gotta get down for a mingle

[redactions]

Who: The crew of the SS Heron and visitors.
Broadcast: nope.
Action: Aboard the SS Heron.
When: After returning to the ship.

[ finally back on the right ship, except the corridors are all mysteriously cold and the ship seems smaller. Thanks, Atroma. New crew, visitors, starters in comments ]

Comments

[redactions]

[ His shoulders drop. ]

You don't happen t'have a spare book with you?

[touchofrogue]

[She'd already brought Watership Down over to Winter. He probably had it somewhere. But Rogue had learned to carry things of value with her, and she had two, left in her pack on the table.]

I do. Carter gave me Villette. Atroma gave me The Princess Bride.

[She didn't move yet, waiting.] Want me ta take 'em out?

[redactions]

[ He flashes her a weak smile. ]

The Princess Bride always helps. Might I have that?

[touchofrogue]

[Quietly, she moved to her abandoned pack, dug through it for a moment, and then extended the book to him. She watched him after that, waiting for a cue to indicate if he wanted her to stay or go. She would do either.]

[redactions]

[ He crumbles the way a glacier does, in chips and pieces, loosening, and by the time he walks over to the book he's leaning into her space, not able to ask that she not go. ]

[touchofrogue]

[When he didn't immediately take the book, and when he didn't shy away from her space, Rogue knew that he'd have told her to go if that was what he wanted. He hadn't. So she offers:] Would ya like me to read ta you for a little while?

[redactions]

[ Like he's a boy again, listening to his mother talk about Ireland. He smiles, more lingering. ]

[ Softly, ]

No, thank you.

[touchofrogue]

[She is relieved to see that smile, relieved to see the signs of shaking cease. This wasn't a panic attack, then -- or if it was, it looked as if it was over before it truly began.

She was glad of that.

Threatened. He'd said he felt threatened. By her.

She continues to hold the book out to him.

(That was unfair. It wasn't as if she'd revealed that she'd been going around killing everyone with a metal arm who the government deemed unsafe. If anyone should feel threatened, shouldn't it be the other way around?

Life is unfair. Suck it up, cupcake.)

But she wasn't going to make anymore guesses. She felt like someone had dropped her in the middle of a wide ocean in a life raft and an oar, and the north star was missing from the sky.] Okay. Then do ya want me ta join ya, or should I just pick up the book the next time I see ya?

[Stay or go?]

[redactions]

[ Threatened in the way actors are threatened, when the holes in their performance are pointed out to them. It's the consequence of being a performer: he demands every note be perfect, and still she sees a man worth befriending. Jim supposes it's also a consequence of offering his loyalty to her, unconditionally, but she's worth it. The reverse isn't true, to him. ]

I'd like you to join me. [ he clears his throat ] I don't want to be alone.

[touchofrogue]

[I don't want to be alone. There was maybe only one thing that would guarantee Rogue staying in a place, with a person, as long as they were not someone that she loathed.

Quietly:] I'll pull up a seat.

[She doesn't try to force cheer into her voice, but she does manage a half smile as she adds:] Good thing I've got an extra book.

[And so Rogue moves to do just that.]