[They don't need bloody noses in this house, and Will's never been to one just lay back completely anyway. He becomes intimately more familiar with the pillow to avoid any collisions, eyes oddly colored from what light drizzles through the window as April stakes her claim.
And she stakes it so clearly, too. That's what has his smile growing, approval despite her having missed the important I thought. Unlike Hannibal, who has issues when his toys getting along and he doesn't want them to or set them up to, Will doesn't deal with people as toys and he's quite glad April has taken to Abigail so well. He's blessed to have had her say yes to superworld marriage, but he's more blessed by how she's welcomed his small family in ways that not everyone honestly would or could.]
You're so attractive when you get possessive. [He doesn't feel bad about throwing out a compliment, hand sliding down her back so she has more room.] I went about it in the wrong way because I didn't have good information, April. I made a mistake. [He shrugs, or what passes for a shrug when one is arguably settled into bed for the night.] I saw red and...I didn't think it through. I have to make up for that.
[He tries to be an adult sometimes. Please let him be an adult.]
[But being an adult is the worst, Will. The compliment helps, and she shifts back down so she's not propped up as far as she can be one elbow. But she's still watching his face now- or the light reflecting off his eyes, anyway. It's light enough she can still see his outline, but there's no question he's still got her beat in the seeing department.]
Okay...what'd he actually do?
[Because he did something. Clearly, he did something.]
[It's true, his glowy eyes make seeing late at night easy breezey. Generally handy when it comes to bedroom activities, but even when that's not the case, he's not one to turn down getting a better view of April. That would be an absurd thing to complain about for anyone. If she's settling back down, Will's totally on board with encouraging that, hand idly toying with her hair for lack of anything better to do. Not that there's much better in the world than paying April attention, either. He's moderately biased in this regard. It's a running theme with him.]
I don't know. He might not have done anything. [Which sounds a little difficult for Will to admit. Maybe he was on point and Chilton just knew what buttons to push to take the rug out from under him. Maybe Crane was doing that and Will took it to heart, let the name of Abigail Hobbs blind him. Maybe God lives in heaven for fear of the creations he's let loose, it's a toss up.] But I highly doubt we'll be having any more dinners in with Fray-Fray soon.
[A curled, twisted clump of her hair drawn between two fingers gets gently prodded at her ear, just shy of tickling. Fray-Fray is all her, not him, F Y I.]
There's totally a reason I didn't sign up for the mystery dinner stuff. You know.
[Because while plotting her own elaborate schemes to mess with people was fun, solving mysteries? Ugh. Painful. Totally better off left to Will and his empathy and caring about things. So while this whole half-answered questions and implications of motivations business might be par for the course in Graham-land, the Ludgate side of the bed would much prefer things just laid out. That is if they actually need to be. Otherwise, just keep the 'no calling Fray-Fray' memo on the fridge and demand their wedding postcard back and call it good...
Which she'd just say they should do. If it hadn't been for the 'in public' thing. And the whole weird, semi-mutual obsession the two boys seemed to have for each other that had resulted in the whole having Fred for Easter plot to begin with. She didn't get the connection the survivors of Baltimore had with each other. At all. But she got it was important they had it.]
So. Okay. We're still talking to Fred in private? But not around people. Because of...reasons.
[His fingers stop arguably ruining her hair at the mention of mystery dinner, nose wrinkling. It's difficult for anyone outside of Baltimore to really get their connection unless they're also from Baltimore. Will would like to keep it that way, because otherwise? Probably means Hannibal Lecter showed up when he wasn't looking and already had himself a Rolodex full of victims and survivors alike. April understanding that it was important was all Will could ask for, all he'd ever want her to understand, and something else he was grateful for.]
Right. [A quick nod, which probably barely registers when he realizes lifting his head off the pillow is too much effort.] And you're the only one I'm telling about this. Even Abigail isn't getting [the truth] the same story.
[So maybe he's a little trashy with this whole lying business but, at least, he isn't lying to April? At least there's that? At least she's The Chosen One?????????]
[But so little does in this life they have chosen that, rather than sounding annoyed, she can only managed vaguely bemused as she returns to her position of her head on his shoulder. What exactly Chilton had been accused of, how Will knew he was wrong, why they weren't telling Abigail. All of it was just...mystery. Mystery that, if he doesn't fill in the gaps for her on, she's just going to shrug and file away in the 'trust Will has some idea of what he's doing' box.
