WHO: Tony Wyrzykowski and Cate Adler WHAT: Confession and comfort. WHEN: Saturday, August 31, evening, after this WHERE: Cate's house, Snowcap RATING: Medium rare.
Tony's clothes were soaked through, and his shoes made wet squelching noises with every step. He could have dried himself off with a thought by use of that weird instinctive magic he was still exploring, but he barely felt the water, and getting dry didn't cross his mind. Nothing was in his head at all except the need to be with someone he could spill his heart to, and there was one person he could turn to who was as relentlessly positive as he'd used to be before the Evelina mess had taken that easy cheerfulness away from him, who was understanding and thoughtful and practical all at once, whom he firmly believed could solve any problem or at least hold him until he felt more able to face the rest of the world.
He apparated onto Cate's doorstep and opened the door without knocking, walking straight in. "Catey," he said, his voice hoarse, dripping heedlessly onto her floor. "I did something."
Cate was just cleaning up from an easy dinner when the front door swinging open unexpectedly startled her enough that she dropped the bowl she'd been washing. Thankfully, it only went into the wash water and didn't shatter, because her attention was immediately too focused on her boyfriend to be able to deal with anything else.
"Oh my god, Tony! What's wrong?" She grabbed two kitchen towels as she went, not caring that it was a losing battle as she attempted to dry his face while also checking him over for anything that might be physically wrong. She grabbed his hand and tugged him in, only remembering to close the front door as an afterthought.
Tony's hand closed around Cate's like he was drowning and she was a lifeline (and even as that thought ran through his head, he recognized the irony). He submitted to being patted dry, though he shook his head, sending drops of water flying from his drenched hair. "I'm not hurt," he assured her, and just barely managed a smile of attempted reassurance, which was gone the next moment. "I was in the lake. Or… the lake was on me, anyway." He drew in a shuddering breath. "I made it flood, Catey. This huge wave. I was so mad, I couldn't control it o-or maybe I just didn't want to -- if she hadn't stopped it I could've drowned half the town." His voice cracked, and he leaned in to bury his face in Cate's bright hair, taking a deep breath of the reassuringly familiar smell of her hair which overwhelmed the fishy smell of lake water on him. "Oh, god, Cate."
Cate wrapped her arms around him and held tight, mostly ignoring the smell and the wetness. It didn't keep her from smoothing the towel over the back of his head and neck, much the way she would have run her hands anyway. "Breathe, okay? You're not hurt. The town's not flooded. Unless there's some other catastrophe you haven't mentioned yet, there's time to talk before we have to panic." She kissed the side of his head, then made a face at the lake water on her lips, glad that he couldn't see her expression. "Do you wanna sit and tell me what happened? Maybe dry off, then sit?" She gave him another squeeze.
The hug was grounding, and Cate's hands running over the back of his head was more reassuring than he could have said. Tony took a deep breath, and another, until he felt steady enough to lift his head and step back. "Yeah. Yeah, okay." He sniffed once and looked down at himself and the puddle he was dripping onto Cate's floor, and held up a hand and concentrated. He and Nat hadn't fully explored what they could do with this water connection they had; this he'd done before, but it was still crazy to think that it was him doing it. He watched with fascination as the water started leaving the floor and his clothes and rolling up his body like a rainfall in reverse, collecting in an orb on his palm.
He was dry in a moment, the water just leaving behind a faint smell of the lake on his bone-dry clothing and in his hair. Tony wasn't sure what to do with the water in his palm, so he left it hovering there as he sat on Cate's couch and stared at the slowly-spinning orb. "I saw her in town," he said in this new cracked voice of his. "Evelina. I hadn't seen her since that day, and I -- it was stupid. I thought I could get some kind of explanation from her that would make it all make sense so I could just put all of this behind me. But it was just…" He scrubbed his free hand through his hair. "She talked like she cared about me back then, like we had this connection, and that's the part that makes me so mad, because four months-- she says I was with her four months--" Tony shook his head helplessly. The orb in his hand contracted as he squeezed his fist closed, but didn't break, just reformed around his fist, the water spinning faster and faster around his hand as his rage grew. "How could a person do that to anyone they cared about at all, Cate? Even if I cheated like she said, how could she i-invade my mind, take my memories, curse the thing I loved the most, and then just walk away without looking back? How could I ever have liked and trusted a person who could do something like that?"
