Log: Complete

[lady-turk.livejournal.com]

When; April 10th, Evening
Rating; PG-13; Someone has a potty mouth
Characters; Elena lady_turk & Jr./Rubedo red_dragon_666
Summary; The very emotionally driven reunion of Elena and Jr. I think this is our shortest log with these two. Rather sweet though.
Log;

He was back. He had actually come back. And he actually remembered who she was. There were times when Elena had wanted to have been proven wrong and had been proven right instead. Add to that her own personal history in the city and she hadn’t been very hopeful, even with chaos suggesting she try to be otherwise. Being proven wrong this time was a very, very welcomed change.

Her feelings were still so very confused and mixed up, but at least there had been time to sort them out and actually regain some rational thought. Elena wouldn’t say that she wouldn’t crack the moment she saw him in person again, but at least for now she could remain calm and attempt to do something besides stare mindlessly at the network or stare at the pages of a book she didn’t even really read.

… Not that she was actually reading anything right now. Elena knew that she wasn’t reading the book in front of her, much to her exasperation. Letting out a deep sigh and flopping back onto the bed, Elena let the book rest create a little tent right over her face as she muttered to herself about how silly she was acting. Like some kind of lovesick teenager…. Well she was half of that, but she wouldn’t admit it out-loud.

In truth, Rubedo had really wanted to just run straight to the room as soon as he found out that Elena was there. But she said she needed her space...and she was right on one thing. There were others he needed to catch up with. The ship was ONE of them.

And Canaan... Talking with him had been bizarre. He'd been real. MOMO's diagnostic had proven he was real, but dead. It was pretty obvious he couldn't have been lying for Wilhelm... After all, that wasn't Wilhelm's goal anyway, right? It hadn't been...

Rubedo didn't tear himself away from it all until he'd spoken a bit with everyone. He was going to need some private time with chaos and KOS-MOS to discuss certain things, but for now... Now that Canaan was gone... He just wanted to shower and sleep.

Next to Elena.

Outside the door, he was surprised when it didn't just open right up for him. Had she locked it? Shaking his head, Rubedo used the code to undo the lock, and stepped in as it slid open. His heart clenched when he saw her lying on the bed, though his smile was laid back.

"Mary's been showing you some tricks, huh?"

Elena’s heart might have stopped beating, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t still feel it do the things that it normally would have done. Like tighten and clench as she sucked in a light breath at the sound of Jr.’s voice. Raising a hand to draw the book downwards just enough so that her eyes peered over the top, Elena glanced at the doorway. She knew there was a rather ecstatic smile beginning to form on her lips, but with the book covering her face, the only thing that could be seen was the playful look in her eyes. Elena had to be careful not to blink too much though, less she start doing something stupid like cry about how relieved she was. “Just a few things that’ll come in handy later on and so I can actually keep up with all of you.”

New clothes, though they were a bit dirty. Probably from the fall from the tree that he’d told her about. Didn’t look like he’d grown any, but that was the worst way to judge Jr. of course. His eyes were always a better indication of any change in Jr.’s state. And if she was reading his eyes right…. It really had been a long time.

“You look like you just fell out of a tree,” Elena teased.

"Pfff! A guy can't keep anything a secret around here. Not like I've had any time to do laundry..." He wanted to run over and hug her, but it had been so long...at least for him. And Elena had seemed so tense on the network. He was unsure what was okay.

The best he could do was act casual as he tugged his jacket off, necklace reflecting the light as it was disturbed from the action. "KOS-MOS says you ran off and got into a fight right after I left." The look he gave her was rather disapproving, but he couldn't say he didn't understand.

"She also says you kicked ass." That much made him smile again. "Which is to be expected out of my girl."

“You were trying to keep it a secret?” Elena mused, lips quirking into more of a smirk than a smile, even though Jr. still couldn’t see it. It was silly. All she had to do was remove the book the rest of the way and let Jr. actually see that she really was glad to have him back. But a part of her was hesitating and wanted to keep that little bit of a wall between them. It was irrational and silly, but… Not being able to stay calm and too many emotions always had been a flaw of hers.

Making a little pleased noise when recalling that first fight, Elena did have to let out a small chuckle. “His name was Jayne, though I didn’t learn that till afterward from his friends,” she stated, ignoring the part about how she had run off for a fight after learning that he’d gone missing. It was understood her reasons for doing something like that without having to be said. “And he started it by calling me a little girl.”

Never mind that she’d called him a ‘little boy’ in return.

"Oh yeah? Figures that'd piss you off." He tried not to make it obvious that he was watching her out of the corner of his eye as he leaned over to unzip his boots and pull them off. What was she thinking over there? What was going through her head?

Was she angry at him? Her eyes were playful, but Rubedo still felt wary.

