apassingafternoon

Alain was having none of their shit and that was just by the mere virtue of being completely and utterly out of it. Kaine had thought it would be alright to use an extra drop or two but ... Well, it was that or his own exhaustion that kept him out of it. For as much as Kaine wanted to lie around and ignore everyone, tend to her house and hardly the people inside of it Nariko had a point. They were to rest for a week before moving on. The quicker they dealt with the out of the way errands the sooner she could sit in her room for as long as Nariko would allow before inevitably dragging her back out.

Which explained why they were on the road to The Village, or Arpagio as it was now known. The name changed was ridiculous (Aelious must have somehow gotten his way) but Kaine accepted it with a shrug. The journey was a boring one for her, she stuck to Nariko's side a bit tighter, more anxiously than usual but otherwise kept her words to a minimum. She didn't feel like talking, didn't even feel like going anywhere near town and the last thing she wanted was to even heart Cuthbert's voice, which she had already spent the morning blocking out. And yet he somehow felt well enough to come along. Fantastic.

The doors pushed open in their rhythmic fashion and her first question of the day was directed at Roland even though she didn't bother with looking over at him.

"What are we here for again?" They had barely taken two steps in and she was already quite tired of everything, and it showed in her voice, and the fold of her arms over her stomach. If her oversized sweater and skinny jeans didn't make that just as clear then nothing else would.

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Whether she had accurately communicated her point or not wasn't the real question here. What counted was that hearing that, maybe the inevitable, had a greater and more resounding effect than any lighthearted flirting (joking or not) could hope to achieve. And maybe that wasn't the type of kiss that occasionally flooded her day dreams as if to spite all of the grief and pain they'd been through but it felt just as good.

"Sure." Never mind that in its whole state the thing hadn't so much as buzzed at her touch, which only made its reaction to being 'hurt' that much more unsettling. Even if it was some weird defense mechanism it just didn't explain why it only went for her. She tried to clear her mind of it but the concern wouldn't scrub off. "It looks pretty broken from here."

The guts of the thing, a richer purple than the inside, glittered over stones, but the two bigger chunks stayed right as they were. In just a few hours those littler pieces would be left alone and the thing would never be entirely complete again.

At least they pulled it off.

It did look pretty broken, but Bert still approached it with some caution, skirting around most of the glittery innards as he leant down to pick up the two halves. One went into the pocket of his jeans; the other, after a moment's thought, into his jerkin. He wasn't going to risk them being too close together, even if they seemed inert and dead.

Straightening up, he looked down at the shining purple stuff spread out over the rocks, and took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment. "Well," he said, with a little sigh, "I guess we'll never know."

And that was all the grief or regret he was going to let it cause him - or at least going to let himself show. Shaking his head, he turned on his heel and started back towards Kaine. "Let's get back, before we give Momma and Papa a heart attack. Shall we?" He offered her his arm, with a sidelong little smile.

"A little late for that." At least when it came to the former, it seemed as if they finished right on time! "… But certain people could do with a little heart attack." That little bit of dialogue out of the way Kaine took his arm easily, and with a tad more confidence than usual. For the second time in as many minutes Kaine waved to the gatekeeper and was spared from confirming who they were and where they were going. In truth they'd never really left Maverick's gaze as it was.

Maybe this wasn't the right decision. Maybe they should have left it as it was, asked Roland and Nariko to deal with it and simply reigned them both in but there was something quite satisfying in having dealt with it on their own!

Maybe-heroes indeed! And whatever the outcome the gates were opening again and it wasn't be much of a surprise to find their friends on the other side.

Fu re ru

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