Cate sat cross-legged on the couch, facing him with her knees touching his side. She rested her hand on his arm lightly, but without impeding his movement as she watched the little ball of water as it moved around his hand. It was still as impressive as the first time she'd witnessed him manipulating water that in a similar way. She listened quietly, letting him get through the story, but her grip tightened little by little as he got farther along.
"I really don't know," she said, shaking her head. "I wish I had a good answer for you, but the truth is that I most people I know would never do that to a person they despised, much less had any more positive feelings about. So either she has a really bad temper, or maybe it's something about how she grew up? She deals with her problems differently?" Cate laughed, but it was a harsh sound. "Which makes it sound like I'm making excuses for her, and I'm really not. I'd very much like to get my non-magical hands on her, honestly. But it's the only explanation that even sounds close."
She ran her hand up and down his arm. "Regardless, that's on her, and not on you. You liked and trusted her because you're the sort of guy who likes and trusts people. It's why we love you."
Cate's touch and voice were calming, and gradually that anger faded away. Tony sighed and let his hand relax, attempting to banish or evaporate the water ball with a flick of his fingers, but he only succeeded in popping it and creating a mini rainfall on Cate's floor. "Sorry," he said, reaching for his wand, and summoned a towel from the kitchen to soak it up.
He reached for Cate after a moment of just thinking, pulling her into his lap to wrap his arms around her, resting his chin on top of her head as he held Cate close. "I wish I could just forget it all. I wish she'd never confessed what she did to me. Or -- I wish I could do something about it. Cate…" He took in a deep breath. "I've never been this angry. I don't know how to get rid of it, a-and I'm kind of scared now. Of what else I could make happen if I stay this angry. She said I need to learn control or I could hurt someone. Which is really damn ironic coming from her--" Tony had to take another steadying breath to keep from letting that anger build again. "But I don't think she's wrong."
"My floor's seen worse," Cate said, tossing the towels in her hand down help soak up the water. "Probably from you," she added with a laugh.
She snuggled herself into his chest, hand resting on his shirt and fingertips tracing along the neckline of it. She hated seeing him like this, hated how this evil witch had set him off balance like she'd never seen him before. "The times when you've been this angry...it's always been when you've run into her, hasn't it?" She tried to think back to the times when Tony had been missing his usual equanimity, but while she'd seen sadness and other levels of upset, she couldn't recall anger. "Have you ever lost control with anyone else? Or because of anyone else?"
He had to think about that for a moment, and eventually the tension in his shoulders relaxed some. "No," he answered. "I haven't. Yet," he added. "Just that day with the stream, when my lawyer told me I didn't have a case against her, and then today. So you think I shouldn't worry about it?" Tony pressed his lips to the top of her head, closing his eyes. "She won't be here much longer, I bet. At least once she's gone I won't have to worry about bumping into her on the street." He stroked Cate's back mindlessly, rubbing his thumb along her spine. "But if… I don't know, Catey. How can I be sure I won't lose it if something else happens?"
"I think there's a difference between thinking about it and worrying about it," Cate said. "I know you. I'm not afraid you'll lose control. Not even a little. It's only the responsible thing to figure out these abilities that you've only just begun to explore, but I don't see any evidence that you're a danger to yourself or anyone else except when you're dealing with that…watery tart. So yeah, figure your shit out, because it's super cool and you should anyway." She kissed his jaw. "But really? I think this is less about your abilities and control and more about getting past what she did to you. It's not a small thing. You have every right to be angry, but you also have an even greater right to be happy."
