Smelling the Roses

[Rlyeh]

There was many parks in Sacramento. Many. A lot even, each with their own features and attractions...was attractions the right word? R'lyeh didn't know, but even if they weren't this was the place where she and Gerrit would be meeting and this place had it's own rose garden. So the Drowned Fox wandered over that way. Even though Gerrit was a Winter. The Winter, now. King of Sorrow, R'lyeh knew he liked flowers. It wasn't hard to figure out. He owned a flower store. Shop.

So she'd probably find him here instead, eventually. Instead of awkwardly wandering around or more awkwardly waiting around the parking lot. Or bike rack. She had a bike now!

Did Gerrit know that? Her head tilts, she didn't remember. Oh well. It might be something to talk about.

Aeolus

[Gerrit]

He was not surprised to find R'lyeh near the rose garden. Despite his problems with reading the Elemental - any Elemental, really - she was anything but stupid. He could have expected her to find out about his return, so why did he not reach out to her? Had he expected her to have moved on already, like other Elementals before her? Or was the level-headedness he thought he had found while traveling not as thorough as he liked to believe?

He stopped in his tracks when he saw her. This felt difficult in a different way than the conversations with Anatole and Liam had. Why? He cleared his throat and made a conscious effort to unclench his fists as he walked over to her. "Hello Riley." And now what? He put his hands into the pockets of his dark grey light jacket and exhaled. "How are you?"

[Rlyeh]

She was waiting. Scuffing the dirt with her boot, mussing the grass and stomping to lay it flat. She should probably look at the roses. They were red-pretty, and smell like roses do. But she isn't. She's just. She didn't know.

There was just A Lot. Like a tangle-knot just under her breastbone. But she couldn't do anything about it. It was no-touch-intangible.

And she couldn't - "Oh. Um. Hi." she says, turning to look at Gerrit. He looks the same-different-familiar-new. Her tongue feels twisty-tied, but lead like too. "I'm. Okay. I guess. um. You?"

[Gerrit]

As if it wasn't plenty obvious, the silence that hung between them showed Gerrit that he wasn't dealing with one of Sacramento's many Fairests. Fists buried deeper into his pockets, scabs and bruises rubbing against coarse fabric. "I'm.. okay too, I guess." A conscious effort to relax was made and he exhaled. "I- well, the last few months have been a lot. I am sorry that I've just disappeared without any notice."

He looked around and took a deep breath. He could try and ask himself why this was so awkward, or he could ignore this and get this over with. He chose the latter, burying the complicated feelings or not-feelings beneath a layer of snow inside him. "Do you want to walk around for a bit? I wouldn't mind moving right now." Maybe that way the pauses in their conversation couldn't turn into idle contemplation.

[Rlyeh]

"Yes!" she squeaks out, "Walking-moving-yes. Okay." she nods, drip-drip-drop and spins on a heel to do the moving-motion-walking-go.

She takes a few steps. And a few more, each twitching trying to catch the Winter's steps, so she wouldn't have to look to check if he was still there.

"....I just. I woulda been nice to know you were alive. From you and not. Anatole. He's great. But." she swallows. Missing sitting at Rosie's with her bottle of water. Something to do with her hands, and to drink. Delay. Nothing to do that here-now. Just the roses, and the sweet flower-smell. "I thought you left-gone-no-goodbyes." her ears and tails droop. "Then....you're hurt-left-to-heal. Then-then you're back! Good-great-but. I see you at the last get together, and. " she shrugs, tails swishing, dusting the ground behind her. "I thought..." she trails off, shrugging again.

[Gerrit]

He was glad that there was something steady in the footsteps, the raspy breaths of their walk. The things R'lyeh told him made him realize how much his actions had hurt her - worse, the blunt way the Elemental phrased it did not mince words in that matter. Was he doomed to repeat the callous actions of John and Cassandra, of Vivian? And did that make him a bad person?

