ArchivedLogs:Bounce Back

Bounce Back
Dramatis Personae Anette and Pedro
In Absentia	2016-02-29 "You smell like him. Quite often."
Location <BOM> The Spatters - Ascension Island
A comfortable three-bedroom cabin, sturdily built if inelegant. The front door opens up into a cozy sitting room with small bathroom; it is adjoined by a kitchenette with room for small table. The three bedrooms here -- two off the sitting room, one on the other side of the kitchen -- are not uniform in size nor layout, with the considerably smaller kitchen-adjacent room having its own screened-in porch. It's one of those rare mornings where Anette is awake at a normal hour. Not just awake but functional: she's currently in the kitchen, just out of the shower with her wet hair tied up, a bathrobe wrapped around her body as she fries eggs and bacon for breakfast. Just off to the side she has her laptop up with some cheesy action movie playing while she cooks. Outside, a light snow flurry falls and a slight chill lingers in the air; she hasn't lit the fireplace yet. There's a thump that sounds in the tiny room off the kitchen, followed by the door handle wiggling. A moment later, Pedro stumbles out of his room. Dressed only in blue boxers, and with his hair in a horrible mess, he slowly makes his way to the bathroom. He waves to Anette, and mumbles a good morning. Anette jumps at the thump, turning her head towards Pedro's room as she waits for him to come out. She smiles as he enters, flipping the eggs in her pan. "Morning. Do you eat eggs and bacon? I can make you some if you want?" she asks, sliding the food onto a plate sitting nearby. A few seconds later, the toaster goes off and Anette grabs it, taking a bite without bothering with butter. "Hope I didn't wake you up." Pedro pauses at the door to the bathroom. "No. No eggs or bacon. Maybe a strip of bacon. Coffee?" He shakes his head at the second question, and slips into the bathroom. When he reappears several minutes later, he's looking a bit more chipper, shaking out his damp hair. "And good morning!", he says, moving into the kitchen to lean against the countertop. Anette ticks her head towards the coffee pot on the counter. "Already made." She turns off the stove and grabs a fork, leaning against the counter as she picks at her breakfast, not bothering to even sit down or even move away really. "So what're you up to today?" "I dunno.", he mumbles as he sets about pouring himself coffee. "No set plans, really. Might head to the city, torture myself by looking at stuff I can't afford." Pedro chuckles and grins. "What about you?" Anette shrugs. "No idea. Might do some cleaning. Or just watch movies all day. Hell, I might join you in the city. Got nothing better to do." She gives a quick chuckle and shakes her head. "God damn I need a hobby." Pedro grins. "Kicking peoples' asses isn't your hobby?" The bat mutant takes a lengthy slurp of his coffee. "You could try video games or something, they're entertaining. Watching movies all day works too. Maybe check out some YouTube stuff?" "I don't think those really count as hobbies," Anette chuckles. "And I'm trying to stay away from ass kicking for a bit. Tends to get me in trouble and piss off the wrong people. I need something quiet like knitting or cross-stitch. Something granny." She takes another bite of her eggs. Pedro snorts loudly and spits out a mouthful of coffee. "What?!" He steps closer to Anette, reaching out with a wing to touch her forehead. "You coming down with something? Who are you and what did you do with Anette?" Laughing, he takes a step back. "For serious?" Anette laughs. "You're lucky I can't use mine," she teases, fluttering the wings trapped under her bathrobe. "But really, I told you. I'm trying not to fuck up everything in my life. And if that means not trying to murder everyone on my shitlist, well, I'll give it a shot." She takes a bite of bacon and grins. "Don't worry, I'm still kicking ass for the Brotherhood." "You cooould, if you wanted.", Pedro teases. "And that's good. How's the tattoo healing up? Does it hurt at all, afterwards?" The bat grabs a few sheets of paper towel to clean up the coffee. "Would you get another one, in future?" Anette slides the shoulder of her bathrobe down, revealing the tattoo beneath it. "It's looking good. Healing nice. Wouldn't really say it hurt, just really sore. At least, it was better than being shot in the leg. I might get another, someday, maybe." She looks up to Pedro with a grin. "Why? Thinking of getting one yourself? Pedro eyes the tattoo a moment, nodding slowly. "It