OOM: Afterwards

[latino_menace]

It's been a long evening. Ramon aches from all the places she hit him and he's tired and still no further along to understanding anything they talked about. But that can all wait for now. They've been to the infirmary and Fiona's got her hand strapped up and then he'd brought her up to her room and put her to bed. She was pretty spent.

After she'd fallen asleep, he'd considered going back to his own room for the night. But it felt like a trek and anyway, there are things to talk about. So he'd taken a shower, winced at the bruises starting to form, found some clean soft jeans and a white T shirt. Then he'd poured a whiskey over ice and sat in a comfortable chair, watching her sleep and thinking. It's a lot more peaceful up here than it was downstairs, that's for sure.

Comments

[justcallmefee]

She sleeps for a few hours, motionless, exhausted. Even after the healer got done with her, her whole arm still aches. Her whole body aches.

And even in her sleep, she reaches for him.

Her hand searches across the sheets, patting his empty pillow.

"Cariño?"

[latino_menace]

He's dozing lightly in the chair with his eyes half open. When she speaks, his head straightens and he reflexivly drinks some whiskey. The ice has almost melted.

'I'm over here. Go back to sleep.'

Re:

[justcallmefee]

She rolls over to peer at him in the shadows. The fact that he's all the way over there brings the fight back to surface. She swallows, trying to rid herself of the lump in her throat.

"Come to bed?"

[latino_menace]

'Soon. Just wanted a drink.'

It helps relax the muscles. Also, it's easier to think when he's not breathing the same air as her.

'How's your hand?'

[justcallmefee]

"Hurts."

Funny, she was thinking from the other side of that coin. That it's too easy to think while she's so far away from him.

"You okay?"

[latino_menace]

'Want some aspirin? Whiskey?'

Either work.

[justcallmefee]

She's quiet for a moment, making a point to pull the sheets up over her body, tucking her arm beneath.

(If she falls asleep now, he'll be gone when she wakes up in the morning. Her mind plays that scene through. Emptying the ashtray. Throwing away the bottles. Showering without his hands on her body.)

She closes her eyes. "Want you."

[latino_menace]

He drinks again.

'We should talk first.'

[justcallmefee]

"You're leaving, aren't you."

It isn't a question.

[latino_menace]

He sighs. This isn't a good start.

'No, Fi. I'm not leaving.'

Is she always this defeatist?

'Why would you jump to that conclusion?'

[justcallmefee]

He's not leaving. A tiny thread she can hold onto.

"It's what I'd do."

Lie.

[latino_menace]

'Bullshit,' he says, without rancour.

'You could have left down in the stables but you didn't.'

[justcallmefee]

"I don't want to fight any more."

For once, that's the truth.

[latino_menace]

'Then talk to me. And tell me what's wrong without shouting or hitting me this time.'

[justcallmefee]

Her fingers pluck idly at the sheet, and even in the dark, he knows she's worrying that bottom lip between her teeth.

"Told you. Can't handle it when you mock me. Take your mood out on someone else next time."

[latino_menace]

'And I told you, I don't understand what that means. I wasn't mocking you and I don't get what you mean by saying it.'

Beat.

'But you're right about my mood.'

Possibly this is his version of an apology.

[justcallmefee]

She wants to touch him, wants to feel his skin warm under her palms, wants to feel that gentle kiss that destroys her all over again.

He wants answers.

"You say I can have any life I want, easy. Husband. Kids. Family. Love." The last word is half breath, half whisper, like it caught in her throat.

The pitch of her voice rises, as she singsongs the words. "But not with you, no, not with you."

[latino_menace]

He's quiet in the dark, tired.

'I never said you couldn't have it with me either. You make a lot of assumptions and decide a lot of things on my behalf, don't you?'

[justcallmefee]

"No, you told me," she answers, solemn, her tone still almost childlike. "Can't love two people at the same time. Doesn't work like that."

[latino_menace]

Ramon shrugs a shoulder, almost sullen.

'I don't know what it is if it isn't with him. Maybe it's different with other people.'

Maybe he does love her and he just doesn't realise? How would he know?

'And does it really matter? I have forever with Random. I never told you that I have a form of immortality. He'll wait for me, like I'll wait for him and the life after his wife has gone. I love him but he's not the issue here. You are. You and Michael.'

[justcallmefee]

Again, she's quiet for a long time, trying to understand what it was he just said. He's immortal?

"You never cared about Michael before."

[latino_menace]

'It bothers me because you keep throwing Random at me like he's the one in the way. Like it's my fault because I'm married to him.'

The whiskey's almost gone now and he wants more.

'When you're in exactly the same situation. The only difference is that Michael isn't playing ball with you.'

[justcallmefee]

"Wait, in the way? In the way of what?"

[latino_menace]

'...of us.'

He thought that's what they were talking about?

[justcallmefee]

He says it so casually. 'Us.' Like he knows how this is all going to play out.

"I'm not married to him. I'm not even sleeping with him."