Room 206, Monday Morning

[palestshadow]

Lacking a better place to sleep, Amber had found her way back to room 206 Sunday night, relieved to see that the drunken Irish degenerate had been nowhere in sight.

Naminé, on the other hand, woke up very much hoping that somehow the drunken Irish degenerate had found his way home last night, after she fell asleep. But the room was empty

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[importantman]

Tommy Ryan had had himself a grand time last night at the bar, talking with insane people about different time periods and being entirely certain that Jack Dawson had lost his mind entirely. And that was coming from the bloke who was stranded on an island for no good reason.

So, when it was a Valentine who tiredly stumbled into his room the next day instead of a Tommy? Well, suffice it to say, this was the first time that Fandom had entirely buggered up who he was where he really couldn't complain about the outcome at all.

"I'm home," he announced, entirely too pleasantly for someone who had been out all night. He wasn't worried about Naminé being herself again- he'd been in Fandom long enough to know better than to be too concerned about coming home to a rude little momma's girl starlet.

[palestshadow]

"Valentine," she said, standing up quickly. And flushing. "You ... you're back. And you again. That was you, wasn't it? That ... I was so rude to."

[importantman]

Valentine grinned and offered her a shrug of his shoulders.

"I'm me, you're you, we're us again. Whatever happened over the weekend really doesn't matter now, does it?" Again, drunken Irishman. Good weekend. "Fandom at its finest, luv."

[palestshadow]

Naminé closed her eyes. "Valentine, I ... when I wasn't me. That girl, she was ... rude, and unpleasant, and she ..."

She bit her lip. How did she even say something like this?

[importantman]

Valentine moved across the room and lifted a finger, resting it gently over her lips for a moment.

"I was rude and unpleasant that other Saturday," he said lightly. "And I was me. Perhaps we're even, then?"

[palestshadow]

"But I --" She shuddered, blinking back tears, and blurted out the rest. "I didn't know. About you, and us, and she went to a b-bar, and there was ... a boy, f-flirting, and ..."

[importantman]

Valentine was an AU Weekend veteran, here. He'd ended up sleeping under another boy's bed, last time. This... wasn't a surprise, even if it did give him a bit of a twinge in his chest.

"Listen to me, Naminé. Whatever she did, it might be in your mind, but it shouldn't be on your head. You had absolutely no control over what she did. You aren't her."

He had to stress this point by wrapping his arms around her. Seeing her upset like this was breaking his heart more than anything she might have done over the weekend could.

[palestshadow]

"I'm so sorry," she said, shaking her head and trying not to cry harder. She knew he hated that word but nothing else would come out. "I w-would have never ... I don't understand any of this and how could I be me but her and why was she so cruel and --" Another big gulp for air. "And I didn't know, I didn't ..."

[importantman]

"I know, Naminé. I understand." He pulled her even closer into his chest and shook his head gently, his lips pulled into a soft frown. "It's happened before here, you know. Everyone becomes someone they aren't, yet they are. She took your place, but she wasn't you. Just someone who might have been you, from another world, perhaps."

He also happened to have copious sorts of experience coping with other-world versions of people.

"Know what?"

[palestshadow]

"I can't believe I was ever her," Naminé said, frowning. Did that mean deep down she was somehow ... evil, and cold, just like that girl had been?

She shook her head. "What?"

[importantman]

The juggler pressed his lips against her forehead in a gentle kiss, and left them lingering there as he spoke afterward.

"You're not anything like her at all," he murmured. "I'm glad to have you back. No matter what."

[palestshadow]

She wrapped her arms around his waist, still sniffling.

"I'm glad you're home," she said softly. "And ... I - she - w-went home with him but ... n-nothing ... happened. Not nothing but ..."

There was no polite way of phrasing 'I may have gone home with him, but at least we didn't do that', was there?

[importantman]

"But nothing," Valentine agreed, giving her a little squeeze. "It's okay, Naminé. It is."

How relieved was Valentine to hear this news? On a scale of one to ten, one being he couldn't care less, and ten being a very firm 'hooray!'... this ranked about a million. He couldn't stand to see her so guilty over something that she had no control at all over.

[palestshadow]

She pressed her face against the front of his shirt, knowing by now that he didn't mind when she got it damp right there.

"Were you ... all right? This weekend, I mean. Does this sort of thing ... happen a lot?"

[importantman]

"I was fine," he assured her. "I spent the weekend as a pleasant Irish fellow- he bragged about being Irish enough that I think I have a notion what Ireland is actually like." Right now, he figured, it was perfectly alright to go off on one of his tangents. "Mostly just spent my time drinking Guinness and wondering where the boat had gotten off to without me. Nothing unusual for this place, really. At least I didn't turn into a girl again."

[palestshadow]

"Do you think perhaps you are Irish, then?" Naminé asked, smiling lightly and dabbing at her eyes. The smile was an improvement, wasn't it? "You were a girl once? I can't picture it."