Bunny. (itisenough) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2016-06-25 01:29:00 |
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Entry tags: | # 2019 [06] june, bode coldiron, hazel dolan |
Who: Bode and Hazel (aka Bishop and Bunny)
Where: Bishop's trailer
What: With new housing opening up, they discuss the idea of moving someplace bigger
When: after Nina's announcement, the evening of 6/8/19
The announcement was official, housing was being made available and for the first time in two, nearly three years there was the possibility to live like a real person again with a roof and rooms and space. The idea was appealing, more so than Bishop thought it would be. But if he was being honest this idea had been kicking around his head since Cherry had approached him with the information that she was moving. Maybe it shouldn’t have been, but that was the first time he was realizing that life as they knew it -- life in the Dog Park -- could look different. They didn't have to remain insular, an island upon themselves. Them against the whole damn city. No, they could be a part of it now, living in houses and contributing to the new economy. Damn. The more Bishop thought about it the more the idea took root in his mind. A real live fucking house, a place he could set Jackson and Lincoln up in, a place he could have Hazel make a home of. That last thought caught him up short, not because he disliked the idea, but because he knew logically he shouldn’t assume that Hazel would move with them if they did move. Admittedly Bishop had become accustomed to her presence over the last two months, sharing space with her, coming back to his trailer and having her company, the tiny little touches of things she had added to his trailer -- and he couldn’t even begin to explain how he felt about the love and care she showed his boys. Yeah, it was selfish and he could admit it, but Bishop wasn’t exactly looking forward to the day that Hazel may not share his space anymore. Which made having this conversation that much more important. After the losses he had experienced. That they had both experienced, he wasn’t chomping at the bit to experience one more, and it would feel like a loss if Hazel parted ways with them. Bishop would accept it though, if that was her decision, because she had no responsibility to him or his boys and was always to free to do as she pleased. That was the last thing that flickered through his mind as he entered the trailer, boots kicked off at the door as he let his gaze slide over the small space and found a smile turning up the corners of his mouth as he spotted Hazel settled on the wing like couch in the trailer. Glancing up from her knitting, she grinned back at him. “Hey,” he drawled, slipping off his cut as well before he strode over to the bassinet that the boys were quickly outgrowing. Reaching down he ran a hand over their downy hair before turning his attention back to Hazel. “I’ve got something weighing on my mind and I need to run it by you,” Bishop paused, not wanting to assume that she was free to talk in that moment he added. “If you’ve got a moment that is, darlin’?” A flicker of concern crossed Bunny’s face at Bode’s words. If he was worried enough about something to come to her this way, it must be serious. Ticking though all her guesses for what he might want to talk about revealed a whole pool of possibilities, though, leaving her at a complete loss. For a moment Bunny simply looked up at Bode, studying his familiar features and searching for any of the subtle signs that he was feeling strained. Then, with a nod, she began to wrap up her knitting and stow it away. “For you?” Her tone was light. “I suppose I could spare a whole handful of moments, as long as you don't want to eat right away.” Dinner could wait until Bode had said his piece. “A handful of moments, damn, ain't I lucky,” Bishop smirked at her just then, before he added. “And you know you’re too good to me and the boys, looking after us like this.” He knew on some level that it likely served as a distraction, taking care of the boys, making sure he was fed, and while normally Bishop would have objected to Hazel spending so much time looking after them, he had a feeling she needed the distraction, just as he was using his new position as president as a distraction from looking too long at his own losses. “Oh, hush,” Bunny chided, with a fond glance toward the bassinet. “You know very well I adore every moment.” The boys shouldn't stir for a while yet. They'd both had a heaping dose of tummy time that afternoon, the better to practice the art of pushing up, which neither had yet quite mastered. Bunny had loved watching Jackson and Lincoln lift their heads to grin at each other, and had delighted in making faces at them to draw out those breathy chuckles all babies made before they learned how to laugh. Afterward, the boys had been tuckered out, no matter how odd it seemed that something so simple should be exhausting. When you were starting from scratch, every new skill was a tiny feat, nothing more to it than that. Turning her attention back to Bode, Bunny patted the seat next to her on the sofa. Even in that brief moment of delay, she'd ruled out any concern that would affect the camp at large -- those were the sorts of things he would take to his officers. For him to bring it to her, she wondered if the subject could be a personal one. Well, whatever it was, it troubled her to see him so preoccupied. “Come sit and tell me what's bothering you.” Not needing much urging beyond