York (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
infailtration) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
goneawaycomms2020-12-22 10:49 pm
infailtration) wrote in goneawaycomms2020-12-22 10:49 pm
York
● York
leave one if you need me
[video | audio | text]
● York
leave one if you need me
[video | audio | text]
● York
leave one if you need me
[video | audio | text]
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"There isn't much he could do to ruin our friendship. I almost blew it right away, though."
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"Let me guess, you put your foot in your mouth somehow? Or did he just take a two second fuckin' delay as a sure sign you were gonna laugh in his face and reject him? Or both, that's possible with you two in the same room."
The jabs she's making are a lot closer to teasing than they usually are, like she's recovered her balance on the line between joking and just being a bitch. Still teetering, the way South has always tended to do on that line, but...
She sits and then lays down on the bench. Flexes her previously injured hand a few times, before getting both situated in place to lift.
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He pauses, thinks. Because her jab is more like teasing than usual and also... she’s not wrong.
“Actually I think that second thing might have happened too.”
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South actually laughs for a second. "Knew it. I know that idiot well. You, less so, but I do remember you putting your foot in your mouth plenty before, so..."
She shrugs, then she grunts as she lifts the weight and starts a set. She flicks her eyes to Delta and raises a brow at him.
"I take it you managed to rectify your mistake despite my not being around to assist." Jut a hint of Delta sass. "I also take it that this development has made you happy, York."
He's been forced to miss out on several major developments for York, which he isn't at all pleased about. South knows that, he's made it clear enough, but it's not until now that she may even be starting to feel a little bad about it.
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He’d actually like to talk to Delta about how it’s sort of complicated, about North’s ultimatum of sorts, but isn’t willing to mention it around South. That’s testing their newfound camaraderie a bit too much.
“Aren’t you going to threaten me now?”
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"I am glad to hear that, and that the two of you continue to look out for each other. I believe we will have much to talk about." The 'one day' is unsaid, but there.
Choosing to ignore the implications in the air there (oh, she can tell Delta thinks she's going to give him back soon and she hates that she can no longer outright deny that) South rolls her eyes with humour. She'd give York the one-minute finger, if her hands weren't full.
She finishes her set and rests the bar back in place, sitting up to take a quick drink.
"Depends if I fuckin' need to. Do I need to tell you what'll happen to you if you hurt him, or are you smart enough to guess?"
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He isn’t even trying to guilt South right now, because he believes she’ll come around at this point. He just doesn’t know when. And not badgering her has improved their relationship to the point where... well. He still doesn’t trust her but he’s not constantly on guard against attack anymore.
“You don’t need to.” York isn’t an idiot. At the very least she’ll beat the shit out of him and he knows it. “But I kind of want to hear it.”
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South snickers, “You want to hear me threaten you? That’s a fuckin’ new one. Last time I did something like this the poor fucker looked legitimately fuckin’ scared and you want to hear it.”
She stands up to add a little more weight to the barbell. It may or may not be part of making her point.
“Look, you make him happy. You make him happy in a way I haven’t seen him in a long, long time.” The fresh weight clunks into place. There’s a lopsided smile on her face. “You should have seen his face when he was telling me about you guys, swear to fuck he looked like a lovestruck puppy.”
She sits back down, lays back and looks up at him as she settles back into position.
“And I know what you all think of me, after everything; I know you all probably think I don't love him— but I do love him, and I want him to be happy. And you're not a stupid guy, York. You know how close that fight was out in the snow.”
She lifts the barbell and grunts, quietly, completing a few steady reps without issue. The ink over her arm muscles distorts as they flex under the weight before setting it down again.
“You know how hard I can hit if I really wanna fuckin’ hurt someone. And Drew’s not the only one with a fuckin’ protective streak. You know how many teeth I knocked out, black eyes I gave, over people fucking with him? A lot. So, y’know.” She flashes York a slightly dangerous grin, with teeth. “Don’t fuck it up. Or you know damn well I’ll fuck you up too.”
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She has a point in that their fight was pretty close. If she had real rage behind it she could have won, and he suspects she would if he hurt North. Maybe he’s just not scared of her because he doesn’t anticipate hurting her brother. He knows he could, but he won’t. Not on purpose, anyway.
“I know. And I don’t want to fuck it up.” And he means that. He won’t promise not to because that’s unrealistic. Things go wrong for all sorts of reasons. He isn’t perfect.
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“Good,” she stands to adjusts the weights again and shrugs. “Then hopefully I won’t have to kick your ass so hard you’re laid up in the infirmary for weeks.”
She could be more outright, even physical, if she wanted; she’s pinned someone to a wall once, during a similar talk, though that hadn’t been a romantic partner and they’d already been pushing their luck. But she believes him, and she hasn’t seen North this happy in years, so she just gives him a firm punch in the shoulder with enough force to get the point across before laying back down again.
“He might’ve told you, but I’ll cover for you. Far as anyone official knows, he never sleeps outside our room.”
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“...thank you. I don’t know how much good it’ll do but we do have the defense that we’ve always been like this. Mostly.”
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She wraps her hands back around the bar again, adjusts her grip.
“You sure fuckin’ have been. Almost made me doubt my ‘North’s got a crush’ sense, the way you two always were.” She snorts a quiet chuckle. “May not be the best defense but at least it’s the truth.”
She lifts the bar, does a couple reps, then pauses to talk with it lifted above her chest.