He breathed in twice, as if to start an apology or explanation, but then let go of the air in his lungs in raspy sighs. For the briefest moment he considered asking Winter to take his Sorrow away so he could think clearly right now - but it felt important to feel this right now. "I am sorry." He admitted this between grunts, on the way from one plot of roses to the next one. "I was being selfish. And scared. I thought-" What? With a clack his mouth snapped shut, the muscles of his jaw clenched painfully. He willed them open again. "I thought that if I did not intend to come back that it would be easier this way."

This was kind of the truth, but was it enough to explain the complicated things he had been feeling to the Elemental? Gerrit tried his best not to get frustrated with the Fox who did not know Vivian, nor was she to blame for what had happened back then. "And then I was not sure if people wanted me back at all." The statement could paint him as a pitiful victim, but the Onyx said it matter-of-factly. And he knew it was not worth much as far as apoligies went. "I should have reached out to you."

[Rlyeh]

She stops.

Feeling smoky fur and broken glass feather ruffle, bushing up.

She hadn't expected him to apologise. People didn't apologise to her. Fire-scorn, gross.bad.wrong yes. those were things she knew how to deal with. But Sacramento-Freehold. People were built differently here. Or maybe in the After they couldn't find another place to be so they all end up here. Misfits and monsters.

"....I didn't think you'd apologise." she says after a too quite moment. "Thank you for saying it." follows it. "I understand being scared-afraid-worried." the Summer says to the Winter. "I-" she starts, only to stop again.

"Since you didn't I didn't know if you wanted to talk-see me at all. So I. Waited. And." well, she'd heard him asking for a one-on-one she dove in. Ocean-dark-deep-black-hunting-seeking-deVoUrInG "...sorry if my waiting made things worse." like normal. always worse off because she's involved a dark stain on everything and everyone.

[Gerrit]

Seeing R'lyeh stop and search for words made Gerrit realize that he most likely was the one-eyed king in the land of the blind when it came to self-confidence. Either that, or he was reading into the Elemental what simply wasn't there - it wouldn't be the first time where he grossly misjudged the feelings of one. And now he did not know how to respond to that, since that response hinged on assumptions of his own.
The distinct throbbing of a headache started to join the usual chorus of the Stonebone's pains. "Looks like we met just in time before this might have become even more complicated."

He stubbornly ignored the pain and gave R'lyeh an awkward smile in an attempt to break the tension with levity. The alternative, passing the apology back and forth, seemed just so much less productive. "The next time you are unsure about how I would react to something, I promise you you can just straight out ask me and I promise I won't get mad or anything. How does that sound?" He consciously looked around the park to give her some room to think about that offer. Frankly, he also needed some air to process the back-and-forth between his Ogre-cursed emotions and the need to keep a Wintery composure. This was already way more complicated than any other relationship with Sacramento's Lost - and he was well aware that R'lyeh wasn't really to blame for that.

[Rlyeh]

Her ear twitch and try to follow the bird-song-laughing-kids but Gerrit-words are more important then background noise there's two of them here, nothing's gonna hurt her gerrit might

First she hums an agreeing noise, "Yes-glad. Worried-it-was-already-late." she says, even if she thinks that it went without saying, but sometimes people had weird-thoughts so she said it to make sure it was said out-loud-and-not-just-inside-thoughts.

She scuffs a shoe in the dirt, reminding herself that normal people need to move, they don't wait predator-still. She turns to glance as Gerrit, squinting at the Ogre, scars-bruises-scabs make it harder for R'lyeh to read, even though fresh-face-expressive is hard for her to read, it's a language she used to know but can't recall, and the Winter warping barrier makes is harder still.

"You mean that, or are you saying that?" she asks before she has time to think.

[Gerrit]

"I mean it." The tiniest bit of frustration needled Gerrit's spine, but it was hard to be annoyed with an Elemental's oblivious nature. Heck, as much as he had trouble finding the right words for her to understand, it must be much more difficult for her. "You know how pretty much every movie or story relies on people not talking to each other to create tension?" He started to explain, them realized that he did not really know much about R'lyeh. What she liked, enjoyed or even knew. "Uh, of course it is uncomfortable to talk about things that are not pleasant, but at the end of the day it's almost for the better. One way or another."

Was this conversation uncomfortable? Yes, but after saying the last part he again realized that it had been necessary.