the simply way Hazel had patted the seat next to her, Bishop dropped down with a kind of ‘umph’ noise and scrubbed a hand over his face. There was something calming about Hazel, always had been, but he found more often than not in the passing days he had needed her calm spirit around more than ever. “Been thinking about the future,” he began, turning his head to meet her gaze. “Think you know as well as I do that this trailer ain’t big enough and will feel even smaller when Jackson and Lincoln start walking,” Bishop stole a glance in his sons’ direction. “And with Cherry moving out of the park, I’m realizing that maybe moving out of this place should be on the horizon...” He trailed off for a moment, ordering his words in his head before adding. “Which, if that happened I’d want you there with us, if you wanted to be.” He finished, blue eyes searching Hazel’s face for any indication of what her reaction may be. “I think somewhere with more space is a great idea,” Bunny said, with a decisive nod. Of course it was natural for him, as a father, to look around this tiny house and think of trying to contain two growing boys within its walls. The twins would no doubt be rambunctious, running toward life at full speed. While they could most likely have made do right here in the Park, the fact was now there was the option of doing better, of living in a place that was a real home again. “You’ve got yourself sleeping on a cot, for goodness’ sake, and that’s not something that you can keep on doing forever -- no matter how stubborn you are.” The future had crossed Bunny’s own mind a time or two after finding out that Cherry was moving away. The only thing that had kept her from seriously entertaining the idea of doing the same thing as her friend was the desire to stay close to Bode, who she'd believed until a few moments ago wasn’t planning to leave the camp. She reached now to lay a hand on his arm, gripping it lightly. “And there is nothing that would keep me from being there with you, especially if you want me to be. I’m sure not going to stay here if you’re not.” Her face was already starting to light up at the idea. “If you think I'm looking out for you three already, just wait until I have more to work with.” While he would have liked to argue against his own stubbornness, they both knew that Bishop would have stayed on that cot forever if it meant Hazel had the kind of space and comfort she deserved in this place. “The cot ain’t that bad,” he remarked instead, smirking. “Least I ain’t waking up and knocking my head against the roof of this place.” Which happened more than once while sleeping in the loft. Truth be told this trailer hadn’t been built with someone his size in mind. If Bishop had had any reservations about presenting the idea of moving to Hazel, they were all gone as he watched her expression shift and her face began to light up at the idea of a real live home. “There ain't no question I definitely want you to be there with me, truthfully I wouldn't even think of moving unless you were with me,” Bishop replied as he rest his hand over the one she had laid on his arm. “And I don’t know if it should scare me that you could even do more than you're already doing for us, darlin’” he drawled, a grin lighting up his own features. “At this point it should be me doing things for you.” Though Bode’s continued insistence that he didn't mind the cot drew a laugh from Bunny, she couldn't help but shake her head at his comment about doing more for her. “You do do things for me. Plenty of them,” she insisted. Without shifting the hand that lay under Bode’s, she gave his arm a soft squeeze. “Look at us right now -- you've been giving me not just a roof over my head but a home. If you get something back from my being here, that doesn't make it mean less. Not to me, anyway.” Bunny gave him another resolute little nod, as though that sealed the matter, and in her mind, at least, it did. There were friends and then there were people who went beyond that and became a fixture in your life for good, and that was Bode. “As soon as you find a place that looks good, I think I can have everything packed in a matter of days. It isn’t as though either of us has a lot of belongings anymore. Though I guess you’ve got a lot of arrangements to make, when it comes to your officers and all.” In some ways, as the president of the Hellhounds, Bode wasn’t quite his own man. The politics of it were still something of a mystery to her, but she hoped that he wouldn't be too much delayed by them. Even though the laugh came at his expense, sort of, Bishop found he enjoyed hearing the noise come out of Hazel. They had both experienced loss, but if she could still laugh -- even at his expense, it was proof that she wasn’t letting her lose consume her. Hazel’s words, her insistence that he did things for her, it merely brought a smile to his face as he shook his head and replied. “Nah, all I did was put the roof there, you’ve made this place feel like a home,” Bishop saw it fit to give credit where credit was due. Before Hazel had moved into the trailer it had simply been a place to crash at the end of the day, a place full of memories and ghosts of the past. Now though, now it felt a little brighter and more alive with her living within it. “Long as you don’t feel taken advantage of here, I ain’t about to argue with you as to who does more for whom.” Bishop tacked on in agreement, his hand still clasped over her's where it sat against his arm. He knew that little nod she gave, it meant she wasn’t