InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Don't Panic!"

Henry Townshend (guyin302) wrote in utr_logs,
@ 2008-07-18 23:22:00

Entry tags:

alternaverse plot, ava bashlik, henry townshend

Who: AU!Henry, AU!Ava
What: Reunited and it feels so good!
When: Early Friday morning.
Warnings: Probably some cuteness. As to what else? Not sure!

Henry had been tearing through the city once he'd gotten off the computer. People were shoved out of the way, cabs were hopped, trains were torn in and out of, and he just generally made a beeline for Ava. He didn't care who he pissed off on the way. Ava was the only thing he cared about right now, the only thing that mattered to him in this entire godsforsaken universe.

All these years, he'd always blamed himself for her death. Taken by Cthulhu...he'd always thought she was dead. There wasn't a way out of that, no exit, no way to bargain with that thing. And yet somehow she was back. It didn't matter how, it didn't matter why, she was back.

When he finally saw her, he froze. Oh god... He almost turned around right there, his nerves firing. She was still so beautiful... After twenty years of hardship, he'd aged, probably more than he should've. The years weighed heavily on him, and he felt even older. How could she still love an white-haired, worn down old hound dog that was addicted to booze and smokes to fight back the pain.

But he couldn't do it. He couldn't turn around and leave, no matter how self-conscious he'd suddenly become. Failing that, he took a deep breath, blew it out through his nose, and slowly walked up from her right side. "Y'know, when you're gonna go on a vacation without me, you should really leave a note." That was his third failing, besides booze and smokes; sarcasm. His fallback when he couldn't get drunk or smoke.

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guyin302
2008-07-18 11:55 pm UTC (link)

Henry wasn't going to beat around the bush this time. Life was too short and too precious to dance any stupid social dances. He had a second chance with the woman he loved, and he would be damned if he was going to waste it in cowardice.

So when she pulled back, he quickly grabbed her hands and leaned in, planting a long, passionate kiss on her lips and giving both her hands an affectionate squeeze. They probably got looks and stares, but so what? Screw them. All that mattered to him was Ava. It took her abduction to make him realize that she was his world, and now that he had that world back he wasn't going to take it for granted.

He didn't break the kiss until he absolutely needed to come up for air. When he did, he took a few deep lungfuls of air through a big smile. "I love you more than I've ever loved anyone in my life. You are my world, Ava." He sighed deeply and let his forehead rest against hers. "I don't ever want to lose you again..."

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avabashlik
2008-07-19 12:28 am UTC (link)

Ava noticed that Henry smelled of whiskey and tobacco. She didn't want to say anything to him about it at the moment. Really, she didn't want to think about anything except them being together.

Then he was kissing her and the whole world seemed to fall away. She had dreamed of just one more kiss like this and now it was happening.

"I never want to be lost again. I was so lost and I'm sorry... I tried to get back but..." She didn't want to speak of the time that she had been apart from him. They were together now. She wanted to make the most of it.

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guyin302
2008-07-19 01:22 am UTC (link)

Henry hadn't even thought about the stink surrounding him. It was the farthest thing from his mind right now. His arms encircled her waist and he pulled her close, lifting one hand to her face, gently stroking her cheek with his thumb. "Shh. It's not your fault." It's mine. I shouldn't have assumed...I should've looked for her...I should never have gotten her involved in the first place! "Blame's not important. We're alive and we're together. S'all we need." For the first time in a long time, he didn't feel the urge for booze or smokes, though those would likely come back thanks to his dual addictions. "I won't let anything take you ever again. I promise."

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avabashlik
2008-07-19 11:17 am UTC (link)

Ava smiled a little sadly at Henry when he told her that nothing would ever take her again. She loved him for the fact that he thought that he could control such a thing. That he had the urge to protect her but she knew that he couldn't. Just as surely as even her own powers couldn't protect her from it if Ugeralimepte or his followers tried to take her back.

"Take me home?" She murmured against his neck as she placed a kiss there. Really, she didn't care about such things as others watching them embrace one another. But, she really wanted Henry all to herself.

