o viridissima virga
May. 9th, 2010 12:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yukieTITLE: Verdancy
CHARACTERS: Fabian and Vicky
SUMMARY: Unexpected visitors, crashed goddesses, lurking deities of /b/ - Fabian has an eventful life.
RATING: PG for occasional cussage XD
NOTES: I was looping Celes's Theme while I wrote this. Again, beware the typos XD; Google Docs was being cantankerous. And I kept WIBBLING at this XD; I'm so sappy.
***
He's dreaming about weeding a overgrown garden when she shows up, and he's pretty sure that's symbolic but isn't interested right now in working out what it's supposed to mean. He's got dirt under his nails and a giant thistle scratched the hell out of his hands when he pulled it up just now, and he was about to uproot a dandelion from the mud (it just rained, it seems) when he looked up and saw her.
He doesn't know her. She's about the same height as Serena (maybe shorter) and the same shape as Aurora, though her complexion's more along the lines of his own. She has eyes about the colour of the flowers on the lilac bush there, and her hair's black with a blue sheen to it like a crow's wing or something.
She's got oval-shaped pupils, and pointed ears - which are currently kind of droopy. She looks as if she got rained on - was she here before he was in this dream, or something? That'd be surreal. He was dreaming of being indoors first, looking for Rei, who turned out to have gone out, so he decided (in the dream) to weed the garden, which is bigger than any garden he's ever actually had...
"Hi?" he says.
She stares at him, and her eyes get WIDE (and her pupils get huge). Then, to his shock, she tears up. There's no warning, and shortly she sits down hard on the grass and buries her face in her hands, making a high-pitched little noise that sounds completely miserable.
'Hey hey no - don't cry, what's wrong?" Fabian wipes his hands on his jeans, scowls at the mud, and then mutters, 'screw it' and washes off his hands in the birdbath. Once he's no longer full of dirt, he puts an arm around her. "Hey. Tell me what's wrong, okay? I'll do my best to help you - "
Somehow the fact that she's making almost no noise at all is worse. Just that squeaking every so often. The rest is all completely silent sobbing breaths that make her shake like crazy.
"You - ' she hiccups. 'Y-you - you're - you're n-not kicking me out - "
"Why would I kick you out? You didn't just elbow in like some magazine salesman from the underworld or something. This is - the boundary of where my dream is, right?" huh. usually he's not this lucid when he's dreaming. "You're invited in if you want. You're not out to kick my ass, right?"
She shakes her head. "Nnnh. N-no. I'm not." She swallows hard and sits up a bit. "I didn't mean to bother you. I was trying to avoid running into you."
"The hell? Why?" Fabian's not offended but he's confused.
She bites back an unhappy noise. "I didn't want to be - I c-can't deal with someone who might hate me now. I just can't. I only wanted to see her. I wasn't going to - I didn't intend any harm toward you, honestly, and I'm grateful to you. You saved her. She's safe because of you."
'She' is Aurora - who is still, right now, in that weird healing/stasis sleep she's been in for ages. it's necessary - but - damn it, he's starting to worry she might not come out of it. She seems more aware of things outside her own dreams now. She reacts to him when he talks to her or sings...but she's not awake. Not by far.
"Yeah, I guess," he sighs. "I wish she was, you know, healthy too - oh hey what no--"
The girl - well, young woman, she's like his age or maybe a little less - just made THE most unhappy keening sound he's ever heard in his life.
"It's my fault. It's my fault she's like that. I couldn't get to her, I couldn't h-help her - I - I tried - I tried so hard, I promise you, you can even ask me three times and I'll swear it to you on the Lady's Mirror - I couldn't do anything. I wanted to, I wanted to so badly, but I - I can't reach that place. I couldn't go there. I have no connection to it beyond the two times I almost died doing something... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I did this, this is my fault - I don't ever deserve to see her again."
