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

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."

Bgztl was far more practical about things. The Mistress was a fertility goddess, not a love goddess. One didn't require the other and that was understood by the planet's blue-bloods. Marriages were often arranged in the cradle for the maximum social, political, and financial benefit of each side and one took lovers on the side once they were married.

Tinya's bloodline was particularly sought after, but poor relations after poor relations led to her family tree becoming a family single line. Then her mother had the audacity to elope with the groundskeeper. And Tinya only made matters worse.

And it's painful in its own way to be in Hunk's company, to hold her tongue and not blurt out that she loved him and a him had loved her right back and couldn't they maybe try dating? She'd die of shame first. It wasn't that she was some wilting flower, far from it, but appearances had to be maintained. And she meets his gaze, hoping she doesn't look as miserable as she feels.

"I, um. Okay. He's an engineer from a future, but not my future. And this is probably going to seem strange, but he helps pilot a giant robot. He's kind and he's gentle and he was so good to me," and she can feel the throbbing headache ease a little more.

"He loves to cook and that's something we often did together back in the other world. It was...nicer than I thought it could be, cooking with someone else. He loved the fact that I'm a ballerina and I like to wear pretty princess clothes, but I could still put up one Void of a fight. His name is Hunk Garrett and I miss him so much."

And the headache was...gone? "Sweet Mistress, you're brilliant. It worked! It really worked!"

Sasuke listens without even a sign of wanting to interrupt or ask a prying question. The way she talks about him makes it clear that she had bonded deeply with him, that her love was as real as any that he's heard people talk of back home. It reminds him of the way Hinata would sometimes talk about Naruto or how Sakura...

He pushes the thoughts of Sakura from his mind. It's his own mistakes to bear and he can feel his eyes stinging. He doesn't know if it's from the sharingan being activated too long or because of his own silence, but he'd rather have his eyes bleed several times a day than be as strong as Tinya just was.

When she calls him brilliant, though, there's actually a smile that forms at his lips. He lets out a single chuckle, keeping his gaze on the ground still, and shaking his head. "I just used common sense. I'm glad it seems to have freed you from your burden. I can't imagine the emotional pain is any less, but you shouldn't have to suffer physical pain alongside it."

They had and it was a bond the worst of the other place couldn't sever. When Hunk left, she thought she'd never see him again and it hurt more than she'd be able to say. Even though a voice in the back of her mind had to remind her that she had even more romantic problems back home. But those could wait. She was beginning to wonder if she'd ever go back home for keeps.

She feels like she's had a weight removed from her shoulders as well as the relief of having that headache gone. She's so used to being strong, to cover all of her doubts and uncertainties with a smile and a reassurance that she was fine.

And she sees that smile and it makes her happy. Sasuke always seemed so serious all the time and it worried her, that being serious all the time couldn't be easy. But pot, meet kettle. They both had defense mechanisms, even if they were opposite approaches. "Common sense is rare, I've noticed. The Mistress knows I was incapable of using it myself. And...the emotional pain is still there, but it helps knowing that someone else knows."

"Hn."

It's not much of an answer at first. Partly because he's surprised to hear her say something he so heavily agrees with about common sense, but mostly because he's never been able to understand when people find sharing their pain more relieving than keeping it inside. Guarding himself has been the only way he's ever known how to function. It was what he was taught from a young age and only further had instilled in him after the murder of his family.

Naruto always said it helped, though. So he shouldn't be so surprised that she find relief in it too. It was going to be hard to keep his emotional distance with so many similarities between the two of them.

"Have you tried speaking to him about it all?"

She's been around the Legion of Hormonal Teenagers for three years back home and in another place which...she'd rather not think of for three years. Seemingly simultaneously. Simple observation taught her that common sense wasn't something most people had, much less used. Her mother had gotten people to vote against their own interests more times than Tinya could count.

But it did help to get the pain out in the open. She understood why secrets were necessary a lot of the time, but she tried to be as open-hearted as possible, even when it hurt. But hurt was better than having a soul like the Void.

"Not...in so many words. I asked him to dinner one night and we got along well. The other world sort of...forced our hands. This one will need a lot more delicacy, but I can do that."

Sasuke hums in response, wondering for a moment or two about whether or not it was even a good idea to pursue a love who couldn't remember an entire life you had together. But those aren't answers he's at all equipped to answer, given that he can't even sort out his own love life with someone he's been friends with for years. Sort of.

"If you're sure it's the right choice," he says finally, careful in his words, not wanting to say the wrong thing somehow. At least he gets he's prone to it and she's had warning on that. "I'd hate to see you end up in worse pain."

