pleasuretoburn (pleasuretoburn) wrote in birthrightrpg, @ 2020-10-28 16:09:00 |
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Entry tags: | noah restic, ~ro clark |
There's the Door
Who: Ro/Noah
What: A Confession Over Breakfast
Where: Las Vegas, Noah's Apartment
When: Present
Ratings/Warnings: Reference to Violence, You Know the Drill
Noah opened his eyes as sunlight streamed in from the slightly parted curtains in his bedroom. The sheets and covers were a tangled mess. He could smell breakfast cooking in the kitchen, which corresponded with the empty space in the bed next to him. He sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes before getting up and dressed. The pyrokinetic wandered out of the hallway, to the kitchen.
“Morning,” he murmured, looking for coffee and getting rewarded with a semi-full, still-hot French press. He poured himself a cup and leaned against the counter, looking at Ro carefully. Noah was thinking, considering his words and what he would say. He had something to tell her.
Ro had cooked enough at Noah's by now that she knew her way around his kitchen. She liked cooking here. His counters weren't as expansive as her own but it was still a good work space. Also, while Noah didn't shop like a chef, the groceries he bought were good quality and great to cook with.
Her own half cup of coffee was on the counter beside her and Ro was standing at the stove, furiously whisking something over a double broiler. What she was wearing last night wasn't so easy to cook in so she'd pulled on one of Noah's shirts when she got up this morning. Most of her hair was still standing straight up from bed.
"Try this," she said dipping a spoon into what she was working on. Ro handed the spoon to Noah with a bit of yellow liquid on the tip. "Hollandaise."
He grabbed the spoon, bringing it to his mouth and tasting it. “This is amazing,” he commented, before taking the spoon over to the sink and rinsing it. Noah glanced over his shoulder at her, before adding, “You look good in that shirt.” This second statement was delivered in a quieter tone, and she might not have heard it if she wasn’t a few feet away from him.
“There’s something I want to tell you about the other night,” the pyrokinetic told her matter-of-factly. Noah watched her movements, the fluid way she worked, the confidence. He could appreciate someone who excelled in their chosen field. He had also been thinking a lot about what had happened at Seven Magic Mountains, how he had felt. It was almost like being...normal. He could almost feel something real, it was just frustratingly out of reach, like trying to grasp air in his fingertips. And he wondered how far she would have to take it before he could actually get to that place. “Something about me.”
The trick to hollandaise was that if you managed not to break the sauce, you had to watch out you didn't overwhelmed and wind up with mayonnaise. She pulled the bowl off the broiler, fished the muffins from the toaster and poached eggs from where they rested on a paper towel. A few slices of prosciutto and Ro handed Noah a plate of eggs benedict.
"Hope it's not that you're secretly married," she said, finishing up making a plate for herself. "I hate those conversations."
Noah smirked at the idea that he would ever be married. He held up the plate, “Thank you,” and carried it over to the island. “No, it’s not that,” he said, grabbing utensils for the both of them. “It’s about Ronnie. And why I wasn’t supposed to be in Searchlight.” He used a steak knife and fork to cut out a section of the eggs benedict, making sure to get each layer in one bite before dipping it in the excess hollandaise. After he was done chewing, he wiped his mouth on a paper towel.
“I went to Ronnie’s house and threatened to kill him because his father owed a large gambling debt. I get paid to do this. And I get paid to murder people using my powers. I wouldn’t think twice about killing him, except I made a deal with a hunter and a vampire.” This was all stated in the tone of talking about the weather. He continued eating while he waited for Ro to respond.
Ro, seated next to Noah and enjoying her own breakfast, had started to say she didn't care about that. Noah had hinted he used his powers in his line of work and Ro wasn’t stupid. If he was an enforcer or loan shark, she wouldn't have been surprised. She also wouldn't have judged. Ro hadn’t always operated on the legal side of the line herself. People had to make a living and that wasn't always so easy when you didn't fit easily into the world. Even threatening Ronnie she could chalk up to the coincidence of doing a job. And then he continued.
Ro set her fork down on her plate. "Are you going to hurt my friend?" Maybe she should sound afraid? Wouldn't most people be if they found out they were eating poached eggs with a murderer? But Ro didn't get the sense that Noah had an interest in turning his powers against her. So she wasn't afraid.
“No, I’ve decided not to.” Noah shrugged. He didn’t mention Fern and how she was going to use her magic to harm the cook. He didn’t see the point in that. This conversation was about him. “But I could, and I wouldn’t feel bad about it. That’s who I am. I thought it was time you knew.”