Fabian's pulled her into his arms by this time and even if she still seems convinced he's going to hate the shit out of her she's clinging to his shirt. Three times, and that Mirror thing - okay, she's fae, not from around here for sure. Offworld. She knows Aurora. A Bastioner maybe? Shit. If that's the case then she was probably worried completely ill when Aurora vanished on account of - of - damn it he can't even make himself think the damn creep's name. But either way - damn.
She might have known Aurora personally.
Fabian's a little bit envious of that.
"You can see her if you want. She's - she can tell when people are close. She's not awake at all but she can still - hey no - " Fabian tries to get her to look up at him. "It's not your fault! It's not. It is NOT your fault, come on, look at me and you'll know I'm not being full of shit."
She looks up, swallows hard, and says, "I thought you'd hate me."
"Why?"
"Because I failed h-her. I'm - I - sh-she - she has no Knight now and I w-wanted to act as her Knight until she found her rightful one again but I couldn't even do that for her."
"You tried. That's more than I can say for, oh, like everyone. She thought everyone forgot her." Aurora said as much dreaming once. Fabian held her hand and talked her through it until she stopped that slow-motion flinching. It's a deep sleep she's in but she can hear voices and even if she didn't know the exact words he was saying, not consciously, it was enough to take the edge off the fear.
"I would never forget her." The girl's vehement and she actually flashed tiny fangs when she said that and - he will not giggle at the tiny fangs. He has a feeling she'd take that badly. "Ever. if - if - h-he - if Th--that person came here and told you I abandoned her he's a liar."
She wasn't going to say 'that' at first. Okay, so he's not just a superstitious wuss. "He hasn't said anything to me. Hasn't even really come close enough that I could hear him. He kind of - stands out there" - Fabian points toward a really prickly wild rosebush by the garden gates - "and glares, like if looks could kill I'd be screwed, but that's all. And that's bad enough..." A pause, and something occurs to him - '"Oh shit, he talks to you - he's actually kicked into your dreamspace? Ah, shit. I'm sorry. You don't deserve that. Any of that."
"You don't think I'm weak or broken because he got in?" Big eyes.
"Oh, hell no." Fabian wonders if, the next time the damn deathgod shows up, he'll be able to brain him with a flung trowel. "Did he say that or was it some henchfuck?"
"H-he did. I mean. The Reaper." That word sounds like it had about seven E's in it instead of one. Okay, she's definitely fae. Most people don't use that epithet unless they are. To everyone else he's 'Anathema' or 'Deceiver' or 'Leveller of Mana' or something. Fae are more blunt.
"Why'd you believe him?"
"I wouldn't, usually. I know he lies as easily as walking. But - he told me about you." She wipes her eyes with her sleeve. "About - about the colour of your hair, the sound of your voice, what your dreamscape looks like...so many things - and - and all of it w-was true and when I found that out it just - everything else he said seemed so PLAUSIBLE. I...I'm sorry. I know you're not a bad person. I never thought you were. I just - I'm so disappointed in myself and I was s-so--so angry that you took her offworld, like you thought we were all worthless and didn't deserve to see her anymore, that we weren't trying - we were trying! There was no way to get to Erebos for us--!"
"Hey - " Fabian puts his hands on her shoulders. "We were flying by the seat of our pants. Big time. I don't think you're all a bunch of weaksauce cowards over there. It was really hit or miss and when it got too close to 'miss' we came back here because it was a sure thing we could make it."
She takes a deep shaky breath in and lets it out slowly. "I'm sorry. I'm just so tired. I was so afraid I wouldn't ever be allowed to see her again. That you'd hate me, that she'd hate me. I feel like I was so stupid to even try now..."
"What'd you do?" asks Fabian. "I'm not asking for proof or anything, I'm just curious about that because we used the time honoured 'fly through the living room wall yay' method and - well, you were probably less crazy."
She smiles. "Not by much. I...I threw down at him. At the Reaper I mean. I challenged him to a duel. He said he'd grant any favour since I technically sort of won but he fucking lied of course."
