Who: Bunny & Skyler What: Bad memories are bad. Where: Bathos When: During the memories plot after this WARNING for rape/violence and this. Warnings: It's PG, folks.
Bunny hadn’t really thought about what she was doing when she’d called the cab. She’d just rushed out of her jammies into some proper clothes, went downstairs and wished for the best. The traffic had been unexpected, but it had given her time to talk with Luke about how he was dealing with things. She felt a little bad about not going the few feet down the hall to check up on him. It was sad that she had only remembered after she’d got a memory from him. The memory had gotten her to thinking though.
Kylie and Juliet would be fine, because they had each other. Maybe Thomas was staying home with Luke, because he was experiencing the memories too, so Luke wasn’t alone. Skyler didn’t have a roommate. In fact, he kind of went out of his way to avoid people. Skyler was alone and something really bad had happened. She could hear it in his voice and it had made her chest hurt that there was no one there for him. She should have invited him over sooner, possibly with the excuse of protecting them. He would have been a sucker for that.
Now, she rushed out of the elevator and knocking on his door. “Skyler! Hey, Skyler I’m here!”
Skyler crawled off of his couch, phone abandoned on the coffee table, and hurried to the door. He normally would’ve pasted a smile on, whether he felt it or not, but today he knew he didn’t have to and Bunny wouldn’t take it the wrong way. Without a word he ushered her in and hugged her as soon as the door was closed.
Bunny was a little overwhelmed by the hug. She hadn't expected that immediately, but she let him. It was a little awkward from the position that he'd latched onto her, so she turned so that she could hug him back and do so tightly. Whatever it was that he had experienced must have been so terrible, that she was seriously starting to just freak out all over. "Hey, it's gonna be okay, okay?" She rubbed her hand against his lower back attempting to soothe him. She couldn't possibly think of what he could have been through that could do this to him.
She'd had some scarring stuff, and the last few were kind of intense, but this seemed like something else completely. She wanted to ask him what it was, but she wasn't even sure he wanted to talk about it. So, she just continued to hold him. She wasn't going to let go. He could hold her as long as he wanted, as long as he needed.
Skyler eased off after a little while, mostly because it was a little uncomfortable for him to lean down like that for a long period of time. But also because he didn’t think Bunny wanted to stand there for her entire visit. It was warm in his apartment and she might even want to take her coat off.
“Do you want some tea? Hot chocolate?” he asked as he looked down at her with a slightly worried expression. His hands lingered on her arms, then he let them drop to his sides again, somewhat sheepishly. “...Thank you. For coming over.”
Bunny hadn't noticed the heat produced by wearing the jacket, his body warmth, and the inside of the apartment. She was too busy worrying over Skyler's emotional state. There was definitely a noticeable drop in temperature when he let her go though. She'd settled into him and felt the sadness that came when you stopped hugging someone.
She hadn't rushed him to let her go, and looked thoughtful when he asked her if she wanted tea or hot chocolate. "You know I can't say no to chocolate, Skyler," she said with a warm smile, then felt his hands leave her arms. "And you know I couldn't not come." He might have let her go, but she hugged onto his arm tightly to let him know she meant it. She really did. The sound of his voice on the phone made her heart wrench.
Skyler smiled a little and hugged Bunny again with his free arm. Once he managed to extract himself from her grip, he headed into the kitchen and put some water on to boil. He really had no clue what to say, what to talk about. Normally he just held back on a lot of the things he really wanted to say, but this time he was doing his best to keep his mind as blank as possible and focused on the task of getting mugs from the cabinet and cocoa packets from the pantry.
Bunny wasn’t going to latch onto him forever. Once his arm left it’s place around her, she let him go into the kitchen. After taking some time to remove her coat, she followed him in and watched him make the cocoa. He seemed to be very serious about it. She wondered if she should suggest a movie, or maybe some mind numbing video game activity. She wondered if he wanted to tell her about it as she leaned on the frame of the door with her arms wrapped over her stomach.
She was wearing a sweater she’d bought the other day. She had been completely unprepared for the winter weather. Christmas in LA usually meant that she was going to a party where fake snow was being blown out of machines, not freezing cold stuff floating down from the sky.
“Here you go,” Skyler said as he carefully handed Bunny a steaming mug of cocoa in one of his matched set of cobalt blue coffee mugs. The little marshmallows were already half dissolved and looked rather pitiful. He was just thankful Bunny was there, even if they weren’t talking. The silence didn’t bother him and her presence was enough to keep him grounded. He just had to keep reminding himself that he hadn’t been the one to do those horrific things. It had been someone else. Some monster of a man. He picked up his own mug and blew on the hot contents before taking a tentative sip.
"Thank you," Bunny said as she took the cup of cocoa carefully, using her sleeves as a damper between herself and the heat of the mug. She brought it to her lips, pursing them before blowing the steam away. She didn't take a sip just yet. She'd give it some time. There were some things that required patience. For one notorious for having none, having the perfect temperature cocoa was one of her very few exceptions. The other was sitting quietly with a friend. Slipping her arm back in his, she lead him back to the living room to get seated on the couch.
