Re: Louis' apartment: Iris, Sam, Cris
[Sam's gap-toothed grin when Cris touched her pigtails was genuine. Emotionally tired and stressed, yeah, but genuine. She didn't care about who touched who in public. Worrying about that shit had never been her, and she leaned against his side for a moment when he reached his hand out, yeah? All her weight against that grey sweater for a heartbeat, as she watched her sister. He was a lot taller than her, and he was a lot sturdier than her, and she didn't think to correct that lean, dependent as it was. Hems of her sleeves over her fingertips, and the white of her thermal to mid thigh, and she knew she was the thing in the hallway that didn't fit right.
It was Iris that held her attention for those moments, not the little boy that looked so much like her brothers that it brought back New Jersey tenements and echo-loud voices through thin walls. The hall almost smelled like arroz con frijoles, and she could hear the telenovelas next door. TJ was all that and more, but it was Iris Sam was looking at.
In the penthouse, she hadn't noticed how much better her sister looked. Ok, yeah, so it had been some strangely accepted, yet unquestioned thing. She blamed the drugs, or maybe she blamed not remembering. But she remembered now, and it was kind of like Thanksgiving or whatever. Iris looked put together, yeah? Like she'd done something with her life. Like she'd moved beyond that fucked up shit in Vegas. It wasn't true, not beyond the surface, or they wouldn't all be standing in that hall like fugitives or whatever, but it looked like it. And maybe it mostly was, yeah? No straitjackets, and Iris had a career and a house, and if it wasn't for this fucking Ra's thing... yeah. Sam stared, and maybe she envied a little, whatever. But it was a thing of a moment, there and fucking gone.
Sam's fingers moved to thread into the dark mess of Cris' hair when he crouched to greet TJ, but Iris was crouching too, and Sam suddenly felt like she loomed in the fucking hallway. She wasn't a tall girl, and she didn't take up any substantial space, but something about it made her shift from foot to foot, and she watched the small hellos for a few seconds before jerkily stepping forward to grab the bags and do something useful, yeah?] I'll take these upstairs.
[A turn, blonde escaping riotous from the two blue ties that held her hair in the messy pigtails, she traversed the tiny loft and took the stairs up to the sleeping area with the bags in her hands, before anyone could even stand.]