(Untitled)
Characters:Nill pennated and Heine Rammsteiner nebenmond
Setting/Location: Empty Ballroom
Date & Time:Day 8, Morning before the Caravan leaves
Warnings:
Summary: Heine and Nill reunite for the first time since he disappeared a few days ago.
( Stop callin' stop callin' I don't wanna think anymoreee )
And for anyone else, he'd have taken that chance. For anyone else, he would have dismissed them until it was impossible, act like it was nothing of necessity because not a single one of them was worth the time and effort and sanity that needed to be forfeited to a meeting that would confirm all of this was real. In fact, some of them Heine would even seek to avoid for as long as possible: the less people that he knew here and knew him the better.
But, for Nill-or anyone or anything that had even the slightest possibility of being Nill or leading him to her-he had exceptions. He wasn't willing to wait and see if she was real or not, having to assume until proof presented itself one way or another, tapping at the back of his mind telling him to watch her anyway, that what if he was wrong and it was really her? What if?
He needed to know. Her existence here or not made everything Heine here would do and experience different. He'd approach with a different mindset, something that would ensure that nothing happened to her while she was not being watched over by Bishop.
It was a good idea to remain calm and expect nothing, maybe a trick or even nothing at all, but when he had started to get a little turned around and was running into more random people that were in his way (were so loud he couldn't concentrate until they were far off on their way past him and oh, couldn't he just talk for a second? it's only take a second--), he realized that his time had pasted and he was not where he should have been. And he knew somewhere in the back of his mind she would wait, that she always waited and if he said so she'd never doubt him, but what if she couldn't for some reason? What if she'd been thrown out or been ushered off by some others she knew or...?
He forced himself to stop thinking stupid things and to slow the hell down when he finally reached a set of doors that were around the area described and had more closely resembled the information Nill had given him. Heine was late, and he mentally prepared himself for the worst (what was the worst, anyway? That she wasn't there? That it was empty? Or was it if she was there, stuck in this random world that Heine didn't know and that Nill had more experience with, even if only a few days?).
As he opened the door and slipped into the ballroom, he first stared diligently at the floor to clear his thoughts, boots thudding slowly to the floor with a step or two in. Then his attention was up and focused, staring across the ballroom and finding it quite empty and lonely looking.
Except for the individual standing by herself out there, waiting for someone. Despite everything, that she had invited him here, the albino actually looked almost surprised to her presence in the room.
Maybe that was a little bit hasty of him, but he went with his gut feeling and moved forward, hands in his pockets and called out to her just in case he was mistaking another petit girl that was around here for her. (Although, he really didn't feel any doubt.)
"Nill..." (Sorry I kept you waiting.) he wanted to add, but couldn't bring himself to be that hasty until she acknowledged his greeting to her.
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She looked the same as ever, not a hair out of place from the moment she'd been swept away to Willaknapp. Coincidentally she'd even cycled through her clothes back to the same black dress as the day with Giovanni and the explosion. She hadn't noticed until now, that despite all her scrubbing the faint smell of gunpowder and crumbling drywall remained.
A soft thudding sound from outside made her heart begin to race again, her faith in him was unwavering but it was hard. As they approached she couldn't help but sit up, eyes on the door until they stopped at the height of their sound. In a second she was on her feet, and the world stood still until the door swung slowly open.
It seemed almost surreal, and Heine seemed almost as surprised to see her as she was him. She wondered how she could ever have doubted it from the start, the girl was in front of him in a heartbeat and it was just like it had been eight days ago. She reached out and light grabbed his hand with her much smaller ones, and everything was made real.
She couldn't be happier, but at the same time the loneliness of the days rushed her as well. Nill beamed up at Heine, but couldn't prevent the corners of her eyes from watering. She freed on hand to wipe them away before they could sneak out before the typical Nill 'I'm happy to see you' returned.
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He returned a smile he always had reserved for her, and her alone. At first, it didn't seem that he noticed her premature tears but when she went to rub her eyes dry Heine made sure to gently catch her hand in mid-air only to do the same as she had done. He even came to crouch in front of her to be more at her eye level before he helped her wipe those tears away. "Hey, Nill, sorry about the wait," he said in response to her silent enthusiasm once he lowered his hand from her face to retake her other hand and she had finished wiping her eyes dry to her own satisfaction.
Only then was he able to close his eyes a moment, exhale a soft sigh of relief (-she was safe, that's all that mattered), and let his contentment show before shaking his head slowly and looked back to her. They were the only ones there in that moment, but he wasn't quite so willing to relax his guard as he had done so countless times in that sanctuary she waited for him in back in their world. No, this ballroom wasn't that type of place, but he at least gave her a second or two to see that even beyond his facial front-even the gentle one-that he really truly was relieved at that moment. And this? The two of them stuck wherever the hell they were?
It was okay now. "I won't leave without you, again." And though he had not personally done so, apparently a previous him seemed to have. Whether intentional or unintentional didn't matter and, regardless, he was the one here now and he felt the need to accept responsibility for it.
If only because it was a dead point after he said it: it would never happen again.
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