if two people attempted to speak over the same line at once.

That wakes her up plenty and she blinks, confused.

Raven blinks at her in return.

"You are not, now, I do not think."

"No." She manages that easily enough, and shrugs. Just weirdness, she supposes.

Clear brown eyes give him a curious stare.
"Why you are look you smug here?"

...

And she's too busy burying her face in a pillow to notice that she's wearing a ring again.

Raven settles on the bed.

"The Other is gone again, I think."

He rolls his eyes.

"He was ridiculous. Hurtful, but very silly."

One hand ruffles her hair gently.

"The Other?" It seems she can agree on short things. "He can't be dead he's dead here!"

Pause, while she pinches the bridge of her nose. She really, really hopes this is a transitory thing. That she can agree on as well.
"He... was... a... bon.. no. Skeleton. Bones. Word's skeleton." For a moment she sulks, before looking at Raven expectantly.

This could be a very long conversation.

Raven nods.

"This is because sometimes people are stupid. Burning is best, perhaps. And scattering the ashes."

He truly does not have a high opinion of those that disposed of the Other's body. Truly does not.

One wants to frown, one wants to grin, so the result is an odd sort of grimace.

"I... didn't... think. No. Know. Didn't know. Didn't ask, more like, once he came back." Comes a slightly spiteful snarl, and a flash of gold. Then she really does frown, frustrated.

"Didn't know." she repeats.

"It was a silly thing all around, perhaps. But most of you are young, so."

He shrugs.

"It is understandable. Once."

This is, perhaps, a warning.

"Fool me once, shame on you..." Ace agrees, and leans against him. "Too many voices." Too few mouths. This could get frustrating. "She's I'm stronger. Did something something's happened?"

Raven wraps one arm around her shoulders.

"Tim is finishing off the Other, I think. Elsewhere. It is possibly already dead."

Joyful surprise and cautious wariness war for supremacy.
"Tim's alive?" No disagreement about that question.

Raven nods.

"He is."

Raven is not good with social niceties.

She's confused, can you blame her?

"But what about..." She pauses, mid-gesture, to stare at her hand. You wouldn't think that one slender band of gold would be so captivating.

She's not sure, neither of her are sure, what to make of this.

Raven blinks at her hand.

"Now that, I think, is interesting."

He looks up at her, one eyebrow raised.

"Is it not?"

There's a lot of things she could say to this.

Doubly so, with two saying it.

"What... what does it mean?" She's scared to trust it, again, afraid it's going to vanish as soon as she believes in what it stands for.

"I do not know."

Raven shrugs.

"Is it a thing that should have meaning?"

"Yes." The gold shines dully, as if it had never been off her hand, and she can even see the faint scratch where she had banged it up against the tiling all those weeks ago...

"S'a wedding ring."

"Ah. I had not seen it in some time, perhaps."

"It was gone." Disappeared, the same night...

She pauses, and tilts her head at him.

"The diamond. You picked it up. Where is it?" Sharp, demanding, and possibly backed by gold.

"Around."

He blinks.

"It is a thing you need?"

It is possible his eyes sharpen, just the littlest bit.

"Ye-o." She blinks. "N-es."

She scowls, furiously.

Evidently there is some disagreement.

He smiles, slightly.

"When you know the answer, you have but to ask."

Now she scowls at him.

She's not sure what is going on, she's confused, got a headache, and she's just a bit scared. So, she does the logical thing.

She takes it out on him.

I didn't say just who it was logical to.

"I do know the answer. I just happen t'go for the multiple version, alright?"

"It is perfectly acceptable."

His voice is matter-of-fact.

"And still, such a thing as I have calls for absolutes. It was made so."

She bounds off the bed, suddenly having too much energy to sit still, and paces around the room restlessly.
"I love him, alright? I love him, I do." No hesitation. "I have for a long time, and I probably always will."

"But I don't trust him."

She stops.

And frowns.

She hadn't meant to say that. Yes she did. Didn't, she trusted him. Then why was she willing to trust a rock instead?

Raven just watches her, quietly.

"Well, then."

The thing about the Cheetah is she can seem mindless and animalistic, but she can put up a good argument when she wants to.

"But... I..." Her shoulders slump. "But I love him." She decides to sit down before she falls down, 'cause that'd be a good deal more painful.

"I... don't..."

Doesn't know what to do next. Doesn't know how to reconsile these two facts. Doesn't want to have to. Doesn't know why she's such a horrible person. Horrible wife.

He settles next to her, gaze level.

"Contradictions are difficult. This does not mean they are wrong."

"But... I love him. An' I expect him t'trust me. So. I should trust him. Should. DO. Don't. Stoppit!" She looks more than a touch frantic at this seeming betrayal by what is, by last count, another part of her.

One that's annoyingly outspoken, it seems.

"Do you make an effort to be trustworthy?"

There is a pause.

It is a long one.

"Does he do the same?"

"I do, at least, as best I can, don't even flirt with other guys, always tell him where I'll be..."

And then she's very quiet.

Very very quiet.

Remembering being told that Tim came back to Milliways during the honeymoon without telling her.

Remembering finding out that he had given guns to Tonks' enemies without saying a word until Tonks was kidnapped.

Remembering...

The Other it was the Other why didn't he do something to make sure he couldn't come back he is magic can't he doesn't he want to protect us protect me?

And she stays quiet.

"He is young, Ace, and very silly."

His voice is gentle, but implacable.

"And still this is no excuse."

Ace gives him a faintly wild-eyed look.

"What am I supposed t'do?" she asks, floundering.

Raven shrugs, slightly.

"I have never been married. I do not know."

He tilts his head, considering.

"Decide if love is enough, and work from there, perhaps."

There is a pause.

"Speak to him, when he returns. I do not know if he will understand. Still."

"I... Yes. When he comes home."

When.

Not if.

She's just got to remember that.

And suddenly she feels very small and lost. And very silly for feeling like that. And righteously angry, but that part has the good sense not to start up an argument again.

"It will, I hope, be soon."

He shifts, a little, and wraps an arm around her shoulders.

It's all he can do, really.

There are things he will not help.

Perhaps, if one subsitutes 'fix' for 'help', habitually, then no, he does not help.

However, if one puts 'is there to comfort and listen', then he helps quite a bit, and Ace, no matter what sort of mood (or personality) she's in, is grateful for it. She curls up against him.

"I hope so too."

He holds her more tightly, and says nothing.

He is not fond of lying, in truth. Particularly not to her.

So.

"You will sleep here? It is safe enough, I think."

"Don't want t'go back in a cage." She meant to say 'cell', but she can't get up the will to start an argument to fix it, so she lets it go.

And if she was hugging him before, now she's clinging.

"Well enough."

He lets her cling, and his hold tightens a little in return.

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