He brought another forkful of food to his mouth. “This is exceptionally good,” the pyrokinetic complimented her. “Everything you make is.” The words were in stark contrast to what he had just said earlier. Noah was good at compartmentalizing.
Ro's fork was still on the edge of her plate. Egg yolk was still running out of her poached egg, coloring the plate yellow. "Can I ask you something?" Her voice was casual and measured. No anger or accusation. The last thing she wanted right now was an argument. "How did you think this conversation was going to go? When you thought about telling me this, what did you think my response was going to be? Or hoping it would be?"
Noah set down his fork and looked up at her. “I didn’t hope it would be anything, really.” He paused, then admitted, “No, that’s not entirely true. I suppose I was hoping, though I don’t like that word, that you would accept it. Like you did the other thing I told you, about what happened to me.” He watched her expression, her body language.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” the pyrokinetic told her. “You’re entertaining and you make me feel good. That’s valuable.”
One of these things had been done to him. The other was a choice he made. There was a distinction but Ro didn't point that out to him. "What happens if I can't?" she asked, still keeping things in the hypothetical. "What if I decide to leave and not come back? If I stop making you feel good, do I stop being valuable?"
“If you want to leave, that’s fine,” Noah replied easily. “I wouldn’t prefer it, but you know where the door is. I wouldn’t stop you.” The conversation seemed to be getting away from him, where he had intended it to go. He wondered if she was nervous, or judging him. And then he thought of Roman, how odd it was that a human could accept him but it didn’t seem like Ro could.
“I don’t feel things like other people do. I’m aware of it. But I almost do, when we’re together, when you’re feeding from me.”
"It's not real," she pointed out. "It's me messing with your brain chemistry or however that works. I know cause there are things I don't feel either. It's a high." None of that was the point. Not really.
"You know, if you were just the guy collecting debts, it wouldn't bother me. People have to make a living and it's not my business. I used to steal from people I slept with. We've all done things. Threatening my friend would be just bad luck. If that's all it was."
Ro looked at him and tried to steel herself for whichever way this was going to go. "I know someone who has to eat flesh to live. Not their fault, they didn't choose to be that way. But you're choosing to kill people. You decided that. It's not the same thing."
“Really?” Noah smiled, pushing his plate to the side as he stared at her. “It’s not the same? You’re a parasite, just like me. You feed on people, the flesh-eater feeds on people. At least I don’t agonize over it. Or pretend.” He wasn’t upset, quite the opposite, actually. There was almost amusement, like it was all part of the same game they played together. The back and forth.
“I didn’t decide to be better than most people,” the pyrokinetic added. “I was born with a power and I decided to use it. It’s not my fault that I can’t leave witnesses behind.”
Give or take a stroke, Ro didn't hurt anybody. She might leave them weak or exhausted but typically they thanked her for the experience. It wasn’t anything she felt bad about. She needed the energy to live and in return she gave pleasure. Seemed fair enough. Noah didn't require anything to maintain his power. It was always there waiting for him and he got to choose what to do with it.
"Am I a witness? Now that I know, if I don't say it's fine, am I expendable?" What she meant was was she next. Noah said she was free to leave. Was that still true if the conversation didn't go his way?
“I mean the type of witness that goes to the police. As long as you’re not planning to do that, then I don’t care what you know. And I have a feeling you won’t.” Noah shrugged. He moved around the kitchen, absentmindedly cleaning up, bringing dishes to the sink. He liked his space clean. It was something he had learned in the facility. When he couldn’t control much, he could control that.
“You used me, Ro. We used each other. And I’m fine with that. Who else can you call that won’t be jealous, who understands, and gets you out of your head and your apartment when you need it?” The pyrokinetic turned to face her, that satisfied smile still on his face. “Roman? I can tell you some things about him.”
"I'm not going to the police; we both know that's pointless." Something passed over Ro's face at having Roman's name unexpectedly introduced to the conversation. She didn’t comment on it though. "I won't pretend there aren't similarities in how we interact with the world or with people. You get needing to play a game. Maybe I'm not a good person. I never said I was."
She sighed and got to her feet. Her breakfast was still sitting there, cold and untouched. "But understand I've been doing this decades longer than you've been alive. I think I'll manage. Once I leave, I won't be back."
“Then grab your stuff and leave. Like I said, you know where the door is. I gave you the tour, remember?” Noah shrugged, turning his back to her. He liked the way she had made him feel, but he didn’t need her. Especially if she was going to play the judgement game. The half-eaten breakfasts went into the trash.
Ro didn't say anything else, just headed back towards Noah's bedroom. She tossed his shirt onto the bed and pulled on her own clothes. Once she was dressed, Ro headed for the door. Without another word to Noah, she pulled it open and left.