milliways_bar | (no subject)

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She doesn't look innocent when she sleeps. Far from in fact, she's curled far more akin to a hound than a human, cheek cradled on her towel. Her wet hair is spread in the grass like blood, her scarred back turned towards a small fire that leaps and jumps tiredly in the growing night.

There's a plate with lunch on it as well, a sandwich with a few bites taken, a bit of fruit...it seems that the call to sleep was too great after her swim though...so, Rachel is asleep by the lake, there's room enough at the fire for more though.

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He loosens his hand so she can, smiling at her.

"If you find out, let me know," he says with quiet sincerity.

She chuckled and smiled at that, a sadly sweet expression in the firelight as she continued to tap out rythyms. Were she ever to pay attention, she'd realize it was a cage lullaby, a hound song...but she doesn't.

"Probably won't know till I step through...no reality I know keeps me long so it's probably someplace strange and new..."

"Really? Why?" That doesn't make sese. But then, he doesn't know what it's like to be kin to a god, either.

She shrugged easily "I'm not sure. I helped destroy my own world...my second only held me for three years before I was lost, another I forgot, then I was truly lost for long years...and came back to another reality akin to my second...it seems I'm just needed in many places at different times."

...yeah that makes no sense.

"Oh."

He's lost.

She chuckled, hand stilling under his "Sorry, I forget how easily I confuse people" at least he never asked about her famnily though right? That's a headache in and of itself.

"I'm kinda loose in time? I drift in times and realities when I have to"

"Oh. Sort of like being lost at sea?" But... way bigger?

A good comparison actually, she nodded "Yeah with little islands in between where you have to do something, a quest or a task, then you're off again..."

"I know how that is..." He grimaces. "I spent years on a ship."

"Oh?" she asked curiously. She actually likes ships, and she doesn't get to hear adventure stories often...

"It's not very exciting," Zuko says. He does't want to talk about it, it's plain from his tone, the way his eyes drop. "It was a prison."

Shepulled on his hand gently, drawing him close enough to kiss his fngers, offered comfort andapology, then she offered a sad smile "I'm sorry, I just wonder about boats is all. Archie and I are suppose to build one...for the lake here. A little boat..."

"Really?" Zuko says, though his face contorts a little; she's so damn tactile, but yet, but yet--

It's-- the wrong signals. He knows she means one thing, but -- it makes him feel another. So he blushes, and looks away. "Why? Don't you like to swim?"

And as if picking up on the mild discomfort, which she very well may, her fingers go back to fiddling with the boot strap instead, giving a little space.

"I love it, but, it's something that Archie would like, and he has a little girl to take out on the water too" she admitted softly.

"Oh."

He doesn't like stories about good fathers. They tend to make him bitter.

"Besides, I bet I could build a boat" she switched the topic slightly with a grin "Never built anythng before really, but how hard can it be?"

"I thought the same thing about putting up roof tiles, till I found out I couldn't hammer a nail straight," Zuko points out ruefully. Oh, that poor roof...

She blinked, then thought about it a moment "Hammering....you have a point...." she admitted woefully.

"Maybe I'll just hold the big stuff and let Archie hammer...and I can paint! Painting is easy!"

He just grins at her, and then says, "IT seems easy, but I bet it's not. I bet there's something you have to know to do it right."

"I'll paint the part that goes under the water" she decided with a chuckle "That one no one sees my job skills, r lack thereof!"

He laughs more freely now, shaking his head. "That's not the way to do it! you should learn how to do it properly!"

Any job worth doing... eh-heh.

"But I'm only making one boat" she pointed out "And learning to paint, say a sign, just isn't the same as a boat at all, it'd be pointless!" she chuckled.

"So learn how to paint a boat. Archie should be able to teach you if he knows how to MAKE them." COMMON SENSE FOR THE WIN.

"But I'd still have to practice, learn, what have you, on our boat! Which means I'd rather have my portion below the water line" she admitted easily. "And he doesn't really. He served on one, but we're researcing the "making" bit, s'why I was curious!"

"I'm sorry; our 'boats' were iron. Well, we had smaller ones, but-- they weren't what you're thinking of." Or maybe they were! He doesn't know.