Outside MHA #8 | Late Saturday Morning

[flourish_or_perish]

It was a little weird how little time it had taken Faye to pack up everything important enough to take with her; she'd been here for a year, now, but there still wasn't all that much. A few odds and ends -- gifts she'd been given, dresses she'd worn to parties that she wanted to remember. A betamax tape, which was the whole reason she was even packing up her things.

It had been a good year. She'd needed a year like this, and she could admit that to herself, now -- but she could also acknowledge that it had been like hiding. An okay sort of hiding. An allowed, necessary kind of hiding. She'd needed this time -- and, fine, these people -- in order to get to...here.

But on that note, as tempted as she was to simply throw her bag over her shoulder and sneak off to her ship, her year of -- getting to here (what other, more willingly introspective people might call growth) meant that she didn't and, moreover, couldn't.

So here she was, knocking lightly on Stark's door, half-hoping that he wasn't home, and half-knowing that even if he wasn't she'd go find him to say goodbye properly.

[for the alien mentioned and, yes, this is Faye's last post in Fandom!]

Comments

[stykera]

"A little while then." A little while was better than no time at all.

"I...can...I don't know how to do this," Stark admitted. "I've never..."

Zhaan had died and the other Zhaan had simply vanished without a word and he had no experience with this sort of ending.

[flourish_or_perish]

"Would it be easier if I died?" Faye asked, quirking her mouth up in a half-smile. "Sometimes things just...end. I've never done this either, with the saying-goodbye part."

So there was that. Stark had warranted closure.

[stykera]

"No!" Stark's response was immediate and more vehement than was probably warranted.

"No." He shook his head. "It wouldn't. That's not easier I just know how to do it. But right now..."

Right now he wanted to move over and pull her into his arms and not let go until he had to.

[flourish_or_perish]

"Right now this is a lot," Faye suggested, reaching over to lightly pat his arm.

Again, clean break. It was tempting to try to initiate more, as a goodbye and all, but she needed to keep this as uncomplicated as possible.

[stykera]

They were so very, very far past the point where this could have been uncomplicated.

Stark started to pull his arm away, then stopped. "It's...I would have done things differently. If I'd known. I would have...there's so much I would have done."

[flourish_or_perish]

"I'm not sure it would have made a difference, if either of us had done anything differently," Faye offered, shrugging. "My mind's pretty made up, and I...this is something I need to do. For me."

[stykera]

"That's not what I meant," Stark protested. "Not trying to change your mind. I meant...I would have made sure we went somewhere warm, once. Like we'd talked about. Or just out somewhere. Things like that. I would have told you I sleep better with you here. Things I thought there would be time for. I would have made you more pancakes."

The pancakes were still not a euphemism.

"I would have told you more, out loud, that I love you." He'd always been a little worried about doing so, after what happened the first time.