Laura "X-23" Kinney (lil_wolvie) wrote in freedomtownic, @ 2021-02-20 01:09:00 |
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Entry tags: | bode knight (bode_knight), laura kinney (lil_wolvie) |
Who: Laura Kinney & Bode Knight
Where: Scoops Ahoy
When: Thursday afternoon
What: Bode trying to break through Laura's walls
Status: Closed, complete
"I was starting to wonder whether you'd show up," Bode said as soon as he saw Laura. He'd been standing outside of Scoops Ahoy for roughly fifteen minutes when the thought entered his mind that Laura might have changed her mind about joining him for ice cream.
Bode stood at 6'4" and like most athletes he had a lean and muscular appearance. For the outing today, he'd decided to wear the clothes that he'd arrived to Galador wearing. Skate shoes, light blue Levi's and a black t-shirt that had 'Orphan Maker' and the image of a screaming woman on the front, which, while cool, was also incredibly nerdy. "Thanks for indulging me and coming out today," he said with an easy smile.
"....I didn't have anything else to do, so I figured I may as well." Laura said in her increasingly robotic-sounding deadpan. She was dressed simply, in tight jeans, black army boots, and a plain black button-down shirt that hugged her curves perfectly. While a smirk threatened ever-so-slightly to form on her face, for now she remained damn-near emotionless. "Still not entirely sure why you're trying to befriend me."
"Well, as my old friend Winnie the Pooh once said: 'A friend is someone who helps you up when you’re down, and if they can’t, they lay down beside you and listen,'" Bode quoted. "You seemed like you could use someone to listen." He then gestured to the shop front. "Or at the very least, someone to buy you ice cream." He opened the door for her. "And really, who can turn down ice cream?"
"You... are infuriatingly nice." Laura said, eyes narrowing in a way in which you could almost see the little squiggle of annoyance from comic books appear above her head. She wasn't the type to thank him for doing this, or even to acknowledge that she was accepting his help. Instead, in pure Laura-fashion, she just blurted her next words out as if they'd been talking about it the entire time. "I feel like there's just a gaping hole where my heart should be." She said, not once changing that mostly monotone voice.
"And you think that it's gone forever," Bode replied, transitioning into the subject with ease. Once inside the establishment, he gestured for Laura to take a seat at a lonely booth so they could speak privately. "You don't think that there's hope."
"I know there's not." Laura said matter-of-factly, turning her hand over to look at the tattoo she'd just gotten on the underside of her wrist, still amazed that her idea to get one that her healing factor wouldn't immediately erase had actually worked. "She's not coming back.
Don't ask me how I know, because I don't have an answer. I just... I just know. Losing the rest of my family was bad enough... but losing her... there's no coming back from that."
Bode watched her, his expression softening. This was what heartbreak looked like. "It sounds like you met your one true love." His fingers toyed with the menu, but since he had an idea what to get them he didn't bother to look at it. "Can I admit to being envious? You had something very precious. Something that not everyone gets a shot at."
Her gaze stayed fixed on her wrist, although she listened to every word he said. When he finished, she barked out a bitter laugh. "Envious. I actually thought you might be intelligent until you said that." She sighed, eyes fluttering closed for just a moment. She would not shed tears. Not here, not in front of someone else. "All that does is make you vulnerable, Bode. Katie was the best thing that ever happened to me. And the pain I feel, every moment of every day, since she was taken? Is a pain I would not wish upon my worst enemy."
Bode wasn't insulted. Laura could spit in his face and he'd still sit there and try to help her. It was just the way he was. "And what about when she was here with you? What did you feel then?" She'd probably see where he was trying to lead her with these questions, but it was his attempt at getting her to talk.
Their waiter arrived to take their orders and Bode ordered for the both of them, taking longer than necessary to give Laura a chance to collect herself. He'd noticed her distress, but didn't draw attention to it. She needed to do things in her own time.
"It was the closest I'll ever get to heaven." Laura said simply, not even having to think about that answer. "And now... I find myself wishing I'd never even come to this goddamn planet. I was lonely on Earth... I was far from happy. But I wasn't in pain. Not like this. Not wishing I could cease to exist, just so the pain would end."
Bode held her gaze. That was a very serious thing to say. "I was going to ask you to do something for me, but... I don't know if it'll make things better or worse for you," he admitted. He wasn't a trained psychologist and she could go to either extreme in terms of reaction. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry that you're in so much pain. If I could take it from you I would."
"Just ask." She told her, her expression steely, even if the tiny bit of moisture forming in her eyes betrayed her a bit. "Nothing you ask me could hurt worse than I already am."
He worried that what he'd ask would hurt, but he hoped that she would see where he was going with it. "Okay, so," he shifted in his seat and joined his hands on the table in front of them. "Indulge me first and close your eyes."
Letting out a slightly annoyed huff, Laura nonetheless did as the boy asked. As her eyes closed, her hands tensed, as though dying to unsheathe her claws.
Even without the aid of his (admittedly low level) empathic ability, Bode could tell he was making Laura tense. Still, he was trying to challenge her thought process. She was in a dark place right now, but she hadn't always been and it was important for her to remember what she had and not just dwell on what she'd lost. "So... I want you to think about your happiest day with Katie. What were you doing? What makes that your happiest memory?"
"Our first time together." Laura replied quickly, a slight smile threatening to form on her lips.
"We'd been so nervous about everything, because neither of us had ever dated a girl before. And since I'd just started working for Princess Tea shortly before that, she offered to let us have one of the royal bedrooms during one of Bea's parties... it was the most exciting, most amazing night of my life."
Talk about awkward timing for the food to arrive. Bode politely thanked the waiter, but kept his eyes fixed on Laura. "And if you had a choice. If someone came up to you one day and said that they'd take away all that pain, but you'd lose that memory, would you take it?"