His emotions were already in turmoil over everything else... He didn't want something else to be confused about. "So should I say 'my woman' instead of 'my girl' then? I always thought that sounded derogatory to women," he tried to joke as he pulled off his over shirt, only to freeze when realizing a possibility.

A really bad one.

He was quick to yank it the rest of the way off his head, ignoring how that had tugged a bit too much on his earring, and he shot her a scared and confused look. "Unless...?" Did she no longer want them to...be a couple? Why was she still in their room, then?

Even if she had tried, Elena wouldn’t have been able to hold back the tears that came and spilled down the side of her face as she blinked. A few more tears escaped before Elena had to resort to bringing the book back up to cover her eyes as she bit her bottom lip to keep the soft sob from escaping. Her throat caught and the teasing and lighthearted words that she wanted to use to assure Jr. wouldn’t come. She couldn’t even think of what words might be.

“You asshole…” Her words were choked and strained. Why was he even thinking of the possibility that she might not want to be with him? She had been so upset and so torn when she had thought Jr. had finally found a way out of the city. She had been happy for him, but it had hurt so much. And now that he was back….

Suddenly Elena found herself laughing. It wasn’t exactly a happy sounding laugh, though a part of her was happy. But there were so many mixed emotions to her laugher that she couldn’t maintain her composure any longer. Letting the book slide off her face as she used her hands to cover her face in a vain attempt to control her hysterical laugher and tears, Elena felt her shoulders shake and she wasn’t sure if she was laughing or crying anymore. Moving her hands to wrap around her waist and turning to rest on her side, Elena knew the floodgates had opened.

“I missed you like crazy because I thought you were really gone and that you were going to stay gone like everyone else. Or that if you ever came back, you’d forget who I was. No one ever comes back. Everyone leaves and forgets. I start caring and they leave. But you’re here. You remember. And I don’t have any words to say how happy I am to be wrong. Because being right would have hurt so much. Because I don’t just care about you. So much more than care. And you want to even suggest that I might not want to…” How she was able to form the words was a mystery, but she did and she forced them out in-between the laughter and the tears. Dear Holy, but she probably wasn’t making any kind of sense and probably looked like such a mess.

“Girl or woman, I don’t care as long as you remember, you stupid fucker.” The last bit was said with a small hiccup and much softer than the rest had been said. She was worn out now. Worse than a fight and worse than a hangover. This sort of release of emotion always made Elena feel so weak and she hated it, even though she knew there wouldn’t have been any other way for her to express herself.

Elena's outburst left him stunned, of course. There were many points where he had considered interjecting, but couldn't find the right words, and she spoke so quickly. He had to strain to properly understand everything, too, considering everything was thick and sloppy and rushed due to her sobs.

Finally, though, he dropped the shirt and rushed over to the side of the bed, constantly reaching over as if to touch her, then drawing back, not sure what to do or say at that point.

"Elena, I-- Shit. Of course I wouldn't forget! And I told you I was gonna bring you back, didn't I?!" Finally, he crawled onto the bed's edge, sitting on his knees and leaning over to grip her arm, bending to rest his forehead against her shoulder in a pseudo-embrace as he squeezed his eyes shut.

"Two years. Been two years without you... I made my memories stay strong. I wrote everything down even, and read it every night. Thinking about you sometimes was all that kept me level during some of the shit that happened. I knew I had to stay strong, to be able to see you and Sakura again. And I finally came back, and MOMO said it was only two weeks here, but you were acting so funny, I--I just didn't know...what you would think, or what you would do."

Two weeks for everyone in the city and two years for him. Not really much to say when comparing the two, and Elena would have to admit that two years would have been a lot worse. She really did need to work on that whole optimism thing. She was absolutely terrible at it.

Letting out a shaky little laugh, Elena sniffed as she used the back of a hand to wipe at her eyes. It was funny how hearing such things made her feel so much better and really made the fact that he was back seem that much more real and truthful. It was like she hadn’t really believed it until now.

“You’re obsessive, you know that?” she said lightly, unwrapping her other arm and relaxing from her tense curl. Turning her head slightly so that she could somewhat see the top of Jr.’s head, Elena smiled a little as she did. “But you’ll have to tell me about what you’ve been up to later. I’m just… Sorry if I was weird, but I’m still glad you’re back.”

What he'd been up to? There really wasn't much to say for the past year, but the year before? That was a lot of 'holy shit'. ...Almost literally. The thought of describing it ll made him vaguely uncomfortable, but she did say later, so he had some time to think over how to phrase things.

For now he could just hold her a little, and he was sad that she wasn't too warm. Small he might have been, but definitely plenty warm, and he slid his arm down to wrap it more securely around her before settling down to lay behind Elena, leaning against her back to tenderly kiss the nape of her neck. He had missed that.

He had missed everything.

"I am not obsessive," he had to grumble, though.