Fabian stares.
"Okay you are both batshit and phenomenal. You won--? I mean, even on a technicality, shit, that's not 'doing nothing' and if anyone says it doesn't count they are smoking of the cheap drugs. How - wait, where - he can't get out of Erebos so where - dreams?"
"Yes. I weighted the odds heavily in my favour. I challenged him in the Dreaming for one, and I'm a Walker. So I have an advantage there. it was a full moon too, and I drank infused tea before I went to sleep, so my power was up at maximum." She grins, and it's a little impish. It doesn't last though. "Still, though - he's good. Really good. The only reasons I won were my odd-tipping, him being careless and arrogant and underestimating the shit out of me, and the fact that he's so fucking masochistic that any hit I landed made him too happy to focus."
Fabian twitches. Oh hooray, one more reason to be creeped out by the guy. Fabian has no issue with kinky, but there's kinky and then there's completely fucking batshit off one's nut. Getting all yay over someone kicking the hell out of you, probably with a pointy weaponlike object...? "Uh. Wow. I - don't want to know, do I?"
"He didn't do anything horrid. He just kind of." She gestures. "Was drapey."
"That'd be horrid in my books."
"It could've been worse," she says.
Fabian twitches again. "Yeah but - uh. Topic change please, my mind's going to places it needs to not go. Fucking trainwreck syndrome."
She hugs him. (She's purring and it makes her kind of vibrate a tiny bit; it's like his cat writ person-shaped.) "Sorry. I didn't mean to bring that on."
"it's okay. I'll live." He smiles. "So - you're okay now, right? Now that you know I don't hate you?"
"I am? I'm better. I'm still worried about her. I'm still afraid she'll hate me and never want to see me again..." She fights back a new bunch of tears successfully. "C-can you - oh hells. I don't even know your name, I didn't even ask, I'm such a twit."
"You were kind of preoccupied? It's Fabian." He offers a hand and smiles.
She smiles too after a bit. "I like that? Mine's Victoria. You can call me that or Vicky." Her hand is very warm, and she's got little claws - when she's holding her hand normally it's hard to tell but now that her fingers are curled a bit, it's apparent that if she swiped at someone that way it'd be painful. Fae are a little more 'wild', he recalls. Well - she's unlikely to decide he's a scratching post any time soon. She's still purring. (It's squeaky.)
"It's good to meet you, Vicky. And I do not think you're made of fail." Thank you, Rei for that phrase.
It made her giggle anyway. "You aren't either. All right. Um. Fabian, since chances are I'm not going to be able to be there when Lady Aurora wakes up, of if she's angry with me or thinks I forgot about her...can you tell her - " Vicky almost starts tearing up again but manages to hold it back. "...Tell her I never forgot her. That I tried. That I still love her. Even if she never wants to look at me again, I still love her and that won't ever change."
Fabian hugs Vicky again. "I'll tell her. I promise. I know you'd hang around until she woke up if you could, so she'd see you when she did." The 'when' surprises him a bit, but well, she said 'when' and his lurking slight pessimism (he chalks its presence up to being overtired and stressed now - everyone's doom, gloom, birds, snakes and airplanes when you're exhausted) seems to have dissipated in the face of her total confidence that it'll be all right.
And...nothing says it can't be. Faith counts for something. Faith counts for a LOT.
"I would stay," Vicky says. "I can't, though. There's things in the waking that I need to do. The Bastion's - well, things are strange there and even if I was crabby as hell I knew it was more logical for her to be taken offworld. It's safer there. Your world isn't occupied territory."
Well, that doesn't sound good. "...I don't figure there's anything I can do to help with that?"
"You have done something," says Vicky, beaming. "You saved her. I can tell everyone she's been found now and that she'll be all right. Thank you."
