a_sin_for_him | IC Contact

[Please.]

I know...

[In spite of his initial internal reaction, he struggles with her offer for a moment. He's about to mumble a decline when he realizes that there's an excuse.]

I... do need to get Miriam and Aliza back at some point.

[And she's holding onto them. Scar isn't so foolish as to think that she won't see right through it, but it's easier to say it that way.]

Then why don't we meet somewhere nearby and I can return them to you?

[She won't call attention to the ruse. And he does need his Pokemon back.]

They've been fine, but I think they miss you.

I can come there.

[Though he should ask-]

Are you alone?

If you'd prefer, of course.

There aren't many other people in the house right now, and I'm alone in my room.

[If that have to stay in her room, he's suddenly not so sure.]

We can go someplace else.

[Lust's voice is still compassionate.]

Scar, you're my friend and you're having an emotional time.

It's alright for you to be in my room, I have chairs and a little table. And no one's going to bother us. We can sit and talk and have chocolate milk.

[Why does she have to make it so difficult to say no?]

Fine.

[It's barely more than a mumble.]

I'll be waiting.

[With chocolate milk and plain cookies - store bought - as she remembered Scar preferred things that were less sweet. And setting up the little table in her room for company gives her something to do while she waits for Scar to arrive. Other than simply fretting about him.]

Scar hadn't been far away. He showed up at the homunculi's house but kept mostly to the shadows as he sent Lust a text that he was at the door. The last thing he wanted to do is be seen.

He carried his Teddiursa, sound asleep, in one arm. He was visibly exhausted after the ordeal with Magma and Aqua.

She was still in her comfortable about-the-house clothes, a long pair of loose cotton pants and a large shapeless shirt. She'd pulled on her robe but hadn't bothered to belt it - it wasn't as though her shape was very obvious under her baggy clothing.

The sight of him pulled sharply at something in her heart. She was overcome with the impulse to put her arms around him, to draw him to her and simply hold him. She gripped the door tightly to keep herself from doing so, not wanting to frighten him.

"Come inside." She gave in only slightly, reaching her hand out for his free arm.

Scar's small, tired frown deepened when she touched him, but it was still difficult to gauge exactly if it was a positive or negative reaction. He stepped inside quietly, taking a brief glance around the place. It was cozy, at least.

Even if everything was, compared to the places he usually spent his time. Yaminah stirred, but remained asleep.

"Here." She led him gently up the stairs, ready to drop the hand on his arm the moment he indicated he didn't want to be touched.

"Just down the hall." There was a low light coming from under her door. In anticipation, she'd set a decorative screen across the foot of her bed, shielding it from view. Her room was simple and elegant, in varying tones of green and golds. The small table was opposite the screen, two places set.

Scar's Pokemon were waiting by the door when they came in.

Scar followed her quietly to her room, only to be greeted by a very excited Skitty and Eevee. He crouched down on his knees, taking care to pull gently away from Lust as the two tiny Pokémon bounded up for his attention. Some of the tension in his brow eased, when he saw them.

"Thank you," he muttered.

"Of course."

She shut the door behind them and took a seat, letting Scar reunite with his Pokemon.

"They weren't any trouble at all."

"They rarely are." With little regard to whether or not there were actual seats in the room, Scar settled on the floor so they could sit with him. Yaminah stirred awake to groggily greet her sisters.

He fell quiet after that, focusing more on his Pokémon than his surroundings.

Lust made no comment about Scar's choice to sit on the floor.

"And there's plenty of room for them, clearly. Moreso, with so few of us in the house while you were...away."

If he didn't want to leap right into talking about what happened, they didn't have to.

Scar nodded, remaining silent. Yaminah was clearly desperate to stay awake and alert while the others crawled all over her.

"She's had a long couple of days, let her sleep," he gently urged the younger two, who clearly struggled with the idea but did their best to listen, curling up with the bear and only occasionally fidgeting.

"I'm still not entirely certain what happened," Scar spoke up, only a bit, to indicate he was speaking to Lust.

"Maybe it's one of those things you aren't meant to fully understand. Where what you take from it is more important than what happened or how." Lust sipped her milk - she'd put a few drops of liqueur in hers - and moved to sit beside Scar on the floor.

Scar looked up, but not directly at her when she sat next to him. It still didn't cross him as odd to be sitting on the floor. It made it easiest for the Pokémon to stay close, and he wasn't used to having furniture.

"Then what did I take from it?"

"That's not something anyone else can tell you. It was your experience. I don't know what you took from it, other than the memory of your brother's voice." She offered him the glass of plain chocolate milk.

"And it's just happened. You're still shaken. Don't expect all answers and revelations to come in the blink of an eye, they never do." She spoke from experience.

Scar's expression darkened. A cloudy memory couldn't have possibly been the point in all of this. Was there even a point at all? He doubted it.

He couldn't deny that he was shaken, though. He gave her a bit of a look when she actually handed him chocolate milk. He felt like a child, for goodness' sake.

"Maybe I'm just more okay with being given this chance," he finally muttered.

Lust sipped her own milk, leaning back some and watching the dozing Pokemon.

"That's more than enough to take from it. You said whatever you spoke to was benevolent, didn't you?"

"It was somehow restoring the places affected by the fighting. I asked it of it brought us all here, and it didn't seem to answer. But when I thanked it, it aknowledged that, in some way." He couldn't quite place how, other than that a warm feeling had washed over him.

"What you make of that is up to you. I know if it were me...I'd think that indicates that the thing that brought us here wants us to be happy. Or at least try. Maybe that's what it does. Restores things that have been greatly damaged."

Scar sipped at his milk, still not entirely used to the sweetness of some foods here. He finally looked up at Lust, weary and sad. He couldn't put what he was thinking and feeling into words, but he assumed she would understand.

Damaged things. That was what they were, wasn't it?

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