who: Alex Reagan and Open what: May normal stuff, plus mingle stuff and possibly sickness plotting stuff. when: Month of May! where: All over Riverview. warnings: Possible illness stuff, shippy stuff.
For Richard, there would always be a need to shroud himself. To keep the outside where it belonged, outside and away from damaging him. No matter how much he softened to Alex that would always remain the case. Not everyone was Alex, after all. Not everyone would try to protect him; in fact, most would try to tear him down with barbs and slander. That was what he had grown used to after twenty years of Coralee being missing, of being completely alone.
Ignoring the soft plea was hard, Alex had always been an emotional person. Someone who empathized with everyone to an annoying degree, but this was different. It was a promise that they both knew she couldn't keep. Outside in the real world, who knew what Warren was planning on doing to them. He could do anything so long as they were here. "I'll rest, the get what I need." He wasn't going to relent on this. He didn't want someone else getting things for him. Picking out what they thought he would look like, choosing the ever important armor that he wore daily. It wasn't acceptable.
Maybe Alex couldn't keep her promise here, at least not in the outside of their apartment anyway, but if someone wanted to hurt him while he was sleeping, they were going to need to go through her first. Yes, Alex's empathy was a huge part of her, but there was a selfish reason in it as well. The six months that she'd been here when he hadn't had given her something that she'd needed: perspective. Each time they'd been apart before (other than Turkey, which was her doing) he had left without a word, and she had used that time to be angry or upset at him in alternating terms depending on how her day was going and how much she missed him. But here where the decision was out of her hands, she knew that it might just kill her if something happened to him. It would be why she'd ask him to runaway with her, and it would be why if she needed to, she'd shove him out of the way if Warren tried anything.
Riverview Quarantine may not be under Warren's control (at least not how Richard thought it was) but that protection was something that she was going to extend to him here anyway. God help any monsters who tried to harm him, be they human or not.
Her fingers kept stroking the skin on his cheek, and she frowned at him from the otherside of the pillow, with a long sigh. "You're such a stubborn ass, Richard. I know you have reason to be, but I'd wish you let me actually help you with more than just the damned tapes."
Even without being able to see her, he knew that tone and couldn't help smiling over it. With the memories she'd been left, she had no idea. Not even the slightest realization of how important she was. How much she did for him without even knowing she did it. How easily her words could wash over him and throw his armor to the side.
How cherished she was, just for being her own, stubborn self.
"It's enough." Enough to let him care about her, to love her. Enough to love him in return when the people he most cherished abandoned him (even if he never faulted Charlie for her choice). It was enough that she stayed by his side through all of this, and more then enough that she'd offered to run away with him, that she went after Thomas Warren, for him even if he didn't approve of the later. It meant so much more than she could possibly comprehend.
"It may be," Alex spoke softly, and she sighed again, before cuddling closer to him, because yes he may be sick, but right now it felt like he needed to be cuddled. Cuddled and held and just helped to keep everything else away. "But you still deserve more." There was no doubt that she meant it, and she wondered not for the first time and certainly not for the last how the two of them had ended up in Geneva with things finally on the table between them.
She hoped that it had come about the right way, and the best way and that in doing it she hadn't chased him away and needed for him to come back. Of course, that was how he did things sometimes so she couldn't be too angry about it. At least not when things were settled.
"Whatever else, Richard," her voice was a little whisper in the darkness. "I love you, and have loved you for a long time and nothing else is going to change it. If you don't feel secure in anything else, you can feel secure in that." Maybe that could be a kind of armor to help when his suit came off.
He reached out, caressing her cheek with the back of his hand, eyes open just enough to be able to watch her lying there. Not for the first time, he thought about how beautiful she was; as if all that made her who she was seemed to radiate out of her like a shining halo. Unlike him, a man who kept everything shrouded in an armor that he could never truly remove. The shadow of a man who once was.
"I do." The answer is soft but honest. He trusts her, feels secure with her, and for the first time in longer then he can remember, feels as if he's home. "Alex," He said her name quietly. It was the fragment of what he wanted to say. Of the millions of things that he couldn't adequately convey to her. An irony, for a man like him.