does look pretty awesome. Looks like it is healing up well." He reaches out to lightly run a fingertip over it. "I think most things are better than being shot in the leg." His eyes widen slightly and he shrugs. "I don't know. I have no idea of what I would want tattooed on me. And uhm I'm all skin and bones really, it'll probably hurt like hell." Anette watches as Pedro feels the tattoo, the scarring hiding beneath, giving him a moment to admire it before she raises her bathrobe back up. "It's nice seeing someone look at my shoulder and not look like he's going to burst into tears." She looks to Pedro and grins. "As long as it has nothing to do with me, I don't care. But yeah, you should probably know what you want before you get it. I hear they're kinda permanent. And I don't know if being skin and bones makes it more painful." Pedro snorts. "It's not like I would tattoo your name or anything." He downs the rest of his coffee, and then reaches to snag one of Anette's bacon slices. "But maybe an owl tattoo wouldn't be a horrible idea." He crunches down on the bacon and hmms. "I'll probably regret this, but it does taste pretty good." "Eh, I'm still not sure about that. But hey, it's your body, do what you want," Anette says, using her fork to scramble her eggs on her plate. "What about a giant heart with 'Mom' written on the inside? I hear those are popular. Or an infinity symbol? Nobody has those." Pedro looks sad for a moment, and shakes his head. "No, none of those are what I want." He runs a hand through his messy hair. "So. Uhm. Are you seeing Killian?" The bat glances at her from the corner of his eyes. "Cause uhm. You smell like him. Quite often." Anette looks up, her eyes wide, as if startled by the accusation. "Am I...what?" she seems to be at a loss for words. She quickly looks down at her plate, picking at the chunks of eggs left. "We've fooled around. Like you and me. You know that wasn't exactly exclusive. And we...did go camping. He thought I needed a break from everything. Especially after the...relapse." Pedro nods slowly, looking away, out the kitchen window. "I know. But um. You kinda stopped it with me. So. Is it just him? 'Cause that does say something, si?" He reaches up to fuss with his hair. "You've kind of avoided mentioning him at all, lately. Which was what got me curious. If you're seeing him, you don't have to hide it. Or like, sneak around, you know." Anette gives up trying to distract herself, setting the plate down on the counter. "I...wouldn't say 'seeing'. But um..." She pauses, taking a deep breath and lifting her head to look at the ceiling. "I think I'm in love with him," she eventually forces out. "I know I am. I wasn't sure if I should bring up to you or how..." She chuckles, rubbing her eyes with her talons. "I didn't know how to bring it up to myself." "I see.", Pedro says quietly, still staring out the window. His large ears droop to the sides. "I am happy for you. Killian is a good man. And you definitely deserve to have someone good in your life." The batty mutant is silent for a few moments before looking over his shoulder at her. "Does he love you?" "I meant what I said before. I don't do the love thing. I don't like it and terrifies me. Fuck, why do you think I needed the coke again?" Anette turns and begins digging around in the cabinets for a mug and booze, filling the mug a third full and topping it off with coffee. "I think he does," she says quietly, taking a sip of her 'coffee'. "We differ greatly on our opinions of what I deserve." Pedro smiles faintly, the ears perking up slightly. "You don't need coke. You never did. It doesn't make any of the bad shit go away, it only makes things worse. I think you know that now, si?" His ears stand up tall once more and he turns around. "You've been through hell. You've pushed through to the other side." Pedro stretches out his wings to their fullest extent. "You've earned something more precious than you know, and you've certainly had enough shit in your life to make you appreciate it. You'd better damn well start doing the love thing, Anette. You know all too well that life is short. Love while you can, si?" Anette frowns, pressing her lips together. "When you become a coke addict, then you can tell me what it does or doesn't do and what I need," she warns, her voicing growing darker as she takes a sip of that coffee. "Doesn't feel all that precious. Feels like hell when he's off on his jobs and he comes back looking like shit and the whole time I want drugs or booze to drown the pain and worry." Another gulp of