Tony had to smile into Cate's hair and squeeze his arms around her at that much-needed moment of humor. "I'm happy," he told her. "Who could have you in their lap and not be happy?" He relaxed almost fully, leaning back against the couch and loosening his grip. "Thanks, sweetheart. You make it so easy to believe all that."
His mind was still on the confrontation with Lina, but the anger and the fear and the worry seemed a lot more distant now, less overwhelming. Tony shook his head, tipping his head back so he could look at Cate's face. "She knows people who are… like me. Naiads and half naiads. She's going to give me some contact info, and maybe -- I don't know. I don't trust her, but maybe if we talked to some of these people they could help me and Nat figure out more about what we can do. Or even maybe…" He frowned a little, looking down. "We wanted to look for our birth parents. It's a long shot, but maybe, right?"
"You know what I mean," Cate said, but couldn't help smiling at the compliment all the same. She settled her arms half around his neck and half resting at his shoulders, perching leisurely. She couldn't help wondering at the woman's motives in offering the information, but she supposed that attempting to buy forgiveness was about the best she was going to be able to do, given the circumstances. "No less of a long shot than it would have been without it. Do you have to see her again, or can she, like, email it? Because as far as I'm concerned, she needs to go as far away as she can possibly get and never come back, so that way I don't have a reason to punch her."
"I told her to leave me whatever she has at the Kestrel with your mom or one of your sibs and I'll pick it up." Tony sighed and let his hand wander mindlessly up and down Cate's back. "No punching, okay? I don't want to see her again. I just want to move on and be done with this crap. We've got better things to think about, anyway. I want to be there for Nat and Zarya, and Kent if he really does go back to school, and I want to go back to Wizzywood and see if I can really make it there, and… you know, just thinking about the future." He smiled up at her. "Thinking about our future, what Rafe saw. Our kid." Tony leaned up to kiss her softly. "That makes me happy."
"Spoilsport," Cate said with a teasing smile, because her first thought at the mention of the Kestrel had been a joke about opportunity and temptation. Not that she would have made an opportunity to attack the woman—really, she didn't want to see her at all—but the revenge fantasy played out quite nicely in her imagination. It faded away nicely to be replaced by the much better images he conjured, and she leaned in to kiss him again before speaking. "Me, too. Still a little fuzzy on all the hows and whens, because you know I can't help trying to organize the details in my head." Her smile at that was a little self-deprecating. "That's an awful lot of future to try to plan. Think you can handle all that happy?"
"Well, I've got you for the planning and Kent for the brains, all I'm here for is to look pretty and teach our kids how to fly, so I think I'll be good." Tony winked and hauled her in close again, his hand wrapping around the back of Cate's neck so he could look her in the eye. "I've been thinking we should talk about it again, the three of us. But Zarya came, and then everything else that's been going on… I don't know. I don't wanna push Kent too hard. And I'm not that impatient, I can wait for the right time, if that ever comes. Just I think about it… kind of a lot. I had a dream about you pregnant last week." He grinned, running his fingers down through her hair, curling a strand around his first finger to tug gently. "It was a sexy dream. Sorry. You wouldn't think that'd be a turn-on for me, because of Nat, but apparently that's how my brain works."
"There have been other pregnant women before your sister. Sexy ones, even," Cate teased, feeling warm all over, and not just because of the way she leaned into his embrace. "I think about it, too. Because, planning, but also because it's the sort of thought that's impossible to put down. I mean, it's possible that it could happen anytime. Unlikely, with birth control, but possible. Knowing that it's going to happen at some point...well, just makes the what-if scenarios that much more colorful, I guess."
She ran her fingers along his jawline. "I think we should talk. It's not pushy to at least bring it up and see if he's ready to talk about it. There are still some unknowns that would feel better if they were sorted."
