The more things change...

[mnt_raph]

It's a mild night, all things considered. The weather is as even keeled as the Scotland of the Wizarding world is this time of year, and Raph is glad for it. He's glad for the partly cloudy skies, and the chill-yet-not-cold air that breezes past him...and the wounds newly opened on his knuckles.

Yes, he truly wouldn't be Raph if he metabolized his rage using completely healthy means. And there are fewer things less healthy for knuckles than being used to punch brick walls.

They tend to be unforgiving, brick walls.

Kind of like some blondes he knows, Raph muses to himself with a dry chuckle.

"'Least with walls you know where you stand," he says to no one in particular, before lifting the pilfered bottle of Jack to his lips and downing a sizable gulp. He wipes the corner of his mouth with the part of his free hand that isn't currently bleeding, and gives his surroundings a good once over.

It's been a long time since he's been up on this roof. His roof. Even longer since he's sat, legs dangling over the edge, with a bottle of his favorite spirit close at hand.

"fuck."

Comments

[the_lioness]

Alanna makes a face.

"Mithros, you're doomed," she announces, though not without sympathy.

[mnt_raph]

His brow furrows.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

[the_lioness]

Exactly what it sounds like, says her expression.

"I asked you a question about Abigail," Alanna explains with more patience than she feels, because this is family, "and all you spoke of was Death."

She raises her eyebrows at him over the cider bottle and takes a drink.

[mnt_raph]

From furrow to scowl in no time flat.

"I was sayin' it was different is all," he sneers. Or well, he tries to at any rate. "Long as I'm breathin' I'm gonna love Death. Ain't nothin' can be done 'bout that."

He pulls a slight face. He can count the number of times he's used her name since she left him on one hand.

"Abigail's different. She...makes me feel lighter, you know? Calms me."

[the_lioness]

"Quite poetically, too," Alanna adds helpfully while Raph's confusion shifts to anger.

It doesn't faze her.

Holding up a finger again, she shakes her head once and meets his eyes like she has something very important to say.

If she can remember what it is.





"That's my point." Beat. "Do you think Abigail doesn't know that? She knows. Trust me. I thought it was just Milliways and your former shell standing there between you like great big... big... kraken monsters... but I forgot about Her. If Adam had been that much in love with someone else, no matter how calm I made him," she pauses to indulge in a good laugh, "I'd have known. And I'm not sure my pride would have allowed me to stay."

[mnt_raph]

"You think?"
But before Raph can even himself think about this, he dismisses it out of hand. "No, that ain't it. That ain't...nothin'. We ain't even talked 'bout Her. An' an'...your Dark God whatever came to me in a dream an' tol' me to get over it. An' I did. I'm over it.

Done."

Of course while he says, done, his expression gives an entirely different impression. Let the backpedaling and rationalization begin!

"I...I don't even think o' Her none anymore. You know, unless I'm killin' somethin'. Don't even dream o' Her no more either. An' She don't want nothin' to do with me. That's made clear enough by the fact that she didn't even take me from St. Mungo's."

[the_lioness]

"Done," Alanna repeats, radiating skepticism. "You are talking about Her an awful lot for someone you don't ever think about."

She places a great deal of emphasis on awful. Alanna had respect for Death, naturally, and they got on well enough, but she hates hearing Raph talk this way with that look in his eyes. Again.

Sighing, she shoves her bottle at him and snaps her fingers in front of his face.

"I understand, Raph. I do. I just think you ain't even talking about a lot with Abigail that you probably should. And I think she'd agree."

You know. Once she got over being mad at Alanna for interfering.

"You can make it right, but first you're going to have to decide what's most important to you now and what's not."

[mnt_raph]

"This one time!" exasperation overtaking his tone more than anything. He looks to the bottle of Jack. Not much left, he downs what there is before hucking the bottle towards the lake as far as he can.

"There ain't no comparison between a livin', flesh, an' blood woman who loves me beyond all else, an' who puts up with crap most o' the time, an' who I was more'n happy to settle down with before the damn door showed back up, an' some personification of an idea that didn't even think me worthy enough to die during the worst point in my life!"

Having said that, he flops backwards onto the tar paper roof with a huff.

"I'll drink it. Does she want that?! Because I'll do it. For her I'll do it. But only for her. An' only if she asks."

