fridgetothefire | 074 ☣ Snicker-snack

[Public video]

[The post comes thirty, maybe forty-five minutes after Kara's. Even with the major broken bones and butchery repaired, from just the shoulders up, Anya looks an absolute wreck. She has a swollen, mottled lump at her temple, ugly purple dripping under her skin like a watercolor stormcloud. Her throat is bruised too, the wide brumous darkness there slashed through with line of red lightning, gleaming and raw rather than simple rusting scab, where she thrashed against the rough iron wire binding her neck. Her mouth has a dab of blood that wasn't all washed away, her lip ragged where she chomped partway through it. Her hair is a sweat-matted mess. Most of all, though, is the look in her eye, an unhinged lurching snarl.]

This. Is done. Now. This thing, with Dean, it's me and him, and we are square. Whatever private wars you've got to settle, I don't care, but any one of you touches him in my name - no vengeance. None.

Or I will take it out of your fucking hide.

[She is not entirely sane right now. And she is not even remotely fucking around. The feed cuts out. And then, fifteen seconds later, still broadcast to everyone.]

Including you.

[Private to Ricki]

[Slumped, quieter]

...except you, I guess. Sorry.

But please don't.

[Private to Stiles]

[Also quiet, eyes downcast, exhausted.]

If he can't be bothered to tell you, I think he thought I was the admiral. That he could get free, save the people here. I know you have to do something, I know you'll do. Whatever you decide is best.

But I'd like to be. Informed.

[Private to Iris]

Thank you.

[Infirmary spam]

[She stays there about thirty-six hours, too worn out to do very much, letting the minor surface wounds that didn't get mended with magic stay cleaned and bandaged and iced. She'll see visitors if they come, will be wan and weary but lucid, without the vicious freneticism of the immediate aftermath. After that, she can't stand it any longer despite the advantages, retreats to the sanctuary of her cabin.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That's a real sweet story, Anya.

You ever kiss him on the mouth?

...well, it took me another two years. But yeah, we did.

[She's aware this sounds a little bit ridiculous. But - well. It made sense for them.]

Two years?

[She smiles.]

Damn, I never knew anybody who took things that slow.

Yeah, well.

Ben was - the people who raised him, they were evil. Really, just - evil. He didn't understand what had happened, the first time I kissed him. He thought I was trying to whisper something in his ear, and he couldn't hear it, because he couldn't imagine someone wanting to touch him, ever.

I spent a long time just getting him used to the idea that any touch at all could be a good thing. But we got there.

Are you gonna visit him ever?

Not visit. When I'm done here, I'm going to go live with him. Or he'll come with me. But we're it, him and me.

[Maybe that sounds silly, given that they've literally never got past a Disney kiss. But they know.]

Is that why you ain't so sad about him being gone? You know you're gonna see him again someday?

If I didn't know that, I wouldn't be here. I'd be out searching for him.

[This is just - true. This has been tested.]

It helps a lot, yeah. I still miss him, but - we've got our whole lives, later.

... You didn't even sleep with him once?

[She laughs, but also, under the bruises, clearly blushes, ducks her head.]

Not yet. Give me another two years.

It's Ben. I gotta get it right.

Edited 2015-06-30 20:13 (UTC)

And it ain't hard to wait?

... I'm not saying I never would or nothing. But I never was with someone who wanted to, or needed to. I don't know what it's like.

I don't know. It's not hard for me, maybe because I never did anything before. I never trusted anyone enough to say anything, even if I liked them, or found the right time to say it.

So I don't have anything to compare to, waiting. It was hard not to kiss him, for a long time. But I'm kind of.

[She swallows, stares down fixedly at Johnny and pets him, doesn't look at Tiffany at all. This is hard for her to admit.]

I'm scared, too. Not of him. Just. It seems like so much.

I don't think it has to be, but maybe I'm, like... biased.

Or I am. I overthink things a lot, and. I'm from the past, compared to you, when it was a bigger deal, and no one talked about it ever, at least not to me. And - I spent a long time thinking no one would ever want me anyway, for different reasons. I don't know, I just.

I didn't want to rush it just because he was going. We're going to have the time, and - I trust him, and he trusts me, that that's gonna be true.

What if he never wants to?

[She has thought about this. Kind of a lot, actually.]

I'll marry him and fuck other people, I guess.

[Alex. She will fuck the shit out of Alex and they'll both cuddle Ben later. It's a good plan B.]

[Tiffany laughs - genuinely laughs - and leans back in her seat.]

A husband and a friends with benefits?!

Why not? He doesn't do jealous.

... Never?

I don't think he knows how. It wouldn't make sense to him. I mean - jealousy's mostly about fear, right? That you'll lose someone, or they'll replace you.

But he knows I never could.

You're like a fairy tale, Anya.

Oh, god.

[She chokes up, a little, gets another twisted little smile.]

He used to talk in fairy tales, when he didn't know how to say something. That's how we met.

These?

[She traces a finger along the thick black outlines of her stained-glass style tattoos.]

They're based on a story he made up about me.

[They are a fairy tale. They built themselves one together, made it real, about lost princes and princesses, finding ways to be stronger, to live free.]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you sadder.

You didn't.

[True and not true; it hurts, but good, remembering.]

... Do you believe in, like, soulmates and stuff?

[video; private]

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