That it came with the added benefit of being allowed to go on prank tours of Fred's house with Abby again certainly didn't hurt the process, either.]
[What a face he makes at that, nose wrinkling, frowning, on view for the ceiling. And whatever raccoons might be watching the two of them. Eduardo might be up in the corner listening in, Will can't be bothered to check. He can be bothered to fix the covers back where she had them before with one hand, lazy and slow. The two-person burrito, on sale at Taco Bell, comes with free Nacho Doritos and a discounted Mountain Dew.]
You work for the government, too. Sometimes rules don't seem to make any sense but they're still...rules.
[And there it is, as plainly as Will's going to give it without further prompting. He has orders. He is acting on those orders and he doesn't want to risk doing anything (right now, that is) that Chilton could see as going outside the boundaries given. Will doesn't do well with the idea of being completely abandoned, and even though April is more than enough to keep him feeling like he's got someone at his side, by his side, even if not in the same sort of darkness...losing people from home is just not on the menu. April married the FBI's bloodhound, it comes as part of the packaging. So maybe he doesn't shave and shower as much as he should, but when it comes down to the wire, he's capable of turning into a frothing, rabid, frenzied beast in order to protect and serve. April Ludgate is one of the few people who has almost complete control over that leash. Underneath Abigail Hobbs, of course. It's an...odd privilege. To some. He should have put something about it in the prenuptial agreement, really, but the fact that Will would continue being his doggish self in the worst of ways in order to keep April safe was something he figured was pretty much an unspoken. A given.
Same as the fact that he probably would never need to, her own powers taken into account. Hell, one day, Will's convinced April's going to save him in a more literal sense than what she's already done. The big bad dog doesn't always win in a fight without some help, after all.]
[The eye roll is strong enough Will may actually be able to feel it against his chest, even through the fabric of his shirt. Rules. Whenever she hears something new about Baltimore it's chilling and terrifying and outright horrible. But, despite the facts of that life, the main thing the boys from Baltimore seemed to do in this world was consciously work towards making their games as overly complicated as possible.
Fine. Whatever. If that's how it was, that was how it was. But, there was still an important point to be made here and now.]
When- when- Abby finds out about this whole thing, I'm totally throwing you under the bus. And I will bet one million pizzas Fred's gonna be the one that tells her you're cutting her out of- of whatever this even is.
[The game. Because if there's one thing Fred seemed to like more than anything, in April's very limited experience, it was making it clear to everyone in the room Fred knew better than they did.]
[April throwing him under the bus is completely fair, in Will's opinion. It's a far better fate than "fuck that, I'm telling her right now" and even though April's behavior is one he can use against Chilton in the way that he couldn't control her, how could he have known she'd do that (Will apparently can't control himself all the time, he could never control anyone else)? That's not fair, either, and hell if he's going to throw April under the bus. He made an agreement. He made a deal. If it comes crashing down and falls apart, then yes, Will is the one who should get the heat for it. It might make April look a bit poorly in Abigail's eyes, but as long as she made the choice herself, well then. Will isn't Hannibal. If April chooses to do something he'd prefer her not to, the worst she can expect is some grumpiness, some looks, perhaps a few poorly-chosen words, and nothing else. After he comes crawling out from the under bus licking his wounds, naturally. The game isn't complete if no one manages to surface unscathed. Of course it's complicated, all the more opportunity for everyone involved to be terribly injured in one way or another during the process!]
That's fine with me. [He's actually pretty good at being under the bus, it's almost his second home (so close to the sewers, how could he not be acquainted with it).] And if he dares, I hope you'll be willing to accept those pizzas over a lengthy course of time. We don't have the money for a million pizzas all at once.
[The point of a bet against him meaning that's his own money seems to roll right off him in the same way he once took the order to hypnotize and instead enacted bribery as though they were synonymous.]
[She will try. Honest. Until the moment Abby actually asks what is going on, then she'll just devolve into a string of PA snark until the smart girl figures it out on her own. Hopefully after she's managed a good egging of the shrink's house or two (or apartment with his girlfriend now, apparently) in the meantime.]
