deercountry | just another trick,can I weather this? (OPEN)

Tinya felt eyes on her long before she'd turned around to see that yes, she was being followed. Which wasn't entirely unexpected or unexperienced, she'd been fairly famous back home. First for being a Wazzo, then for being a Legionnaire. In general, she liked for all eyes to be on her.

Though, this follower seemed...different. For starters, they were totally nude. At first, she thought that they may be like her, not feeling the chill in the air one bit, but public decorum had to be maintained. Wandering through town completely starkers didn't do it.

She instinctively tried to phase but again found it impossible, a maddening experience. So she had to brace herself for a fight. Sasuke was a strict taskmaster and a fascinating opponent, she was getting her ass kicked but learning more every day. So Tinya stopped walking and whirled around to face her follower, but they weren't there.

Instead, she faced a small boy, painfully skinny and with dirt on his face. But the feel of his gaze felt the same as the previous person's. Something was very, very wrong.

Tinya backed up and into a small shop, hoping that an audience would make her follower pause. It didn't. He followed her in, crowding into her personal space.

Her apologies to whomever owned the shop and to the onlookers, things were likely going to go poorly.

Tinya never denied her desires and felt guilty for them even less. So it was an unpleasant experience, denying the feelings she had for Hunk. The Hunk of the other world and the Hunk of this world. She nearly drove herself crazy the night they'd had dinner together, keeping the longing out of her eyes and voice.

But she was smart enough to know that trying to hasten things would likely only make them fall apart. She could be patient. To a point. For once she was sorry she wasn't in the other place with him, she'd been through enough Valentine's Days there to know that something would always come along to hurry them on the way.

The stress was likely getting to her, she was suffering the most awful headache she'd ever had in her life, doubling over in full public view. The humiliation of that only made her feel worse, but she was afraid she'd get sick if she tried standing upright again.

So she reached out and caught a sleeve. "Please, can you help me find a place to sit down?"

Sasuke had been dealing with his own struggles through some of the month, but it's fortunately one of those days that he hasn't woken up on the completely wrong side of the bed this morning. His corruption levels have still put his sharingan permanently locked on, and so his eyes are hardly their usual black, but it's the only strange part of his appearance and attitude for the moment.

Which is more than he can say for Tinya. He had been doing his best to not look at others, just in case his powers were to fluctuate again, but when someone grabs onto his sleeve, it's hard to ignore them. It's harder still when he realizes he recognizes them.

Rather than snapping like his instincts tell him to, he reaches out to try and help her balance, using his only arm to reach out and gently grip her forearm as he tugs her towards a bench that he hopes isn't too far from them. "This way. Come on."

Tinya was no fool. She was well aware that Valentine's in places like this or the other one were times of mayhem, of feeling confessed but better left unspoken, or gestures forward rebuffed and kept to the status quo. But that didn't make things any easier because never in that other place had resisting what she wanted result in pain.

When she sees Sasuke's eyes, it takes her a brief moment, longer than she'd like to recognize him. His eyes look unlike anyone's she'd ever seen in the entire United Galaxies and were she in her right mind, she'd be decidedly curious about them. Though approaching the subject in little cat steps to avoid offense.

She'll feel terribly sorry and awkward when she came back to her right mind and realized that it was his sleeve she'd grabbed but in the meantime? Any space station in a galactic storm.

Sasuke helps her regain her footing, which she'll always be grateful for. She absolutely despises seeming weak, no matter what the stimuli. And she lets him guid them to a bench which she plops down on with none of her usual grace. She knows that voice..."Sasuke. Thank you. I--I don't know what's come over me. Are you all right?"

It's easy to see things are still off, that it wasn't just some brief passing spell that she might have gotten over once she had clutched on to him. He would wave off her concern, but his hand is still holding onto her arm even after they've finished sitting, just in case. He only lets go once he's sure she's solidly on the bench and not about to double over again and slip.

"I'm fine," he says matter-of-factly, like it's silly to even worry about him. "You're the one who looks a mess."

Okay, mess may be a bit harsh and not entirely accurate, but it's the only word he's got for the situation.

"Do you need something to drink?"

She's been in pain before. Pain of the loss of her husband. Pain of getting her husband back again, only to find out that he might not be hers. Pain of always being not good enough, a half-breed. Those kinds of pain, she can overcome with a smile and gentle reassurances that no, there's no need to worry about her, she was fine.

And she'd been through physical pain, too. Pain of being burned alive. Pain of childbirth. Those were harder to mask after the face, but she'd done it. But this? This was all of those pains, compounded all into one nightmare of feeling.

She recognizes the matter-of-fact tone he takes and resolves to bring that up at a later time, but she also recognizes his brand of concern and appreciates it, even as the headache she was having made her want to crack her skull in two in hope that that would stop it. "...I do? Crap. I know I put on something pretty today." A joke, if a bad one.

Even nodding hurt. "Water. Definitely water. I'm scared anything else might make me sick. Thank you for helping me." Even pain couldn't make her forget her courtesies.

The joke isn't lost on him, even if he doesn't give a visible reaction to it. He was expecting it, almost, given how much she'd already reminded him of his closest friend. It seemed to be the go to of most of the people in his life, even. He had never quite understood it, but then again, Sasuke's humor was already fairly stiff.

