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]

There were a lot of names and a lot of references in there that Romeo couldn't understand, but he understood enough to respond.

"So be tired," he said. "Or don't be tired. Rage at the Guadawhatever. Rage at fate. Rage at Reno, if you have to. Just ... don't smile nicely when you want to scream. Repressing this, trying to be nice -- I don't know what good that will do."

[the_merriest]

"I don't want to hate," she said again. "And it's not ... what he's done is what he's done. He never did anything to me. He wouldn't. He hurt people I'll never meet or know anything about. So it seems like it's ... unfair to just storm down there and call him names. He's ... sorry. They're all sorry. And ..."

She kicked at the ground. "And I feel like it, anyway, and that's probably the last thing he needs, right now."

Damned if it didn't sound like a good idea, anyway.

[withoutverona]

Romeo needed a cigarette. Which was odd; he hadn't smoked much in months.

He leaned back on clenched fingers instead. "He hurt people," he said, dully. "Whether you knew them or not, that's .... it is what it is."

"Maybe he needs to be yelled at, and you need to yell, for you to get past this. If you want to get past it, anyhow."

[the_merriest]

"Maybe you're right," she mused, thinking on it some more. She smiled. "Or maybe I just wanna yell at him and that sounds like a good excuse for it."

Deep breath. "I don't know. About getting past this. Or wanting to. I do, and I don't, and I don't know what that means."

[withoutverona]

"It means you do and you don't," Romeo said, helpfully repeating the obvious. "And you might need to talk to him, or yell at him, or something in the middle, before you're sure."

He bit his lip, realizing he had no advice. "I feel like I'm being completely useless, here. If it were me, if I found out something like that about Yurika" -- which was less ludicrous than the poor boy realized -- "I'd definitely yell at her. I don't know what I'd do the next day."

[the_merriest]

"Totally not useless," Rikku said, shaking her head. "You brought hugs, which are gonna need a refill sooner or later, and you're listening to me ramble. I don't know what to do, either. Maybe it's just... you know. Either I want him back anyway, or I say I don't. It feels like those shouldn't be my only options. It feels stupid, like either I'm just gonna wave my hands and pretend I don't care about this, and it's huge, or I'm gonna ... lose us, because of something he did before we ever met. I don't like those options."

[withoutverona]

"You can have another hug whenever you want," he promised.

And closed his eyes, as if to meditate. "I don't think loving him has to mean pretending you don't care. Juliet -- she loved Tybalt, he was her mother's favorite nephew. But she forgave me. For all the good it did us, but still."

[the_merriest]

"Was it hard, for her?" Rikku asked. "I mean. Was she close to Tybalt, did she ... resent you, for a while?"

[withoutverona]

"She didn't say," Romeo said. "We only had the one night and ... I don't remember what we talked about. I know it wasn't about that."

[the_merriest]

"I guess that makes sense," she nodded. "I mean, you were ... getting sent off, right? The exile deal? If you've only got one night ..."

If Reno was getting sent back in the morning, would she go knock on his door? That ... was an interesting question.

[withoutverona]

"The exile deal," Romeo confirmed, a certain sorrow darkening his eyes. He'd been so certain, that night, that it was not the end it seemed but somehow a strange beginning; he'd been wrong.

"And it was our wedding night, so ..." He made a little hopeless gesture. "I am glad we didn't throw those hours away so she could chastise me. But you and Reno ... you have time, at least."

[the_merriest]

"Unless he gets a phone call from his boss. Hey, pack it in, go home." She shrugged. "I'm glad you didn't. I mean. Your wedding night, that's ... yelling and screaming at each other, that can wait, you can write letters about it later, just ... have the moment now, yeah?"

[withoutverona]

"But his boss hasn't done that yet," Romeo said, eyes still closed. "Do you think he will?"

"Sometimes I think all we ever have, anyhow, is a moment, and putting things off is asking for some disaster," he added.

[the_merriest]

"He almost did a month ago," Rikku said, putting her feet onto her bedframe so she could hug her knees against her chest. "I ... don't know. How long he's gonna be here. Maybe you're right. Maybe if I don't go down there now and talk to him, I'll miss the chance to do it. I ... just don't think I can, yet."

[withoutverona]

Romeo gave into an impulse to reach to hug her again. "He's not under sentence of death if he doesn't leave at dawn, at least. Take tonight, think and decide what you want to say."

"But can you do one thing for me?"

[the_merriest]

Romeos were much so better to hug than knees. She settled in against him and nodded. "Mmmkay," she said. "What should I do?"

[withoutverona]

Rikkus were excellent to hug. "Talk to him, if you can, before too much time has passed," he said. "Don't let it just fester until you're half-dead from the hurt."

[the_merriest]

"Okay," she said, nodding. And not letting go just yet. "That's ... yeah. A good idea. I'll ... try. Honest."

Weirdly, she felt like adding a 'zoto' in there.

"See, and you said you weren't helping," she smiled.

[withoutverona]

That got most of a smile out of Romeo, and he squeezed her once more. "If I helped, it was almost entirely by accident. So will you tell him who to blame, if you do end up yelling at him?" he asked.

[the_merriest]

She smiled, sitting up again. "You bet. I'll make sure I mention this is all your fault. Spell your name out properly, and maybe say that you said to kick him a few times for you."

At least she had the mischevious look going again.

[withoutverona]

He laughed, both in relief at her smile and because the mental image of Rikku kicking Reno was kind of amusing in itself. "And then he'll kick me, and I suppose I would have to run and tell my father," Romeo drawled. "This weekend reminded me what a brat I had been."

[the_merriest]

"This weekend reminded me that I was even more hyper when I was three," she laughed. "Pops used to yell at me, that --" she stopped to mimic her father's voice, deep and with a twang that, had he been from this country, might have passed for Texan. "'I tell you, girl, you're the reason I'm bald. I pulled all this hair out 'cause of you. You and that idiot brother of yours.'"

[withoutverona]

"My father would just sigh and go back to his office," Romeo said, shaking his head. "You've a brother? Is he -- what is he doing now?"

As an only child, he was always a little fascinated by siblings.

[the_merriest]

"I do," Rikku said, rolling her eyes. "He's older. And he is an idiot. Very good at taking the group and going out diving for ruins, and he didn't want me to go at first but I was good at it so he kinda couldn't let me. I think he might still be hanging out on the airship, arguing with Pops. They never get along."

She giggled. "He, uh, tried to send letters, in English, but his English is terrible. About the only thing he knew was NO BOYS, RIKKU."

[withoutverona]

"And of course you didn't listen," Romeo said, cheerfully enough. "Bad English, why should you?"