Re: Marvel FDNY: Clem & Declan
He followed her like contemplative quiet, like nights on a lake with a blanket of stars. He followed her like (borrowed) aristocratic leisure, work roughened hands wedged down into front pockets. The bunk was close quarters in brick walls, but Declan had suffered worse during that long winter he'd spent on a fishing boat in the Gulf of Thailand. The bunk beds themselves were a subject of clear interest from the moment that he walked into the room. He ran his hand up one side of the frame, inspecting its make. It turned out not to be too impressive, however. In the next moment, when Clementine's palm touched warm against the blue of his stomach, Declan forgot about his inspection. He leaned against the frame, reassuring beam of solid weight at his back. Arms crossed before him, making it known that his shoulders were much broader than in the days of lost youth.
That she'd taken to EMT work fresh out of school was news to him, and Declan gave her a hard, skeptical eye. This wasn't the kind of work he'd imagined for a girl of party dresses and dangerous flirtations, but then she followed up with an explanation on how much her mother and father hated the idea... and well, for Clementine, that made all the sense in the world. Declan actually laughed, reassured in that moment that nothing ever changed. The baby was unexpected, but the fact that Clementine and Alexander were in some kind of disagreement wasn't. He'd grown up in that house where love was just a splinter away from hate, a temperamental and passionate mess altogether. He'd been the favourite brother as frequently as he'd been exiled, all before he'd grown too jaded to navigate the difference.
"He'll come around," he said of Alexander, although Declan wasn't concerned enough to dig into the tangled root behind the warring, and he wasn't naive enough to believe Clementine was too affected by it, not like Chloe would have been.
"I very much doubt you'd believe all the jobs I've had." But he didn't go on to explain that this particular work was new, fresh out of the factory plastic. The hug that followed wasn't shrugged off like the old days, but Declan made a face like an irritated squint when she ran her fingers through his hair. "Yeah, I'm beginning to get flashbacks," he joked, evading the fussy attention of her hands and the cling of her arms just as the fire station's alarm system went off, notifying the crew of a reported structure fire.
Declan raised an eyebrow, hearing voices hustle down the hall, and he gave Clementine's goldilocks hair a little tug while making for the door. "Looks like thats our cue, brat."