Day 20: Breakfast

[right_handed]

Scar felt as if he'd passed out as soon as he'd gotten to his bed due to the admittedly strong fatigue and pain that having a badly injured arm tended to cause a person to feel, even one as conditioned and battle-worn as the stern-faced Ishbalan. He woke up feeling rested but regretful, and his fear that he'd wasted a Nightshift ripe with the

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[lustful_thing]

The quiet, subdued atmosphere of the breakfast table was fine with Lust. She wasn't entirely in the mood to chatter idly. She only wanted the company, the feel of companionship. And it looked as though all of them - for River joined them shortly with the same tired, drawn expression - just wanted the same thing.

Lust would have answered Scar's half-formed question, but a young man was hurtling towards their table, yelling. Her eyes narrowed as the man grabbed River, exclaiming all manner of pleased noises.

The mood at the table changed immediately. Stupid human emotions! Lust snapped her teeth together, watching the reunion. Clearly someone else from River's home. Clearly someone she was close to. A lover, perhaps?

Since the men weren't about to ask, Lust took it upon herself. Someone had to, after all. What a strange, strange thing had all happened between them, around this young woman with the amazing powers. But it only stood to cause problems, as anyone could clearly see right now. This was why she hated human emotions - want, need, jealousy, affection... all they did was cause trouble.

"Someone you know?" Lust asked, her voice rather frosty.

[theycutitout]

She hadn't seen it. Through all the mist and mirrors, she'd seen them but not him. Maybe they'd hidden him from her, cloaked in veils of shadows and smoke until he was so close and tangible that he couldn't be hidden any longer.

River had been seconds from replying to what she knew Scar was already going to ask, mouth open and all, when she heard her name called.

So close that he couldn't be hidden any longer.

The wheels and storms were turning, twisting her mind about just so that it made her ears ring and her temples ache. Everything. They'd been through everything, and it had been hard for him. So very hard for him that maybe, maybe he didn't want her after all. Maybe she was a ghost to him. Maybe she wasn't, but maybe he wanted her to be. Manah's haunting words danced along with the memories of him holding her as she cried for things long lost that weren't even hers. Right along with his arms around her as they'd tried to burn her for being a witch. Right along with him as he'd taken a bullet trying to fight a bounty hunter who'd been ready to take her away forever.

But it was Simon, and he was running to her with orange juice staining his pants and his composure thrown to the wind. Regret and doubt were forever, but so was Simon. So was their bond. So was everything. Simon. Simon. Simon was here, and everything would maybe be okay.

His arms were around her again. River felt her face crumble. She was so tired, and... and Simon was here.

"Simon..." she said finally, her voice muffled as she buried it in his shoulder. Tears were adding to the stains, but tears meant more than orange juice. She was crying like a child and smiling at the same time.

"Your spilled your juice."

River turned her eyes at the thoughts drifting in her direction. Questions... maybe jealousy? Her family here, they couldn't feel left out. She didn't want them too. But Simon was here, and she hadn't been proper. Lust was to the point, but she'd expected that.

"My brother. Simon. This is Simon." Their family had abandoned them; River looked to Simon hopefully. There was Captain and his crew, but Lust, Scar, Dias... They needed her too. Maybe they could also need Simon. She turned to her brother and smiled proudly through her tears. "Mother and Father." She grinned broadly at Lust and Scar. "And an older brother, Dias. I've been taking care of them," came the explanation.

[reversebemylot]

"River," he said again, and again, and again, a quiet mantra of her name, a chant, it could have been holy, mumbled at her hair as she burrowed close.

She was here, in this place where he had been only so briefly. It could not be the Alliance then, they wouldn't put them together, they wouldn't have any use for him. Would they? It hardly made sense, but who else could it be, and yet, at the moment, it didn't matter at all. He had lost her, but not at all. Simon had finally found River, finally held her. His arms were tight but not crushing, as her tears dripped into his shirt his own eyes moistened; he blinked rapidly.

"My juice?" He laughed with surprise, startled, looked down but couldn't find the stain over her head. "I suppose I have," Simon acknwoledged, grinning, unable to care.

But she was turning, and Simon was faced with an introduction. He was loathe to let her go, even for a second, but Simon knew his manners. He straightened, casting an absent-minded glance down at his sullied uniform, oh, well. With his back rigid and a quick clutch at all he'd learned and lived in etiquette, Simon moved in a stiff bow, a slight bend of his back.

"Simon Tam, it's a--" hesitation, he looked around the dubious, strange place. He looked back to his sister, and found the word with confidence, a smile dreaming around his mouth. "A pleasure."

It felt as if every pore was singing, and he could hardly concentrate on the pecularities of everything. For instance--what River had said, it didn't make sense. Mother, Father? Brother? No, it didn't click right, and Simon's mind quickly provided something more logical. "Thank you, for taking care of my sister. I hope she hasn't--"

And then he realized. Simon stopped short, aware of the material sticking to his leg as everything spun. Taking care? How could she have met all these people, had time to take care of them? He had only woken up last night. Unless he had been out longer, then, how? Simon looked down, confusion spreading across his face. "River, how long have you known these-- these friends of yours?

[right_handed]

"She's been here for longer than you have." Scar said curtly, not doing much in the way of pleasantries like this newcomer was. He glanced at a nearby nurse and then back towards the so-called 'brother.' "That's the way things work around here. Lives get taken and given back, separations are made across time in ways God never intended. You'd better get used to it or you won't last long."

He looked back to his food for a moment before fixing his gaze on his pancakes and spearing one with a fork.

"Being ignorant is as good as being dead, and---" Scar's eyes darted towards River with some indignation "--I'm not your father, and we've been taking care of ourselves."

His tone swayed one to believe that the opposite of true, but Scar wasn't one for socializing.

[heavens_too_far]

When it became obvious River was too distracted to notice the look he had been giving her, Dias had turned away from the siblings' joyous reunion - he had suspected that Simon was the brother River had mentioned, on the very first day they'd met, and it wasn't long before his suspicions were confirmed. He doubted River minded having an audience, and Simon obviously didn't give a damn about anything beyond the fact that he'd found his sister again, but - it wasn't something he felt right intruding upon.

Of course, it was wonderful that River had found her real brother again, and would no longer have to make do with a poor substitute...

...but a ragingly selfish part of Dias resented being replaced, even if he'd had no right to be in the position for which he'd been replaced to begin with. That River apparently didn't seem to think Simon's arrival changed anything - somehow made it worse. She'd scarcely needed him before, and he certainly hadn't done that great of a job protecting her; her various bandages attested to that. And there was no reason for her real brother to appreciate, or even put up with, a complete stranger's concern for River.

Unable to look at River or Simon, and unwilling to look at anyone else - which was possibly just as well, since the expression on his face was almost painful to look at - Dias stared down at his food and found himself, for the first time in long memory, not in the least bit hungry.

It was just as well breakfast was ending.