Ari ♫ ♪ ♬ (gracenotes) wrote in emillion, @ 2014-04-25 23:53:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !log, arielle chiaro, audrey leradine |
Who: Ari & Aud
What: Helping the hermit
Where: Ari's flat
When: Sometime after this.
Rating: PG-13-ish. Cursing in multiple languages! Terrible coping mechanisms!
Status: Complete
Ari had entirely been ignoring her messages—it was highly unlike the bard to go without speaking to the ninja. Taking the matter into her own hands, the blonde had gone around the city to Arielle’s usual haunts until finally arriving at her front door. “Ari, it’s me!” she called out, knocking on the door. No response. Biting her lower lip, she walked over to her window, peeking through. Taking one of her daggers, she cleared out the edges of any glass before hopping through and inside the house. Broken instruments littered the floor, everything out of place. A pit had grown in her stomach. “Ari!” she yelled again, moving furniture until she caught sight of something from the corner of her eye. The blanket was moving. Walking over, she pulled the comforter off in a quick motion revealing the small bard. “Ari, are you okay?!” Ari’s response could not exactly be called words. If anything, it sounded more like a groan as she blinked up at Aud’s unexpected form. Had she picked the lock? She hadn’t heard the door, but… She pushed unkempt hair from her eyes, rubbing a hand over her face. The inside of her mouth felt like sandpaper. “...Aud?” she said finally, the word a bit slurred and definitely a little hoarse. She hadn’t given her voice the chance to recover; she hadn’t really been able to care. “What’re you doin’ here?” A wave of relief went through her body as she slumped over next to her friend. “I thought you were hurt,” she threw her head back. “I was so worried. You stopped replying.” “Ummmmmmmm, I…” For a moment, Ari’s brows furrowed as she attempted to think. “The communicator,” she finally came up with. She’d thrown it… somewhere. “I… think it’s... off?” She hadn’t wanted to talk to anyone. She had been barely capable of caring for herself the first while and even then her success at that particular task was, at best, questionable. She thought of saying, I’m okay, but just the thought of it had tears pricking the corners of her eyes; instead, she drew her knees up and rested her cheek on them, closing her eyes. Maybe, if she just didn’t say anything, Aud would go away. Hardly any interaction and Audrey had already broken her. Raising a brow, she looked at the bard, moving her leg lightly. “Hey,” she cooed softly. “C’mon, get up.” “But… I like bed,” Ari said, stubborn even if she did feel as though she might burst into hysterical tears again at any moment. When would that end? She was so tired of crying. But in the end, she’d give in to Aud’s prodding, though the room spun as she stood. A drunken giggle turned into a sniffle. “Earth’s shaking.” “Oh no,” was all Audrey could muster. Standing up from the bed, she swooped her friend up, craning her back and carrying her own through towards the bathroom. Dumping Ari’s drunken body into the tub, Audrey turned on the water—unfortunately, it was still cold. The wooziness vanished with a snap, and Ari shrieked at the top of her still considerable lungs. “Putain de merde!” Splashing uselessly, gasping, she attempted to get to her feet and out from under the water. “Ari stop!” she demanded, feeling the cold water splash on her. “It’s going to be cold until you stop moving!” she had gripped her shoulders tightly, maybe even painfully. Audrey felt the water, turning the knob. “Ari, fucking stop!” she screeched back at her, steam now coming from the faucet. The shrieking did die down eventually, as the water ran warm and then blisteringly hot, and then, instead of screaming, it seemed Ari was crying again after all, as the water rained down on her. With the relative rise in sobriety provided by the brief exposure to icy cold, the blessed numbness brought by the wine had worn off. “I --” she tried, “I just -- I’m sorry --” She groped for Aud’s hand, found it and squeezed hard. It wasn’t words, after all, but she tried to convey it without using any: I am really, really not all right at all. “Hey, shh,” she didn’t let go of Ari’s hand, her free one worked to even the temperature in the tub and then plug the drain for the water to fill. Once she could, Audrey pressed the bard’s head against her chest, her fingers massaging her skull as she continued to coo at her like a child. “It’s alright.” It isn’t, Ari might have said, but she couldn’t, and maybe that was for the better. So she sniffled as Aud washed her hair, dragged off her sodden clothes, and eventually turned off the water and threw a towel over her shaking shoulders. Though Aud’s next words -- about it now being time to become functional members of society -- seemed highly unlikely, she followed along anyway. At least for a little while, it was good not to be alone. |