Hidden sides

[lobo_bastich]

So now she knew. She knew, but nothing had really changed. Yes, she had given him hope, but Lobo still hated waiting. Even though he had lived for so long and even though he had eternity on his side, the Czarnian was remarkably impatient. It was a rare thing if he didn't want things to happen straight away, and didn't mind waiting

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[leela1]

She'd spent days of her own, maybe a few weeks in her own world, coming to grips with her own thoughts, her memories. It was painful, this loss. And yet it was a release from the pain as well; saying goodbye with finality; saying goodbye forever. And knowing in her heart and her soul that it truly was goodbye

[lobo_bastich]

It was the same moon as last time, only now the light was harsher, creating a landscape of sharp contrasts. It was completely still; an unmoving picture of sharp shadows and light. And there, as still as the jagged rocks and cliffs that cast their equally jagged shadows, was Lobo. He had his back to Leela where he was sitting on the edge of a large hole that hadn't been there at their last visit. It gaped before him; a dug crater eight feet long and maybe five feet wide.

If the Czarnian even knew that Leela was there, he didn't acknowledge her presence. But didn't he always know when she was around? Didn't he have his ways of always knowing? So why didn't he react? Why did he just sit there, slumped with his head hanging?

And, if one were to look more closely, one could see that he wasn't completely still and unmoving after all. Every now and then his shoulders would shake.

[leela1]

Cut to a mystified and completely stopped Leela. Her eyes darted around, looking for tell-tale sign or hint of the space worthy dolphins, for something, anything that would make this feel less like a scene from some movie. Whether a horror, or a tragedy she wasn't sure.

So she didn't bother to call his name any more. She simply moved forward, toward the leather-clad bounty hunter. Until she was at last close enough to reach out and touch one massive shoulder. And gently she reached out for him, with a near whisper.

"Lobo, I'm here."

[lobo_bastich]

Lobo didn't move at first. With his head hung low, his face was cast in shadow. But then a hand came up. There was dirt under his fingernails, and smudges of blood stained them, even if it looked like he had tried to wash it off. It still stood out clearly against his white skin in the bright light.

The hand went up unto the shadow created by the thick dreadlocks that hung around his face like a curtain, up to rub at his eyes. And when he lowered it again? Then his fingers were wet.

It was unimaginable, unbelievable. Impossible. But it seemed like the Main Man was crying, or had been crying very recently.

And down in the hole, at the bottom six feet below them, were two shapes. The light just reached down to tell the tale. Both forms were wrapped in sheets of coarse fabric, and the streamlined shapes of them revealed that they were dolphins. One large, and one so very small.

[leela1]

Sitting down he came up as high, higher than her waist. So she had to lean forward to see, forward and to the side.

And then she saw what was in the hole.

Falling to her knees behind the big man she wrapped her arms around him. She couldn't touch him, the suit guaranteed that, just as it guaranteed that she could breathe in outer space. But still, she could hold on as much as she could, hold tight just to let him know she was there as he grieved. She didn't say anything, didn't have anything to say. But the main man would know that, if nothing else, he wasn't alone.

[lobo_bastich]

There were still a few tremors left in his before he got himself under control. A few shakes of the shoulders that eh couldn't pretend that Leela didn't notice.

Unsurprisingly, Lobo didn't like to be weak, and he liked even less for it to show. Even to Leela.

Still, he couldn't deny this grief. Through all his years, and all the places he had ever been to, he had never encountered a lifeform as pure and perfect as the dolphins. He loved them dearly. And today two had died; one before it even got a chance to taste life. It was like a vicious echo pf past events, and though Lobo could see the irony, he did not find it in any way amusing.

He took a deep breath. Of what was unclear, there in the vacuum of space, but his chest expanded regardless. He wiped his eyes again, getting rid of the last tears on his face, and straightened up somewhat. He covered one of Leela's hands with his own and gave it a brief squeeze. Partly he was glad to have her there, but he didn't really know how he shoudl act.

[leela1]

After that squeeze she finally spoke, finally opened her mouth.

"You don't have to do this alone, 'Bo. I'll help you, if you want." She'd done this before too. Burying the dead, committing them to a final resting place.

"What happened Lobo?" It was a very soft-spoken, subtle way of her asking him 'Who are we going to kill for this?'

[lobo_bastich]

"Nature happened," he stated as an answer. And that almost made it worse. There were no-one to take revenge on. "She wuz old. An' there were complications. An' I wasn't 'ere in time."

He looked up. A shovel was on the ground on the other side of the grave, and he should go get it. Should start to fill the grave. But Leela was still behind him, holding on to him, and he just didn't want to get up.