coffee. "It's so much easier without love. Even you have to agree to that much." Pedro raises his eyebrows at her voice, and shakes his head. "No. I do not agree. Everything is darker and scarier without love. It's harder. And I don't have to be a coke addict to see what the fuck it does to a person. I've seen love, and it is an infinitely better thing than anything else. It's better than booze or drugs." He snaps his wings closed, and frowns at her. "Tell me you don't feel a thrill admitting that you love Killian. And tell me you don't feel it thinking that he loves you. And I'll call you a god damned liar if you even try saying you don't." "I'm not saying the drugs weren't dangerous. Just that there was a reason I took them and they worked. They worked...extremely well," Anette says. "And my life is dark and scary. Call me crazy but I like it that way. And having people I care about...complicates it. Love complicates that." At the almost accusation of her being a liar, she shakes her head, staring at the ground. "Of course I feel a thrill. But that doesn't mean it's worth it." "How? How does love complicate your life any more than it already is?" Pedro crosses his arms, and shifts his stance slightly. "Yeah, sure, the drugs worked. Til the high wears off and you start to shake. Then you shell out more of your being to get another hit. If anything is not worth it, that certainly is." He taps the floor with his toes, the nails making the sound louder. "You should give it a chance. At least one of us here should have their feelings returned, si? You can have that in Killian." "For god's sake Pedro, what if something happened?" Anette says, yellow eyes burning fiercely as she looks up to him, staring him down, raising her voice. "I would take a bullet for anyone on this island. Any one of them. But what if I can't? What if a mission goes wrong and something happens to Teague, to Dusk, to Ion. Yeah, it's gonna hurt. There's gonna be pain. But you know what? I'll move on. We all will. Because that's how it works. You hurt and then you move on because we have a job to do and in this line of business, not everyone is going to make it. Love fucks that up. If something had happened to Daken, I would have lost it. If something happens to Killian, I'd be useless. I wouldn't bounce back, I wouldn't recover, I wouldn't move on." With Pedro's final statement, she suddenly cools, her eyes still piercing through him though she's much cooler though still..forceful. "Don't you even go there." Pedro shakes his head to her. "Too late, already did. Anyways." He gestures with his wings. "So what? Shit happens all the time. You'll hurt and then you'll move on. Yeah, it's harder. But you would move on. And you would love again, sometime. Fuck, if you're going to shy away from shit that MIGHT happen, how the fuck do you walk out the door in the morning?" He snorts and shakes his head again. "Have you told him, at least?" Anette can't help but chuckle, a bit darkly. "I nearly murdered one of our own because they were partly responsible for the kidnapping of my future dream child. Do you really think I'd bounce back so easily if something happened in this timeline?" She takes a large gulp of enhanced coffee. "I did. Not exactly of my own free will but I did." Pedro shrugs. "I don't know. That timeline was something that could have happened. I doubt it will happen now. Even still. Having murderous thoughts about someone who helped get your child kidnapped is kind of normal, I would think? Pretty sure I would go through people to protect my child, if I had one. Pretty sure I would be devastated to lose my child. Or wife. But I would keep on living, though." He rubs the back of his neck. "Look at it this way, don't you think Killian is worrying the same way? That he will lose you 'cause he wasn't there when you needed him? That he will get a little twisted inside worry about all that? Don't you think, if he were going to die, that he would want you to carry on living? To find joy again?" "Apparently I was the only one that felt that way," Anette says quietly, taking another sip of her coffee. As the conversation drifts towards how Killian feels, she quietly sets her coffee down on the counter, near her abandoned, half-eaten food. "And that's supposed to make me feel better? Knowing I'm doing the same to him that he's doing to me." She sighs, glancing towards the nearest window to look out at the falling snow before shaking her head. "I'm going for a flight," is all she says, making her way to her room and quickly shutting the door behind her.