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Post by tsukikoko on Jul 27, 2021 15:08:06 GMT -6
Sara's thumbs began once again to gently, rhythmically brush over the skin of Aaron's hands where he held hers. She allowed the silence to hang for a few moments; not in an uncomfortable or unsure manner, but instead allowing her small movements and the familiarity of each other's company to help calm the atmosphere.
After a while, she drew his hands towards her lips and kissed his knuckles. Sara then gently encouraged one of his hands to unfurl, laying her cheek in his palm. "Hmmm..." A soft hum of agreement. "You're 'ere, I'm 'ere, we're both alreet."
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Post by MP on Jul 27, 2021 20:12:11 GMT -6
It took prompting for Aaron to open his hand, and then his movements were belated, mechanical, as if his thoughts were slow to catch up. After an uncertain moment, with Sara’s guidance, his hand steadied on her cheek. But the agent’s gaze was still on hers.
“And you really don’t remember?”
His expression was searching, watching for some hint of untruth. He wanted this for her - of course he did. And he knew Sara was the furthest thing from dishonest. But he also knew the lengths she’d go when it came to the well-being of others. It wasn’t a night he wanted her to shoulder alone.
“I’m not saying to try,” Aaron clarified quickly. He withdrew his hands absently from hers, scruffing at his hair. “Just - checking.”
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Post by tsukikoko on Jul 28, 2021 4:27:44 GMT -6
Sara held her partner's gaze, not to stare, but so he could see clearly read the sincerity in her expression. While she could tell he needed more reassurance, probably to open up further, the shifter knew she mustn't hide anything from him, even if to do so might have spared him further distress.
Luckily, there was honestly nothing to hide. She truly remembered nothing, most certainly not to whatever clarity Aaron seemed to be experiencing. Sure, there had been the thrumming sense of dread and an unsettling prickle of wrongness, but certainly no memories or recollections. Given the date and various horrific events of late, it wasn't surprising her subconscious had been unnerved.
The shifter shook her head, "Don't remember nowt, luv." There was a pang of guilt, then, that he was suffering from the night's events while she had no memory. Sara shoved the feeling aside. Aaron was the one suffering, not her. "Promise."
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Post by MP on Jul 29, 2021 16:31:37 GMT -6
He held her stare for a moment longer. Then Aaron nodded. He leaned back with a faint exhale.
"Okay."
A more natural quiet fell them. Aaron sat beside Sara rather than staring her down, and though his shoulders still had a hard set to them, it was closer to the usual formality than the fraught tension of before.
"It must've been a copy," he said. Aaron rubbed his eyes. "Just trying to get in our heads."
He knew for a fact the Koji in the painting had been a fake. The real Koji wouldn't lie about being there, or remembering afterward. It was possible the beast had been the same - just another trick. He wasn't sure he believed that. But if Sara didn't remember, either way, maybe that was enough. She had no reason to worry, unless he gave her one.
He reached over and took her hand in his. Alive. Real. He gave her fingers a light squeeze. Apology or thanks, it was hard to say. At least the agent seemed less conscious of the space between them. This time, when he felt her weight against his, he didn't flinch away.
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Post by tsukikoko on Jul 31, 2021 23:26:42 GMT -6
When Aaron took her hand of his own volition, squeezed her fingers and lost the manic, fraught emotional distance of a few moments prior, the shifter felt a knot within her own chest slowly unfurl. She exhaled, gently. Squeezed his hand in return.
"Why aye man," she agreed with a small frown, "-those places 'ave always tried tah find the worst tah torment people, like."
Whether the Sara in that place had truly been a copy or she just couldn't, for some reason, remember it at all, at least it was over. They were here, together.
After a few moments of contemplative silence, Sara let herself lean against Aaron's familiar warmth. Her tail curled onto the seat, tip gently tapping the material. From an outside perspective, without knowledge of the conversation that had preceded it, the scene would look quite relaxed. Content, even.
Then, the shifter glanced up at him, speaking softly into the darkened space of the room. "What'll ya do now luv?" Whether her question was intended to mean right now, or in association with a report to the WDSA regarding the incident, or anything at all else, she left it deliberately open-ended. Aaron could answer how he wished.
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Post by MP on Aug 3, 2021 1:12:50 GMT -6
Aaron turned his gaze to the ceiling, head settling back against the cushions with a quiet thump. It was hard to resist the urge to shut his eyes. Just to rest them.
"Write the report, while it's fresh," he said at last. "I didn't recognize everyone, but I can get down the physical descriptions so the department can reach out to the victims. If they remember."
