Who: Quentin and Savannah What: her return/breakup Where: Q’s house When:after this Warnings: low Status: closed/g-doc
After Savannah left Adam’s, she considered her next move. Sure, she could go to Paige’s and hide for the night. But, the brunette witch knew she’d need to see Quentin at some point. She made it about a block away from Adam’s before she let out a frustrated yelp, as a part of her blaming him for this whole situation. Okay, she’d go see Quentin.
The sad truth? She wanted to see Quentin. Savannah needed to see him, apologize, and hope he didn’t hate her. But, she prepared for him to slam the door in her face. What the witch felt hadn’t been a lie. In fact, a small part of her, a part she didn’t quite want to acknowledge, loved Q. He’d been kind and sweet and supportive when Savannah needed it. But, he still made her smile.
She got to his door and rang the bell, hoping nobody besides Q would answer, or she might lose her nerve.
Quentin had been worried with Savannah missing. People reassured him that she’d be back since all her stuff was still here, but that didn’t help much. Not with the experience Q had with people going missing. They had a tendency of coming back not quite themselves. The only people who understood were Eliot and Margo. It would be so much worse without them.
He didn’t sleep much. Probably hit Eliot’s flask too often. And certainly didn’t eat. Q had the body of a person with severe anxiety. I.E. too skinny for his own good. He needed a shower and his hair was a wreck. So when the doorbell rang he looked strung out when he answered.
He gaped at Savannah for exactly one second before he hauled her in for a huge hug.
At least Quentin answered the door. The fact he looked as bad as Adam wasn’t lost on Savannah. When he pulled her into a hug, Savannah didn’t resist. If nothing else, she returned it, holding him tightly.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t…” Savannah stopped for a moment, instead allowing herself a bit of comfort. She even ignored the part where Q didn’t smell great. “Are…no obviously you’re not okay. I’m here.”
Q pulled back only to hold Savannah at an arm’s distance to look her over. “Are you okay?” He was looking for any marks, damage, changes. Anything. It ended with him stroking a hand over her hair then pulling her in for another tight hug.
“I was so…it doesn’t…I’m just glad…” He was so flustered he couldn’t even ramble correctly.
Then he sighed as he pulled away again to shove a hand through his untidy hair. “I’m sorry. Come in. Can I get you anything? Do you need anything? What can I do?” There’s his rambling.
Sav knew she looked a little different, but that’s what happened when you went home for about two years. “I’m okay. Really. Before I got brought back here, Paige and I were enjoying brunch.” She closed her eyes to the gentle gesture.
“How about water?”
This time she invaded the space between them, a hand running through his hair. “I’m here. I promise.” Since it looked like Q could use more reassurance, she pulled him in for a third hug. “You need food.” And a shower, but the brunette wouldn’t say so.
He took the hug without any argument. A big part of him wanted to kiss her but he also hadn’t brushed his teeth and was very much aware of that. Q tried not to speak directly at her, and promised himself he’d make a trip to the bathroom. Soon.
“No, I’m fine,” he told her with a smile. “C’mon. We have plenty of Eliot’s fancy water in the fridge.” He was pretty sure Eliot wouldn’t mind.
She followed, curious what Eliot considered ‘fancy water’. “You know that I now need to know what fancy water is.” Savannah appreciated that he hadn’t spoken to her directly. That her disappearance affected her this much made her feel more guilty.
“You know, I’ve seen this place before, but it looks much different in light.” Which reminded her of their last time together in this house. Shit.
Eliot’s fancy water was carbonated spring water or stuff that was supposedly imported from Norwegian glaciers or some shit. It all tasted the same to Quentin. But if anyone deserved the best it was Savannah, in his opinion.
Her absence had thrown a few things into sharp perspective to Q. He liked her. A lot. Was it love? That much he wasn’t sure of. He knew what love felt like. He’d been in love before and not an unhealthy love like he’d had with Alice. Or an unrequited love like with Eliot. What had come bubbling up within him when Savannah had disappeared felt a lot like love, but he also knew it was a reaction. Q wanted to wait to make sure before he said something.
“Margo has a cleaning service come,” Q told Savannah while he got out glasses for them. “Which is probably a good thing since all of us are kind of slobs.”
He poured them some water then sat down with Savannah at the kitchen table. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Savannah laughed. “No wonder Margo and Sean get along so well.” She could appreciate a housekeeper. At Paige’s it was up to Paige and Savannah to keep the house clean…and Paige excelled at it better than Savannah.
