room 216 ; tuesday afternoon

[necroslacker]

Sam had doing some world class brooding since yesterday. There were issues upon issues hitting him all at once and the only way he'd known how to deal with them was withdraw away and try to figure things out. It hadn't really worked out that well. He'd ended up staring at his ceiling in the dark for a long while and then he'd even slept terribly for a few hours.

He was up now, standing idly near the window of the room. The cap was back on his head and it was pulled down low to hide his dark eyes and any other remnants of his little breakdown. He knew he was being stupid and ridiculous but knowing that he might have doomed some kid to a lifetime of...being hunted just for what she was sucked. It sucked.

It was self absorbed to just worry about himself and he knew that so he'd been trying to shake that off for a day now. It hadn't worked so he was just staying away and shutting himself up in his room.

Maybe that'd work.

[Door closed, post open. I'll be AFK for just a bit while I get some food but otherwise around.]

Comments

[whenshewasnice]

It wasn't going to work.

Natalie had been giving him space since yesterday because, honestly, she'd needed time to herself too. But, there was such a thing as leaving things untouched for too long, and she wanted to avoid that.

So, in the afternoon, she showed up outside his door, and knocked. "It's me."

[necroslacker]

Sam sighed and thought about not answering. He was quiet enough that maybe she'd think no one was in. But, then he realized that was just stupid so he shook his head at himself.

"Door's open," he called, turning a little more towards said door.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie came in and closed the door behind herself, raising her eyebrows at him. If only a little.

"Is that your 'emotionally unstable' cap?"

[necroslacker]

Sam didn't respond immediately since that wasn't really something he'd prepared for. "Interesting greeting you've got there. We just skipping the pleasantries all together? I'm not emotionally unstable."

[whenshewasnice]

"Hello, good afternoon, I missed you," Natalie replied, mildly, though the last bit was softer. "I haven't seen you wear that much before this weekend."

[necroslacker]

"It's keeping my head warm," Sam said, shrugging. It wasn't a great excuse but it was the one he had right now. "It hasn't been that long since you last saw me."

Granted, it hadn't been a great time yesterday but he'd been there. That...counted? He wasn't even sure.

[whenshewasnice]

"I missed you," Natalie repeated evenly, moving closer. No, she actually didn't feel like yesterday counted. Not really. "How are you today?"

[necroslacker]

"Fine."

Didn't he look fine? He looked great, thank you.

"Doing great. How are you?"

[whenshewasnice]

"Unimpressed with your lying."

It was an observation, not an accusation, if you went by her tone. She stopped at about an arm's length from him, just watching.

[necroslacker]

"You picked up the ability to read me from the kid?" Sam asked mildly, keeping his hands to himself for the moment. "Neat trick."

[whenshewasnice]

"No," Natalie replied, tone flat. "I just know you."

The extra smartassing didn't exactly sway her from the impression she had.

[necroslacker]

"Yeah," Sam said, relenting just a bit and glancing down at his feet. "I'm fine. What's there to be not fine about, you know? Kid's gone, back to normal around here. C'est la vie."

That was like one of two French things he knew.

[whenshewasnice]

"That's being a dumbass," Natalie replied. In French. Because she could, and because he was testing her patience and that was better than anything else she might have done.

"You know it doesn't work like that. The cause being gone doesn't mean the effects are gone too."

[necroslacker]

"Natalie, -- "

Sam's voiced dropped off and he rubbed at his face and his eyes.

" -- it was hard, okay?"

[whenshewasnice]

"I know," Natalie said, and maybe it wasn't helpful, but her tone suggested that maybe, maybe, he wasn't the only one who'd found it hard.

[necroslacker]

Sam rubbed at his eyes again and then dropped his hands near his sides. He could hear that something in her tone trying to tell him something but he was still caught up in his own issues and couldn't really address it.

He went to say something but no words came out so he closed his mouth and looked at his feet again.

[whenshewasnice]

"Look, Sam, I get why you're upset," Natalie said after a quiet moment, her tone back to mild and a little quieter again. "I do. I know your issues and I know how this plays into them. I'm not trying to discredit that or anything."

[necroslacker]

"You don't know everything," Sam said, shaking his head. She knew a lot, of course she did, because he'd told her but there was more to it in his mind. "But, I didn't think you were trying to discredit them."

He was just being stubborn and upset which made him hard to talk to, he knew.

[whenshewasnice]

"Well, maybe I feel a little like you're discrediting mine," she replied, "so I thought I'd say it just to make it clear."

No, actually that was giving him a little leeway, because actually, she didn't think he had any idea she had any issues at stake here at all.

[necroslacker]

Sam glanced over at her for that one, a little surprised and a little defensive. He clamped down on the latter. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to discredit anything, Natalie. I'm having a hard time, okay? It's hard to see past all that right now. Rubbing that in doesn't really help me though."

[whenshewasnice]

Yeah, his surprise was not the least bit surprising to Natalie. Neither was jumping to being defensive. She glanced away.

"I'm not trying to rub anything in," she said, in that patently neutral ton eof hers. "I'm just seeing if you'd talk."

[necroslacker]

"You said you already knew why I was upset," Sam reminded her, still a little defensive but calming down a bit. "What do you wanna talk about? Ada? Something else?"

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie glanced up at him, then looked away again and shook her head.

"Nevermind."

This was starting to seem like a bad idea.

[necroslacker]

Well, now he felt like an ass. He looked down again and cursed mentally.

"She's what I am, Natalie. She's what I am and she knows which means no one's bound her power." And that was a good thing, it was, but still. "I've sealed her fate. I've made it so she's always gonna be like that and she's always gonna be hunted."

Or so he thought but it was hard not to feel like this right now.

"And she's a kid."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie levelled a look at her, steady but carefully concealing what she felt. "Yes, she's a kid. Which means you don't know what's going to happen to her in the future."

She refrained from pointing out he didn't seem to worry about Ada turning evil. She found that interesting, but also knew better than to open that particular can of worms.

"All you know is that she's a kid. And she loved you."

And there was Natalie's problem, not that she made it obvious.