[leela1]

She lay her head down on his shoulder, far as it could go. But she still couldn't touch him, the suit that was saving her life wouldn't let her near him, not as near as she wanted to be, not as near as she felt she needed to be. It was becoming frustrating as hell.

The shovel was over on the other side; she didn't want to pick it up but she would for him. There was only one though, only one.

Still she stayed, still she held on around his waist, until finally "Come on, Lobo. I'll help you do this, and then lets go someplace warm, where we can talk a while, or hey, just being silent a while is good too."

But most of all someplace where she could take off this damned space suit and hold him the way she wanted to without dying in the attempt.

[lobo_bastich]

Lobo nodded solemnly. Although he didn't necessarily need someplace warm after this. As usual, he was more in the mood to just sit down and drink.

He did get up, and shuffled around teh grave to get the shovel. It dug into the large file of loose dirt that had grown steadily when he first dug the hole.

He paused then, and for a second something possibly never seen flitted across the Czarnian's face: a short moment of raw pain. Then it was gone as he grit his teeth and squared his jaw, and threw the shovelful of dirt into the grave.

Due to the low gravity, a could of dust soon rose around them, as load after load of dirt hit the bottom of the hole.

[leela1]

Sitting down and drinking at least meant that she could get out of the suit and be some place where she could touch people, hold things in her hand and not in her gloves.

Walking behind him, Leela watched as he began shoveling dirt into the hole. With nothing of her own, she dropped once more to her knees, began hand lifting dirt and hand dropping it over the edge. She wouldn't, couldn't look down into that hole.

And she never noticed, never even realized when she started crying.

[lobo_bastich]

Lobo, on the other hand, did look. For as long as he could still see through the cloud of dust, he watched as the two still forms got gradually covered by the dirt. When he could no longer see, he just kept on working until the dirt filled the grave, and then until it formed a small mound to mark where they lay.

If Leela were to raise her eyes and look over the landscape, she would see more small mounds just like it here and there on the pale plains. Lobo had done this before, had been forced to bury those fantastic beings he'd taken under his wing, when they got too old or died of other causes.

And, for a creature like Lobo - who in just about any other case never cared and never loved, and were unaccustomed to feel grief and loss - it never hurt any less.

[leela1]

The mound of dirt grew higher. Why was it that every time you dug a hole, putting the dirt back filled it so much higher than when it came out? There had to be a genius somewhere that could explain that to her, but fuck'em. Wasn't here or now where they?

Climbing to her feet, Leela first stared off into the blackness of the universe surrounding them. Stars shined small and dim in far distance. And she and Lobo seemed to be the only living things on the airless moon. It made her shiver inside her protective suit and long for green grass and blue skies.

Her footsteps never made a sound, not to her ears anyhow, as she surrounded the mount of dirt and moved closer to the massive and grieving Czarnian. "Lobo?" Her voice was hushed.

"Lobo? Come with me, let's get out of here, please?" The oxygen suit was made for safety, not necessarily comfort. And within the suit, the smaller human began to shiver.

[lobo_bastich]

Lobo didn't respond at first. He just stared out ahead of him. The years of his long life blurred together more often than not, but he could remember digging every single of those graves. He remembered each and everyone that lied there, and what had taken them away. And he would always remember the two that he had just buried.

Eventually he did look down at Leela and saw her shivering where she stood beside him, pleadingly looking up at him. To follow in their habit of misunderstanding each other, he thought she was just yearning for warmth; to get in from the cold open space. That she might want for them to go somewhere where she could hold him, to try to comfort him, never entered his mind.

Still he wasn't about to let the only one he loved other than the dolphins (frag it all to hell) catch her death of cold

[leela1]

She followed behind him, slowly getting further and further behind as he walked around the craters, through the twilight darkness. Where the hell did he put his bike? Why wasn't he... oh!

Was that here before? Leela quickened her steps, and found herself nearly tripping in her haste. Once she'd regained her balance, she immediately slowed her steps and watched far more carefully where she was going. It didn't matter that he was waiting for her in the doorway now. What mattered was that she didn't fall and put some sort of rip into the spacesuit. That? That would be bad. Very bad. Because unlike some, she wasn't able to live in without oxygen. What good is being a demi-goddess if I can't even live in space? she asked herself grumpily.

Ducking into the hatch, she waited until Lobo did whatever it was that he did before starting to remove the fasteners on the container, breathing in un-recycled air for the first time since she'd put the suit on. What was this place anyhow?

[lobo_bastich]

The place was no more than a single room, cluttered with the chaos that usually sprang up wherever Lobo spent more than a day. It wasn't a big place, and it was filled with crates of tools, weapons and explosives. The only pieces of actual furniture in there were a bed, a table and a work-bench. One wall was covered with what looked like a huge computer, with multiple screens and buttons that did God knows what