milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

ace (pyro),
raven

(no subject)

There's an Ace... no. Wait. There isn't. At least, it doesn't look like there's one in the bar.

Not by the lake, either.

Her favorite booth is empty. So's the one she uses when hiding.

There's no Ace by the fire, or in her comfy chair.

No Ace at the Bar.

However, if you were to climb up into the rafters, and seek out the darkest corner... you'd find an Ace.

She's watching everything going on below. And being very quiet.

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Andres is unsuspectingly cleaning the rafters in this very corner.

He does not notice Ace because he has his face towards the floor to keep the dust out of his eyes.

He doesn't notice her that is, until he begins unknowingly dusting her with a very fluffy *pink* feather duster.

Ace is in no mood to be dusted.

She grabs the duster and yanks on it sharply.

And suddenly he's no longer holding the feather duster. How strange.

He looks up confused and sees ace sitting there.

"Uh, hi. I um, didn't see you there. I'm sorry. Can I have my duster back please?"

He makes the most innocent face he can muster, which is probably not all that innocent if she can see the sign on his back.

Ace doesn't need to see the sign on his back. She remembers his doom and gloom wailings a few days back.
"Only if you promise to look where you're dusting." She replies, holding the feather duster hostage.

"I guess that would be a good idea in the future wouldn't it? I give you my word M'lady. Now if you don't mind terribly, I have work to do."

Her expression may darken just a bit, but it's so hard to tell in the shadows. Someone else who is useful. She knows she's being petty, but can't really help it right now. This is why she's perched on a rafter far away from everyone else.
"Fine." The duster is dropped from on high.

He didn't notice despite his attempt to pay more attention.

"Thank you Ace" He says with a curt bow, then turns and heads off to dust the rafters in another corner.

And there is a Raven, very close by.

"Are you all right, Ace?"

"M'fine." Bar speak for 'I'm not, but I'm trying not to add to the bar's wangst level' or 'I'm not, but you know I won't say anything'. The question is, has Raven been here long enough to learn bar-speak?

Raven's voice is very soft.

"I don't lie to you, Ace. Not even when I would be better served to."

And it is not a rebuke, just a reminder.

"Guess I'm not you then." She adds another item to the list of 'Things Ace Cannot Do' and curls up a little tighter.

And now Raven is a man, and not a bird. He leans against Ace.

"I am sorry. It is not my place. It is just that I can see you are unhappy."

Ace knows, in that small rational part of her brain that is still working, that she really has no right to be sulky, and that she should just get over herself and get on with life.

...

Of course, she wouldn't be up here in the rafters if she were being rational tonight. She's just reacting. Badly.
"Not unhappy. Useless." She mutters, even as she knows it's horribly unfair and unkind. There's a reason she's up here, and not down by the fire where she could really cause some problems.

"I often feel so, when I see those around me make mistakes that I could probably prevent. It is a hard thing."

"Who do you feel so, today?"

Even when being unrational and very unkind, she doesn't give up names easily.
"Can't help anyone. M'only good for one thing, and s'not needed anywhere."

"You are needed everywhere, Ace. Have you forgotten already how distraught people were when your memory was missing?"

He hugs her, a little.

"And I do not have so many friends that I could stand to lose one as good as you."

She's quiet. But she leans against him, a little.
She does remember how everyone worried.
Due to her contrary mood, this does not make her feel better. Only worse. Now she's ungrateful and useless. Bloody wonderful.

He sighs, a little, and just breathes for a moment.

"Perhaps it is better if we just sit, like this, hmm?"

He rests his cheek on the top of her head, for a moment.

She doesn't whimper. Just. But at that moment he is so very like her Doctor she almost cannot breathe from the surge of... not homesickness, no, the bar is home now, but... nostalgia? Longing? Whatever it is, it threatens to overwhelm her.

So she stares at the fire down below instead. Pretty fire, watch it burn.

Raven just sits with his arm around her. He is humming, softly.

Perhaps it is a song his mother used to sing.

Perhaps it is his own.

She turns slightly to bury her face in his shoulder.

Eventually, the tension goes out of her thin frame.

And Raven might whisper something to her, in the old tongue, in his first tongue.

It might be, "Go well, little sister. Stay safe."

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