✘ o7 ;; the triumphant return.

[decrypts]

[ everything had been. well. it had been something. while he really would have liked to think that things were beginning to calm down back on the mother of invention, it's really only just started, and now –

it's … funny, what you forget when you don't see a place for a while. things you don't think about, things you don't think to think about until they hit you like a proverbial ton of bricks. a smack to the back of the head that brings it all back full-force. a tidal wave.

when he finds himself on the plane again, it's the same as it ever was; the moment he steps foot across that threshold, it all comes rushing back at him, from his first trip to the beach with no water to being stabbed through the eyes because of a stupid joke, from being knocked on his ass by an alien-wash to being chased by a giant orange thing.

there's more, there's so much more, and it's come back to him in spades – all of which ends up giving him something of a raging freaking headache just for how much there is, and still, he doesn't think it'll stop anytime soon.

damn … teach me to stay away too long, huh? wonder what i've missed.

and there's another lingering thought, one that pushes and pulls and will not relent – one that involves finding a certain someone, the simple thought of which has something catching in the middle of his chest, and as he goes looking in any of the places he thinks she might be ( he can't be blamed for checking the bath house first, after all, that's where all the bonding had started, hadn't it? ) he has a feeling that she might be the one to come find him, just because she always does.

where are you, 'nara?

and thus, this would be york's triumphant return to the astral plane – wandering about as he had the very first time.

some things really don't change. ]

Comments

[fallbythesword]

[She can indeed hear - and feel - his heart beating. It's more comforting than she would ever have thought it could be. How could an organ simply doing its job make her feel like things are okay? ... It's probably got everything to do with who that organ belongs to. It's certainly just a derivative of the fact that now that he's here again, she feels like things are falling back into place. She doesn't have to be sad about it anymore. Angry, either. Doesn't even have to be lonely.

He's the only human that has ever come back to her.

Of course, that smartassery wins him a palm very lightly smacking him against his ribs, but she otherwise doesn't un-bury herself from her position right up against him. She even goes right back to her clinging after said smack.]

How rude. You humans don't lay claim to feelings.

[But it doesn't ruin the moment. Not for her, anyway. Especially when she feels that kiss, when he gives his affirmation like that... She pulls back just enough to stare up at him, and though it looks like she's glaring at him, she's really just trying to will her emotions to stop freaking out on her long enough for her to formulate a proper response... And she nods.]

I think you've managed to prove that, yes. ... I do know that. [She manages a faint smirk for him.] I hope you realize it's entirely mutual. And the Goddess couldn't help anyone in my way.

[decrypts]

[ in the silence that sits between them, he can't help but to go over the time they've spent together here on the plane – and even away from it, the small moments they'd spent together when she'd shown up on the mother of invention. it hits him right in the middle of the chest, the proverbial ton of bricks that crack against his ribs and push the air out of his lungs, and he thinks –

i love you.

but he won't say it. not out loud, not right now. there is such a thing as too much when it's all come around like this, when they haven't seen each other in so long and it's all they can do to hold onto one another and assure themselves that the other is real. she doesn't have to be sad, or angry, or lonely. he's here, and it's going to take a force beyond anything he's ever fathomed in his entire life to take him away from her again.

he's had to work to get her respect, after all. her notice, her care. he doesn't want to lose that.

he gives a soft laugh against her hair, far more amused with how blunt she manages to be than he has any right to. ] Maybe not entirely, but I've yet to see anybody else that can do it as well as we can.

[ sir you are not taking responsibility for the entirety of the human race and their ability to feel. knock it off.

but she continues speaking, and he listens. lets the words sink in – further than just beneath the surface of his skin, burrowing into him and filling him up with the sort of tingling warmth that comes from being genuinely accepted, genuinely cared for. there's another laugh, this one coming around as something just short of bewildered. ]

That's the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me. I almost feel sorry for anyone that would bother. [ a beat, and he's grinning as he leans down to press a light kiss to the rise of her cheekbone, content with just that little bit of contact. ]

[fallbythesword]

[She'll deny it. She'll swear up and down that feelings change, people change, nothing is certain, everything could completely dissolve tomorrow. She will never admit that there's this little thing called hope that she'd discarded out of necessity long ago, and somehow, it's coming back. And it's his fault. Entirely. Yes, fault. Stupid human, crashing into her life and changing things, challenging everything she'd carefully constructed like a wall around herself to keep her safe from things like this...

But there's this happiness in her core, something she hasn't truly felt - truly let herself feel in such a long time. And she wonders if it can stay this way.