[Will thinks to mention that Jonathan Crane is to be avoided at all costs, but April has made no secret of her disinterest in psychiatrists. He wouldn't point to a bonfire and say, "April, don't you jump in that bonfire! It's very hot and you will be left irrevocably scarred, in a lot of pain, or die." April was probably not going to jump into the bonfire in the first place. If she had been considering it, she was smart enough to know the consequences. He wouldn't insult her like that, he won't insult her by telling her to avoid what she already avoids. There's no point, and that just ties back into Chilton and his whole torture and nah.]
On my end, yeah. [His brow furrows, not that she can see it, though she can feel his fingers drumming along her arm, thought made action.] Anything wrong on yours?
[This for that, give and take. That's what it's all about.]
[She scoffs- scoffs. And maybe it's not the most sensitive thing to do. But the Ludgate secret to not being in trouble mostly involved in keeping the number of people she cares about down-
And. Mm. There's trouble with some of the people she cares about. But nothing that has rules and regulations tied in.]
The Riddler is a jerk. I think we need to talk Grey into getting a last name...and did you seriously talk to the devil about fish?
[Grey Ludgate or Grey Graham, whatever makes him happiest. The Riddler is a jerk? Well, with a name like the Riddler...]
I...did. [Slow, confused. Is he not supposed to talk to the devil at all? When he's so tied up in other people he knows? Would she prefer him only talk to the devil where she can't see it?] What's with the Riddler, though?
[Mostly because this world is chock full of jerks in the first place, for April to call someone a jerk and bring that up in the bed means there has either been a very great display of jerk behavior, or they've been a jerk to April, specifically. Not that he couldn't figure it out from the whole blank postcard thing but...it's eating at her, apparently. So. Might as well.]
[But fish, Will? Fish. Next it will be puns and terrible shirts. But all that is besides the point.
She sighs against his shoulder, suddenly missing talking about Fred and Balitmore over all of this....stuff. Will had the excuse of being bound by home to the Baltimore crew. April only had her own stupid self.]
[Quiet, chest rising as he takes in a deep breath. Ah, revolutionaries. It's like he gets it, she doesn't need to say anything else. Those jerkbag revolutionaries and their endless songs about singing, truly the most obnoxious sort of people that ever could walk the face of any Earth. This one, the one back in April's home, Will's home, all of them. No one compares to the absolute horror of revolutionaries. Will knows this feeling, he knows e x a c t l y what she means—]
[There isn't really a word for the noise she makes at that. All no and gross and why would you even rolled into a formless groan. God, Will.
God.
But talking about how Mitch and Eddie not getting along was like watching her parents get divorced was- well. Weird. Especially when there wasn't much of an age gap between Will and Eddie to begin with.]
Never mind. It doesn't even matter, anyway. Talk about what a jerk Fred is.
[And just like that, it's Will's turn to do the whole sitting up thing, though it's a half-hearted propping that involves rolling on his elbow more than actually sitting up. Still, the effort is there, the effort to stop making it so one of them can stare at something, anything else, but each other and she'll actually have to work to ignore the lean chunk of human in her space.]
What do you mean "it doesn't even matter"? [Bordering on offended over here, don't insult him like that.] It matters enough for you to mention, and—don't think I haven't noticed that you spend a lot of effort not mentioning things that matter. [Troy. Rick. People she actually likes leaving. That one night she came home and acted a little different around muffins in the morning.] What's the point of being married if...
[He waves his hand, finally letting it fall to his side in like a fish giving up. The lazy slap that barely makes a sound, even on the sheets.]
[Now who is being logical, Will Graham? But she doesn't scowl, doesn't try to roll away or look somewhere else or even summon her raccoon hoards to interrupt this moment of sharing. She leans up just enough to go for a fast, light kiss-
Then her elbow goes out from under her so fast she bounces slightly as her head hits the pillow.]
I love you.
[And, sprawled down on the bed as she now is, a hand still comes up to slides up his stomach and onto his chest, hitching the shirt up just a little bit.]
And you're here. And you already know when it matters. So.
[There were so many ways to pretend to be in control of a life one had no actual control over. April's preferred one was just ignoring the parts she didn't like, pretend they didn't happen. Let someone else deal with the negatives...
And most people just went with the idea that was how she actually worked. No cut could be the deepest because she never picked up the knife to begin with. Easy to believe, after a few chats over the network.
But then there's Will. Who knows EAR will never be renamed or even given another nickname because what if Kat came back three years later and his baby didn't remember the right name? Eddie was just a living reminder of another past she won't be getting back again.]
