I'm the kind to sit up in his room. Heart sick and eyes filled up with gloom.

[godofcologne]

When Thomas woke up, the sun was streaming in through the window, and he could see brilliant blue sky through a space in the thin curtains. His mouth felt bone dry, but his head didn't throb, a pleasant surprise. Some part of him had expected the vampire safe tequila to have given him every effect of real alcohol. As it was, Thomas couldn't

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[manicpixydream]

"Probably a good reason for me to be there first then, yeah?" Thomas had set off a spiral of wanting to see more than she had in awhile, and it hurt, but that wasn't why she sat up, rubbing her forehead and sighing.

"Look I know you need to tell me this stuff and I want to know, but I didn't come in here to talk about how you're gonna take Edward out of he looks sideways at someone you care about, you know? You're drawing some pretty deep lines in the sand and I don't think that's where you wanna go right now." Alice didn't think Edward was going to hurt anyone but himself, and possibly a whole bunch of humans if it got that bad, but she hadn't been around to see him change, not really. She thought she knew what was going on, it'd all gone down more or less the way she'd always predicted - in the sane non-psychic way, even - but this magic in his head was a new player.

Lines were for when people were going to be on either side of them and Thomas was firming up where he'd be, and it was sad. It all just made her really fucking sad.

"Can we wait to talk about taking my brother out until he demonstrates like, a clear and present danger or whatever?"

[godofcologne]

When Alice sat up, Thomas followed suit, though instead of staying on the bed he stood up and crossed the room to rummage in his dresser. He came out with a silver pentacle amulet in one hand and slipped it over his head as he let Alice talk. Next came boxers and a pair of jeans. His hand reached automatically for the Desert Eagle, but he paused. No need for that until he left the room.

They were watching, they had to be, and he had pretty much just thrown down the gauntlet. Told the lawyers that he didn't trust Edward. The sight of Evangeline's card, tucked neatly under one corner of the iron box, confirmed that much. But it hadn't been just for the unseen listeners' benefit, what he'd said. He needed to know it. He needed Justine and Karrin and Harry to know it. Just in case Lara had put their father in play with a plan Thomas hadn't seen yet. One to toy with his head. They'd knew that was him and anything else different was a request to send in reinforcements.

"You're all practically indestructible, remember? No need to worry about me ever actually taking out your brother." He turned back around to face Alice, and the grudging truthfulness wasn't quite as close to the surface anymore. Thomas shrugged, as if they'd been talking about something inconsequential, and ran a hand through his hair. "I apologize for talking about a contingency plan."

[manicpixydream]

Thomas disappeared behind whatever wall it was Thomas kept for times like this, and it was a struggle not to sigh again, 'cause if she kept prodding, it was going to be a fight. She just didn't want to have more than one reason to leave, and ok, so he made sense, Edward was the one going off the rails and he was protecting Lacci, that didn't mean she had to like it. Didn't make her look forward to a day when that line might get drawn, 'cause if he thought she was going to be anywhere but next to Edward-

She cut herself off, 'cause it started to go past hurt and into stabby death pain, which just made her want to curl up again, so she did. They weren't indestructible, not to someone like Thomas, and he knew it. He was trying to make peace, and for once, Alice thought she'd let him.

"It's all contingency plans, I don't know how you people live like this, all having no idea what's going to happen next, that drives me crazier than the sight ever has and lemme tell you something Thomas Raith, that's pret-ty crazy." She didn't like admitting how irritating it was not knowing what was going down in the next five minutes or five days or five years, but hell, it was easier than admitting how much help she needed and she'd already done that. "I think I'm doing an amazing job personally but you guys- we'll see what happens, yeah? Que sera and junk. The only thing I wanna see in my future is a night where no one yells at me."

Or gives me a headache or threatens people I have to defend, but you took what you got, and Thomas was still her go-to man. Alice stared at the dresser next to her bed and wondered if she'd always been this confused underneath all that psychic crap.

Nah.

[godofcologne]

The sight of Alice curling back up in what he was starting to think of as her massive headache position made Thomas sigh. "I deal with it by making contingency plans," he pointed out, crossing the room and sitting on Alice's bed, pulling her back against him. "I never end up using half of them."

Right, small oblique assurances would make things so much better for Alice after he just threatened to take her brother out. But that was a line of thought that lead straight down into self-loathing and Thomas wasn't going there tonight. He had more important things to do. So with the weight of his mother's amulet a familiar comfort against his chest, Thomas sighed again and pushed the future to the far back of his mind.

"You know I'm pretty much never going to yell," he pointed out with a smile as he planted a kiss on the top of Alice's head, his hands doing their usual not-so-innocent wandering. "So clearly you just have to stick with me all day and all night to get your wish. And stop poking at the stuff in your head. You're just making it worse."

[manicpixydream]

"All this time I thought Edward was the mopey jerk for honing in on worst-case scenarios and it turns out you're all like this," she joked half-heartedly, crawling to rest against Thomas' lap. First things first, she was going to have to figure out what Edward's deal was sooner instead of later, which didn't so much go with her patient waiting strategy and zigging when she should zag was a serious possibility, but she'd sort it out.

Second, she was going to have to make sure she didn't turn into the mopey jerk. Sure, there was badness, but she was Alice, headache or not. Stuff got done 'cause she did it, and if people yelled at her that was their problem. She was indestructible after all.

There was just this problem where quietly pounding so many of Thomas' walls to dust had taken down some of her own, and she'd never been under quite this much pushy pressure before, not inside her own head. But screw that. Alice didn't have anything to hide. Not really.

"Contingency planning is poking at the stuff in my head, I can't help it, anyway that's why I've got you, right? Thomas Tylenol." She kissed his stomach and smiled, 'cause Thomas nagging was kind of adorable. "You're just trying to make me as big a worrier as you which, appealing and everything, but I think I'll stick to sunny optimism, it's way cuter, yeah?"

[godofcologne]

(( No Mope Desquish!))