She smirks again. Cocky, sure, but also amused. And content. Content to stay here against him, let him kiss her, to share both the silence and the attempts to keep conversation from turning too heavy too soon.]

You shouldn't. They'd get what they deserve.

[She leans into that kiss to her cheek, ignores the fact that she can feel herself blushing a little. Goddess, what's gotten into her...?]

.. I'm glad you're back. [Pause.] I know this is a dangerous place, and at times it's surely someone's version of hell or something similar, but that doesn't change my mind.

[decrypts]

[ of course she'll deny it. he wouldn't expect anything less from her, all told – but he would do his best to convince her that nothing, with him, is going to change. that he doesn't attach himself to people this way so easily, and the bonds he makes are not so weak that they dissolve with the passage of time.

hope. he's full of it – among other things, of course – and he would instill more of it in her if he could, just for the fact that she deserves it, if he could figure out a way to do it. though, knowing that his reappearance brings some of that hope, some of that happiness in her, it would have made him smile all the more.

as it is, he can only take in the line of that smirk, a glint in his eyes that is nothing but pure amusement. and that blush when he kisses her cheek … how could he ever have forgotten just how endeared she was to him? how much he reveled being this close to her? ]

I've been worse places. [ really, sir? have you? you've not been anywhere else in which you've had your eyes gouged out with a couple of knives? ] What makes it worth it, though, is you.

[fallbythesword]

[And she doesn't attach herself to people at all. Not until now. And once she invests her time and energy into something, especially something like this, she isn't going to give it up so easily, even if she pretends otherwise. This isn't a transient thing. This is real.

If you keep giving her hope, she isn't going to know what to do with herself. Tread carefully, or you might actually fix a part of her that she didn't even know needed fixing, and then what will you do when you're stuck with her?]

I'm sure you're exaggerating. There isn't much that could be worse than here.

[That blush deepens a little bit, though, and she's shaking her head, glances off to the side and down a bit, letting some of her hair hang in front of her eyes. what a tsundere.]

And I hardly make this place worth it - what are you even saying? You're ridiculous.

[decrypts]

[ yeah, he's noticed. even though he likes to think that there was a connection from the moment they had their little heart to heart in the bath house – which beats his first meeting with her, of course, because well … everyone remembers how that went, don't they? – it just has him thinking that there's either something about him that he'd been able to get through to her at all.

even if it had been completely unintentional. ( but no one will ever let him think he's that important, right? )

but this is more real than anything he's ever borne witness to before. and he still says he won't give it up for anything.

what will he do when he's stuck with her? keep her, of course. he's already gotten that thought pretty firm in his mind, and that won't be changing anytime soon, either. if he fixes her, even she didn't know she needed fixing, he's responsible for her, isn't he~?

he keeps right on grinning, leaning a little lower to nose at her cheekbone. you are literally the cutest thing ever, do you know that? you bet your ass he's keeping you. ]

Being ridiculous makes me human, as you've so kindly brought to my attention a few times already. Doesn't that make me endearing?

[ you would make any place worth it, jacqli. he's going to make sure you realize that one of these days. ]

[fallbythesword]

[There had been a connection. Honestly, for her, it began during the month where she didn't even remember her own name, or anything about her - the way he cared for her in spite of her being little more than a blank slate not unlike what her creators originally intended for her to be--

No. Not thinking about that. No.

It's all him. Just him. She's not sure what, or how, but... it's him.

She looks up, still playing it ~cool~ and trying to keep her squinted expression on him, but she can't even pretend like her eyes aren't betraying whatever emotions she has welling up inside of her. And she stands on the tips of her toes, leans up to press a small kiss against the bottom of his chin.]

Whatever, James.

[She may not fully understand what she means to him, maybe not even what he means to her, but she knows that she doesn't want things to change.]

[decrypts]

[ in order for him to fully understand the world she comes from, what she's meant to be for everyone there – it would mean that she would have to open up to him further, to entrust him with the kind of information that he's sure no one else on the plane would even come close to knowing. and he would take it all, keep it locked away inside of himself where no one else could touch it, just so it would mean that he's something to her that no one else could be.

it might be selfish of him, but he's never claimed to be a saint. he wants to be for her what she is for him – and a saving grace is a saving grace no matter how you look at it. and whether it's him, or it's her, the fact that they can finally come back together like this says a lot.

he feels that kiss land on the underside of his chin, and he can't help the way his grin spreads across the line of his mouth like wildfire – he catches her before she can rest back fully on her feet, noses at the corner of her mouth in the semblance of a returned kiss, though something much softer than anything else yet. ]

Whatever, 'Nara.

[ i missed you, more than you'll probably ever know. ]