That's. The point, I guess. So, you know. I just...
[She started it. The only time he looks away from her is when she tugs on his shirt, momentarily worried she's going to take an opportunity after affection and confessions to distract him from this in the easiest, best way. Which wouldn't be anything he'd complain about, of course, but it set a terrible precedent and he could just bring it up later. At a worse time. She totally wants to try talking about this jerk directly after sex, right?
Fortunately not the case, and his eyes linger on her without outright staring. That seems easier if he stays as is, stretching his legs to make up for some of that former intensity. They're Just Talking. This isn't a Legitimate Crisis. There's so much space to kick around at the foot of the bed anyway.]
Have you told him? And— [He's quick to add, slowly following her lead back onto the pillow without the bounce part. He is too old for bouncing, not too old for glowy eyes to catch the light and shine green. She could be talking to a raccoon.] —without using the whole he's a jerk as a starting point?
[She scoffs softly at that. Please, Will. Not that she isn't going to use his return to bed level to essentially curl up on top of him. Hope those work outs have been working, because he's going to need those chest muscles to keep breathing with an April pressing down on his rib cage.]
We have our own kind of talking. He said I was getting soft.
[Gotham villain, remember. One that had once upon a time told April how much she would have liked living in that particular city. And also that one that had instilled her endless, knee-jerk disgust with shrinks. So Will had that to thank him for, anyway.]
[If it's April pressing down on him with herself instead of something sharp or heavy enough to crush him, he will be just fine. If he has to be mildly squashed by anything in the world other than a dog, April is really really high on his list of preferred things and people to be beneath, no contest.]
People change. [Not-so-sage advice from the decrepit old man in the room, but better than anything about April being soft. People being soft in general, or how they can physically be made soft...leave the murder talk at work, always.] As long as you still have your own kind of talking...that's something, isn't it?
[Something's better than nothing, or can be. It can also be the worst thing, but advising anyone else to cut off ties with someone who aggravates them or makes them sad or whatever is...not exactly something he can speak on too well without being a super huge hypocrite. Better to keep that to people who don't have enough knowledge about Hannibal Lecter to stare him in the eyes and crush him.]
[It's hard, Will. She wouldn't take the energy to call him a jerk or send blank post cards or whatever if she didn't care. And that was the problem. Eddie, even if he was trying to burn the world down, was her favorite. And it just...
It sucked. A lot.]
Mitch is going to do something. So. It's fine. We just need to not blow up before that.
[Settled on his chest as she is, she can easily pick up on the slow, steady beating of his heart. Calm, normal. Stable. He can be a bedrock pillar of support in the physical regard if nothing else.]
I'm always on board with not blowing up. [Mumbled, inaudible to someone who wasn't right on top of him. Though, if the way his arms wrap around her, fingers interlacing like a loving cage made of human flesh instead of metal or wire is anything to go by, he doesn't mind her perch at all.] And if whatever Mitch does doesn't have the outcome you're hoping for, I'll be right here [minor squeeze, as though she really didn't know where he was] for you to not-talk about it with.
[It comes out slightly sarcastic, but she knows, babe. She knows. It's just...the relationship with her and the people that gave her some foundation in a weird new reality is complicated. As much as she loves Will- and no matter how it's in a very different way than how she loved those Originals- she was already settled when he came along. Losing Eddie or Mitch was like...like watching the parents turn your childhood bedroom into an erotic massage parlor. Sure, it was going to happen eventually, but you didn't want to be there to see it.]
[Sigh. Now this, this is where the sage advice comes out. Except it's coming from a dude who ran a boatyard, so it might not be the most sage thing out there. Still, as an impressionable young man with a memory that could cut a diamond, of course he was going to remember.]
...if you love a woman, you give her flowers. Candy. Take her to dinner. Tell her you love her. [And here, the squeeze gets a little tighter. The cage is shrinking.] If you find one you can't live without, where even thinking of a world without her is enough to bring you to your knees? You marry her. Trap her to you with the support of the law. Otherwise, she can leave at any time without too much fuss, and you're the Goddamn numbskull who let it happen so you never deserved her in the first place.
[Find what you love and make sure it has to really not love you back in order for it to run away. Super romantic.]
