❄ 5 [video] The moon has a sheen like a glacier

[face_kick]

In the cycle of the year I am most used to, winter is fast approaching which, back ho-- ...where I'm from, that is, often entails snow. I don't suppose the ship has much in the way of weather, but the planet we're above now, does anyone know if it has snow?

[She sounds a little mournful--someones zanpakutou is longing for cold weather and pretty

Comments

private;

[nostray]

Yeah? What exactly were ya wonderin' about it?

private;

[face_kick]

I was thinking... How do you feel about where you're living right now?

Re: private;

[nostray]

4-2? S'fine. Full o'crazy assholes jammed into not a lot o'space, but ya get used to it. Why?

private;

[face_kick]

I was just thinking, well, I've been saving up a bit of money, and there are some nicer places with more than one room on board the Thor, so I was thinking perhaps-- Perhaps you and Nii-sama would like to not have to depend on the generosity of others anymore...

private;

[nostray]

[oh]

[oh, wow]

[there's a long pause after that, Renji running the offer over and filing things into pros and cons, pluses and minuses, damn that's really thoughtfuls and this is never going to works]

... ya really think that's somethin' that'd work, Rukia? I can get how livin' with Taichou'd be nice fer ya both, an' I hope he agrees... but can ya imagine it? Livin' anywhere near me'd be a downgrade fer him no matter what. Don't wanna make ya have t'deal with that.

private;

[face_kick]

[At least he didn't say no right off the bat so, hey, that's something.]

Didn't you two have to be around each other back home at the division? But I can understand not wanting to...

Hey, maybe if he doesn't want me around, we could find a place here?

[Yeaaaah someone doesn't realize the different ways that could be taken, nope.]

private;

[nostray]

S'not that I don't want to. It's just that I'm tellin' ya it's not a good idea. Workin' together an' spending leisure time livin' in the same space are two different things. I can promise ya, it wouldn't be pretty.

[there's a slight flinch at that--]

[if]

[if he]

[if]

[and then he sighs, shakes his head, smiles]

'Course he'll want ya around. He's yer brother, an' right now he's livin' all cooped up with a kid almost as shitty as Ichigo - there's two reasons already. It'll be nice, right? Spendin' more time with him. Sometimes, this place ain't all that bad. Gives us good excuses.

[perhaps he's avoiding the real question, maybe it's the coward's way out... but it's an easier route to walk down an open pathway than to hack through the woods]

private;

[face_kick]

I understand.

[She wishes she could be as sure as you are Renji, she really does. But it's a long slow process getting to know Byakuya, and Renji may know him better than she does, in some ways.]

We'll see, I suppose. Even though we lived in the same place back home the place was so big... I just wonder if a place this small, and me so near... won't be just as bad.

Either way, maybe it will be a bit closer to you too, right? Being stuck down here... has its downsides too.

private;

[nostray]

[the tone of his voice is firm as he replies, like the parents they'd never had might otherwise once have done for them in moments of self-doubt and -reproach: "I can't do it. I'm not good enough. This picture's rubbish." "It's beautiful. Don't let anyone tell you different."]

He'll wanna be with ya, Rukia. You'll get along fine.

[he picks up on the subdued sound of that next sentence and brightens himself totally, trying to act a counterbalance, level her out a little. he feels it too, the distance - but he's been here a long time, and a long time before that. he's made some semblance of a home out of the mess whereas she's fresher here, still a refugee in every sense and still suffering the strangeness of it all. that space of a floor between them must seem like a whole lot more sometimes]

Hah, yeah! Depends how far up ya wind up goin' I guess. Maybe ya'll find yerself way up in the condos an' I'll be the one travellin' upwards fer once.

private;

[face_kick]

[A small ghost of a smile, because she remembers that tone well enough, and it does have a little of the desired effect, though the self-doubt when it comes to her brother still outweighs it, mostly.]

I suppose there's only one way to find out.

[She adapts quickly, she always has, but that has never precluded an occasional hint of sadness, recognition of the loss, in this case. To be so far from anyone she knows, not just because of planet destruction and stupid wormholes but by the sheer size of the ship and the physical distances therein... It's hard, sometimes. But she still knows how to tease a little. Far less trolly than the public conversation, of course.]

Hmm, perhaps. You will always be welcome on my couch, you understand. If I have a couch.