guess there's always something going on

[freying]

Who: Freya and Gaignun Kukai Jr.
What: A chat post Morgana leaving the house after the remeeting of Morgana and Jr. post her canon update to crazypants confused face!
When: After this thread/log.
Where: In the house.
Rating: PG-Crazypants.

Freya had been hard pressed to ignore the both of them once the yelling had begun. This made things more complicated, she supposed, in ways she didn't entirely understand. She hesitated, standing in the upstairs hall and watching the stairs, to make her decision. With the door shutting after it'd been so violently thrown open, the conclusion ends in storming off, the sudden silence falling in as the door closes.

Does she go downstairs? Would Gaignun Kukai Junior even want her to see him right now, before he had time to collect himself however he so chose? She knew immediacy around the people who mattered to you left you vulnerable.

She wasn't sure if she missed that feeling or not. Mulling it over, she was halfway down the stairs, one cat keeping quiet pace with her, before she stopped again. Should I?

The cat, not concerned with propriety or human feeling, continued on its merry way down.

Comments

[gunslinger]

Jr. had been standing just inside the foyer, staring dumbly at the entrance for a few minutes while trying to collect his thoughts. He wasn't doing a very grand job, frankly. During moments like this, where it suddenly felt like everyone's fears were on his shoulders, it seemed like everything he had learned until that point was useless. How he'd matured, or how much more balanced he was... It was out the window, and he was livid.

With a stamp of his foot, Jr. turned with an angry shout, arm swinging out recklessly to knock the stupid lamp out of his way. It went crashing, only a moment before he spotted little Yin suddenly darting away from the bottom of the stairs like it's tail was on fire. Terrified by the loud noise, no doubt. Cauldron had been hiding under the couch since Morgana and Jr. had started shouting, and he definitely wasn't coming out now.

Jr. didn't even have time to feel bad over scaring the cats, since he spotted Freya half a second later. Shame came on even stronger, then. Embarrassment. She had seen him get irritated before, they had even argued, but it was nothing like this.

And all he could think about was what had she heard. The hurt and anger still churning in him didn't react well with the shame that was twisting at his stomach, and before he could check his tone, he snapped out, "What do you want?!"

[freying]

Freya reacted to that anger, flinching back as if physically struck. It's unnerving, if understandable -- she can't check the impulse to bring her arm up, a defensive measure as it crosses her chest and holds on to her other arm, shoulders hunching up and chin tucking in. Her hair slides off her shoulders, hiding more of her face from view. She hadn't been this shut off in a while, but the shiver as she falls back into familiar habits, the stumbling half step up and back, all of it carries a numbness and her own discomfort over everything she'd heard.

She can't bring herself to say anything. She didn't know what she wanted, and wasn't particularly concerned. But his felt like an unnecessary reminder of how she was as a burden on someone who already had so much to handle, with people much more important to him.

So while she watches him, she doesn't meet his eyes. It's a challenge she doesn't want to make.

[gunslinger]

The reaction brought immediate results, all aggressive air around Jr. evaporating and his expression melting into one of regret. That was another emotion he was all too familiar with, and one borne of his own shortcomings. Again, even now after so much progress, he still lashed out without meaning to.

Albedo would remind him why, though. Why he would never mellow, and why it was so natural to him. He was human, but he wasn't. And while a few moments ago it had been tempting to forget thinking like a hurt human and to simply act out like an angry weapon, seeing the young woman in his charge was a quick throw-back to reality. He needed to get his shit together.

"I'm sorry," he blurted out, stepping towards the stairs but then stopping. He didn't want to frighten her more, but he still wanted to reach out and take her hand. To offer some comfort outside of words.

"You didn't do anything wrong. I just got... My temper gets the best of me sometimes." It was a weak excuse. It was all he had. "You can come down. She's...gone."

[freying]

She didn't see his face. Maybe she should have been watching there, too, but in ways she was out of practice. She went still when he stepped forward. She knew better than to run, long before the sorry registered as sorry.

"Sorry," she parroted in return, looking up with a jerky movement of her head, finding his eyes, glancing down again. "I'm sorry she left." Hesitating again, Freya had to make her own further decision.

She decides on trust, stepping back down the stair toward Jr.

[gunslinger]

He let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding when she came down, and he moved out of her way. Jr. didn't respond to her apology at first, gaze shifting down and away, before he moved to the edge of the living room to right the lamp he'd knocked over. It was busted, but at least the bulb hadn't shattered.

Finally, Jr. muttered wearily, "You have nothing to be sorry for. You shouldn't have...had to hear any of that. I should have known better than to bring her here, but it was a split-second decision."

[freying]

"This is your home." Her sense of privacy for these things ranked differently than his. Freya still didn't consider this her home, regardless of time spent here. It was too hard to think of it as permanent, after only a few short weeks.

(How many? Two months now. Eight weeks. Barely a mark in her life after life, a pause before the long death.) "If not bring your friend here, then where?"

Freya looked up, letting her arms drop down to her sides. "Is it broken?"

[gunslinger]

Jr. shrugged in response to it all. Even he didn't consider this house his home. It was hard to know where that was anymore, no matter what universe he was in. The house carried nostalgic value to Jr., and served a useful purpose when needing to avoid the castle.

And at this point, he wasn't sure he could call Morgana a friend. Thinking about it nearly broke his heart all over again, and he dumped the cracked lamp on the nightstand and dropped back onto the couch. Cauldron scurried out from under it, then, running over to where Yin was sniffing at groceries abandoned on the kitchen counter.

"Yeah. It doesn't matter." A strained pause, and he rubbed anxiously at the back of his neck. "...How much did you hear?"

[freying]

"I don't know." She doesn't know the full extent of what she heard. It hadn't all come through, even when shouting. Freya hadn't wanted to listen, even if she'd heard. "Something of people not being deserving of pity, or of magic."

Freya looked toward the kitchen, the groceries on the counter, the cats. For a moment, she thought she'd move toward them, take care of keeping herself busy, helping Jr. out by not lingering.

"Pieces here and there, afterward."

[gunslinger]

He felt more foolish now than ever. He'd gone through the trouble of asking her to leave, only to drag her into it anyway. He hadn't meant to, and Jr. still planned on keeping the young woman as far away from it as possible. But he couldn't just keep her in the dark, either. Not when her safety was on the line.

Leaning forward, the heel of his boot scuffed against the floor, arms draped over his knees as he watched her. "You need to stay away from her. If you happen to see her while you're out, and you aren't with Allen or me, then you need to leave." No disrespect meant to Arthur, but... "And if you're with Arthur, you need to convince him to leave with you."