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.
[Except if your name was Alex Reagan apparently, or you were a dog. Richard still didn't fully understand how Alex had grown feelings for him. It wasn't as if he'd been kind to her. Far from it in fact. He'd been a complete asshole in fact. Standoffish and less than helpful with her whole podcast. Even threatening to end it and sue the studio at one point. Yet she'd stayed. She'd persisted beyond what anyone honestly should have.
It would never fail to baffle him that she had. That she had gone on so many limbs, put herself into so many dangerous situations just for something that had started as his and his alone. his missing wife, his black tape mysteries. Now the whole thing had become theirs, and he wasn't sure she even fully realized it. Not at the point that she remembered. Just knowing that made him feel uneasy.]
You can definitely be an ass sometimes, Richard, but I think more people would like them if you let them.
[Not that she'd been thinking about it or anything. But there was something that was even more apparent here than it was back home was that people tended to actually like assholes, unless they used their armor to put off people who were less persistent than she was. And honestly, basically most of the earth's population was less persistent than she was. There was a reason why she hadn't argued when he'd called her that before, because she was.
And the two of them wouldn't be here if she wasn't, because she could only imagine how annoying Alex had needed to be in order to make Ruby make him call her back. Or however it had happened anyway.]
But, I know you won't, and that's okay. You've got good reason to not let anyone in. [Alex laughed then and looked up at him with a smile.] God knows you definitely have that. I still don't know how I even managed to worm my way in here.
[Her fingers brushed above his heart for a moment before she just grinned at him again.]
[His breath hitched for a moment as he realized, not for the first time, that he'd never be able to understand how they'd gotten to this. How his solitary search for answers (true, he had a research group, but really, the search was his alone with them tagging along), his search for his missing wife had turned into this. His arms around another woman who was almost half his age and knowing that he'd rather be here than with Coralee.
At the mention of his lacking friendship and the analysis of his character, he merely sighed. Of course Alex would think that way. She believed in close relationships, touching and flirting. Alex believed in a world where people looked at one another with a kind of respect. Richard, on the other hand, had left any semblance of belief in such a world behind over twenty years ago. Back when Coralee had abandoned her family instead of telling them what was going on and letting Charlie and himself decide if the danger was worth being together with her, even if that together were on the run. They would have, but they'd never been given that choice.]
I'm not a nice person Alex.
[It was a lie he'd told himself for twenty years. A lie he believed with very few breaks. He wasn't a nice person. He drove people away, shut them out and was cruel. This was a fact; it was him.]
And I have you.
[She was all he needed in the end. He wasn't sure how or why that had happened, but it was the truth.]
You know I don't believe that, right? That you're not a nice person? [Alex shifted, so that she was looking at him again, the frown evident on her face as her eyes met his.] And that's not to say I don't know what an asshole you can be sometimes, or how inconsiderate or obnoxious you can be. But I also don't think that you're a complete bastard either.
Richard, whatever else you do with your Institute, I think you do try and help prove to people that what they're frightened of isn't real. Do I think you go about it the wrong way sometimes and definitely could benefit from having someone like me with you to help break the news more gently? Yes. But I don't think you do it to just be a complete jerk and take people's blankets away whatever other people think.
I think that you're hoping by giving them reason as a blanket, then they won't need the other ones.
[Of course Alex wasn't going to get into the fact that she still expected that everything was real despite how hard he always tried to pretend it wasn't. Because that wasn't the argument she was making here. Here, she was arguing that he wanted to help people.]
[When she turned to face him, his fingers played across her cheeks, thumb brushing her lips lightly. With her memories returned and the two of them like this, it was difficult to not think about what was potentially about to happen between them that night. The dinner, the wine, whatever might come next. Even if what came next was sitting together, it would have been enough for Richard. Even so, he couldn't deny the fact that he wanted more.]
You're the only one who would think so.
[His hand moved to her hair, brushing stray strands away from her face. Alex was, unique in the way she thought about him. Somehow always finding the best in him even when he was more than willing to show the worst. She was always willing to chase him when he ran, and always willing to push him when he dug his heels in.]
And maybe Ruby.
[The smirk that played against his lips at that was a bit too amused.]
Well, see, that fits my point perfectly then. [Alex grinned against his fingers for a moment, and traced the space over his heart once more, still staring up at him with something more than a little like adoration on her face. There were times when she wished that she wasn't so expressive, and this was one of those times but she also knew he knew her well enough to see it even if it was more hidden. Probably, anyway, unless he chose to ignore it like he did when she was so tired and getting out of control.