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2015-06-15 06:11 am (UTC)And she stakes it so clearly, too. That's what has his smile growing, approval despite her having missed the important I thought. Unlike Hannibal, who has issues when his toys getting along and he doesn't want them to or set them up to, Will doesn't deal with people as toys and he's quite glad April has taken to Abigail so well. He's blessed to have had her say yes to superworld marriage, but he's more blessed by how she's welcomed his small family in ways that not everyone honestly would or could.]
You're so attractive when you get possessive. [He doesn't feel bad about throwing out a compliment, hand sliding down her back so she has more room.] I went about it in the wrong way because I didn't have good information, April. I made a mistake. [He shrugs, or what passes for a shrug when one is arguably settled into bed for the night.] I saw red and...I didn't think it through. I have to make up for that.
[He tries to be an adult sometimes. Please let him be an adult.]
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Date: 2015-06-15 03:21 pm (UTC)Okay...what'd he actually do?
[Because he did something. Clearly, he did something.]
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Date: 2015-06-15 07:00 pm (UTC)I don't know. He might not have done anything. [Which sounds a little difficult for Will to admit. Maybe he was on point and Chilton just knew what buttons to push to take the rug out from under him. Maybe Crane was doing that and Will took it to heart, let the name of Abigail Hobbs blind him. Maybe God lives in heaven for fear of the creations he's let loose, it's a toss up.] But I highly doubt we'll be having any more dinners in with Fray-Fray soon.
[A curled, twisted clump of her hair drawn between two fingers gets gently prodded at her ear, just shy of tickling. Fray-Fray is all her, not him, F Y I.]
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Date: 2015-06-15 07:44 pm (UTC)[Because while plotting her own elaborate schemes to mess with people was fun, solving mysteries? Ugh. Painful. Totally better off left to Will and his empathy and caring about things. So while this whole half-answered questions and implications of motivations business might be par for the course in Graham-land, the Ludgate side of the bed would much prefer things just laid out. That is if they actually need to be. Otherwise, just keep the 'no calling Fray-Fray' memo on the fridge and demand their wedding postcard back and call it good...
Which she'd just say they should do. If it hadn't been for the 'in public' thing. And the whole weird, semi-mutual obsession the two boys seemed to have for each other that had resulted in the whole having Fred for Easter plot to begin with. She didn't get the connection the survivors of Baltimore had with each other. At all. But she got it was important they had it.]
So. Okay. We're still talking to Fred in private? But not around people. Because of...reasons.
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Date: 2015-06-15 08:07 pm (UTC)Right. [A quick nod, which probably barely registers when he realizes lifting his head off the pillow is too much effort.] And you're the only one I'm telling about this. Even Abigail isn't getting [the truth] the same story.
[So maybe he's a little trashy with this whole lying business but, at least, he isn't lying to April? At least there's that? At least she's The Chosen One?????????]
no subject
Date: 2015-06-15 08:38 pm (UTC)[But so little does in this life they have chosen that, rather than sounding annoyed, she can only managed vaguely bemused as she returns to her position of her head on his shoulder. What exactly Chilton had been accused of, how Will knew he was wrong, why they weren't telling Abigail. All of it was just...mystery. Mystery that, if he doesn't fill in the gaps for her on, she's just going to shrug and file away in the 'trust Will has some idea of what he's doing' box.
That it came with the added benefit of being allowed to go on prank tours of Fred's house with Abby again certainly didn't hurt the process, either.]
no subject
Date: 2015-06-15 09:37 pm (UTC)You work for the government, too. Sometimes rules don't seem to make any sense but they're still...rules.
[And there it is, as plainly as Will's going to give it without further prompting. He has orders. He is acting on those orders and he doesn't want to risk doing anything (right now, that is) that Chilton could see as going outside the boundaries given. Will doesn't do well with the idea of being completely abandoned, and even though April is more than enough to keep him feeling like he's got someone at his side, by his side, even if not in the same sort of darkness...losing people from home is just not on the menu. April married the FBI's bloodhound, it comes as part of the packaging. So maybe he doesn't shave and shower as much as he should, but when it comes down to the wire, he's capable of turning into a frothing, rabid, frenzied beast in order to protect and serve. April Ludgate is one of the few people who has almost complete control over that leash. Underneath Abigail Hobbs, of course. It's an...odd privilege. To some. He should have put something about it in the prenuptial agreement, really, but the fact that Will would continue being his doggish self in the worst of ways in order to keep April safe was something he figured was pretty much an unspoken. A given.