When he handed her the water, Savannah stared at it for a minute. “When I went home…I spent almost a year and a half there. I managed to fix some things I fucked up before I got sent home the first time. I’m in a much better place with my other brother, who isn’t here.” Savannah would never not feel some twinges of guilt about things, like Michael’s death, but she’d slowly healed back home, including conversations with her parents.
This time she raised her head to take in Q and felt her heart break because she didn’t want to hurt him. The witch took a deep breath.
“Back home…I moved in with Adam after we’d been dating about six months.” Savannah gave Q a minute to process things.
Q took her hand when he sat down at the table with her. Part of him wanted to whisk her away up to his room, but he was pretty certain he should take a shower before that. Clean up a little. Shave, maybe. It was just good to have her back.
“Wow. Long time.” That almost seemed like the average amount of time people spent back home before they returned. Q’s love of puzzles added that detail to everything else he’d been collating about the dome. “But I’m glad you managed to work things out.” He smiled at her before he took a drink.
And was promptly glad he swallowed before she dropped that bomb. Quentin’s smile began to fade. “....oh.” Processing didn’t take long at all.
She hadn’t expected him to take her hand and she found it soothing.
“I am too.” Kayla’s grandmother only spent one night in jail, which worked for the witch. She’d gotten released in exchange for Savannah’s powers. Something she didn’t want to mention at the moment, because she’d eventually gotten them back, with some work.
Savannah came so close to pulling out her phone, texting Adam ‘No’, and telling Quentin she chose him. A part of her wanted to choose the magician. Damn Kol and his powers of observation when he said she’d fallen in love. But, she couldn’t, because a part of her knew she belonged with Adam. This knowledge didn’t change the anger she felt towards Adam for putting her in this situation, which screamed a healthy relationship.
This time, she looked at Q. “What happened back home shouldn’t impact here. And being your girlfriend has been one of the best experiences I’ve had.” Her fingers brushed back the hair from her face. “But I can’t change the fact that back home I was deeply in love with Adam. And that, as much as I wish I could turn off those feelings, I can't Q. And it’s not fair to you either. I know it’s selfish to ask if we can still be friends, but I hope we can.” Because I still love you too although she wisely didn’t give voice to those words in this moment.
Has been. I’ve had. I can’t, Q. How many times had he heard those words before? And not just about a relationship. God, he’d heard it from his father often enough, too. Alice. Eliot. Now Savannah. He just couldn’t get a fucking break.
And they always made it so that they seemed like the victim. Like they weren’t consciously making the decision to gut him. He was supposed to be the bigger person. Make it easy for them. Suffer in silence, alone in his room where no one else could see.
Still be friends. Jesus fucking Christ.
Quentin pulled his hands away as he got up from the kitchen table to pace away. Of all the things that could fall out of his mouth at that moment, what he said made the least sense.
“I’m not brushing my teeth for you.”
It was kind of a metaphor for how he was feeling at the moment. Could they be friends? Would he brush his teeth for her at some point? Not for a long time, thanks.
Savannah didn’t blame him for any of his reactions. While she wouldn’t show it, her heart broke a bit and she felt so unbelievably angry at everything and everyone but Q. Anger at the Dome for sending her home and making her room with Adam in the first place. Anger at Adam for being such a fucking dumbass. If he’d just trusted Savannah enough to make her own fucking decisions, she wouldn’t have fallen for Q in the first place and wouldn’t be causing pain to someone she cared about. And a lot of anger and guilt at herself for …she couldn’t even quite put words to her thoughts. Not really. The witch knew her feelings hadn’t been faked, but she still felt guilt, like she’s used Q.
“I’m going to go. If you want to talk to me, you know how to find me.” The brunette stood up to leave, knowing she’d go somewhere and sob. This was why she’d dreaded this moment. Because he’d hate her for a really long time and she didn’t blame him at all. Deep down she kind of hated herself too.
“For what it’s worth,” she started and then shook her head, as if to not continue, because what could she really say? Instead she chose, “I hate every single fucking thing about this.”
At the door, as she opened it, the witch just said, “I’ll see you around.” Savannah planned on calling Sean and telling him and Alex they’d have to put up with her for the next few hours. Adam could fucking wait and deal with it.