"I'm sorry"
Who: Kirk and Fluttershy What: Kirk fesses up about Angel When: Like last Tuesday Where: Shy’s house Status: Complete Rating: PG for ;_;
Jim sat outside Fluttershy’s house, Angel curled up on his lap. He’d elected to bring Angel himself, since it had been his plan, and he’d wanted to avoid Shy associating bad rabbit juju with Dash. He absently scritched fingers on the rabbit’s floppy ears, “Okay, guy. Lets go see your human, while you’re still here enough to say good bye.”
Over in the house, Fluttershy was looking after ‘Angel’ while getting herself some dinner. Navi had brought over some kale and things for the bunny to try, and she was feeding him some carrot greens while frying herself up some potatoes, “Now you eat these nice leaves. They’re good for you and delicious, too!”
Stepping out of the car, a bunny under his arm, Jim made his way up to Fluttershy's door. Killing Santa Claus felt like an understatement. He felt horrible. For deceiving her, and for potentially not letting her say good bye to a pet she'd had for half her life.
He knocked.
"Ooo, I wonder who that could be?" Fluttershy remarked, while scritching 'Angel's' ears and putting him down safely in a fluffy blanket-lined basket. She took her potatoes off the heat and turned the stove off, then made her way to the door.
She opened it a crack and peeked through to see who was there, before her face widened into a huge smile, "Oh, It's Mr. Kirk!"
From her angle with the door cracked, the bunny tucked under his arm was just out of view, "You can come in if you want to... we just fried up some delicious potatoes..."
"Shy, I have a bit of a confession," Jim said, stepping inside and angling his body to disguise the rabbit from view. "You'll probably want to sit down."
Nothing good ever came from 'you want to sit down for this’. He was pretty sure he was just going to hand the bunny over by way of explanation.
Fluttershy wrinkled her brow and tilted her head to the side, regarding him with a mixture of confusion and worry. She wasn't sure what was going on that he'd have a confession about.
Or maybe she was just in complete denial about the situation which had been obvious to some. She chewed on her lip a bit and backed towards the couch, then took a seat, "Well ... okay, if that's what you want..."
Jim sat down next to her, and wordlessly placed Angel gently in her lap. The little bunny wrinkled his nose, looking up at her with grateful, almost relieved seeming eyes, before snuggling against her stomach and giving out a contented rabbit sigh.
Jim bit his lip, "I didn't want you to hurt... but it wasn't fair to you, or him."
The rabbit looked and acted like Angel, and Fluttershy almost instantly knew what Kirk had tried to do, before the words even came out of his mouth. It made tears spring to her eyes, though she tried very hard not to start sobbing openly in front of him.
For Angel's sake, mostly. Her hand reached down and gently patted at the old rabbit's floppy ears. "You... You... ... I believed... and... and... he wasn't..."
She ducked her head down, hair falling like a curtain over her face and hiding it from view. She couldn't be angry at him, really. She just felt like her entire world was falling apart, instead.
"I'm sorry," Jim whispered, unsure if she wanted a hug from him or not. He really felt awful about all of this. Good intentions and the road to hell, right?
Angel just continued to snuggle contentedly. He had a bit of life in him yet, though for how much longer it wasn't clear.
A tiny, choked sound made its way out of her throat, and she shook her head. She just realised something, and it was horrible, "He was going to go... he was going to go without me... he was going to die alone!"
"I was going to be there for him," Jim said. All this over a bunny. But it was a pet she'd had for so long, he couldn't fault her for being emotional.
"I promise I wasn't going to let him die alone.”
Fluttershy blinked a few tears out of her eyes, then picked Angel up delicately and hugged him to her chest. She loved him. He'd been a constant in her life since she was small, and she suddenly wondered if her parents had tried to switch him out at some point before.
Which was a horrible thought. It was just horrible. And she'd accepted the imposter Angel, which was even worse. There was no excuse for that. She'd been dubious maybe, a tiny bit, but some part of her would have gone on thinking that Angel was alive and well.
"This is just... it's just... it's awful..."
"I know." Jim lowered his head, hanging it, really, "I just thought you'd be devastated when he was gone, but you were so...in denial I couldn't...it felt like killing Santa."
He was being careful to keep Dash out of it. It was up to Dash to confess and he hoped she would, but he didn't want to cause a rift between them either.
"That's the horrible part," Fluttershy admitted, in a very small whisper, "I wanted to believe that Angel was the real one, and I let you... I let you fool me. That wasn't fair to the real Angel. It wasn't fair, at all."
Her fingers gently scritched at the old rabbit's ears. She was a horrible person. And Jim had only been trying to protect her, she couldn't... she wouldn't... blame him.
"You want him to always be there," Jim replied. "But it wasn't fair to you, either. I'm sorry. I'm sure Angel understands. He does seem happy to be back."
He swore the old rabbit gave him a dirty look.
"He's been there my whole... life, almost..." She couldn't imagine life without him. The thought chewed on her insides and made tears spring to her eyes all over again.
Jim put an arm around Fluttershy, protest or no, and pulled her head down to his shoulder, "Maybe he's just been waiting for a time when there'd be others around to pick up the slack. You have more friends now, more people to comfort you and love you. Angel can rest easily knowing you're taken care of."
It was odd, talking about a rabbit like this, but Shy was so attuned to animals that it came somewhat easily around her.
"That's... that's true..." But the thought wasn't really a comfort to Fluttershy. She rested her head on his shoulder without protest, and tried to chew on her lip to keep from crying fully. Her hands were still gently scritching and cuddling the old rabbit, like her love for him would be enough to keep him from passing.
Even though the part of her that wasn't naive at all knew it wouldn't help. That he would die, that all animals had to, eventually. And she'd been preparing for that by breeding him with other rabbits, but now that she was facing it, she was utterly miserable.
"Go ahead and cry," Jim said softly. "Let it out."