The thought was sickening to think about. He pressed on, refusing to let the anger and helplessness resurface. Sara was here. Right here.
"Tomorrow I'll cross check the facts with Mura, Kiyohara, and Groves. Make sure they're holding up." He did close his eyes then. His mouth slanted slightly. "I need to speak with Koji too. Probably freaked him out."
He realized how that sounded a moment later. Aaron opened his eyes again, looking at Sara.
"He wasn't there. I thought - it just looked like him. I had to check."
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Post by tsukikoko on Aug 4, 2021 17:05:01 GMT -6
Sara's open hand ran up and down the Agent's thigh, a repetitive, soothing gesture. When he mentioned the report, the victims, she lightly squeezed just above his knee.
She knew how hard he took events like these, or any perceived failings on behalf of others.
At the mention of Koji, the shifter lifted her gaze to Aaron's now opened eyes, her body drawn very still. The Genasi had suffered enough already; to have been taken to such a place on top of that... the very idea chilled her to the core. But, no, that wasn't the case. Though the alternative, whatever 'looked like him' didn't sound all that much better, given Aaron's reaction. Not only that, the names he listed; all people she knew in various capacities, all dragged through the hellscape as well. In a way, she hoped they didn't remember.
She let out a held breath, turned her eyes away towards the floor. "More psychological torture." From there, the shifter's eyebrows knitted together, a muscle in her jaw tightening, then relaxing again. Her tail slapped the seat a touch more forcibly. "What does it bloody want?" She asked to no-one in particular. Then, after a pause, ran a hand through the back of her hair. Her fingers caught slightly in unbrushed strands. "Eee, sorry luv, talkin' aloud, like."
Would Aaron get enough sleep, especially with their continued conversation, she wondered. Almost certainly not, but perhaps it could be a little more restful with some topics off his chest. "'Opefully our Koji ain't gannin' te fret too much, like. I could always send 'im a text, or give 'im a ring, just tah mack sure 'e's nowt stayin' awake abowt it?"
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Post by MP on Aug 10, 2021 0:24:18 GMT -6
Despite how oblivious he was to his own nervous habits, Aaron always seemed to recognize them in Sara. He caught Sara's fingers as she tousled her hair, squeezing them lightly, then ruffling her hair back to form - or as close to it as Sara's hair ever got. When she dropped her hand, so did he, stroking the underside of her tail with the backs of his fingers whenever it threatened to stir. All in an absent way. Familiar. By now - even now - these little gestures were a comfortable pattern between them.
"Maybe," he agreed. "I thought about it, but I wasn't sure, it's so late."
He looked at her, mouth slanting.
"It's late for you too. You going to be okay?"
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Post by tsukikoko on Aug 13, 2021 17:07:54 GMT -6
When next Sara released a breath, there was more of a relaxed note to her tone. The subtle gestures, little touches and warm, natural intimacy of his fingers on her hand, across her scales, soothed the shifter on a base, instinctive level. She traced soft, swirling patterns along his thigh in an idle, comfortable kind of absent-minded way.
At the mention of lateness, the shifter nodded, "Why aye, it is, like. Call meet be a tad much, but one text shouldn't 'urt nowt. Saves the chance of 'im frettin' overneet, ya know? As for me-" now she chuckled, a light and even mildly playful sound, "-'ad meself a catnap, as I reckon ya noticed, like. I'll be alreet."
Sara turned slightly in her seat, two fingers lightly tapping the Agent's chest. "Why aye, it's you that needs draggin' tah bed 'alf the time, like. Ya gannin' te make it up toneet?" A quiet pause, after which Sara's voice was softer, caring and careful. "I know it ain't easy, like, but ya do need tah sleep as well."
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Post by MP on Aug 15, 2021 23:59:05 GMT -6
"I know."
Aaron didn't try to deny it. By now they were closer to morning than nightfall, and his eyes burned. You'd think the forced coma would have counted as some kind of sleep, but he never felt rested after these anomalous events. If anything, he felt worse. Aaron rubbed his eyes. He didn't want to go back under, but the fatigue muffled his thoughts like a blanket.
"Go on to sleep." he said, patting Sara's tail. "I'll finish these notes and be right up. Ten minutes."
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Post by tsukikoko on Aug 17, 2021 17:36:10 GMT -6
Sara's hand traced a light, framing touch around Aaron's face, travelling across his stubbled cheek and the line of his jaw as she stood up. "Ten minutes." She repeated back at him. "I'll be back down after ya else, like." A light-hearted threat with no heat behind the words... but a threat nonetheless. The shifter thought herself capable of staying up an extra ten minutes to ensure he came to bed.