about to ever agree with him that she did far more for him than he did for her. Hazel was Harlan born and raised and even though she came across as mild-mannered, he knew not to mess with a Harlan woman once her mind was made up. Bishop gave a little chuckle when she dove right into assuring him she’d have things ready to go once their move was confirmed. “Once I find a place, I’ll want to get your approval before claiming it. We’re in this whole moving business together,” he began, not about to go making a decision on a home without her seal of approval. “And you know I ain’t going to let you pack up this place all on your own.” Bishop would have arrangements he would need to make regarding the president moving out of the Dog Park, she wasn’t wrong in that regard and somehow it felt reassuring to know that even in that Hazel had his back and was supporting him. “I'm sure I will, but we’ll tackle those arrangements once everything else is in order.” For all he knew some of his officers were thinking the same thing he was in terms of moving out and into real live homes. “What we should tackle right now is what sort of things you’ll want in a home?” Bishop shifted gears, his blue eyed gaze focused intently on Hazel as he spoke. The idea of home was so intangible that for a moment Bunny struggled to pick out something concrete to tell Bode. You could hardly send a man to go house shopping with nothing better to look for than sunshine and and a cozy atmosphere. In Harlan she could have asked for a back porch with a swing to set on, and a big yard to look out across while she did. But then that had only been appropriate before the outbreak, when you didn’t have to worry about anything but the occasional black bear wandering through. “I guess for me,” she said slowly, still trying to find the words, “the most important thing to me would be the kitchen. You don’t know how often I’ve thought about what I could do with a real place to cook, and now that there’s going to be decent food available again, I reckon that’s the room in any place that I’ll be putting most of my time into. As far as the rest of the house goes ... well, probably ought to stay away open staircases or anything like that.” That was said with the boys in mind, because she would surely have a devil of a time keeping them off such a thing once they were crawling and walking. Then, turning the question back on Bode, she asked, “What are you thinking you want in a home?” Nothing Bishop would find would or could feel reminiscent of Harlan, Austin lacked the hilly landscape and mountains that they had both grown up in. But, he could try and get a close to something they’d both feel comfortable in as possible. Even if it wasn’t nearly a hundred years old or more, passed down from generation to generation and felt very lived in by the families that had come before them. Hazel’s answer didn’t surprise him, maybe that was because Bishop could remember a time when she had had a real live kitchen, back when they were living in Harlan and she was gearing up to be Mrs. Quinn and Nate used to talk about all the cooking and baking she did. “Reckon once you get a honest to god kitchen I’m going to have to start watching how much I let myself indulge in your cooking,” he remarked with an upturn of his mouth, something dancing between a grin and a smirk. “And here I thought I’d go for one of those real modern home with open staircases and glass for railings,” Bishop teased, which made her laugh again, then falling silent as Hazel turned his own question around on him. What did he want in a home? In all honesty he didn’t know or maybe didn’t have a preference. So long as the people he cared about were safe under a roof, tucked away out of the reach of infected and comfortable, Bishop reckoned he’d be happy just about anywhere. “I ain’t ever been real picky ‘bout where I lived. A roof and four walls would do me just fine, and maybe some space so I don’t feel like I’m crammed into a box. Beyond that s’long as you’re happy with the place and it’s somewhere we can feel safe, just ‘bout anything will do.” “Me too,” Bunny agreed. Her gaze went to the nearby bassinet, as she thought about the twins growing up in a real home, a safe one, the kind of place that it had seemed just a few months ago would never exist again. Or, at least, not exist for a long while. It was a true blessing that Bode would had this chance for them. Bunny was just glad she was there to see it, and to come along. “I couldn’t have said it better myself,” she went on, looking back toward Bode. “As long as you’re there and the boys are there, and you’re happy -- not bumping your head on the ceiling every time you try to sit up in bed, or sleeping on a cot, or making due with some other set-up you can’t stand on my account -- then I’m happy.” She shot him a teasing smile. One last little ribbing about the way he put himself out for her was too hard to resist. Bishop shook his head, amusement shining in his eyes. “Now don't go starting that again, darlin’,” he started, fixing Hazel with a look that didn't quite reach the sort of seriousness he wanted to convey -- it couldn't, not with the way a smile was threatening to appear as he looked at her. “We could go round and round in circles here and we’d always reach the same conclusion,” Bishop tacked on, finally letting a smile emerge as he chuckled. “But something tells me we both got better things to do.” Giving Bode’s arm a final squeeze, Bunny rose to her feet. “You’re right about that. So then, how about dinner?” |