And he just got kissed on the cheek. Heh. "Any time? And - listen. Any time you feel blue or crappy or like everyone's liable to hate on you, you can come back here...?" He gestures at the dream garden. "There's a bell on that gate. If you ring it I'll probably be able to let you in. I'm still getting the hang of this lucid-dream thing."
"I can help you get a better hang of it, if you want?" Vicky is still smiling. "In return for you listening to me yowl."
"Everybody's gotta do it sometimes."
"You can talk to me too, if you want." Vicky leans on him. "I'll set it up so you can come into my dreamspace. I've been...I've kind of been working in dreams for a long time so I have the capacity to do that. There's no reason why you can't learn how to do that too."
"I would have thought I had too shallow an MP pool as it were. Like, one of those little kappa-shaped pools kids have, to kick the metaphor to hell."
"You're stronger than you think," Vicky says.
Fabian grins. "Pot, kettle. ...If you need to go back and rest, you can. I won't be offended." She seems to be kind of falling asleep against his arm. 'Or, if you want, you can crash here. I think the security system's okay, so you shouldn't have to worry about barging assholes..."
Vicky, looking grateful, curls up against him (and is warm). "Thank you," she murmurs, and yawns. Heh, curled tongue.
...Great, now HE'S yawning. "This is liable to end up a tandem crash..."
"Mmm. That's all right." Vicky's kneading his shirt sleeve. He snerks.
"Take care, okay, when you wake up? Remember I don't hate you."
She nods, and her eyes flutter shut. She's still purring in her sleep, and it's soothing enough that he's soon crashed as well.
He wakes up with the cat curled into a little grey circle beside him about where Vicky was in the dream, and he feels a lot more rested than he's been in a while.
A lot less underconfident about shit too.
He reaches over to administer gentle kitty noogies. It's still drizzling outside, but the grass is a bright, bright green from the ozone in the air after the storm, and it looks like the sun might come out.
Maybe he'll see her again tomorrow night, maybe not, but he has a feeling she'll come back.
Things will be all right.
***
FABIAN IS SO DAMN CUTE AND I WANNA HUG HIM. Ahem. XD
CHARACTERS: Fabian and Vicky
SUMMARY: Unexpected visitors, crashed goddesses, lurking deities of /b/ - Fabian has an eventful life.
RATING: PG for occasional cussage XD
NOTES: I was looping Celes's Theme while I wrote this. Again, beware the typos XD; Google Docs was being cantankerous. And I kept WIBBLING at this XD; I'm so sappy.
***
He's dreaming about weeding a overgrown garden when she shows up, and he's pretty sure that's symbolic but isn't interested right now in working out what it's supposed to mean. He's got dirt under his nails and a giant thistle scratched the hell out of his hands when he pulled it up just now, and he was about to uproot a dandelion from the mud (it just rained, it seems) when he looked up and saw her.
He doesn't know her. She's about the same height as Serena (maybe shorter) and the same shape as Aurora, though her complexion's more along the lines of his own. She has eyes about the colour of the flowers on the lilac bush there, and her hair's black with a blue sheen to it like a crow's wing or something.
She's got oval-shaped pupils, and pointed ears - which are currently kind of droopy. She looks as if she got rained on - was she here before he was in this dream, or something? That'd be surreal. He was dreaming of being indoors first, looking for Rei, who turned out to have gone out, so he decided (in the dream) to weed the garden, which is bigger than any garden he's ever actually had...
"Hi?" he says.
She stares at him, and her eyes get WIDE (and her pupils get huge). Then, to his shock, she tears up. There's no warning, and shortly she sits down hard on the grass and buries her face in her hands, making a high-pitched little noise that sounds completely miserable.
'Hey hey no - don't cry, what's wrong?" Fabian wipes his hands on his jeans, scowls at the mud, and then mutters, 'screw it' and washes off his hands in the birdbath. Once he's no longer full of dirt, he puts an arm around her. "Hey. Tell me what's wrong, okay? I'll do my best to help you - "
Somehow the fact that she's making almost no noise at all is worse. Just that squeaking every so often. The rest is all completely silent sobbing breaths that make her shake like crazy.