She was the only one who could convince him not to go headlong into what he knew was a trap set by Thomas Warren. She was the only person he trusted without question, even if he refused to believe the existence of the supernatural, even in her Black Tape.
The bedsheets rustled as he moved to rest his head against hers. It's all he can do to say it, the words that have been struggling against his thoughts. What he's still not sure he should say because of the time she's missing. "I love you."
One of the reasons that was so good at the radio, and why she preferred it over working in print or television was because of how good she knew her voice was. It was expressive, there was no doubt about that, and listeners could always tell how she was feeling whenever she shared things with them. Not that long ago, she'd told someone that she'd made a shitty actor, just because she was so bad at hiding things in her voice.
Now, when she spoke there was that smile in her. Bright and blinding it could be in the light, the dark and heer whisper softened it more than a little bit. "Good." She meant it, because she was glad that he knew it, and she made a contented sigh when he said that he loved her. She snuggled closer and wrapped her arms around him, holding onto him in a way that was meant to be support for both of them, a bit like someone would hold onto a teddy bear.
"Sleep, Richard. You're safe, and nothing's going to happen tonight. I won't let it. Get some sleep and we'll deal with everything else in the morning."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
Ignoring the soft plea was hard, Alex had always been an emotional person. Someone who empathized with everyone to an annoying degree, but this was different. It was a promise that they both knew she couldn't keep. Outside in the real world, who knew what Warren was planning on doing to them. He could do anything so long as they were here. "I'll rest, the get what I need." He wasn't going to relent on this. He didn't want someone else getting things for him. Picking out what they thought he would look like, choosing the ever important armor that he wore daily. It wasn't acceptable.
no subject
Riverview Quarantine may not be under Warren's control (at least not how Richard thought it was) but that protection was something that she was going to extend to him here anyway. God help any monsters who tried to harm him, be they human or not.
Her fingers kept stroking the skin on his cheek, and she frowned at him from the otherside of the pillow, with a long sigh. "You're such a stubborn ass, Richard. I know you have reason to be, but I'd wish you let me actually help you with more than just the damned tapes."
no subject
How cherished she was, just for being her own, stubborn self.
"It's enough." Enough to let him care about her, to love her. Enough to love him in return when the people he most cherished abandoned him (even if he never faulted Charlie for her choice). It was enough that she stayed by his side through all of this, and more then enough that she'd offered to run away with him, that she went after Thomas Warren, for him even if he didn't approve of the later. It meant so much more than she could possibly comprehend.
no subject
She hoped that it had come about the right way, and the best way and that in doing it she hadn't chased him away and needed for him to come back. Of course, that was how he did things sometimes so she couldn't be too angry about it. At least not when things were settled.
"Whatever else, Richard," her voice was a little whisper in the darkness. "I love you, and have loved you for a long time and nothing else is going to change it. If you don't feel secure in anything else, you can feel secure in that." Maybe that could be a kind of armor to help when his suit came off.
no subject
"I do." The answer is soft but honest. He trusts her, feels secure with her, and for the first time in longer then he can remember, feels as if he's home. "Alex," He said her name quietly. It was the fragment of what he wanted to say. Of the millions of things that he couldn't adequately convey to her. An irony, for a man like him.
She was the only one who could convince him not to go headlong into what he knew was a trap set by Thomas Warren. She was the only person he trusted without question, even if he refused to believe the existence of the supernatural, even in her Black Tape.
The bedsheets rustled as he moved to rest his head against hers. It's all he can do to say it, the words that have been struggling against his thoughts. What he's still not sure he should say because of the time she's missing. "I love you."
no subject
Now, when she spoke there was that smile in her. Bright and blinding it could be in the light, the dark and heer whisper softened it more than a little bit. "Good." She meant it, because she was glad that he knew it, and she made a contented sigh when he said that he loved her. She snuggled closer and wrapped her arms around him, holding onto him in a way that was meant to be support for both of them, a bit like someone would hold onto a teddy bear.
"Sleep, Richard. You're safe, and nothing's going to happen tonight. I won't let it. Get some sleep and we'll deal with everything else in the morning."