“I’m not saying that he didn’t deserve it,” Leon was saying, walking down the hallway toward his and Revy’s neighbouring apartments. “I’m saying that I can’t afford to just replace every pint glass of beer you decide to smash in some poor asshole’s face just because he’s a creep.”
Revy had been in Vallo for about a week now, and Leon still wasn’t entirely sure what the other him saw in her. She was crass and violent and was, apparently, determined to burn through his entire paycheque buying smokes and liquor and breaking glassware. He realized he could just offer to stop paying, but that wasn’t the point. The point was… well, he wasn’t entirely sure what the point was. He didn’t get it, but he did like spending time with her (maybe like was too strong a word. He kept spending time with her either way).
There weren’t a lot of people who lived on Leon’s floor, and he didn’t recognize the guy who was currently trying to get into the apartment a few doors down the hall. He must’ve been a new arrival, and Leon lifted his hand as a kind of casual greeting – a welcome to the neighbourhood wave that he didn’t intend overmuch to follow through with conversation – before he turned back to Revy.
“You wanna come in for a drink?” he asked.
“Yeah, yeah, fuck off,” Revy dismissed lazily, rolling her eyes through this lecture. It’s one she’s heard plenty of tims before and if this Leon wasn’t so geriatric she could have sworn it was her Leon giving her this same shit. Having a rough start with him here hadn’t deterred her from sticking close; it wasn’t anything she hadn’t been through with him and it was almost normal.
There was this whole shitty part where his words might sting a little harder than usual because, y’know, she had some serious goddamn feelings for the dude in another world and wasn’t easy being away from him and so close to a version of him, but Vallo gave no choice. The OC - you could leave that insanity behind when you got your masochistic fill of it. Vallo wasn’t like that. She was stuck, and this was the hand she got.
Could be worse.
The worries of being stuck here long-term were currently being coped with by drinking a lot, and smoking a lot, and breaking glass a lot (which was better than breaking someone’s fucking bones, ya fucking welcome, Orcot). There wasn’t much else to do. The fuck was she gonna have to do, get a job?
Revy sort of spaced on the way to his apartment, and even if she had (furiously) moved out she was still over - a lot. Spent a lot of nights still on his couch, just like the old days. It was a little comforting, and ending up back here was a dumb instinctual draw she didn’t feel like fighting right now. She gave him a bored nod, crossed her arms and let her eyes follow whatever direction he had waved at, and -
“Holy fuck,” she blinked widely, suddenly a lot more sober than she was three seconds ago. “Henry. Dick Cheese. Tell me you get that reference.”
At first, Henry wasn’t sure if he heard right. His head snapped around. “Revy?” Sure enough, there she was! And honestly, seeing her was the first good thing that had happened to Henry all goddamn day -- even if she still called him that little term of endearment. “What are you and…” his eyes moved towards the man she was walking with. At first he’d thought it was Leon because who else would Revy be with? Only, this man wasn’t Leon. He looked like the detective, but older. Maybe his dad? But that didn’t make any fucking sense either.
Henry’s brows furrowed tightly before his eyes moved back to Revy. “What’s going on? I don’t…I don’t think I understand anything that’s happened to me today.”
Leon blinked, confused for a moment, especially at Dick Cheese because who just randomly yelled something like that in the middle of the hallway?
Revy did. Of course she did.
"You know this guy?" Leon asked, even if the answer was pretty fucking obvious.
A grin split her face, an actual fucking grin. “Yeah I fuckin’ do!” she shouted. Revy promptly ditched Leon and with a brief stride of long legs, she was in Henry’s face and pulling at his cheeks to make sure this dipsht was the real deal. “Holy shit, holy shit you’re real, and you’re here, and you fuckin’ know me! That’s just some version of Leon by the way, he’s not the same one we know but he’s still an asshole so - almost.”
Did she draw him in for a hug? Yeah, she did. Revy was in one of those rare moods and considering the past few days of acclimating hadn’t been the best, she really needed some kind of win here (even if she might be crushing Henry’s bones right now).
Revy’s words confused Henry. Why wouldn’t he be real? Was she afraid he was some kind of figment of her imagination? A hologram? Well…considering where they both had lived some time ago, Henry couldn’t quite count that out. “Uh’m glad to fee you too, Reffy” He managed to utter out as she squished and pulled at his face.