"You - ' she hiccups. 'Y-you - you're - you're n-not kicking me out - "
"Why would I kick you out? You didn't just elbow in like some magazine salesman from the underworld or something. This is - the boundary of where my dream is, right?" huh. usually he's not this lucid when he's dreaming. "You're invited in if you want. You're not out to kick my ass, right?"
She shakes her head. "Nnnh. N-no. I'm not." She swallows hard and sits up a bit. "I didn't mean to bother you. I was trying to avoid running into you."
"The hell? Why?" Fabian's not offended but he's confused.
She bites back an unhappy noise. "I didn't want to be - I c-can't deal with someone who might hate me now. I just can't. I only wanted to see her. I wasn't going to - I didn't intend any harm toward you, honestly, and I'm grateful to you. You saved her. She's safe because of you."
'She' is Aurora - who is still, right now, in that weird healing/stasis sleep she's been in for ages. it's necessary - but - damn it, he's starting to worry she might not come out of it. She seems more aware of things outside her own dreams now. She reacts to him when he talks to her or sings...but she's not awake. Not by far.
"Yeah, I guess," he sighs. "I wish she was, you know, healthy too - oh hey what no--"
The girl - well, young woman, she's like his age or maybe a little less - just made THE most unhappy keening sound he's ever heard in his life.
"It's my fault. It's my fault she's like that. I couldn't get to her, I couldn't h-help her - I - I tried - I tried so hard, I promise you, you can even ask me three times and I'll swear it to you on the Lady's Mirror - I couldn't do anything. I wanted to, I wanted to so badly, but I - I can't reach that place. I couldn't go there. I have no connection to it beyond the two times I almost died doing something... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I did this, this is my fault - I don't ever deserve to see her again."
Fabian's pulled her into his arms by this time and even if she still seems convinced he's going to hate the shit out of her she's clinging to his shirt. Three times, and that Mirror thing - okay, she's fae, not from around here for sure. Offworld. She knows Aurora. A Bastioner maybe? Shit. If that's the case then she was probably worried completely ill when Aurora vanished on account of - of - damn it he can't even make himself think the damn creep's name. But either way - damn.
She might have known Aurora personally.
Fabian's a little bit envious of that.
"You can see her if you want. She's - she can tell when people are close. She's not awake at all but she can still - hey no - " Fabian tries to get her to look up at him. "It's not your fault! It's not. It is NOT your fault, come on, look at me and you'll know I'm not being full of shit."
She looks up, swallows hard, and says, "I thought you'd hate me."
"Why?"
"Because I failed h-her. I'm - I - sh-she - she has no Knight now and I w-wanted to act as her Knight until she found her rightful one again but I couldn't even do that for her."
"You tried. That's more than I can say for, oh, like everyone. She thought everyone forgot her." Aurora said as much dreaming once. Fabian held her hand and talked her through it until she stopped that slow-motion flinching. It's a deep sleep she's in but she can hear voices and even if she didn't know the exact words he was saying, not consciously, it was enough to take the edge off the fear.
"I would never forget her." The girl's vehement and she actually flashed tiny fangs when she said that and - he will not giggle at the tiny fangs. He has a feeling she'd take that badly. "Ever. if - if - h-he - if Th--that person came here and told you I abandoned her he's a liar."
She wasn't going to say 'that' at first. Okay, so he's not just a superstitious wuss. "He hasn't said anything to me. Hasn't even really come close enough that I could hear him. He kind of - stands out there" - Fabian points toward a really prickly wild rosebush by the garden gates - "and glares, like if looks could kill I'd be screwed, but that's all. And that's bad enough..." A pause, and something occurs to him - '"Oh shit, he talks to you - he's actually kicked into your dreamspace? Ah, shit. I'm sorry. You don't deserve that. Any of that."