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guyin302
2008-07-19 12:29 pm UTC (link)

If winning his little war had taught him anything, it was that everything had a weakness. Everything. While he hoped the time would never come, if it did come down to a throwdown? He'd do what was necessary. He always did, in the end. Even if no one liked it.

Of course he didn't say any of this out loud. He just smiled and kissed her temple, nodding when she asked him to take her home. "'Course. C'mon." He stopped to direct a piercing glare at a guy staring at them and then lead her away towards the portkey. If things were normal, he'd have contacted the others from his phone to let them know that Ava was back, but he figured none of the others were the same versions from his reality.

He kept one arm around her as they walked, keeping her as close to him as possible. He still couldn't believe she was here, and a part of him, a tiny part in the back of his head, still thought he would wake up and this would all be a dream.

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avabashlik
2008-07-19 05:31 pm UTC (link)

Ava, in part, was thinking that all of this was too good to be true... still even though they had embraced one another and his arm was around her. His presence surrounded her. But, her heart was also aching for him. For the inner turmoil she had seen in his aura. How much he had sacrificed... she didn't know all of it. Probably not even a small percent of it. But she felt it. It weighted on him heavily. When she first met him she had called him a warrior of the people. He had not wanted to accept that term. She wondered if he accepted it now? With everything that he had sacrificed and been through?

He had his arm around her waist as they made their way to the port key. She had hers around his too. For her, all of the pain that she had endured the last twenty years was worth it. Just to feel his arm around her and hers around his.

They made it back to his place without being hindered in any way. Once they had stepped through his door she turned to him and said, "Let us make the most of our time together. I do not want to think about our time apart or when we were ripped away from one another. Is that alright?"

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guyin302
2008-07-20 12:27 am UTC (link)

Henry still wouldn't accept the title now. The title was too grand, too noble, to describe him. He didn't do something noble. He shot a baby through the head. It had been necessary, yes, but necessity didn't negate the horrible nature of the task. It certainly didn't negate the cost of his actions.

They entered his place and she likely found it difficult to avoid the smell of booze and smoke. This was clearly a place belonging to a man without much concern for himself. There were an awful lot of beer bottles scattered around, far more than there should have been. All the furniture seemed to have absorbed the smoke and clung to it. And the funny thing was, he couldn't even smell either anymore. He was so used to the smells of both, it just didn't seem to register to him that the place stunk.

"Of course it's alright," he told her, both arms now encircling her waist. "Not too many happy memories in those places. I don't really like thinking of them either." As if the beer bottles and the assorted bottles of liquor that could be seen on countertops didn't prove that he'd been doing a whole lot of not-thinking since the day with the baby.

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avabashlik
2008-07-20 12:53 pm UTC (link)

Once Henry had agreed to not talk about the past for now she focused on her senses. The smell that she had smelled on Henry was amplified in this place. What had happened to her man to make him not care this badly? She was sure that she had played a small part in that. Since at this moment she was unwilling to ask him she did what she could do best. She would help him.

Distracting him by pressing herself against him and kissing him once more this time Ava wasn't completely focused on the kissing. She was focused on getting his place in order. One of her hands were raised and her magic was altering his apartment completely. The filth and stench was being washed away magically. The rubbish and bottles had all blinked out of existence.

That had all been accomplished in a matter of moments. She hoped that he would not be mad at her for trying to help. When she pulled away she gave him one of her mischievous smiles. "I love you. Hope you don't mind." She told him as he saw what she did.

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guyin302
2008-07-20 08:02 pm UTC (link)

The distraction didn't work quite as well as she'd intended. It wasn't that her technique was sloppy, it's just that he'd gradually picked up more and more of an awareness of his surroundings throughout the years. It was a survival skill that someone hunted by cults really needed to develop.

So when she pulled away, he just grinned at her. "Well, if that's your idea of subterfuge, you can distract me all you want." With a wink, he sized up the room. "Y'know, I bet that comes in handy." He laughed and bumped her playfully with his shoulder. Then he turned back to look at her, regarding her seriously for a moment. "I love you too, Ava. More than you could ever realize." He reached out and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, then left his hand to cup her cheek gently. "I love you so much." He leaned in and kissed her forehead gently. "So much."

