Nene and Angel head to Oublie and set up camp in the snow. After Angel decides to go for a walk for some fresh air and doesn't come back, Nene goes looking. They get back to the shuttle and there's a flicker of hope for a future before that's quickly and thorough crushed once more.

[Dated to mid-May and rated R.]

It's been over a week and, for a reason Nene hasn't yet been able to figure out, Angel is still with him. Which isn't to say that anything between them has been resolved; their conversations -- for lack of a better word -- are short and clipped, Angel's tone frequently cold and dismissive. But, Nene keeps them both fed and clothed and the string ( Read more... )

He's running... he's not running. He's stumbling, falling, walking. He's flying. He's a mile off the ground and the lights are like fireflies under his dangling feet. He's walking and it's raining and he's cold and frightened and the lights are too far away ( Read more... )

After a long period of tension and aimless wandering, Mike and Nene finally and violently part ways.

[Rated R for various things]

Claire stops by the university that afternoon, limping down the hall with her cane and it isn't until Joe looks up from the paper he's grading that he even realizes she's in the doorway to his office. If he's honest, it probably would have been better if he'd just never looked up at all. She still comes to see him and he doesn't know why, he ( Read more... )

It wasn't as if he'd shot the dealer for fun. He'd shot the dealer as a matter of principal. Cheating was standard at places like Hearts, but you didn't cheat and then lie about it after being caught red handed... And John had very much caught him red handed. So, after finally doubling his money at another table, he'd watched and waited for the man ( Read more... )

Nene sits at the back of the bar, hidden in a shadow, a large booth all to himself, the seat curved in a half circle, cushions the color of dried blood, shrouded almost entirely by a thin, black curtain. It's a decadent place, one that seems foreign and familiar at the same time, one which would've likely made Angel uncomfortable ( Read more... )

He doesn't think he's spent this much time on Miranda in years. It feels strange. Moving from place to place is second nature to him but he hasn't realized that moving from place to place works in degrees; staying on the same planet barely counts to him anymore ( Read more... )

Somewhere in the recesses of his clouded mind, Joe knows that he has a lecture the next day, that he should really go home and sober up before he has to face his students. That'd be a good idea, that'd be smart, but things haven't felt smart lately and Joe, as an extension of the stupidity of life, has felt rather stupid himself. If asked, he'll ( Read more... )

Miranda is not the ideal place to be, Nene knows. Wherever he goes, there's still someone after him, still someone who knows his face and his name and what he has. Even if Cuervo and Angel are both dead - though, Nene doesn't ever let himself imagine that scenario for very long - and even if they're in peace keeper custody and their share of the ( Read more... )