Room 308, Wednesday Midday

[the_merriest]

Rikku was in her room. Working on her mech droid thing for Invent-o-whatever class.

Which was, thus far, a miserable failure, and not helped much by Petey attempting to eat the outlying bits of it.

That was okay. It was a mech droid. Mech droids were safe. Not arguments or coats or anything else she wasn't thinking about. Because she wasn't. She was working on her mech droid.

She had a fruit basket on her desk - hers, from class, because she hadn't given it to anyone yet. Because that seemed mean and she was too tired and empty to be mean today. Because she had a feeling maybe she should keep it.

Her door was wide open. In case anybody wanted some fruit. Poke at the mech droid. Bother Petey. Talk. Something. Right?

Comments

[withoutverona]

If she needed a hug, she'd get one. He squeezed her tighter. "Ask me," he suggested. "I'll do it, if I can."

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

Sokka poked his head in the door. "Hiya, Orangey -- ooh, fruit!" He made a beeline for the basket. "So, what's new?"

[the_merriest]

"What usually happened?" Rikku said, biting her lip. "I mean, did they ... was it all just, okay, freak out, and then we're okay, or the girls went eww and dumped them, or ... ?"

[the_merriest]

"Can you ..." She frowned. "Check ... up on him? I don't mean now or anything, just ..."

She squeezed harder. "He might not be ... okay. He. Might just be in his room drinking and not stopping for anything else and ..."

And she didn't hate him. And that was. Bad. And.

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

Dawn considered. "Well, Angel got killed but got better, Spike went to Africa, Giles became a Watcher, Andrew someone else became a bigger part of the group, and Riley went to South America to be a special agent." She sighed. "Mostly, they stopped dating Buffy, except for Andrew and Giles, who never did. Because that would have been weird. Oh, and I think Oz went to Tibet."

[the_merriest]

"Hey, that's not for you," she frowned, looking at the basket.

She blinked, considering the specifications, and then shrugged. "Okay. It can totally be for you. Have some. Uh. I'm working on my ... you know. Project."

She stuck her tongue out at that and gestured to the mess of a mech droid on her bed.

[the_merriest]

Rikku ... tried to take all that in.

"Does your sister just ... have a thing for ... um. Evil guys?" she asked. As delicately as possible.

[withoutverona]

"I can feed him," Romeo assured her, but slowly. "Keep him safe, warm. Break the bottle, if I have to."

He tilted his head at her. "You don't hate him," he said, stating the obvious with a note of surprise in his voice.

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

Sokka pause, hand hovering over the basket, and shrugged. "Well, if it's for someone else... I mean, I'm not the sort of person to... touch... other people's... fruit." He sighed. "Okay, pretend that came out snarky and sexually suggestive. I guess I'm kind of 'off' tonight. ...Hey, project's lookin' good!"

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"She didn't know they were evil at first?" Yeah, that sounded lame even to her. "Then she'd find out later, and try to make it work anyway."

[the_merriest]

"You don't need to ... uh. I mean, if he needs to drink, that's okay, just ... not if it means he's not doing anything else and just drinking more and ..."

She shook her head quickly. "I don't. I ... I don't think I could. I almost wish I could, I'd just go 'hey, so glad that's over' and traipse off and ... I d-don't." She chewed her lower lip. "I just can't ... be with him, right now. You know?"

[the_merriest]

"Why?" Rikku asked. "I mean. If it went ... really bad the first time, why not go 'hey, the evil thing totally's not working for me' later? 'Sorry about your dark past, but wow, been there.'"

Because really, relationships were all about being logical. Love isn't brains, children...

[the_merriest]

"This is where I'd crack a joke about you always being off, but I'm not in a mood to be mean. Have an orange or something, it's okay, I was gonna give it to someone but I hadn't figured out who yet." She gestured vaguely. "Mech droid. I thought I'd ..."

She lowered her voice. "We have them back home. So I kinda didn't invent it. I'm just ... upgrading." Frown. "And taking the weapons off."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"I have no idea," she said, still not understanding any of the dynamics between Buffy and Spike in the slightest. "Buffy's kind of weird that way."

[withoutverona]

"You want his liver in one piece," Romeo stated. "I'll do my best, I promise."

He flopped onto the bed to take a seat. "Your heart doesn't work like that, you can't drop him like a child with an unwanted toy." Like, say, he had dropped Rosaline, but never mind that.

"I think it's meant to be a good thing."

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

Sokka shrugged. "Professor Glitch and his thing about weapons. I mean, I get that using knowledge for evil is bad, but not all weapons are EVIL. I nearly got dragged into the spirit world 'cause of that kind of thinking..." He trailed off, peering at her. "What do you mean, you're not in a mood to be mean? Are you feeling okay?"

[the_merriest]

"Jude was totally different," Rikku said, frowning. "But then ... Jude kinda ... I dunno. He was Zen, I was hyper, it was awesome, but he hated me killing fiends. And I'm good at it. Things got a little sideways, you know?"

[the_merriest]

"I wish ... I knew what happens now," she said softly. "He can't take back what he did, and I can't just ... pretend it isn't there, so I don't know ... I feel like I should talk to him, except there's nothing to talk about. It's just a ... chasm."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"Reno isn't Jude," she said, stating the obvious, "just like Sam isn't Dean. Stuff that bothers Sam didn't bother Dean, and vice versa. Like maybe you killing fiends won't bother Reno so much. Do you want to be with Reno?"

[withoutverona]

"None of us can take back what we did," Romeo said, almost fiercely. "Can you move past it, though, and let him be the man he wants to become, without .. without forgetting?"

"Or, is he going to do it again, whatever it is?"

[the_merriest]

"I had to save the world," Rikku said coolly. "We didn't tell Sin very nicely that it shouldn't devour islands any more. We killed it, and I had an ancient legendary weapon to help me do it. I get ... mad sometimes. About the whole ... some people get to sit and say, weapons are bad, you're vicious and wrong for having them, and then when wild boars storm in, they climb up on the tables and wait for you to take care of it so they can go right back to telling you how bad those weapons are. So long as they keep their hands clean, they get to be better than you. It's bullshit."

[the_merriest]

"I ..." Wow. That was a big one.

"He doesn't mind. The ... fiends thing. We spar, even. Totally smashed his knee up. He ... gets me. I don't understand it. It's ... until all of this, I would have said ... that I wanted that, more than anything. And now I ... I wish I knew."

[the_merriest]

Rikku chewed her lip, searching for words.

"It's his job," she said finally, figuring that, at least, was safe. "I don't think he's allowed to quit. I'm not even sure he'd want to. It's ... part of him. It's who he is. If they asked him to do it again, he would, because ... that's what happens, with his job. You do it or else."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"Okay. So, don't throw things away yet," Dawn suggested, "and definitely don't give any of his stuff back, if you have it. Just hang out a couple of days, and see if you can get over it, or at least learn to live with it. Y'know?"

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

Sokka nodded. "Yeah, and then the giant owl-monster tries to tell you that saving the world makes you just as bad as the man who KILLED the MOON."

...Trust him, it really does make sense in context.

He shrugged. "The people who don't LIVE our kind of life don't understand. Sometimes, you gotta kill or be killed, and that sucks, but it's the way it is."