Same as the fact that he probably would never need to, her own powers taken into account. Hell, one day, Will's convinced April's going to save him in a more literal sense than what she's already done. The big bad dog doesn't always win in a fight without some help, after all.]
no subject
Date: 2015-06-15 10:47 pm (UTC)Fine. Whatever. If that's how it was, that was how it was. But, there was still an important point to be made here and now.]
When- when- Abby finds out about this whole thing, I'm totally throwing you under the bus. And I will bet one million pizzas Fred's gonna be the one that tells her you're cutting her out of- of whatever this even is.
[The game. Because if there's one thing Fred seemed to like more than anything, in April's very limited experience, it was making it clear to everyone in the room Fred knew better than they did.]
Out of the Baltimore knitting circle.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-16 12:29 am (UTC)That's fine with me. [He's actually pretty good at being under the bus, it's almost his second home (so close to the sewers, how could he not be acquainted with it).] And if he dares, I hope you'll be willing to accept those pizzas over a lengthy course of time. We don't have the money for a million pizzas all at once.
[The point of a bet against him meaning that's his own money seems to roll right off him in the same way he once took the order to hypnotize and instead enacted bribery as though they were synonymous.]
no subject
Date: 2015-06-16 01:07 am (UTC)We'll make a payment plan...
But that's the only thing wrong?
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Date: 2015-06-16 01:39 am (UTC)On my end, yeah. [His brow furrows, not that she can see it, though she can feel his fingers drumming along her arm, thought made action.] Anything wrong on yours?
[This for that, give and take. That's what it's all about.]
no subject
Date: 2015-06-16 01:46 am (UTC)And. Mm. There's trouble with some of the people she cares about. But nothing that has rules and regulations tied in.]
The Riddler is a jerk. I think we need to talk Grey into getting a last name...and did you seriously talk to the devil about fish?
no subject
Date: 2015-06-16 02:08 am (UTC)I...did. [Slow, confused. Is he not supposed to talk to the devil at all? When he's so tied up in other people he knows? Would she prefer him only talk to the devil where she can't see it?] What's with the Riddler, though?
[Mostly because this world is chock full of jerks in the first place, for April to call someone a jerk and bring that up in the bed means there has either been a very great display of jerk behavior, or they've been a jerk to April, specifically. Not that he couldn't figure it out from the whole blank postcard thing but...it's eating at her, apparently. So. Might as well.]
no subject
Date: 2015-06-17 12:46 am (UTC)She sighs against his shoulder, suddenly missing talking about Fred and Balitmore over all of this....stuff. Will had the excuse of being bound by home to the Baltimore crew. April only had her own stupid self.]
He's a revolutionary. Or something.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-17 01:24 am (UTC)[Quiet, chest rising as he takes in a deep breath. Ah, revolutionaries. It's like he gets it, she doesn't need to say anything else. Those jerkbag revolutionaries and their endless songs about singing, truly the most obnoxious sort of people that ever could walk the face of any Earth. This one, the one back in April's home, Will's home, all of them. No one compares to the absolute horror of revolutionaries. Will knows this feeling, he knows e x a c t l y what she means—]
He's stepping on your turf?
[Psyche.]
no subject
Date: 2015-06-17 01:35 am (UTC)God.
But talking about how Mitch and Eddie not getting along was like watching her parents get divorced was- well. Weird. Especially when there wasn't much of an age gap between Will and Eddie to begin with.]
Never mind. It doesn't even matter, anyway. Talk about what a jerk Fred is.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-17 02:36 am (UTC)What do you mean "it doesn't even matter"? [Bordering on offended over here, don't insult him like that.] It matters enough for you to mention, and—don't think I haven't noticed that you spend a lot of effort not mentioning things that matter. [Troy. Rick. People she actually likes leaving. That one night she came home and acted a little different around muffins in the morning.] What's the point of being married if...
[He waves his hand, finally letting it fall to his side in like a fish giving up. The lazy slap that barely makes a sound, even on the sheets.]
...I don't support you as much as you support me?
no subject
Date: 2015-06-17 02:52 am (UTC)Then her elbow goes out from under her so fast she bounces slightly as her head hits the pillow.]
I love you.
[And, sprawled down on the bed as she now is, a hand still comes up to slides up his stomach and onto his chest, hitching the shirt up just a little bit.]