"You don't think I'm weak or broken because he got in?" Big eyes.
"Oh, hell no." Fabian wonders if, the next time the damn deathgod shows up, he'll be able to brain him with a flung trowel. "Did he say that or was it some henchfuck?"
"H-he did. I mean. The Reaper." That word sounds like it had about seven E's in it instead of one. Okay, she's definitely fae. Most people don't use that epithet unless they are. To everyone else he's 'Anathema' or 'Deceiver' or 'Leveller of Mana' or something. Fae are more blunt.
"Why'd you believe him?"
"I wouldn't, usually. I know he lies as easily as walking. But - he told me about you." She wipes her eyes with her sleeve. "About - about the colour of your hair, the sound of your voice, what your dreamscape looks like...so many things - and - and all of it w-was true and when I found that out it just - everything else he said seemed so PLAUSIBLE. I...I'm sorry. I know you're not a bad person. I never thought you were. I just - I'm so disappointed in myself and I was s-so--so angry that you took her offworld, like you thought we were all worthless and didn't deserve to see her anymore, that we weren't trying - we were trying! There was no way to get to Erebos for us--!"
"Hey - " Fabian puts his hands on her shoulders. "We were flying by the seat of our pants. Big time. I don't think you're all a bunch of weaksauce cowards over there. It was really hit or miss and when it got too close to 'miss' we came back here because it was a sure thing we could make it."
She takes a deep shaky breath in and lets it out slowly. "I'm sorry. I'm just so tired. I was so afraid I wouldn't ever be allowed to see her again. That you'd hate me, that she'd hate me. I feel like I was so stupid to even try now..."
"What'd you do?" asks Fabian. "I'm not asking for proof or anything, I'm just curious about that because we used the time honoured 'fly through the living room wall yay' method and - well, you were probably less crazy."
She smiles. "Not by much. I...I threw down at him. At the Reaper I mean. I challenged him to a duel. He said he'd grant any favour since I technically sort of won but he fucking lied of course."
Fabian stares.
"Okay you are both batshit and phenomenal. You won--? I mean, even on a technicality, shit, that's not 'doing nothing' and if anyone says it doesn't count they are smoking of the cheap drugs. How - wait, where - he can't get out of Erebos so where - dreams?"
"Yes. I weighted the odds heavily in my favour. I challenged him in the Dreaming for one, and I'm a Walker. So I have an advantage there. it was a full moon too, and I drank infused tea before I went to sleep, so my power was up at maximum." She grins, and it's a little impish. It doesn't last though. "Still, though - he's good. Really good. The only reasons I won were my odd-tipping, him being careless and arrogant and underestimating the shit out of me, and the fact that he's so fucking masochistic that any hit I landed made him too happy to focus."
Fabian twitches. Oh hooray, one more reason to be creeped out by the guy. Fabian has no issue with kinky, but there's kinky and then there's completely fucking batshit off one's nut. Getting all yay over someone kicking the hell out of you, probably with a pointy weaponlike object...? "Uh. Wow. I - don't want to know, do I?"
"He didn't do anything horrid. He just kind of." She gestures. "Was drapey."
"That'd be horrid in my books."
"It could've been worse," she says.
Fabian twitches again. "Yeah but - uh. Topic change please, my mind's going to places it needs to not go. Fucking trainwreck syndrome."
She hugs him. (She's purring and it makes her kind of vibrate a tiny bit; it's like his cat writ person-shaped.) "Sorry. I didn't mean to bring that on."
"it's okay. I'll live." He smiles. "So - you're okay now, right? Now that you know I don't hate you?"
"I am? I'm better. I'm still worried about her. I'm still afraid she'll hate me and never want to see me again..." She fights back a new bunch of tears successfully. "C-can you - oh hells. I don't even know your name, I didn't even ask, I'm such a twit."
"You were kind of preoccupied? It's Fabian." He offers a hand and smiles.