The cushion was cool, but she knew it'd warm up soon enough. She removed the throw and placed it across their legs and leaned against him. She'd forgotten how the rooms at the Bathos were, but she remembered she'd have to get all her stuff out of her apartment before her lease was up at the end of the month. She also remembered that she forgot to tell him she was leaving. "I'm not going to be living downstairs anymore," she said quietly. "Me and Juliet are going to moving in with Kylie."
“Oh?” Skyler’s eyebrows did an awkward little dance, first arching up in surprise, then furrowing as he realized he didn’t like the idea of her not being there in the building, then settling in between as he realized this was likely a happy thing. Girls being roommates in a big fancy apartment. Friends living together. He sipped at his cocoa, holding the mug in both hands. It wasn’t like he’d even been aware that she’d been in the same building for more than a month. But the thought had been comforting. Having an old friend so close. It was selfish of him to want her to stay at the Bathos just because that’s where he wanted to be, though, and he knew it. “That’s great. You girls will have a lot of fun over there. I almost leased an apartment over there when I moved to Seattle.”
“You totally should have. They have pools and saunas and the apartments are HUGE and you should totally move in with us. There’s so much room. It’s like a mansion in a hotel.” Bunny probably should not have been inviting someone to live in an apartment that wasn’t technically hers, even if she was going to live there, but Kylie knew Skyler. Kylie liked Skyler. She was sure Kylie wouldn’t mind if he moved in with her. It would be fine. Everything would be awesome, and if nasty things like this happened, he wouldn’t be alone. More importantly, he wouldn’t have to wait hours for her to get through traffic to get to him if he needed help. The only thing that had kept her from getting overly upset about it was the fact that she’d been texting Luke on the phone.
“It was too big for just me. And too expensive,” he countered, choosing his words as carefully as possible. But he felt so unguarded around Bunny. Especially when it was just the two of them like this. It didn’t seem so bad to admit he hadn’t wanted all that space to himself, that he’d have been lonelier. Or that he had a fear of his money running out at some undefinable point in the future. He’d done well so far at managing his finances, mostly living off of his interest except where necessary, but the fear was still there in the back of his mind attached to his fear of never finishing, let alone selling, any of his musical compositions. It never occurred to him that most people weren’t going to sit there and psychoanalyse him over every little response he gave or try to read his mind if they had such a power.
“Was too big,” she picked at him, nitpicked at the word. Bunny’s mind was set. Skyler was totally moving in with them, because he was awesome and she loved him dearly. She loved Juliet too, and Kylie was quickly becoming one of her favorite people. She didn’t think she knew the girl long enough to attach such a strong emotion to her, but if Skyler approved and Juliet got along with her, she was probably on the fast track. They just got along so well, it felt like they’d been friends forever.
Thinking about it made Bunny’s face go blank. That was just so weird. Shaking the thought from her mind, she poked at Skyler literally. “You need to move in with us. There’s too much room and not enough people. All able bodied awesome guys should apply.”
“Able bodied, yeah,” Skyler parroted softly squirming away just a little from her prodding. He set his mug of cocoa on the coffee table and leaned back against the couch in a more comfortable way, his hands in his lap. She had to understand that he couldn’t move in with them. It would be really weird since he was a guy and they were all girls for one thing. And it wasn’t like he was dating any one of them. Not to mention it was Kylie’s place, not Bunny’s. “I’ll ask Kylie about it.” It was a total deflection he didn’t intend to follow up on.
“Okay! I’ll talk with her about it tomorrow.” That was a hint that she wasn’t planning on going back home tonight. Really? Through that traffic? She was stuck here until they cleared out the snow. That meant she wouldn’t be able to check on Luke, but if worse came to worst, she’d have two people she trusted to go and check him for her. With Bunny’s memory she’d probably never get around to mentioning it to Kylie, which worked to Skyler’s advantage.
“Do you feel better now?” It was an important question. She didn’t want to dig up whatever made him feel bad, but she wanted to know that he was not as bad as when they’d been on the phone. “It’s okay if you’re not. I can stay here as long as you need me.”
“A little better, yeah,” Skyler said and smiled over at Bunny. It wasn’t a bright, happy smile by any means, but it was a genuine one. “You always know how to bring a smile to my face. Even a little one.” He gestured towards his television and the collection of games and game systems underneath it on the entertainment center. “You want to race? Or watch a movie?” Not that he could think of any movies he wanted to watch at that moment.
"I'm glad," Bunny said seeming satisfied with the answer, but only after he smiled. Her smile mirrored him, relaying all the feelings she couldn't put into words. She was radiating all sorts of good feelings, although rather weakly. She was happy that he was better. There was also love and caring wrapped up in a warm fuzzy blanket. She snuggled into him a little more and turned to the TV he gestured too. "I'm feelin' a little Disney. Have any classics?"