Then she had him in a hug, which caught Henry off guard. He gave an audible “oof” when she squeezed the air out of him. Just what had she gone through since he’d seen her last? Clearly some shit if she was hugging him instead of hitting him, which was usually Revy’s preferred way of showing affection.
But Henry was glad to see her too, and he hugged her back tightly. “It’s good to see you,” he wheezed out, but with a grin. He then looked up at the man she had kind-of-sort-of said was Leon. The grin faltered and his brows furrowed. “Uh…”
Leon shot them a baffled frown. He didn't think he'd seen Revy so happy since she arrived here. He noticed that Henry wasn't getting slapped after that spontaneous hug. He wasn't sure exactly how he felt about being called some version of Leon, definitely not hurt that was for sure, but whatever that feeling was he shoved it down until it could properly be considered annoyed.
"Nice to meet you. Henry, right?" Leon asked, stepping forward to offer Henry his hand. "Welcome to Vallo. You'll get used to the weirdness eventually."
“Henry used to have some creepy ass apocalyptic gloryhole in his apartment,” Revy went on to inform with hilarious enthusiasm, breaking the embrace to give him a heavy pat on the shoulder. Having a piece of home here made her happy as pig in shit, sue her. “This kind of weird ain’t too bad except for the whole getting kidnapped from your world part. Wanna get shitfaced with us? We just came back from a bar where someone was eyefucking my tits and Leon says it’s cheaper to drink at his place.”
Yeah, she was inviting him along to Leon’s apartment without even asking permission, who cares.
Henry had experienced a lot of things that could be classified as “weird” (as well as a lot of things that could be classified as “horrifying”), but shaking hands with an older version of his friend Leon was one of the more surreal experiences he’d had. What made it even more surreal was the fact that even though this man looked and sounded like Leon, he wasn’t the same man Henry knew.
And yet, as the two of them shook hands, Henry felt as though he did know him. Maybe it was the familiarity that put him at ease (despite the very confused look on the other man’s face). Henry smiled back at him. “Nice to meet you, Leon,” he said. “And thanks. I’ve experienced a lot of weirdness --”
And then as if to drive home that point, Revy mentioned the goddamn hole. Henry cringed as he let go of Leon’s hand. “It wasn’t actually a gloryhole,” he clarified for Leon in case he may get the wrong impression. “It was, uh…a magic hole.” Geeze, that wasn’t much better. “More like a tunnel. A magic tunnel, that looked like a hole. It led to another world, one with monsters and ghosts that liked to jam their hands into me…” It occurred to him that he was doing that babbling thing he sometimes did when he felt awkward. He glanced at Revy hoping maybe she would shut him up.
And she did by way of inviting Henry to join her and Leon for drinks. Oh, yeah. Henry could go for a beer. Or a glass of rum. Knowing Revy, it would probably be both. He nodded his head gratefully, “yeah, I could really use a drink.” Then (probably not for the first time) he remembered that the man she was with didn’t actually know him. He looked at Leon with a slightly sheepish look, “if that’s alright?”
Leon raised his eyebrows at the apocalyptic gloryhole comment. He wasn’t sure if that was the weirdest fucking thing he’d ever heard before – it was hard to pinpoint exactly what the weirdest thing in his life was these days – but he felt like it probably rated high up there.
“‘Hey, Leon, do you mind if my friend who you’ve never met before comes to drink at your apartment?’ ‘No, of course not, that’s perfectly fine, Revy,’” Leon grumbled, rolling his eyes, but he finished unlocking his door and stepped inside, leaving it open for the two of them to follow.
“You got ghosts and monsters and shit that like to jam their hands in you?” he asked over his shoulder, making his way to the kitchen so he could pull out three glasses and the booze. “That sounds rough. I’m going to guess they’re like… whatsit, incorporeal or whatever when they do it?” Henry sure didn’t look like he was actively filled with fistsized holes, at least, but he guessed his shirt could’ve been hiding just about anything.
“Hah, haunted fistings,” Revy snickered without an ounce of maturity. Did she catch Leon’s grievances about this whole ordeal? Kind of. Did she care, though? Absolutely the fuck not. She was having a great night and if Leon was going to be footing the rest of the alcohol from his own personal stash, that was even better.
Grabbing Henry by the collar (how else do you grab anyone?), she pulled him into the apartment to claim spots on the sofa. “Hey, Leon, you fuckface, make us doubles,” she demanded with a grin, which was probably the closest thing to her ever saying please. “I’ll clean him up if he vomits.”
