➹BEEPER

[intheblanks]

"It had better be an emergency."
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or steps leading into the sea

[dignity_misery]

You're a problem because I like you.

[And she's an idiot. Terrified of him and inexperienced in what it is to like or care for anyone for any reason other than they don't bore her.]

or steps leading into the sea

[intheblanks]

Thank you for finally saying it.

[He's still staring at the ground - at his feet, as he steps forward enough to edge her back along the gangplank.]

or steps leading into the sea

[dignity_misery]

I've said it before, you just weren't listening.

[That was why she had punched him on her wedding day. She moves back uncertainly, doesn't like giving up the ground to him and frowns, hand curling around her forearm in an uncomfortable gesture..]

or steps leading into the sea

[intheblanks]

You also wanted to braid my hair.

[It's a different curse he's thinking of, but he glances up at her anyway. Another step.]

or steps leading into the sea

[dignity_misery]

It was my hair that mattered.

[She'd said it. She'd meant it. You only asked me because you were cursed. But you weren't cursed to want to know. Now she's staring back at him with a furrow.]

It was quieter before you showed up.

[Before he put her on edge and asked her questions she didn't want to answer.]

or steps leading into the sea

[intheblanks]

It's quiet out here. [And it is, around them. Even the waves are quiet against the boat.] If it's noisy in there, try getting some of it out.

[Still encroaching.]

Got questions? Ask me.

or steps leading into the sea

[dignity_misery]

[Well. If he really wants to know,]

Why won't you leave?

or steps leading into the sea

[intheblanks]

You had a chance to make me, you didn't. And I've left before, because you've told me to. I've yet to see how letting you avoiding your problems has been helpful.

[Although that's not all of it, the rest is far simpler.]

I wanted to see you.

or steps leading into the sea

[dignity_misery]

You want to see me when you want to avoid your problems.

[How about that, Chase? And even when she says it, she sounds a little conflicted as to whether or not that bothers her.]

or steps leading into the sea

[intheblanks]

You might be the one person here with no room to lecture me on my avoidance strategies. [But.] I was an arse.

[But.]

That's not what I'm doing now.

or steps leading into the sea

[dignity_misery]

I'm not lecturing.

[She's asking, and she's still waiting for an answer that's an answer.]

or steps leading into the sea

[intheblanks]

I see a lot of people when I want to avoid my problems. I'm not.. proud of it. I don't see most of them much after the next morning.

I see you because... sometimes, and trust me it can be a faint view, sometimes I see someone I think I can understand. And that person's become important to me.

or steps leading into the sea

[dignity_misery]

[Well. There's an answer. She takes a hand to her hair, hesitating there at the top of the plank. She doesn't like the idea of being talked into compliance, but she's also tired of trying to talk him into going.

She turns to head below deck. She's mostly dry from the wind blowing over her, some dampness lingering in her thick hair, but she's still uncomfortably aware of how cold to the touch she is. She heads into the the main quarters, where at least there are some blankets to line between them.]

or steps leading into the sea

[intheblanks]

[He stands for a long minute on his own, out on the strip of wood stretching over the sea, before coming to find her, standing in the doorway.]

You don't know where you stand? Stand still for five minutes instead of continually running away and maybe I'll be able to figure that out.

[He fidgets, looking at his hands before turning his attention to what possessions she has in the cabin to make it anything like her own.]

I'd like to be more than a bad association to you.

or steps leading into the sea

[dignity_misery]

[Fucks sake. She doesn't turn to face him, still pulling at the sheets on the bed.]

I've been perfectly still for years.

[She's thinking she might try a new approach.]

or steps leading into the sea

[intheblanks]

You haven't. And the fact that your body won't keep up has you clawing at it. For gods sake, put the blankets down.

[How he reached the point where he's standing at her shoulder is immaterial. The hands catching her arms, pulling her against him, probably aren't.]

or steps leading into the sea

[dignity_misery]

[The blankets were something to do with her hands, something to avoid him with because there's nothing in this tiny little corner of the ship that belongs to her. There's nothing else to look at, nowhere else to turn except around to him, which means that she's cornered and caught now. It's tempting to let her tension bleed onto him. She's done it before, thrashed until he let her go. That feels like it was a long time ago.]

I don't know what you'd like to be.

[Maybe the slightest bit snide, as if she can put all of this on him, but the real answer is that she's avoided finding out.]

or steps leading into the sea

[intheblanks]

You've never let me find out. [He can't make promises. She's a disaster, he's little better, it's easier to list all the impossible things. But he's patient.] Right now, why don't we just go with 'here'.

or steps leading into the sea

[dignity_misery]

Fine.

[Of course that's her answer, frustrated and petulant and terse, feeling stripped down and too raw, for once. But maybe that was what she wanted, what she'd been trying to get to. It's uncomfortable and she's stuck questioning once again why it is she's doing this; trying so hard.]

or steps leading into the sea

[intheblanks]

Fine. [He'll take fine, to stop a fight. And, because he can't help the reminder-] Are you this bad tempered with everyone you like?

[A minute and he reaches to the side of her, pulling the blankets she'd been so fastidious with up and off the bed in a magician's clean sweep.]

And what were you going to do with these?

or steps leading into the sea

[dignity_misery]

Just the ones I hate.

[If that helps.]

I was thinking about going to bed.

[And keeping you on the far side of them, is that implied yet? She thinks it is.]

or steps leading into the sea

[intheblanks]

I did say I wouldn't keep you from that.

[As he winds a corner of the blanket loosely round his wrist. There is a little unfinished business.]

I've seen too many people fuck themselves up over somebody who wasn't worth the time. Don't ever hurt yourself over me. [Other corner, other wrist. Hm.] However much you hate me.

or steps leading into the sea

[dignity_misery]

Stop talking, Robert.

[Because it hurts already.]

or steps leading into the sea

[intheblanks]

[He hasn't been obedient at all this evening, but he stops long enough to loop the length of cloth between his hands around her shoulders. It's the loosest of holds - she could duck under or pull back and it would come undone. Or she could stay and let him draw her down to the bed with the blankets not between but around them, his arms around her.]

or steps leading into the sea

[dignity_misery]

She gives him a sullen-eyed look, but she doesn't fight him to pull free. And it may be slow, but she sinks into his shoulder. It's not relaxed, in the slightest. She's aware of being too still compared to him.]