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avabashlik
2008-07-21 11:36 am UTC (link)

Ava returned his grin with a smile. "You think that I used to clean our place and the office by hand?" Keeping things neat and tidy definitely wouldn't have been an easy task back in the day at the agency. The people that Henry employed were not known for their neatness, just their ability to get the job done. It was okay. She never minded it really.

When he held her face in his hand she leaned into it and kissed his palm. "When was the last time you have eaten a proper meal? Would you like me to make you something?" It was Ava's nature to put Henry's needs before her own. She'd worried about him for so long that she really couldn't help herself.

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guyin302
2008-07-22 11:07 am UTC (link)

Henry laughed at that. "Yeah, good point." God knew they could be a sloppy bunch back in the day. He'd always told Ava that she didn't have to clean up after them, but she'd always done it. Probably because if she hadn't, it wouldn't have gotten done in a timely manner, but still.

He smiled and kissed her forehead. "Don't even worry about me." He knew she'd come from being a demon's slave, he didn't want her worrying about him after she'd been through that. It was true that he hadn't had a good meal in over a year. That didn't matter right now, though. "You've been through a lot too." He reached out and took her hand gently, then led her over to the couch to sit down. "We'll go out to a restaurant later, don't worry."

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avabashlik
2008-07-23 11:43 am UTC (link)

Ava sat down next to Henry on the couch not really knowing what to do with herself. As much as she'd hoped for this reunion she never expected it. She'd thought that she'd have to just get by with the memories for the rest of her life. When he told her that she'd been through a lot she smiled at him sadly. Was it too late for them now? Had her heart put up so many walls that she could no longer access that part of her that belonged to him? Had she just been merely reacting thus far.

Ava took a deep breath in and asked, "Is it too late?" Had he been so hardened by his past that they both could no longer have what they once had. She was looking at their hands joined together and she looked up at him. Sitting there she was hoping that he would just know with intuition rather than an explanation what she meant.

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guyin302
2008-07-23 02:19 pm UTC (link)

Henry sighed, his eyes closing slowly. How is it that people always ask the questions you don't want them to ask? Henry really didn't have an answer for her. He just shook his head and shrugged. "I don't know, Ava. I want to say no, it's not too late. I want to say that we can go back to the way things were..."

He opened his eyes then, looking down at his feet rather than at her. "But if I'm being honest, I don't think we can. We've both been through too much." He knew she said she didn't want to talk about the past, but now that they were sort of vaguely talking about it... "...I had to shoot a baby in the head, Ava. After you being taken, after Jonas and Mira being killed, after being dealt blow after blow by the Order, I had to shoot a baby in the head to prevent the end of the world. You've probably had to go through things I can't even imagine." He sighed and looked back up at her. "You don't walk away from things like that unchanged. You can't. So do I want to say that we can go back to the way things were? Yes. But can they? ...I don't think they can."

He leaned his head back against the back of the couch. "Our only options are to try and make something new, or..." He couldn't quite put the other option to words, but he figured she knew what it was. ...or walk away.

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avabashlik
2008-07-24 10:56 am UTC (link)

Everything that he was saying was basically echoing the words in her own mind. He had to kill a baby? A child? Her heart was aching for him but at the same time she knew that Henry, her Henry would only do that if he had no other choice.

Ava did not want to tell Henry what had happened to her going back to Ugeralimepte. The demon thought that she had escaped on her own volition. There was not a day that he had not punished her for that. Due to her healing properties he would give her away to any demon that requested her special talent. No matter how much abuse she took she wouldn't die from it. Whenever something bad like that was happening to her she thought of Henry. She let her mind wander. So now, just sitting here with him made her associate to all of those times.

That was something that she wanted to get past. She had to. Thinking in silence after he had said that last bit she put her head on his shoulder. After a few moments she raised her head and softly turned his face so that he was looking at her. Her eyes became steely and that spark of will that was still left of her fired to the surface. "I will not live without you. That is not an option my love."

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