And you're here. And you already know when it matters. So.
[There were so many ways to pretend to be in control of a life one had no actual control over. April's preferred one was just ignoring the parts she didn't like, pretend they didn't happen. Let someone else deal with the negatives...
And most people just went with the idea that was how she actually worked. No cut could be the deepest because she never picked up the knife to begin with. Easy to believe, after a few chats over the network.
But then there's Will. Who knows EAR will never be renamed or even given another nickname because what if Kat came back three years later and his baby didn't remember the right name? Eddie was just a living reminder of another past she won't be getting back again.]
That's. The point, I guess. So, you know. I just...
I miss him. I guess.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-17 04:03 am (UTC)Fortunately not the case, and his eyes linger on her without outright staring. That seems easier if he stays as is, stretching his legs to make up for some of that former intensity. They're Just Talking. This isn't a Legitimate Crisis. There's so much space to kick around at the foot of the bed anyway.]
Have you told him? And— [He's quick to add, slowly following her lead back onto the pillow without the bounce part. He is too old for bouncing, not too old for glowy eyes to catch the light and shine green. She could be talking to a raccoon.] —without using the whole he's a jerk as a starting point?
no subject
Date: 2015-06-17 04:12 am (UTC)We have our own kind of talking. He said I was getting soft.
[Gotham villain, remember. One that had once upon a time told April how much she would have liked living in that particular city. And also that one that had instilled her endless, knee-jerk disgust with shrinks. So Will had that to thank him for, anyway.]
Then bought me a muffin.
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Date: 2015-06-18 02:20 am (UTC)People change. [Not-so-sage advice from the decrepit old man in the room, but better than anything about April being soft. People being soft in general, or how they can physically be made soft...leave the murder talk at work, always.] As long as you still have your own kind of talking...that's something, isn't it?
[Something's better than nothing, or can be. It can also be the worst thing, but advising anyone else to cut off ties with someone who aggravates them or makes them sad or whatever is...not exactly something he can speak on too well without being a super huge hypocrite. Better to keep that to people who don't have enough knowledge about Hannibal Lecter to stare him in the eyes and crush him.]
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Date: 2015-06-18 02:23 am (UTC)[It's hard, Will. She wouldn't take the energy to call him a jerk or send blank post cards or whatever if she didn't care. And that was the problem. Eddie, even if he was trying to burn the world down, was her favorite. And it just...
It sucked. A lot.]
Mitch is going to do something. So. It's fine. We just need to not blow up before that.
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Date: 2015-06-18 03:29 am (UTC)I'm always on board with not blowing up. [Mumbled, inaudible to someone who wasn't right on top of him. Though, if the way his arms wrap around her, fingers interlacing like a loving cage made of human flesh instead of metal or wire is anything to go by, he doesn't mind her perch at all.] And if whatever Mitch does doesn't have the outcome you're hoping for, I'll be right here [minor squeeze, as though she really didn't know where he was] for you to not-talk about it with.
[They can throw out all the muffin pans, even.]
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Date: 2015-06-18 03:42 am (UTC)[It comes out slightly sarcastic, but she knows, babe. She knows. It's just...the relationship with her and the people that gave her some foundation in a weird new reality is complicated. As much as she loves Will- and no matter how it's in a very different way than how she loved those Originals- she was already settled when he came along. Losing Eddie or Mitch was like...like watching the parents turn your childhood bedroom into an erotic massage parlor. Sure, it was going to happen eventually, but you didn't want to be there to see it.]
Way too much work to leave now.
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Date: 2015-06-18 04:36 am (UTC)[Sigh. Now this, this is where the sage advice comes out. Except it's coming from a dude who ran a boatyard, so it might not be the most sage thing out there. Still, as an impressionable young man with a memory that could cut a diamond, of course he was going to remember.]
...if you love a woman, you give her flowers. Candy. Take her to dinner. Tell her you love her. [And here, the squeeze gets a little tighter. The cage is shrinking.] If you find one you can't live without, where even thinking of a world without her is enough to bring you to your knees? You marry her. Trap her to you with the support of the law. Otherwise, she can leave at any time without too much fuss, and you're the Goddamn numbskull who let it happen so you never deserved her in the first place.
[Find what you love and make sure it has to really not love you back in order for it to run away. Super romantic.]
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