Even though she had risen to her feet and knew it was best they try to wrap up and catch some sleep, the shifter lingered. She wasn't sure what she wanted to say or do, but given the nature of their discussion, how unsettled her fiancé had been when he came home it was... hard to let go.
The span of a few heartbeats passed. She finally turned for the door.
About halfway across the room, Sara paused again, half turned back towards her Agent. Given the gloom, he wouldn't be able to see the expression on her face, but she hoped the proud half-smile came across in her tone. "Ya know, for what it's worth, like..." A small falter, as she considered how her statement might be interpreted in a manner she didn't intend, before the redhead continued anyway. It needed to be said, she felt. "I know ya did the best ya could."
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Post by MP on Aug 18, 2021 0:27:33 GMT -6
Aaron, already reaching for his laptop, looked over his shoulder at her voice. He didn't answer her right away. Didn't turn fully. Only lowered his eyes slightly, staring at a convenient patch of air. He took a halting breath. Let it out again, unable to put the feeling to words.
"Thanks," he said softly. "Goodnight."
He waited until he heard Sara's footsteps on the stairs. Then he palmed away the moisture at the corner of his eye and turned back to the laptop. He left the room dark, with only the busy tap of the keyboard to fill the silence.
For Sara, the minutes ticked by. Ten minutes came and went. Then fifteen. Then twenty. There was still no creak of footsteps on the stairs. No distant thump of footsteps downstairs. The house was still.
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Post by tsukikoko on Aug 18, 2021 5:33:34 GMT -6
At first, the shifter had set about brushing her teeth, giving her face a quick wash and generally trying to unwind. She sent a quick text to Koji, just to ensure he was okay and not to worry, in case he was still awake too.
But then, when she'd sat upon the bed, looking out the window to watch the world outside, Sara realised how much time was beginning to pass. She'd given Aaron the benefit of the doubt, letting the ten minute mark come and go without bothering him any (despite her earlier threat). He might just have taken a little longer than expected to write down all he remembered; it was a horrible experience to recount, after all.
Once twenty minutes had elapsed and she hadn't even heard him moving around, however, Sara resolved to check on him.
She rose from the bed and, after a step towards the door, her form flowed near seamlessly into a small feline once again. With her tail lifted and small paws gently planted upon the floor with every step, the shifter was near silent as she made her way down the stairs. If Aaron had managed to fall asleep, she didn't wish to wake him with creaking floorboards.
Before long, she peered into the room where she'd left him. Just a quick check. Just in case.
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Post by MP on Aug 18, 2021 17:51:42 GMT -6
As Sara peered into the room, her feline ears caught the sound of gentle breathing. Aaron, it seemed, had never made it out of the room. He was still sitting where she'd left him, his head slumped sideways against the back of the couch. An artificial glow shone on his face, but it was lost on the agent. He slept on, arms slack at his sides, oblivious to the still-open laptop threatening to slide off his lap.
Rounding the couch, one could see the cursor blinking at the end of his notes. A line of "////"s marked where Aaron had drifted off, but the rest of the page was otherwise readable. It was a rough outline, hasty bullet points and partial sentences, but the page count showed he'd been thorough with his observations. It would be easy to read the full account, with the agent dead to the world.
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Post by tsukikoko on Aug 19, 2021 18:20:21 GMT -6
For a few moments, Sara simply watched her resting partner, tracing the lines of his features while they were more relaxed from a, seemingly, peaceful period of sleep. She knew most every facet of his face at this point, by touch as much as sight, and it pained her how fractures of stress, bone-deep fatigue and frustration were such a frequent occurrence now.
Still, she couldn't leave him to sleep like that. He'd wind up with a crick in his neck and most likely the laptop falling to the floor; if it was damaged, he'd be most unhappy about that. She'd have to extricate it before waking him.
After ensuring she was a safe distance away for her shift, the redhead was soon a human again. She leant in and over Aaron's laptop, carefully backspacing the unnecessary characters he'd inadvertently spammed onto the digital page. A flash of burning, dangerous curiosity sweeping through as the words loomed in front of her. She shouldn't. But the temptation was powerful. With a small shake of her head, she resolved instead just to be sure the document was in a backed up and tidy state. Did the document have autosave, she wondered? Better to be safe.
As Sara's fingers carefully moved the cursor to the relevant icon, mindful not to disturb her partner just yet, she found her eyes drifting; her mind began to piece together letter, words, whole sentences, even without conscious thought.
She paused, caught by the desire to know and the fear of what she would find. Before Sara knew it, she'd read the first three or so sentences.
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