Impatience

[touchedinthehead]

Aldaras doesn't bring up the knife with Annie again, nor his sister, or various ways she could be hurt. Annie has homework, so she doesn't stay at his apartment too long. He goes back to having nothing to do - there's some more pacing, some quiet freaking out over Annie and her safety, and then he distracts himself with obsessive preparation for taking care of the knife.

He'll - pack with the assumption that he can save his sister. There's lots of non-perishable food, packing as much as possible with the least amount of weight. Water, too, but that one's a bit harder. It's always heavy. Whatever, that's fine, he'll just - obsessively pack some more things. Pack, pack, pack.

Predictably, he runs out of things to do. Except think. Which has become something of a minefield, lately. To keep him from doing something stupid. He can't think about Zevaia, can't think about the knife, can't think about the Dean and how insanely long it's taking him to get the smallest tidbits of information out of him. He can't think too much about obsessive ways to make sure Annie's safe, for fear of becoming some kind of psychotic, controlling stalker or something.

But trying to not think about Annie is a recipe for failure or insanity, so he distracts himself with - what ifs. What would have happened if he'd met her without the necklace's and tracker's side effects combination, what he would have done if she'd asked him to kiss her...

That helps the time pass by faster.

Comments

[cut_and_dried]

"Yup, got it. Cool, thanks. Now stop eyefucking the phone and call her, if that keeps going on any longer I'll start selling tickets to a phone and brother peep show."

[touchedinthehead]

Aldaras is - not going to justify that with an answer.

But he does call Annie.

[keep_busy]

"Salutations?"

[touchedinthehead]

"Salutations," says Aldaras. "I'm back. Oh - also rich now, that's nice."

(Funny, how he wasn't thinking of important things to tell her until he was talking to her. He didn't even mean for that to happen, but he's not complaining.)

[keep_busy]

"Yeah, I figured. You're set for life, lucky you."

[touchedinthehead]

"Lucky me," he agrees, softly. "I - um. Do you want to come over, or - if you're busy it's completely fine if you don't, or - if you don't want to, that's fine too."

[keep_busy]

"I can come over, but if I'm going to make the trip I'll probably bring some homework."

[touchedinthehead]

"That's okay. My sister's here - we actually share the apartment, I don't know if it's a factor of whether you want to come over or not...?"

[keep_busy]

"Does she want to meet me?"

[touchedinthehead]

Aldaras glances at Zevaia. "... Do you want to meet Annie?" he asks, directly.

[cut_and_dried]

"No," says Zevaia, in a deadpan. "I want to never ever meet the person you are stuck in eternal love forever with. You'll have to go to some back alleys or an inn or something if you want to ever fuck her, 'cause you can't do that shit here, I'm a huge fucking prude."

[touchedinthehead]

"Yes," he snorts.

[keep_busy]

"Okay, I'll be there in like - twenty minutes?"

[touchedinthehead]

"Sure!"

Awww, look, Aldaras is happy. He gets to see Annie!

[keep_busy]

"See you soon."

She is there in about twenty minutes. Knock knock.

[touchedinthehead]

Aldaras is the one to open the door. He grins when he sees her, and looks - kind of like he wants to scoop her up into a hug. But he's too polite to actually do so without permission. So the result is somewhat awkward.

"Hello," he says.

[keep_busy]

"Hi." And: "...You can hug me if you want."

[touchedinthehead]

"Can I?" says a delighted Aldaras.

Then he does. Gently, affectionately.

[cut_and_dried]

Zevaia surveys this from her spot on the couch. So far, so good. She's a little bothered by the necklace making Aldaras fall in love without his permission, but if he seems happy after she's willing to let it slide.

[keep_busy]

"I think at this point you can have standing hug permission," says Annie, hugging him back. "Hi, you must be Zevaia. I'm Annabelline, Annie's fine."

[touchedinthehead]

"Really? Thank you - uh. Let me know if I accidentally overstep bounds."

[cut_and_dried]

Zevaia waves. "Yup, Zevaia. Vai's fine for me. Hey! Nice to meet you, I am being very understanding about this entire situation. Ald, you continue to have zero excuse to not get me a kickass present when you inevitably are socially obligated to get me a thing."

[touchedinthehead]

Aldaras snorts. "Your priorities continue to shock and amaze me."

[cut_and_dried]

"Hey, I like having nice shit. You have methods to get nice shit. Therefore, you should get me nice shit."

[keep_busy]

"I will let you know," Annie assures Aldaras. "...Are you guys actually related, I don't think you could have possibly come across as less like Aldaras in the amount of time available without shooting at me or something."