[the_lioness]

The bottle travels far but on a slightly right hand trajectory, exploding against the ground near a well-worn path leading to the stables. Alanna frowns, making a mental note to clean that up later.

"No, there isn't, and I'm glad you can still remember that."

She turns, eyes roaming along his torso to his face. Slowly.





"Drink what?"


The cider? And is he talking about her or Her now? This is getting confusing.

[mnt_raph]

Raph stares up at the stars which begin to swim ever so slightly.

"Less. Lithe." His face screws up in thought as he tries to remember the woman's name. "Water from some river that makes you forget stuff. Bar's been holdin' a bottle of it for me for ages.

For Abs I'd drink it. Forget everything, just...never forget."

[the_lioness]

Silence.




Alanna rolls her eyes. "Oh, Raph. You idiot." It's affectionate. "If you put it to Abigail like that, any of it, you'd be cozied up with her now instead of hiding on the roof with me." A small smile. "I doubt she'd ask you to forget anything, because no, but the offer... that's another thing entirely."

Suddenly she flops back beside him.



"I feel like someone just knocked me over," she grumbles.

[mnt_raph]

"tha's jus' gravity," he says with a yawn that ends in a small smile.

Raph rolls his head to one side so he can look at Alanna. "ain't hidin'. tactical retreat."

[the_lioness]

"Ah."

Tactics are important. Like gravity.

"What'd she threaten to hit you with first?" Alanna asks, wisely.

[mnt_raph]

"firs' first? or like, this time firs'?" Leave it to Raph to consider such things a form of foreplay.

[the_lioness]

"This time." She eyes him. "Or maybe I should ask why you're hid... why you retreated. Tactically speaking."



Alanna grins and gropes around for the cider bottle.

[mnt_raph]

"she tol' me to. an' i didn't think killin' her brother'd do me much good in winnin' her to my way o' thinkin'. so here, an' drinkin'...."

He brings his hands up to place under his head. A move that would have been more successful had he not hit the bottle in the process.

[the_lioness]

The bottle gets knocked into Alanna's arm and stays upright. She smiles fondly at her shoulder area and says "Thank you" with quiet solemnity.



"We.

"We.


"We probably shouldn't be up here like this."

[mnt_raph]

He moves to wave away her concern for their safety, but seems to have forgotten that his arms are currently pinned under his own head. What follows looks more like some sort of convulsion than anything else.

"Ooof. nah, w'r fiiiiiine. safe like houses."

[the_lioness]

"Should do something fun," she continues, undaunted. "Distraction... moving on to something new..."

An unladylike burp escapes in the middle of a laugh.

"...when your heart hurts. Like... an adventure! Always good for that, are adventures."

Her eyes shine with an enthusiasm that could easily be mistaken for madness.

[mnt_raph]

Well, it does run in their "family" afterall.

"an adventure, eh? could do with somethin' that ain't just...sittin'. kinda wanna run."

Raph's legs come up, and in one slow motion he rolls backwards until he's managed to right himself into a kneeling position.

"Wish there was more roofs. You up for tag."

He turns towards Alanna and just grins.

"Or apple."

[the_lioness]

"Tag."

Beat.

"Or apple?"



She's not entirely sure how to answer that question. One is a game, the other is a delicious fruit that makes delicious cider.



"Yes."

What could POSSIBLY go wrong that they couldn't handle?

[mnt_raph]

Raph nods, the maniacal grin remains. It's one of the few family resemblances he shares with his youngest brother.

"Apple's like Keep Away. Get an apple, keep, an' eat the apple before someone can take it from you. Played it all the time as kids."

[the_lioness]

"So did we."

Alanna wrinkles her nose.

"Not sure we gave it a name, though. Mostly it was me playing keep away from Thom."

She grins and says "Yes" again. "That."

With a grunt, Alanna stands. Immediately her arms go out to the sides for balance.

"Nnnnngh." Beat. "'Kay."

[mnt_raph]

Raph darts out to try and stabilize her, only to find himself needing a hand his own self.

"Woah. woah. Okay...okay. Okay. Now...now we need an apple."

[the_lioness]

Alanna smirks.

"Who knows a shortcut to the kitchens?"

And she's off, tossing over her shoulder, "This knight, that's who."




Mission accomplished: Raph is no longer sulking on the rooftop, and if they are lucky they might even both survive the night.