[PCs] team trust no bitch aka team hat aka chuuya & caren

[doublesmall]

[but is it really team hat if only caren has one, though? that's the real question here.

threads in comments!

(there is age difference ship content here but nothing nsfw)]

Comments

[doublesmall]

I meant to. Eventually. Before the end, at least.

[it was just difficult to say to her, when they were alone. how do you admit that sort of thing-- how do you just come out and say it?]

You were going to be the only one I told.

[sexorcism]

... [She sits in the silence of those words for a few moments, feeling them somewhere deeper inside her than if she'd just heard them.

They deserved to know, too. It's fine.

... But thank you.

I'd say you're really overconfident, an enormous ego for a small man, if I thought you assumed you'd pass that sort of judgment.

[She knows it isn't that at all.]

[doublesmall]

Hah... maybe I am a little overconfident though, yeah?

[he knows he is. chuuya shakes his head, laughing quietly to himself.

it got him killed, right? it sort of got him killed in life. if he'd withdrawn, he'd have lived.

it's a shame he's never been the type to retreat. he inches forward, an arm draping over her lap.]

I can't help that, Caren.

i love it when i just don't close a fucking tag

[sexorcism]

Spoken like someone who truly has no interest in self-improvement.

[She scowls a little bit, breaking eye contact with him. Caren can't help feeling a little touchy tonight; when it's him, she doesn't have a problem offering comfort, but she won't ask for it herself. And she shouldn't need it, but she's too comfortable in his presence not to let it slip.

Ah, this is truly...one of the most troubling situations she's ever been in, Caren thinks. It isn't unfamiliar, but the people (person) involved makes it different from the first time.]

Well, I suppose you've reached the limit on physical growth, too. [She holds the bag against her knee, but the other arm slowly comes around, fingers settling in the hair at the nape of his neck.]

[doublesmall]

Those are low blows...

[chuuya doesn't sound angry, though, just quietly annoyed, and he shifts slightly to make it easier for her to rest her hand there. the touch definitely isn't unwelcome; it seems like the sort of thing they both need, right now, even if neither will say so.]

I do have an interest in what's in the bag, though.

[sexorcism]

[Caren strokes a few locks of hair, the skin just beneath it, for a lazy few seconds, then takes her hand away to deal with the bag.]

Ah, I just went down to a few of the stores while I had some time.

[She pulls out a knife.]

[doublesmall]

--what do you need that for? Don't tell me you were that into the scars...

[caren, is this a kink thing. he wouldn't be surprised.

but chuuya stretches before propping himself up a little, making it easier to watch her.]

[sexorcism]

You still haven't shown me how good with a knife you are.

[She turns it around a little bit, slowly, considering it. Her fingers aren't as deft as any of the rest's, but she thinks of Eleanor mulling over a knife when they spoke before the trial.]

I could have found some scissors and made it easier, but I suppose I am not entirely immune to sentimentality.

[Scissors would have changed it too much. She slices off a lock of her hair from the bottom of a longer piece, not bothering to find a place it would be hidden.]

[doublesmall]

Made wh--

[--oh.

oh, that's what she meant. chuuya's left staring for a moment, blinking, as if processing whether that really just happened.]

...thought you said you didn't understand that kind of sentimental trinket, huh?

[sexorcism]

[Caren answers easily, eyes trained on the work in her lap.]

I really don't.

[The other item in the bag is a sort of flower child bracelet from the hippie store, all leather and lace and ribbon woven together. She runs the knife through that, too, separating out pieces before she ties the hair off and braids it down.]

There's nothing all that sentimental about it. I just thought I'd replace it since I'm the only one who can. You'll have a long way to go after we're done here, so who knows the next person you'll meet who can do it properly.

[doublesmall]

[chuuya finally sits up properly, there, watching over her shoulder as she works; this is a slight shift from when she'd just watched him make an attempt at a braid and declined to help. he keeps his eyes fixed on her hands, a slight smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.]

You've got a little bit of sentimentality in you too, don't you, Caren.

[to think to replace it at all-- to give him something to take with him, if it'll be a long trip.]

[sexorcism]

... Don't read too much into it. I'm not sure about the sentimentality of it, but it's in my calling to seek out and perform good acts.

[After a moment of continued work, she stops in the middle of it, nearly at the end of the braid but before she ties it off, and lifts her gaze to look back toward the corner of the room.]

I suppose I might be human after all, though.

[doublesmall]

You are.

[it's quiet, immediate-- a simple answer for something much more complex than that.]

...someone told me once-- that even if I really was nothing more than a safety device and a framework for the power I had, that I was still myself. That all humans are nothing but the frames of our bodies and the world we live in.

'No more than a beautiful frame'.

[he hesitates there, because it goes beyond what chuuya is normally willing to put words to... but that was something that he'd needed to hear, once.

chuuya's fingers curl lightly around her wrist, making contact but not getting in the way of her work, should she decide to keep going.]

...yours is just as beautiful.

[sexorcism]

[Ah, just more sentimentality again. Because it's such a hopeful and illogically emotional thing to say, Caren cracks a slight smile. Because of that.

Caren hasn't been able to understand it her entire life, but she's starting to see why those feelings are so important to people. She doubts that man ever really understood it, and, for just a moment, instead of loathing him, she pities him. It only lasts a second, but it's there.]

Don't read into it too much if I said "thank you," either.

[She continues braiding, careful not to disturb the hand around her wrist.]

...Ah, but, thank you.

[doublesmall]

Me, reading into things? Nah. I know better.

[that slight smile gets one in response, though, and there's barely disguised amusement in his tone-- chuuya shifts to let his head rest on her shoulder, apparently content not to say anything else. that got pretty dangerously close to feelings, after all.]

[sexorcism]

[She's fine with silence; if anything, she's gotten used to them being like this; the times it doesn't feel like idling away limited hours are truly memorable ones. When it's just a state of being, it's fine.

He's loud normally, but that's fine, too.

Caren ties off the braid with some more leather from the bracelet, then stretches out a piece of lace to wrap around it. As she does it, she explains what she's doing.]

This should keep it from fraying so much. You never know who's going to want to harm it, after all.

[doublesmall]

I'll protect it better, this time.

[not that there's anything he could have done about it being taken from his body, but-- well, he could have protected himself better too, couldn't he?]

...but a little extra protection never hurts.

[sexorcism]

I'd be disappointed if you didn't.

[Caren seals the rest of the braid with the various pieces from the deconstructed bracelet, then holds it up in the light from one of the garish love hotel lamps.]

If you tire of carrying it, you are obligated to return it.