“Told him he should probably sleep in ours at least once a week just in case, but...” She shrugs, lowers the barbell to her chest, and continues the set.
That request was more about her own loneliness, than the guys’ secret, but it serves a double purpose, and she’s not going to admit to York she hates sleeping alone in that room. That it’s too quiet without North there. She barely admitted it to North.
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He keeps his hands perched below the bar as South raises and lowers it, in case her hand gives out. The 'once a week' comment surprises him.
"Is he planning to move or something? I didn't expect him over that much all the time." He certainly wouldn't mind it, but it does feel a bit like abandoning her in that room. York's used to being alone in his. "We can share."
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She snorts and hopes it comes across as mostly amused. She finishes the set, but doesn't take her hands off the bar when she rests it back down on the rack and doesn't sit up.
"He already spends more time in your room than ours, York." Not so much that reducing it to a single guaranteed night isn't a noticeable change, but the balance has been tipping in his favour for a while. "It's not like he told me 'hey sis I'm gonna move in with York', I just told him it's fine if he wants to. I don't need him sleeping over every night, I'm not a kid."
But she hates the silence. She hates waking up in the middle of the night and forgetting, for just a second, that she's not alone on the run anymore, because she can't hear his breathing. It's even worse on the rare nights she wakes because of bad dreams.
Before North died, there had barely been a time in her life where she wasn't sharing her room with someone; the twins shared a room as kids and in the military, either he was there, or another squadmate was. She's never really been alone.
But she won't ask more of North, won't ask him to coddle her, because she doesn't want to be coddled. She should just get used to it.
sorry for delay! got muh laptop back \o/
"I didn't say you were a kid. Everybody needs company." He thinks for a moment. "Since we're not at each other's throats anymore, I could crash there sometimes. Call it a sleepover if anybody asks."
no worries, yay laptop!
A little part of South, a part of her that she’ll one day be able to call part of her old self, recoils at what feels to it like pity, wants to suddenly prove York wrong about them not being at the other’s throat.
Her jaw even tenses, clenches— but she doesn’t lash out, like that part of her wants to do, that instinctive response to vulnerability and emotions she doesn’t want to handle. She doesn’t want to snap, today. So she breathes in, breathes out, and tries to disguise the whole journey in another set before responding.
“Yeah, right, sure, third wheel me in my own room,” she says with a slight roll of her eyes, trying to sound joking. The twins room being only a two, the guys would have to snuggle up and something in her chest pangs at the idea of having such an up close reminder of how alone she still is in other ways, too.
Ugh, emotions beyond anger are so messy.
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"Alright, maybe not. But hey, if you ever want a wingman, I'm excellent. D, tell her."
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“‘Excellent’ is a subjective descriptor that you may find inaccurate, but yes, York is an ‘excellent’ wingman.”
South raises a brow and snorts with genuine amusement. She does forget, often, how Delta’s learned humanity from York; or maybe she never really noticed in the past at all. “...I can’t tell if that one was directed at me, or you.”
She shakes her head, rolls her shoulders.
“Whatever. However good or terrible you are at being a wingman, it’s not like I’m gonna need one. Look around, York, you and Drew are kinda a special case. I just don’t need to see my brother being all lovey dovey up close, thanks.”
(The thought of CT rises, unasked for, in her mind and she shoves that deep, deep down.)
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Which is a bit of a feat, given how monotonous D's voice sounds to most people. But he nods at South's latter statement. They are kind of breaking a whole bunch of rules and although he doesn't have any siblings, can relate to not wanting someone being 'lovey dovey' in the vicinity. Even if they're not that different now from how they usually are and South tolerated that fine.
"I get it." He'll encourage North to spend more time with South than him, though. These things are all about balance and he doesn't want her mood worsening again.
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“I am sure I have no idea what you are talking about, York.”
“Can’t believe you taught an AI to sass. Actually, no, its you, so yeah, maybe that checks.”
South isn’t sure if— well, no, that’s a lie, she is sure that before now, she hadn’t paid the way these two interact enough mind to really understand how close they are. Now that she is... goddammit.
“Like I said, I’ll do what I can so you guys can have all the alone time you fuckin’ want. Just try not to make my job covering your asses too hard.”
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Not that Delta has cells to equalize with York's, but he's speaking in metaphor, alright? It makes sense to him. Sometimes when you bond with someone, you pick up their traits. Delta's sense of humor is still his own, though.
"...thanks, South. We could use something good here." He thinks for a moment. "I wonder what Jorgmund would do if they found out..."
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South understands what he means, she thinks. She almost wishes she didn’t, though. She’s spent years denying the AI were essentially actual people in their own right, people who can learn and change. Goddammit, she really is going to end up handing him over one day, isn’t she?
Soon it’ll be North, York and their two AI, even she can’t deny that at this point. She’ll have given up everything she was clinging so hard to, from the emotions she was trying to hide to Delta himself. She’s still not sure what that leaves of her.
“Zap one or both of you, at least.” Her face twists, she really fucking hates these shock collars. “Not sure what else. Don’t know if we wanna know.”
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"You won't," she says, and it's firm in the sense that she'll refuse to believe anything else. "Look, I did some shitty stuff, but one thing I learned from that is I'm real good at lying to authority. Long as you two don't go making out in front of Jorg officials, they won't know."
Almost two years lying to Command. Sure, she was lying to North too, but that's less impressive, because he trusted her. God. Fuck. Nope. Don't go down that thought track right now.
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"Then they won't know. But you're in serious danger of a hug right now."
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