"Mm-hm," Tony agreed with relief, and tipped his head to kiss Cate's fingertips gratefully. "Let's talk to him before he goes back to work, then. Things are just easier when it's the three of us alone on the beach." His hand wandered under her shirt, fingers sliding over her side. It was reassuring to touch her skin even if he didn't really intend on going further. "I've got some ideas. Like if you're both okay with it, staying in Snowcap until Zarya's a little older and Nat and Njall are in the groove. I know we talked about maybe leaving, but now that she's here I can't see myself anywhere else, at least for a while. And maybe the three of us try living together here." Tony tilted his head to meet Cate's eyes again. "If that's something you're into. Here in your little house, or mine, or somewhere new. I think we could make it work, sweetheart."
"Maybe it's easier because it's the three of us alone together," Cate pointed out, smiling softly as she nuzzled his cheek. The times when they'd gone to the beach had been the closest they'd been to living together, because every other time had been nights here and there at one place or another. It had never occurred to her before now, but it made sense. "Because it's ours, and we're not just visiting one another." It didn't hurt that they were away from Snowcap, too, but she didn't think that was all of it.
"You know I've always leaned more toward staying than going, but that I'm absolutely in favor of being where you are, so I'll leave that open for the two of you to work out. Though this house has been ready from day one to be our house, you know. California king and all." She grinned at him, a quick tease, before her expression went more serious again. "You say think and try, but I'll go a step farther and say know and will. I want this, and you want this, and Kent wants this, even when he's afraid to want it. The only thing left is to really commit to doing it." And a hundred little details they had to figure out along the way, but wasn't that just life?
"I'm in," Tony told her, and without further ado he kissed her soundly, his hand tangling in her hair to hold her close. When he backed off again he was grinning for the first time since his encounter with Lina. "So can I move my stuff in today or…" It wasn't a serious question and he didn't give her a moment to respond before he shifted her off his lap and surged forward, pushing Cate down onto her back on the couch with practiced ease. Tony stretched himself over her, settling in to nose into her neck. "You know, if I'm unemployed, and Kent's on leave or going back to school, and you're working from home… we might not let you get a whole lot of work done, kitten. Are we sure this house is big enough for the three of us to live in?" He mouthed at the hollow of her throat thoughtfully. "I've never lived with anybody -- okay, Nat, and rooming with buddies, but never like this. How do we keep from driving each other crazy?"
"You are not going to be unemployed for long," Cate pointed out, raking her fingers along his back as she tilted her head to one side, encouraging his lips on their path. "You set one foot in Wizzywood and suddenly we'll be begging to see you on your breaks." It was a bit of a tease, but she did believe that he had a great shot, too, and that it probably wasn't far off the mark. "And if Kent can manage to find time with his books at the beach, I'm sure he can do it at home."
One hand slid up into his hair. "I don't think any of us have ever lived with anyone else, so we'll figure it out as we go, right?"
He laughed and kissed the hollow of her collarbone, letting his hands roam down her sides. "Yeah, yeah. If I ever get back to Wizzywood. I still haven't heard from Orrin's people whether they're going to bring Rafe back next season, and I had Emily Vang put out some feelers for auditions, but I don't know, maybe I need a real agent or something… anyway, I'll get you two to come out there, we can have quickies behind the caterers' trailer."
Tony lifted his head, pausing his stroking of her smooth skin to look down at Cate seriously. "I don't know what I would do without you," he told her. "Thank you, baby. For… you know, being the voice of reason. We need you."
"You need me for a lot more than that," Cate said with a laugh, raising up enough to kiss him quickly. "Mixing your drinks, keeping your technology functioning, making the bed...not to mention those babies have to come from somewhere." She raised an eyebrow that was just a little bit of a challenge even as she tugged at the hem of his shirt.
Tony smiled back down at her. "Hey, I think between the two of us we might manage to make the bed without you." He shifted obligingly and his still-slightly-fish-scented shirt came off easily, and he tossed it willy-nilly over the back of the couch to find later. "And I do actually know where babies come from. I even know how they get there." His fingers slid unerringly down Cate's stomach to dip beneath the waist of her jeans, thumbing the button through the hole. "See, that's what a Charmbridge education gets you. You learn all the important stuff." He grinned and kissed her lightly, shifting against her with clear intent. "Want a refresher on how it works, sweetheart?"