She smiles too after a bit. "I like that? Mine's Victoria. You can call me that or Vicky." Her hand is very warm, and she's got little claws - when she's holding her hand normally it's hard to tell but now that her fingers are curled a bit, it's apparent that if she swiped at someone that way it'd be painful. Fae are a little more 'wild', he recalls. Well - she's unlikely to decide he's a scratching post any time soon. She's still purring. (It's squeaky.)
"It's good to meet you, Vicky. And I do not think you're made of fail." Thank you, Rei for that phrase.
It made her giggle anyway. "You aren't either. All right. Um. Fabian, since chances are I'm not going to be able to be there when Lady Aurora wakes up, of if she's angry with me or thinks I forgot about her...can you tell her - " Vicky almost starts tearing up again but manages to hold it back. "...Tell her I never forgot her. That I tried. That I still love her. Even if she never wants to look at me again, I still love her and that won't ever change."
Fabian hugs Vicky again. "I'll tell her. I promise. I know you'd hang around until she woke up if you could, so she'd see you when she did." The 'when' surprises him a bit, but well, she said 'when' and his lurking slight pessimism (he chalks its presence up to being overtired and stressed now - everyone's doom, gloom, birds, snakes and airplanes when you're exhausted) seems to have dissipated in the face of her total confidence that it'll be all right.
And...nothing says it can't be. Faith counts for something. Faith counts for a LOT.
"I would stay," Vicky says. "I can't, though. There's things in the waking that I need to do. The Bastion's - well, things are strange there and even if I was crabby as hell I knew it was more logical for her to be taken offworld. It's safer there. Your world isn't occupied territory."
Well, that doesn't sound good. "...I don't figure there's anything I can do to help with that?"
"You have done something," says Vicky, beaming. "You saved her. I can tell everyone she's been found now and that she'll be all right. Thank you."
And he just got kissed on the cheek. Heh. "Any time? And - listen. Any time you feel blue or crappy or like everyone's liable to hate on you, you can come back here...?" He gestures at the dream garden. "There's a bell on that gate. If you ring it I'll probably be able to let you in. I'm still getting the hang of this lucid-dream thing."
"I can help you get a better hang of it, if you want?" Vicky is still smiling. "In return for you listening to me yowl."
"Everybody's gotta do it sometimes."
"You can talk to me too, if you want." Vicky leans on him. "I'll set it up so you can come into my dreamspace. I've been...I've kind of been working in dreams for a long time so I have the capacity to do that. There's no reason why you can't learn how to do that too."
"I would have thought I had too shallow an MP pool as it were. Like, one of those little kappa-shaped pools kids have, to kick the metaphor to hell."
"You're stronger than you think," Vicky says.
Fabian grins. "Pot, kettle. ...If you need to go back and rest, you can. I won't be offended." She seems to be kind of falling asleep against his arm. 'Or, if you want, you can crash here. I think the security system's okay, so you shouldn't have to worry about barging assholes..."
Vicky, looking grateful, curls up against him (and is warm). "Thank you," she murmurs, and yawns. Heh, curled tongue.
...Great, now HE'S yawning. "This is liable to end up a tandem crash..."
"Mmm. That's all right." Vicky's kneading his shirt sleeve. He snerks.
"Take care, okay, when you wake up? Remember I don't hate you."
She nods, and her eyes flutter shut. She's still purring in her sleep, and it's soothing enough that he's soon crashed as well.
He wakes up with the cat curled into a little grey circle beside him about where Vicky was in the dream, and he feels a lot more rested than he's been in a while.
A lot less underconfident about shit too.
He reaches over to administer gentle kitty noogies. It's still drizzling outside, but the grass is a bright, bright green from the ozone in the air after the storm, and it looks like the sun might come out.
Maybe he'll see her again tomorrow night, maybe not, but he has a feeling she'll come back.
Things will be all right.
***
FABIAN IS SO DAMN CUTE AND I WANNA HUG HIM. Ahem. XD
