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Duo is sitting on the floor by the fireplace, print outs stacked in careful piles all around him. It's not usual for a digital-age kinda guy like him to have so much paper, but that's what legal cases get you. (It's harder to hack paper.)

He's also eating Meat On A Stick™. It's probably beef teriyaki, if you're feeling generous.

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"Sort of, yeah. Just trying to get some things straight in my head."

"You okay?" He looks a little wary about asking this question.

"I -- "

She hesitates, studying him carefully.

Again.

Then --

"I am trying that. Too."

It is not a particularly graceful opening.

No, but it's a remarkably telling one, for her. Usually it'd just be a yes or a no.

If she was anyone else, he'd reach out to her, now. Hand on her shoulder, nudge her with a foot, hell, anything.

"Anything I can help with?"

"Kimura is dead."

That comes out flat and quiet.

"I would like to forget."

Beat.

"But that would be stupid."

This may be X's way of saying 'no'.

Unless Duo has suggestions.

She would take those.

It's hard to parse that. Is she sad? Glad? Mad?

"You'd...like to forget she's dead?" he hazards, trying to narrow it down.

"No."

X's voice is low and fierce, at that.

The response is remarkably quick.

Then she falls silent.

"She was my handler. Before."

Beat.

"She liked to hurt me."

Duo has a new guess! X would like to forget either that she killed this Kimura person, or that she would like to forget everything she did to her. Duo himself would like to utilize some time travel and go back to shoot the bitch in the head.

X isn't the first person very important to him who got tortured in the name of training.

His fists clench.

"And now that she's dead, it's making you feel weird." He sounds more confident about that.

X's fist clenches and unclenches.

Once.

She is not looking at Duo.

"I could not kill her. I wanted to."

Beat.

"Elle did."

Because X asked.

"Good," Duo says. "I can't feel sorry for anyone being dead, if they hurt you like that."

"She hurt other people, too."

X doesn't say it for form's sake. Not really.

"But I do not -- "

She hesitates.

But at least she looks up.

"I do not know what to do. Now."

"I don't blame you. You mad because you couldn't do it yourself?" There isn't much use in being subtle, or pulling punches in a conversation like this.

X does not flinch, though her gaze drops down to her hands.

Just for a second.

"No, I -- "

Again she pauses, searching out the words.

Making sure they say what she means.

"It is okay. To need help."

Sometimes, but not often.

"But I do not -- "

"I can kill them all. Now."

She can find them all, too, if she puts her mind to it.

"But I do not know if they will stop."

Edited 2010-02-10 00:16 (UTC)

"Even if you do, it won't fix everything." Unfortunately. Duo is not always in love with humanity.

"And you'll just get more people after you."

"I do not care about the others."

It's true.

(Because X scares the other ones shitless.)

(As she should.)

"Nothing's stopped you from doing what you want to do, so far," Duo says. "And you shouldn't let anything in the future, either. But are you safe, for now? Back at home?"

She thinks about that for a while, tallying up the security holes she knows about.

(There are not many left, thanks to Morales.)

"Yes."

Beat.

"Everyone else is, too."

"No missions, so far as you know?"

"Not yet."

That could change at any time.

She knows.

"The current team is well-trained."

Not X's current team, but -- the others.

"Then maybe you should go home and take a break for a while. Or hell, stay here, if that works better for you. I did both, before I figured out for sure what I wanted to do next. Something big changes, sometimes you need to think about it for a while, before it sinks in."

That doesn't always make it better, but sometimes it makes things easier to deal with, when you've got a little distance from what happened.

X does not hesitate. At all.

"No."

Beat.

"I have to work. Here."

And home is --

"Ambergeldar would be okay."

In Ambergeldar there be dragons. Or rather, one dragon.

Norman.

It is --

Maybe she will go there.

"Listen, I don't wanna push you, but if you want someplace to get the hell away from everything, you can always come to my world. I mean, it's not like anyone would find you there." He raises his hands, still in his standard 'not a threat' posture. "Just an offer."

X's attention sharpens with what seems like it should be an audible snap.

"You are not in trouble?"

He has a talent for it.

"What?" He blinks. "No! Why would I ask you to visit me to relax if I was in trouble?"

There's a moment where it's clear this conversation could go at least two ways.

What is not as clear is that X recognizes this, too.

And because it is Duo -- and he worries, she can smell it --

"Because I am very good at getting people out of trouble?"

X chooses the less well-trodden path.

Or at least she tries.

He rolls his eyes, finally sensing a moment in the conversation where levity will be accepted, if not returned.

"If I ever want you to help me with problems at home, I'll hire you as a freelancer. Put you on the Preventer payroll and everything. But I'm serious. You don't even need to ask, okay?"

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