But thankfully those times were over, and she knew that he had asked her if she was sleeping the last time she'd seen him before here and Alex had told the truth then; it wasn't like before. Of course that was before she spent six months alone and worrying about everything here, and the her nightmares had plunged forward into full on nightmare fuel once again.
Sleep wasn't something that she'd been fighting with anywhere near as badly since he'd shown up (until he decided to play Sleeping Beauty and spend five days in a coma anyway) so at least there was that. So Alex just beamed up at him.]
Ruby is a good judge of character, even though I'm still not convinced she doesn't hate me.
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no subject
[He scratched Apo's ear.]
I'm, unlikeable.
[Except if your name was Alex Reagan apparently, or you were a dog. Richard still didn't fully understand how Alex had grown feelings for him. It wasn't as if he'd been kind to her. Far from it in fact. He'd been a complete asshole in fact. Standoffish and less than helpful with her whole podcast. Even threatening to end it and sue the studio at one point. Yet she'd stayed. She'd persisted beyond what anyone honestly should have.
It would never fail to baffle him that she had. That she had gone on so many limbs, put herself into so many dangerous situations just for something that had started as his and his alone. his missing wife, his black tape mysteries. Now the whole thing had become theirs, and he wasn't sure she even fully realized it. Not at the point that she remembered. Just knowing that made him feel uneasy.]
no subject
[Not that she'd been thinking about it or anything. But there was something that was even more apparent here than it was back home was that people tended to actually like assholes, unless they used their armor to put off people who were less persistent than she was. And honestly, basically most of the earth's population was less persistent than she was. There was a reason why she hadn't argued when he'd called her that before, because she was.
And the two of them wouldn't be here if she wasn't, because she could only imagine how annoying Alex had needed to be in order to make Ruby make him call her back. Or however it had happened anyway.]
But, I know you won't, and that's okay. You've got good reason to not let anyone in. [Alex laughed then and looked up at him with a smile.] God knows you definitely have that. I still don't know how I even managed to worm my way in here.
[Her fingers brushed above his heart for a moment before she just grinned at him again.]
But I'm glad I did.
no subject
At the mention of his lacking friendship and the analysis of his character, he merely sighed. Of course Alex would think that way. She believed in close relationships, touching and flirting. Alex believed in a world where people looked at one another with a kind of respect. Richard, on the other hand, had left any semblance of belief in such a world behind over twenty years ago. Back when Coralee had abandoned her family instead of telling them what was going on and letting Charlie and himself decide if the danger was worth being together with her, even if that together were on the run. They would have, but they'd never been given that choice.]
I'm not a nice person Alex.
[It was a lie he'd told himself for twenty years. A lie he believed with very few breaks. He wasn't a nice person. He drove people away, shut them out and was cruel. This was a fact; it was him.]
And I have you.
[She was all he needed in the end. He wasn't sure how or why that had happened, but it was the truth.]
no subject
Richard, whatever else you do with your Institute, I think you do try and help prove to people that what they're frightened of isn't real. Do I think you go about it the wrong way sometimes and definitely could benefit from having someone like me with you to help break the news more gently? Yes. But I don't think you do it to just be a complete jerk and take people's blankets away whatever other people think.
I think that you're hoping by giving them reason as a blanket, then they won't need the other ones.
[Of course Alex wasn't going to get into the fact that she still expected that everything was real despite how hard he always tried to pretend it wasn't. Because that wasn't the argument she was making here. Here, she was arguing that he wanted to help people.]
But yes, you'll always have me.
no subject
You're the only one who would think so.
[His hand moved to her hair, brushing stray strands away from her face. Alex was, unique in the way she thought about him. Somehow always finding the best in him even when he was more than willing to show the worst. She was always willing to chase him when he ran, and always willing to push him when he dug his heels in.]
And maybe Ruby.
[The smirk that played against his lips at that was a bit too amused.]
no subject
But thankfully those times were over, and she knew that he had asked her if she was sleeping the last time she'd seen him before here and Alex had told the truth then; it wasn't like before. Of course that was before she spent six months alone and worrying about everything here, and the her nightmares had plunged forward into full on nightmare fuel once again.
Sleep wasn't something that she'd been fighting with anywhere near as badly since he'd shown up (until he decided to play Sleeping Beauty and spend five days in a coma anyway) so at least there was that. So Alex just beamed up at him.]
Ruby is a good judge of character, even though I'm still not convinced she doesn't hate me.