Dammit. He had her there. Rather than answer him, Laura just opened her eyes and almost cutely glared at him. ".....I really don't like you."
"Yeah you do," Bode replied with a wink. He picked up a spoon and tucked into his ludicrously large banana split. "I'm not trying to diminish your pain. I just... thought it was important for you to remember happiness too. That there was a point in time where you were happy. That you were loved. I'm not saying that you'll feel that way again because all love is different, but... maybe someday you'll have something close to it. And that would be okay."
"I'm trying again." Laura sighed, trying her best to keep the emotion out of her voice. "A friend... Grace... admitted feelings for me. We're dating now." She said, but with all the excitement of someone talking about calculus. "I'm fully prepared to live my life just trying to at least make others happy. Because trying to do so for myself is futile."
Bode barked out a surprised laugh. "Laura, you're making it sound like dating this woman is some kind of chore. That is not you 'trying'," he pointed out. "Come on. Tell me things about her." He pointed his spoonful of ice cream at her. "And eat your ice cream. It's melting."
"She's kind. Loyal. Very beautiful. Tough, like I am." Laura said, finally tasting a spoonful of the ice cream. "I do care about her. I just wonder if I'm even capable of loving again. How can you give your heart to someone if it's already been ripped from your chest?"
"You try," Bode said softly. "You focus on her and you try." He paused briefly to try some of the strawberry ice cream, his eyes lighting up briefly with delight. The big goober. "I like to believe that the heart mends again, given time. It might not beat as it once did, but it still beats." He shrugged and gave her a lopsided smile. "You're welcome to tell me that I'm talking outta my ass anytime, by the way."
"You're trying to help." She said, sighing. "I may think you're... being a bit too optimistic and naive, but you're trying to help. I admit though, to being stuck on why." She said, pausing to take another taste of the ice cream. "You barely know me. Why are you so invested in my happiness?"
"It's like I said on the network, Laura. I don't believe that anyone should feel like they're alone." He paused to break up pieces of banana, wondering if he should tell her what he'd been thinking. Hell, he was on a roll so far. Might as well keep going. "And that network post... you sounded very alone." *Suicidal*, actually, but he was being kind with his phrasing. "But you don't have to be alone. You don't have to shield yourself from the world. From connecting with other people. That is no way to live. And I don't like the alternative."
"Katie.... her sister is now engaged to Queen Beatrice. I am her bodyguard, and that gives me something to do. Both to take my mind off of everything, and to do something I know Katie would want me to do: keep Emily safe."
As to his unspoken but obvious fears... she smirked and popped the claws from her right hand, holding them up at face level. "Don't worry. You'll find me... rather hard to kill."
Bode's eyes widened comically. "Well, that's ... those are both good to know." He hated to think that she'd completely isolated herself. Then again, she was here talking to him, so there was still hope. "Jesus, Laura," he said completely dead-pan before breaking into a *huge* grin: "Remind me to never piss you off."
"Have you heard the story about the first impression I made upon Beatrice and Tea?" She asked, as she was curious to see Bode's reaction to... one of the more primal things she'd done.
Bode shook his head. "Can't say I have." He wasn't the type to listen to gossip, though. He'd rather hear information from the person directly.
"As you... may or may not know, Queen Beatrice is in possession of quite the impressive healing factor. Well, I had made friends with a very kind man named Denny Duquette, who was dying of heart failure. I was tired of waiting for some... list to determine whether or not he would get a new heart." Yep. This was going exactly where it sounded like it was going. Laura gave a self-satisfied grin before continuing. "So, I followed Beatrice until she got into Commerceport, pulled her into a back alley..." she popped her claws again for dramatic effect, "and cut her heart out of her chest before giving it to Mr. Duquette's doctors."
That was... extreme, although Bode didn't doubt for a second that that was exactly what Laura had done. "You really go all out when you love someone, huh?" Obviously Beatrice had survived the ordeal, but how was Laura to know that? This woman was willing and able to kill. Bode relaxed in his seat and gazed at her. "So... Wait. You carved out the woman's heart and she gave you a job afterwards?"
"Oddly, she never held a grudge. I think, in her own odd way, she understood. Tea... hated me. For a while, actually. Until the gem sent her away briefly. She came back a little older and more mature, and saw value in hiring me as her royal bodyguard." Laura told him. She chuckled under her breath, shrugging. "Somehow... that evolved into a very close, very deep friendship between us."
"...Has anyone ever told you that you have an interesting way of making friends?" Bode teased, although not unkindly. He continued eating his ice cream, bound and determined to finish it even if it made him sick. "You could have something like that again one day too, you know."
"...something like what?" She asked, tilting her head to the side with a blink. She wished she didn't find this boy as charming as she did. It would make it much easier to just push him away, like she was trying to do with everyone else.
"'A very close, very deep friendship'," he repeated. He was infuriatingly persistent in pointing out that she didn't have to be alone - in all aspects of her life. "And hey, just putting this out there, but: I'm a very good friend to have."
"I.... have friends." She said with an adorable bit of an indignant huff. "I have.... Emily Fitch." Yeah. Her boss. "And... Laura Palmer." Mmhmm. Her plaything. "And I'm sure there's others too."
Bode laughed. "You even had trouble convincing yourself with that one." She was *adorable* when she was annoyed.
"You are infuriating." Laura grumbled... although the fact that she remained there, sharing ice cream with him, clearly said otherwise. "Fine. Then you are my friend as well. Congratulations, you've succeeded in your noble quest." She said, nearly deadpan save for a slight bit of mirth in her tone.
Bode gave her a big triumphant puppy dog grin. "Ah, sweet sweet victory. How nice you taste." Or maybe that was just the ice cream, but shh. Let him be a goof.