Room 308, Sunday Afternoon

[the_merriest]

Ugh, life was just getting weirder and weirder. It was almost Valentine's Day again, and she didn't want to think about that, and what the hell was going on with Reno anyway, and some crazy guy grabbed Luke and hurt him but she wasn't allowed to go postal on whoever it was and her classes were so weird and and and ....

She was just going to sit here and take apart her laptop again. Not the one she used, the spare she got. It got a little stranger every time she put it back together, and the growing pile of missing pieces got funnier-looking, but that was part of the fun, right?

(Door and post wide open.)

Comments

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

He'd been feeling a little bit better until she mentioned Valentine's. That was just gonna suck.

"Stupid holidays ruin so much. But hey, kudos to the positive moving on. Who's the happy-making lucky guy?"

[the_merriest]

Rikku blushed. "It's not ... like that. Uh. We're just ... we hang out. He kinda doesn't ... do the whole dating thing? But he's upfront about it, I mean, he's not some sleazy guy being all whatever. Uh. Have you met Reno?"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"I don't think I've met anyone," John admitted. "Dating's not all it's cracked up to be sometimes. I can see the benefits of keeping things casual."

[the_merriest]

"I've ... never done that," she admitted, a little awkwardly. "I mean, it was just Jude, and we were all ... you know. But I ... I kinda like what this is. It's way different, I mean, I wasn't expecting it, and I don't know what's going on, but ... I think maybe I'm just gonna see what happens. Maybe it doesn't have to BE SOMETHING and all that, right?"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Right, it doesn't have be anything," John had experience that said otherwise, but he didn't want to burst any bubbles. "Just two people, hanging out. Enjoying each other's company and all."

[the_merriest]

Rikku nodded. "Yeah. That's ... I dunno. Maybe it'll go somewhere, maybe it won't. It just kinda snuck up on me, I guess." She smiled, faintly. "Listen, are you gonna ... go talk to her? She may not realize that you think ... all the stuff you're thinking."

It usually shocked the hell out of her when Jude felt useless. He was her rock.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"She seemed pretty mad," John told her. "We have class together tomorrow, so maybe I can try to talk to her there."

[the_merriest]

Rikku chewed her lip. "Maybe? Class kinda sucks for that kind of thing, but tomorrow is good. Where's not as important as what. Just ... you know. Ask her how she's feeling, and tell her ... about all of this. Ask her what she needs from you, and see what she says. Yeah?"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

John should be taking notes. "Yeah, you know, it seems so simple but I get the feeling it's going to be complicated."

[the_merriest]

"It always is," she smiled. "But ... you know something crazy? No matter how scary or stupid it is, or how much you're going, that won't help ... just ... telling the other person what you're feeling? All the weird little squidgy bits? It usually helps. Really."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Okay, I haven't actually told anyone this," John started, because really, if she was going to offer up advice, she should know what she's dealing with. "When she said, you know, that she like, loved me, I said I needed breakfast." And then there was cringing.

[the_merriest]

Rikku ... stared.

"Oh."

Rikku stared some more.

"Okay. When I said tell her everything? Maybe not so much."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

John nodded. "Andrew helped me bake a cake to fix it."

"I'm just not...so good with those, you know, feeling things."

[the_merriest]

Rikku nodded quickly. "Yeah. That's ... I mean, at least she knows that, right? That you mean well and that you're ... you know. Trying. You can get better at stuff like that the more you do it. I suck way less at relationship stuff than I used to."

She still sucked, though. Just ... not half so badly as before.