But he nods at her request for water. His hand moves from her arm to her shoulder as he stands from the bench, giving it a reassuring squeeze at her thanks, before he goes to the closest place that might have a glass and some water that could be spared. It doesn't take him very long and it's only a few minutes before he's holding out a cup to her.

"It's warm. So it doesn't shock your stomach." He's taken care of people who are nauseous plenty of times to have learned a few tricks, apparently.

She has to try to joke, even at her worst. Even at her worst or possibly especially at her worst, she tries to deflect pain from herself and onto an outside source. Here. There. Home. Anywhere. She can't let anyone in on the suffering, not until it becomes so incredibly great that it would kill another, either physically or mentally. Or both.

And she clings to the feeling of Sasuke's touch like it was a lifeline. Not as a potential romantic interest, she has only one in mind, but as a friend. Potentially family. Even if it's never spoken, in the other place it had taken Alfred Pennyworth to call her a granddaughter for her to accept it in her soul. But when he offers her the glass, she takes it tentatively, trying to disguise her eagerness.

"Oh. Good. Good that you thought of that, I might have just--just stuck my head in below a public fountain and wouldn't that be a mess?"

Caring about others is something that Sasuke has always struggled with, likely would always struggle with, but there's no denying that he's allowed himself to have some form of connection to the woman in front of him. He couldn't put a finger on what sort, but it's enough that he's watching her carefully as she takes the water, taking in as much information about her well-being as possible as he does.

"It would've at least made a scene," he says with a hint of what may have been teasing, but it's hard to tell when he keeps his voice and his expression as flat as he always does.

He goes to take a seat beside her, staying quiet for a moment, before finally prying; "Are you ill? Or is it this place?"

There's always struggle in caring about others. Her mother had tried to brow-beat her mother into not giving a shit, only for her to cry when one of the diplomats she'd flirted with leave his wife in hopes of pursuing her. The Wazzo fortune always had to be part of it, but she'd gone out of her way to convince this particular man that she wanted to know his thoughts.

Small wonder that she fled to the Paris Opera Ballet after that.

And connections...she'd say that those made a person strong. Far from weak. The weak stood alone. The strong had someone there always to watch their back and defend it. No matter what. At least that's been her experience.

"Ohhhh, no. No. The last thing I want to do is make a scene. I don't know how I'd live that down." And hers might be serious. Might not. It's up to him to tell.

And she's glad when he sits by her. "I---I don't know. It might be me. It might be this place. The Mistress knew that in the other place, it would always wreak havoc come the Terrans' Valentine's Day. Even for those of us who didn't give a single fuck about the origins of that day and were only interested in the chocolates."

But the mention of chocolates drew out another groan from her.

He isn't surprised in the least by her response. In any other situation, he may have even allowed himself to give a snort of amusement at it. The present situation causes him too much concern to allow the lightheartedness on his end, though, and instead he lets out a sigh.

He wouldn't be surprised if this place was trying to make trouble for people. The holiday is unfamiliar, but he does know he's seen a number of sweets around. He hasn't tasted them, he's never cared for sweets, but he has noticed a strange thought telling him maybe he wouldn't hate these ones. It seemed out of place in a way that was suiting for Trench.

"I don't know what Valentine's Day is, but there have certainly been enough chocolates around. If that's something that carries between universe, that makes the thought of it being this place a little more likely." He pauses, knowing about his own maladies, knowing the way he's been suffering in silence for reasons he hasn't been able to place. "What are you experiencing?"

That was what she'd always done when something was upsetting her. Deflect, deflect, deflect, everything was fine, really! And back home, the other Legionnaires saw her as the team confidante, so she'd often wind up weighed down by their troubles, too. But she couldn't deflect from this.

She wouldn't be surprised at all if this place was messing with her for Valentine's. She knew she missed her Hunk. The one here was nice enough to her, but she knew better than to blurt out that in the other world, there was a Hunk and he loved her. So, again, everything was fine, really!

"It's a very popular Terran holiday celebrating love. This is going to be the first Valentine's Day in a long time when I have no one to celebrate it with. And...this is embarrassing, but there's someone here who I knew a version of in the other world. We were a couple there."

Saying that seemed to alleviate some of her headache. It was still splitting and making it hard for her to keep her eyes open. "It's the worst headache I've ever had, but--but mentioning him seemed to almost...help?"

Love. He's sure that Konoha had a holiday about love, likely, though he can't remember what or when it was celebrated. He'd ignored it readily, never wanting to admit to feelings as strong as that, given the way the Uchiha Curse often manifested around the emotion. Love was always tied to pain.

So he's not entirely surprised by the fact that her headaches seem to have something to do with her emotions for the man who he assumes has no memory of their previous relationship. He frowns in thought, staring at the sidewalk still, before he chances a glance over to her.

"Tell me about him, then." If it helped to mention him, continuing to would likely help further, right? "I don't know many people here, so it's unlikely I'll even know who you're referring to."

(CW: adultery

unphase - 2022-02-14 21:53 (UTC) - Expand

Impending Intimacy

Mother's Mercy

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(CW: death by fire, childbirth)

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cw: mention of self harm

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cw: self harm

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The Chocolatier (CW: blood)