[ North shakes his head—the same rueful 'this is what I have to put up with' headshake he gave when South had outbursts in the classroom back at Freelancer. ]
Please don't.
[ He moves his legs to hug one of his knees. ]
Point being that I didn't just forget about you, Wash.
[ As much as Wash gives lip service to that being ancient history, it obviously still affects him. And how could it not? The fact that saying this outright seems to have given him pause in whatever measure means North is going to let things hang like that for a time, in silence.
Eventually he stirs a bit and decides to change the subject. ]
So do you help out here much? In the garden, I mean.
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[And he's slowly coming out of his haze of constantly on edge energy.]
You and York... you never wanted me to go through what I did.
[They may have left him there, chosen to save someone else or themselves. But he knows his old friends didn't actually want him to suffer.]
To be honest, I didn't really know until recently that you both cared that much.
[Which means he doesn't mind seeing that they do.]
That anyone did.
[His eyes drop to the clover he's shredding.]
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[ He pauses. Maybe Wash doesn't realize what extent that got to. ]
You know I shot her, right?
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[Dryly.]
Shame it didn't take.
[But there's not as much venom in it as in the past. He just is incapable of being anything other than catty.]
[Then he remembers he murdered her, whoops.]
[He winces.]
Probably shouldn't joke about that.
[At least not to North.]
[At least it's less bad when she's here now, capable of being, ughughugh, saved.]
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Please don't.
[ He moves his legs to hug one of his knees. ]
Point being that I didn't just forget about you, Wash.
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[It has been a gradual thawing. And it's still slow.]
[But it's happening. Ice gradually sloughing off.]
[He opens his mouth. Closes it.]
[Looks at him sidelong, eyes a little glassy, looks away.]
Mm hmm.
[It's the safest thing to say because North won't hear his voice crack with it.]
[But there's still a tremor in his voice with those two syllables anyway.]
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Eventually he stirs a bit and decides to change the subject. ]
So do you help out here much? In the garden, I mean.
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[He looks out at all the green.]
It reminds me of something but I can't really remember what. Maybe the moon I lived on with Carolina and Tucker and the others?
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There weren't many spots on the sim base planet that were this green, so I haven't seen this kind of view in a long time.