Great googly moogly, it's all gone to [extremely loud incorrect buzzer]

[officerdown]

Who: Henry, Scar, Heather, Envy, probably Lust
Where: Goldenrod-- Shark House
When: 16 August, around sunset
Summary: After a moderately harrowing journey, Henry and Scar, newly friends, return to the Goldenrod house seven years after their disappearance unannounced and more than a little worse for wear.
Warnings: None for now

Comments

[a_sin_for_him]

Oh...

Lust reaches up to lay one hand on his face, stunned a bit. That had hardly been anything she expected to hear.

"You haven't been. Just...inexperienced and unmindful." He'd been so very broken. They both had been, in their own ways. Some wounds don't heal easily, some things aren't easily learned. They'd both hurt one another and struggled and lashed out without thought when emotions ran too high.

"And I can say the same of myself. I never made things easy for you. Anyway, this is a happy night. I don't need any apologies from you, I just need you."

It's only been a few hours, really, she's still grasping that Scar is back, that he's here, in her bed that has been far too empty for far too long. Unless one counted a small army of cat Pokemon - the Espurr are only the tip of that particular iceberg. And even in so brief a time she can tell something's different. Something's changed in him.

She doesn't want to dwell on old mistakes and the rockier parts of their relationship. Not right now. She just wants to bask in the warm contentment his return has brought. It had always seemed the unreachable dream, the one thing that would be forever beyond her grasp. Her fingers stroke his cheek, gently.

"I promise nothing horrible will happen if we just enjoy being together again."

[officerdown]

Frozen as the extent of his misconceptions are spread out behind him, Scar frantically grasps for the right words. Even this flash of a moment is a microcosm of what's been surgically plucked out of him by the shock of reawakening: Her fingers are on his cheek, and he turns closer, presses warmer against her.

"I know," is what he manages, short and simple and easy because he needs to get anything out right now to make her understand. To let her know that he isn't drawing away. Scar swallows. A steadying breath. Tries again.

"I hated myself, for how happy I am with you."

Oh it sure does feel some kind of way to say the quiet part out loud. His eyes are still locked on hers, desperate with remorse, wild with the sheer magnitude of this epiphany that's been brewing in his brain stem for days.

"And I wasn't even letting myself be, more times than not. Now, I..." Foolish doesn't cut it. Nothing cuts it, in hindsight. There are a hundred mistakes between the both of them, cruel twists of circumstance and the weight of destructive forces far greater than either of them on their shoulders, but few of their frictions were so quietly personal. Painfully simple.

Shame had threaded into his nervous system, and only sometimes did he have the tools to cut it away, to buy precious time before it grew back. Its cancerous heart had been a piece of him since he was old enough to know what longing truly meant.

New guilt unlocked: How immeasurably stupid the old guilt was. But he doesn't want to dwell, either. In fact, he wants very much the opposite.

"I want to be."

He's agreeing with her, he's desperate that she understands that, that she grasps the weight of what he's trying to express, still trying to even understand.

[a_sin_for_him]

No, he hadn't just let himself be plenty of things. Lust knew that. Even if she'd never fully understood what he struggled with, she'd known it was a struggle. There'd always been some dark storm inside of him, something that held him back in so many ways.

"That's a very silly reason to hate yourself." Perhaps not the most helpful thing to say, but it's true and the tea is still in her system. That's a very large part of being together, being happy with one another. Though she can certainly admit they're a rather special case. They'd never been like other pairs. How could they be? All that lay between them and behind them...

But that's far away for Lust now. And much of it had always been hazy, thing she's aware of but has little personal connection to. So much is just a collection of events she knows happened but that she doesn't remember, or doesn't remember well.

"I am very glad, though, that you'd prefer to be happy than hate yourself. You shouldn't hate yourself. There's a great deal to like, you know."

She understands what he's saying. More or less. It's that thing that's different.

[officerdown]

That same, slow smile creeps across Scar's face.

He really does love her.

It really isn't a great, terrible secret he's been burdened to silently carry to his grave.

The last period of stability in your living memory being when you're fifteen will do A Number on your emotional development. Food for thought!

He isn't thinking about that right now, though. As has been the refrain of the last hour, the last three days, the only fully formed thought in his head is simply... what he wants. So Scar does the only thing that makes sense, acts on the only complete thought that his mind can put into reality. It's hardly any effort; they're already sunken into one another. He nudges his nose lightly against hers, eases the angle of their faces together.

He kisses her, languid and soft, and there isn't a single part of him that feels bad about good it feels.

[a_sin_for_him]

Oh.

Lust hadn't expected this, either. She'd simply assumed, without even thinking, it would be something slowly built back to. After a time of adjustment, of Scar...resettling, so to speak.

And that was fine. Their relationship was hardly one built on the physical. Besides, she's gotten used to that sort of thing simply not being a part of her life. There'd been opportunities of course, but...she simply hadn't had the inclination.

So the kiss takes her by surprise. She makes a small and startled noise against his lips before melting into him. Her heart skips a beat and a little thrill goes through her. The number of times she's dreamed of this very thing...

How is this real? A handful of hours ago and it had been a normal night, she'd been in her dressing room thinking only of a hot foot bath and which mindless nighttime show she'd put on before bed. Now she was back in Goldenrod, in bed with Scar, kissing him and running a hand through his hair. It's like all those years have just faded away with the touch of his mouth.

[officerdown]

The kiss is easy and unhurried, but Scar draws back before long, just enough to open his eyes. His fingers brush through the curls against her neck, stroke the line of her jaw. Carefully lidded though it may have been in the uncertainty of his return, he isn't hiding how heavy his eyes and hands are on her, now.

But his thoughts are much the same. He doesn't want to rush her, sudden as all of this is. The consideration swirls in the back of his mind like smoke, obscured under the sheet of indulgent relief that's settled over all of him.

He knows he's impulsive. He knows he acts before he thinks. He's just never felt it quite like this before. Certainly not alone with her, behind closed doors.

Scar manages to linger in the stillness for another breath before he realizes he's already kissing her again, two fingers tilting her chin back into his.

[a_sin_for_him]

Lust wouldn't go so far as to say he seems like a whole new man - he doesn't, he is still most certainly Scar - but it's as though something released in him. It's clear even in how he touches her, something more assured in his hands.

She certainly isn't going to deny him. She'll follow his lead, let him guide this far more intimate and private reunion. God knows how many nights she's longed for him uselessly, regretting all the times she hadn't kissed him, hadn't touched him. It had been hard, in the wake of his loss, not to think on how much time had been wasted.

That's likely what's going through his mind, or something close to it. Even if he can't remember...somehow, that seems worse and far more terrifying. Whatever's flipped whatever switch inside of him, Lust is content to go along. She returns the kiss eagerly, shifting against him, relearning the little details of his mouth, his hands.

Seven years is enough to smooth over some of the smaller memories.

[officerdown]

[moving for Straight Activity]