milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

X slips downstairs after her shift in the nightclub, half-glancing at the back door before she decides to forgo training for the moment.

It is more important to eat something. Just in case.

The fact that X-23 (and her soup) are settled at the bar instead of her usual booth is entirely unrelated to anything.

Except that she refuses to be uncomfortable in what is, for now, her home.

This is just proof of that.

[ooc: This post is open until it falls off the front page or X gets another EP, whichever comes first. Thanks!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Elle puts down the spoon, and resigns to scratching at her bandaged arm instead.

"Well, he's dumb," she decides, without putting much thought into it.

Sometimes Elle's worldview is very simple.

"Artemis said that, too."

Beat.

"And Bela."

Well, the gist of it was the same, right?

She's quiet again, at least for a little while.

Then--

"He is like me."

Elle's hand flattens on her arm.

This is a little like a very angry staring contest.

She's still winning when she tells X, almost offhandedly, "That doesn't mean he's the same."

"I know."

She sounds defeated.

She looks it, too.

"Now."

Elle turns her attention more fully to X. At least, maybe that'll stop her from touching her sling.

(It won't.)

"What did he do?"

There are a lot of things X could say here. That he stayed, that he does not want to stop being a killer, that he likes to lie and pretend and be as normal as he can--

That he is better at it than she is. That for him, it's almost real.

But she does not have the right words for that.

"He said I do not understand. Him. That I lie."

The words are said very quietly. They still hurt.

"That I am only what somebody made me."

She clenches her fists, hard.

"He does not know."

"X..."

And she doesn't really know how to say it. Partly, she doesn't really know why she has to.

Because Elle knows how to say I'm not an experiment, has all the words but doesn't know what they mean.

"... you're not wrong."

X isn't crying.

She doesn't really do that. Not anymore.

She just looks at Elle, face blank.

It lasts a long time.

Then--

"I try. To remember."

What Elle said, that is.

"It is easier to be a weapon."

It makes sense.

Elle blinks down.

Her gaze doesn't return, but she sounds so certain: "I know you."

X looks very startled.

Just for a second.

Then--

"Yes."

Beat.

"You do."

Oh.

Edited 2008-10-05 06:26 (UTC)

"You can't -"

Elle's gaze comes up to meet X's again.

"You're not lying."

X looks back, studying Elle for several long moments.

Then--

"I know."

Beat.

"It is hard."

"... do you want to?"

It's not really a fair question, the way Elle asks it.

X looks startled. Again.

"No."

Beat.

"You are my friend."

The word floats through, like a language she doesn't really understand, but can get the gist of it.

"Then -"

Then Elle doesn't know why.

"Why do you care?"

X looks down, looks away.

"He is my friend, too."

Beat.

"But it is not the same."

Elle can't say 'he doesn't sound like it.' She doesn't really know what it's supposed to sound like.

She can say, "I don't like him."

But it's resigned. Because she's not sure what else to say.

"He is a jerk."

X sounds that out carefully.

She heard it from Buffy. Or someone like Buffy.

Probably.

"Sometimes I do not mind."

Finally, Elle looks back to that soup, and reaches for the spoon.

Grumpy: "I don't like it when you do."

"Oh."

X absorbs that.

Then--

"It is okay. Now."

At least she didn't apologize?

And X eats another spoonful of soup.

Not looking up from her soup, "You know that now?"

X gives Elle a quick sideways look.

"Yes."

Beat.

"I will remember."

Elle puts the spoon down again, and looks over at X.

And then, (and maybe it's sort of a weird gesture) she moves her hand to playfully shove at X's shoulder.

She's not exactly smiling, but it's not really from lack of trying.

X doesn't dodge, though she does look slightly startled.

Or maybe it's confused.

And then, very carefully, she pats Elle's shoulder in return.

They are okay.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only