(no subject)

[amoray]

WHO: Eridan Ampora and Ruka.
WHERE: Eridan's penthouse!
WHEN: LATE NOVEMBER, LEAVE ME ALONE
WARNINGS: Talk of torture!
SUMMARY: Eridan invites Ruka over to brag about brutally torturing a guy. You know, like normal people do.
FORMAT: never

It starts out with a couple texts - hey wwhatre you doin, not much just cleanin some stuff up, yeah its not much just some things i dont wwant anymore you knoww howw it is. Eventually he invites her over for dinner and "something I probably oughta tell you," which is probably the opposite of comforting, but whatever! He invites her over at eight that night, has dinner ready and breaks out the good wine he probably shouldn't have, but refuses to tell her the big secret until after dinner. For all intents and purposes, it seems like good news. He's cheery enough about it, anyway.

Once dinner's done, he backs towards the couch, wine glass in hand.

"So, the suspense is krillin' you, right?"

Comments

[amoray]

His taser wrist goes down without fuss, eventually leaving it discarded at his knee - in fact, he takes everything in with faintly widened eyes, a somber expression. Someone peeling back his boasting and carrying on is never not a novel, weird thing, always a soft and vulnerable underbelly.

"I bounce back," he answers, dropping his eyes to some nebulous point at her lap. "I came back last time, I'd come back again. There's nothin' he can throw at me I ain't already had a taste of by now, Ru."

He turns to face her on the couch, hands in his lap. The box and taser are quickly forgotten, the former inching towards the couch's edge, the latter digging further between the cushions.

"I know you're worried, but I had to. You don't know the kinda stuff he did. I couldn't keep it goin' like it was anymore, somethin' had to change."

[dragony]

"I know," she returns, agreeing. Soft words, balms, gentle tones; the last thing she wants is for him to think she's fighting him. As she speaks, her hands settle to rest atop his, her single gold ring clinking quietly against one of his. "I know you do. That's why I... why I could let myself care about you, in the first place. You always came back. Even when I was losing everyone important to me, you were there. You were someone I could hold on to."

Things have changed since then: those friends and family that had remained to her then have almost all departed, but new ones have been made in the absence. The family she cherished most has returned. She's not alone anymore, the way she used to be... but, she fears, that won't always be true.

Everyone leaves, eventually.

"You still are." Her hands squeeze his; a smile digs into one of her cheeks for the words and drops just as quickly, like the tug and release of a fishhook. "I am worried, but I'm selfish, too." And a hypocrite, she knows; better than anyone she knows the chasm between her ideals and her actions, between her heart as it was and her heart as it is. "You would bounce back from losing me, but I don't think I ever could, from losing you.

"I want to know what happened. This time, and before. But... if you don't want to tell me, I won't ask you again."

But even now, implicit promise on her lips, she knows she can't let it go this easily. She can't force him to speak, but if he won't tell her willingly, she won't need him to.