Henry only just barely had time to register the sarcasm in Leon’s voice before Revy had him by the collar and was dragging him into the apartment. As he stumbled along behind her (somehow managing not to trip over his own feet), Henry heard Leon ask him about the ghosts. He remembered the monster that had appeared in Orange County a few years back. It had been corporeal enough to try to joke the life out of Revy, but had still managed to jam its arms inside Henry and grab his heart.
“Uh, sometimes,” was the answer he gave. “The ghosts usually are. I mean, other people don’t typically see them. But the monsters…” he glanced at Revy again wondering if she remembered that day. “They aren’t always incorporeal.”
Revy ordered their drinks. Doubles. At least she was offering to clean him up if he drank too much. That was actually really nice of her. Henry smirked. “Aww, that’s sweet, Revy.”
“What am I, your maid?” Leon grumbled, pouring them each their drinks and taking an extra nip from the bottle. He brought the glasses back and put them on the coffee table, then sat in a chair and propped his feet up on the table.
“Shit, that sounds unpleasant. Your guy’s world sounds… weird.”
Revy remembered that day. Not often did someone (or something) choke her out to the point of almost dying, but brushes of death hadn’t scared her before and hadn’t scared her then. Or now, for that matter. As long as she didn’t die like a little bitch then it was fine.
“It’s not much different from here,” she gave a shrug, lifting the glass to her lips. “What, monthly area fuck ups where shit from people’s worlds bleed over? Been there. Only good thing was that if we wanted to leave the area, we could. That’s what we did.”
‘We’ being her and her Leon. Living out there got taxing after a while, and they had wanted to start somewhere new together because that’s just… what couples did, sometimes.
The thought made her down her glass in less than two seconds.
Henry picked up his glass and nodded as he took the first sips. “That’s what I ended up doing too,” he added. “Though I stayed longer than I probably should have. Most of the people I’d gotten to know had already long gone by the time I finally packed up and went.” He gently swirled the liquid around in his glass.
He turned his attention back to Leon. “What’s it like here?” He asked, a brow raising into his shaggy brown hair. “Is it normal or people to just…show up? ‘Cause I kinda got the impression that it is…”
Leon could guess what had caused Revy to down her drink, and he frowned, then stood up and made his way back to the kitchen.
“Yeah,” Leon answered, heading grabbing the bottle of rum and heading back toward the living room. “It’s pretty common. People show up on almost a weekly basis. A lot of them make it to the Network, some of them don’t.” He didn’t know why they wouldn’t. He wasn’t much for socializing, but being on the Network with a bunch of people who were going through more or less the same thing was easier than winging it by yourself. But he wasn’t about to judge. “People leave pretty often as well. We usually get a couple of disappearances a month; people just going back home to wherever they came from. There doesn’t seem to be any sort of rhyme or reason to any of it.”
He poured Revy another drink, and then set the bottle down on the coffee table.
“You keep filling my glass and I’m passing out on your couch,” Revy pointed out. That wasn’t a protest, though - she’d just nurse this next pour a little slower to avoid vomit stains in the upholstery. “Anyway, fuck this place, I’m just riding it out the free apartment until it kicks me out.”
Henry being here made the wound of missing home a little better but, internally, she was mopey as shit about it all. Relationships were a drag.
There had been a lot to process for a single day. Henry supposed he was fortunate having resided in Orange County or as long as he did, otherwise he may have been freaking out about now. Or maybe when he’d first arrived, or when those very helpful people approached him and tried to explain what was going on. He could at least take solace in the fact that he didn’t have family or a girlfriend missing him.
Henry downed the rest of his drink. He glanced at the bottle on the table, then up at Leon. “Thanks for having me over,” he said, even though it was Revy who had actually invited (dragged) Henry inside.
Leon frowned. He could still remember his first few months here frantically searching for a way back home, and he hasn't even has a relationship to get back to then. Or a home. Or much of anything. At least Revy wasn't trying that. Maybe she'd get lucky and she would be sent home. Maybe she wouldn't. When she was ready to work she'd do it.
"Yeah, it's no problem," Leon said, waving a hand, as if he hadn't been complaining five minutes ago. The again, anyone who knew Leon knew not to take his complaining seriously, most of the time. "Come by whenever you want. I'm not going to bite."