[OOM: Olau. More specifically a darkened bedroom in the Young Family Keep. Mid-day]

[mnt_raph]

Maintaining a healthy Work/Life balance isn't easy for anyone regardless of who you are and how you define Work and Life.
If you're Raph, Work is: verb simultaneously defending and protecting two entirely different worlds while somehow managing to keep your efforts as secret as possible from what you define as Life.
Life: noun Abigail.

It's not easy what you're doing. Not the fighting, that part is easy and always has been. It's the lying and sneaking that seem to be getting to you. You remind yourself you do it because you have to. You do it to protect her and her world. You do it because the lie that brings a smile is so much better than the truth that usually results in screaming, and not the good kind. You do it because you love your Life.

But somehow even that doesn't change the fact that every day it gets harder and harder to maintain the lies. The stress of maintaining them builds and builds and you often find yourself wanting to pull your hair out and scream. Then you laugh and remind yourself, Good thing you're bald. Then you do what you always do and push the frustration down deep inside. You use it to fuel just one more all night scout mission or just one last after-hours Security shift, until you've all but burned yourself out entirely resulting in yet another day of you still being in bed even though it's well past lunch.

Comments

[mnt_raph]

"Well that narrows it down.

Says Raph with a smirk, before turning back to the pitcher. He'll be back online once he splashes some water on his face.

"Name it."

[the_lioness]

Next time, Alanna will be more considerate and splash it on his face for him.

"Until they leave, if you're with the children and something happens, will you take them to Milliways?"

There's no particular urgency behind the question; her tone is even, relaxed. The lip biting, however, is an old tell.

[mnt_raph]

Oh yeah that'd go over well.

Raph stops what he's doing and slowly turns back to face Alanna, this time he's sure to make direct eye contact.

"Something? Something like what, exactly?"

[the_lioness]

"Something dangerous," she replies, low and tense. "In whatever form that takes.

"Will you?"

She holds his eyes.

[mnt_raph]

He nods.

"Though, know this: Things get that bad I'm pickin' your husband an' your kids up, throwin' all through that door, an' then I'm comin' to find you."

[the_lioness]

Alanna's expression doesn't change for a long moment, then she grins.

"I knew I could count on you." She walks to the window and idly flicks a curtain aside. "What about Abigail?"

Sneaky Alanna is sneaky.

[mnt_raph]

Crap.
She had to go there, didn't she?

"I...uh..."

[the_lioness]

Naturally.

"Does she know yet?"

The answer might be obvious, but she's going to take this a step at a time. It's more fun -- and effective -- that way.

[mnt_raph]

"I ain't told her nothin'."

Nothing about the recent troubles in Tortall.
Nothing about Milliways.
And certainly nothing about...well, New York.

[the_lioness]

"It might be a good idea," she suggests, watching him. "She didn't seem to appreciate it when you failed to tell her you were living with me."

Just a thought.

[mnt_raph]

He scratches the back of his head.

"She uh...also kinda like...well, she stopped talkin' to me for a week when I was in lock up for hittin' that little girl as a panda."

Alanna has heard this story, yes?

[the_lioness]

Her mouth drops open.

"...What!?"

That would be no. She's been busy.

The narration: *beams innocently*

[mnt_raph]

Raph sighs and mutters something akin to fuckin' milliways.

[the_lioness]

Alanna isn't letting him off that easy. There might be poking.

"Explain, please."

The please is really just a formality.

[mnt_raph]

His shoulders droop as he sighs again.
Raph really doesn't want to have to look at Alanna as he tells this story, so he sets about straightening up his room.

"There was this guy at the Bar who looked like he was up to no good, so I kept an' eye on him. Big drink o' water, but not too bright lookin'. There weren't no trouble 'til he started it, an' the next thing I know he's a little girl an' I'm a frickin' panda bear.

The griffin chick on security locked us up."

He dares to look back at her with a glare that screams There, happy?

[the_lioness]

Oh.

Oh, yes.

She's absolutely ecstatic.

"Would you rather have been the little girl?" she asks mildly, not bothering to hide her amusement.

[mnt_raph]

"No I wouldn't have rather have been the little girl."

He sneers.

Though, to be honest he wouldn't have taken it quite as badly as Jayne did.

[the_lioness]

Smiling, she gives him a slight cuff on the ear.

"I bet you were a cute panda bear." Beat. "Cuddly."

[mnt_raph]

Raph just grumbles when he would normally threaten bodily harm.
It's unclear if he does this out of respect for Alanna and her hospitality, or because he's not quite fully awake yet.

[the_lioness]

Maybe it's because he knows how she'd respond to threats of bodily harm, and while he's an exceptional fighter, she is clearly the more awake of the two.

That's how she takes it, anyway.

Which doesn't prevent her from wondering: "Maybe Abigail likes panda bears."

[mnt_raph]

What's the sound of one facepalming?

"She wouldn't believe it. I tried over the years to slip in stories o' back home and Milliways. No one believes'em."

[the_lioness]

"Try harder," is her suggestion.

"Do you want me to-"

Alanna shakes her head no; that needs to be phrased differently.

"I could help explain, Raph. If it's ever needed."

She won't say it, but Raph should know by now what her word means in Tortall.

[mnt_raph]

"What that I ain't completely crazy, I'm just a compulsive liar freak of nature? Yeah, that'd help."

There was a time when he wished only that the door would open again.
Now he's kind of wishing it'd stayed closed for good.

[the_lioness]

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself," Alanna barks, following it up with a flick to his forehead. "What would the Griffin say?"

Take that, Raphael.

"Abigail isn't stupid, and she isn't easily scared away. She'll get mad -- and the longer you wait, the angrier she'll be -- but she'll get over it. Then she'll want to see what the fuss is all about."

And if she doesn't, Alanna fully intends to smack some sense into her, too.

[mnt_raph]

He's not even with it enough to flinch when she thwaps him.

"I...I don't even know how that would come up in conversation though? I mean, in Milliways people just sort of expect that kinda thing. Here though, where everyone thinks I'm some distant relative..."

It never was a great lie to begin with. There's just nothing about Raph that says of noble birth. His sheer lack of etiquette at court alone is a bright shining beacon of falsehood.