She wouldn't be able to tell him if he asked. She'd wondered about that herself, that in the end all she'd be was disappointed. But she knew how to conceal that, put on a happy face and reassure people that she was fine, really. It had been a tactic which worked back home well enough. And aren't they a pair?

"I'm not. Not really. Places like this change people, so I wonder if he's still the him I fell in love with." She sighed. "Sweet Mistress, why must life be so complicated?

"Because people are complicated." He says it with a shrug, like it's a fact that everyone had to come to eventually. Sasuke was quiet for a moment, like it might be all he had to say on the matter, before he decides he ought to try and say something more.

"If he isn't, at least you'll have an answer. Better than sitting and wondering what could have happened if you'd just tried."

She nods in agreement. "Ridiculously so at times. And I'm not saying I'm not complicated, because I am. I read a quote once and it stuck with me: I contain multitudes. And it's true. Every one of us contains multitudes," and she has to think about that, about how many multitudes laid between herself and Hunk. And the fact that Sasuke was likely her best friend here, not that that was a bad thing. Far from it.

"It's always better to have an answer than be left wondering. It's true," she says. And she tries to steel herself against the worst.

She can deal with worse. She lived as a sub in Duplicity for three years and it did its best to break her. But she refused to let it.

Sasuke gives a small hum of agreement. He stares down at his hand, knowing how complicated a person he was himself. Multitudes, huh? He could get behind that way of looking at it.

"In the meantime, if you start getting another one of those headaches, at least you should be able to guess what you need to do to cure it next time."

She's also staring at her hands, embarrassed at being so weak in front of the strongest person she knows here. Weakness is a humiliation, no matter what, but this seems especially humiliating.

"Yes. I'm not touching the rest of those chocolates. Let the birds have them, assuming birds can eat chocolate. What about you?"

"Chocolate is deadly to birds," he said quickly. His family had always been fairly bird-focused, he was bound to know between the care for his hawks and his brother's thing for crows. "And I hate sweets."

Not that that had stopped him from craving some of them, thinking maybe they would taste alright, but that had been a big enough warning sign in itself to stay away from them.

"So I'm fine."

"Oh, really? Thanks for letting me know. I knew it was bad for cats, but I hadn't even considered it about birds," she said, wide-eyed. "So into the trash they go. A shame because I do love sweets," she said with a graceful little shrug.

She really should have expected the chocolates to be tainted. They certainly had been all the time in the other place. Stupid Valentine's Day, no one to share it with and she hadn't been in that situation since she was fifteen. Granted, Jo sucked at it the first time, sending her a cactus.

"I'm sure you can find other sweets that won't make you behave in certain ways easily enough," he said with a shrug. Not that he would have any idea where they'd be, but he's sure they're around somewhere.

He goes to pull himself up from the bench, brushing his cloak gently with his hand to get the dirt and snow to shake off the edge of it. "Do you need anything else now that you're free from your headache?"

"I hope so. But I wonder if a place so bleak could grow cocoa beans. Maybe these were imported and they found a way to magic them up?" The bleakness of what she hopes is a temporary winter was getting to her. She dreamed of spring.

She smiled up at him reassuringly. "I should be fine. And I want to thank you again for helping me. And for listening. I really appreciate it."

"If they're actually causing people to feel compelled to discuss certain topics or change them in some way, I would put my bets on magic." Since the chocolates themselves seem to hold some kind of magic too. At least that's the logic he's applying to it.

He nods when she gives her thanks. "Then I'll be on my way. If you find the headaches come back and you need someone to speak with, I'll be at the orphanage."

"Magic...no matter how many times I'm exposed to it, I'll always be amazed by it." It's a novelty which would never wane. Magic had died in her worlds centuries ago. It was truly thrilling to watch others wield it in the other world. Still, she wouldn't wish herself back there on a bet.

"All right. I might visit just because," and because she misses her son. And it's a relief to have children present. That, by default, made this place better.

"Mm. They're always looking for volunteers." The option is thrown out like he's discussing the weather, a shrug of his shoulders given. "I'll see you later, then, Tinya. Try and stay out of trouble in the meantime."

That was almost said teasingly, like one friend to another. He gives her a small, casual bow of his head before going to walk off in the general direction of Koz.

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unphase - 2022-03-01 02:46 (UTC) - Expand

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

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(CW: adultery

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I'm so sorry, I didn't get the notification!

no worries! i never mind late tags haha

❤!

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(CW: Duplicity)

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