So I write quotations around the word "friends"

[itworks_bitches]

Who: Hood and Cordelia
What: Probably another awkward conversation
When: Not long after the arrival in Jericho
Where: The Palace

Comments

[cordy_estwynde]

Cordelia was, in fact, in.

Not much time had passed since Cherry had turned into bird form and flown away. It was early, but due to an appalling lack of anything better to do, Cordy had flopped over onto the bed and tried to fall asleep.

The attempt was less than successful.

When the knock came at the door, a funny tremor went through her stomach. She knew that knock. At least, she thought that she did. But maybe that was just apprehension. Maybe she was jumping to conclusions--jumping to knocks.

As she opened the door, she felt a pang of familiarity. How many times had she opened her door in Jhelbor and found this man on the other side of it? How many times had she been thrilled by his visits?

She looked up at him and, despite herself, she felt a sudden urge to lean up and kiss him. She was tired and worn and felt defeated, and Jacob Hood had always been so kind. If she asked him to, she was fairly certain that he would comfort her now.

"Hi," she said instead, giving him a faint smile.

[itworks_bitches]

"Hi," he returned, and logical or not, he did feel a little better just seeing her smile, slight though it was.

And well, she looked like she felt... basically the same way he did. Tired, run-down, a little dejected. He didn't want to intrude, or make her life more difficult, and he knew that he didn't have the right to ask, after their conversation in the desert, but...

"May I come in?"

[cordy_estwynde]

She stepped aside, gesturing him in. "Of course," she said quickly, ducking her head.

Shy. She actually felt shy. That was just ridiculous.

"Did you need something?" she asked and then, realizing just how that sounded, hurriedly added "Not that I'm not happy to see you. You just haven't been..."

She trailed off, uncertain of how to finish without sounding rude or demanding. "You've been busy," she finally decided.

[itworks_bitches]

Of course coming here without a reason seemed weird at best, and suspicious at worst. And they both knew he hadn't really been busy.

"I... no, not really. I just..." he hesitated, searching for the right words to say. "It's been rough, lately, with the travelers separating, and all of this moving around, and I just... well, I just wanted to see you." He took a breath, trying to be reassuring.

"How are you, Cordy?"

[cordy_estwynde]

How was she?

She shut the door and leaned back against it, her head thumping softly against the frame.

"I've been lonely," she said. With everyone else, she had pretended. She'd been supportive for Mikney and encouraging for Cherry and forgiving for Bret. With Jake, she would be honest.

"It feels like everyone's left." For that reason, she was glad he'd come.

[itworks_bitches]

Hood huffed out a breath that wasn't quite a laugh. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

But lonely... that didn't sound quite right. Not for Cordelia, anyway.

"What about Cherry?" he asked, regretting it almost immediately, but letting the question stand, regardless.

[cordy_estwynde]

Oh, Cherry.

"She's..." Cordelia paused, taking a few moments to carefully consider her phrasing before she continued. "She hasn't really been herself lately. She's been upset."

And wasn't that an understatement? But it was unfair to dump her relationship problems on Jake, of all people. She looked down at the floor and began to wind a curl around her finger. "What about you? How have you been?"

[itworks_bitches]

Cordy wasn't telling him the whole story, but then, there was no reason to expect her to. He just nodded instead, leaning back against the wall adjacent to the door.

"I've been," and that was a tricky question to answer, and one he hadn't really thought much about. "Well, I've been. Worried about Cho and Bret, and their group." And then, because she was being honest, he might as well return the favor. "Lonely, too, I guess."

[cordy_estwynde]

Without thinking, she reached out and took his hand. "I'm sorry," she said immediately, and she really, really was. She wasn't conceited enough to believe she'd broken his heart, but she knew how much she had felt his absence over the past month, and she'd still had Cherry. She wondered who Jake even had left to talk to anymore.

"I've missed you," she added, the corner of her mouth turning up in the smallest of smiles. "I'm glad that you decided to stop by."

[itworks_bitches]

He smiled at the touch of her hand.

"I've missed you, too," he said before he thought about it, but it was true, so he didn't attempt to retract the statement. "But I'm not... I don't want to make things awkward for you."

Too late, possibly, but he still wanted to say.

[cordy_estwynde]

Things couldn't really get more awkward for Cordy, regardless of whether or not Jake was there. "Don't worry about it," she said and released his hand. "To tell the truth, I'm just grateful for the company."

She walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge of it, folding her hands in her lap. "Is that what really brings you here?" she asked. "Looking for conversation?"

[itworks_bitches]

"Yes, sort of," Hood answered, as honestly as possible, trying not to feel regretful at the loss of Cordy's hand. "I just wanted to see someone familiar. Someone I felt close to who wasn't leaving for good."

He ducked his head, a little ashamed at how selfish that sounded. "I'm sorry. That sounds really selfish of me."

[cordy_estwynde]

At Hood's apology, Cordelia laughed.

The sound startled her and the laugh was soon cut short. She hadn't been expecting that. It felt like it had been...well, how long had it been since she'd laughed?

"You're not selfish," she finally said and patted the space on the bed beside her. "You're just honest. Truth be told, I would have visited you awhile ago if I knew that you weren't mad at me."

[itworks_bitches]

She laughed, and it was very nice to hear; but if she truly thought he wasn't a selfish person, she hadn't been paying very much attention.

Hood couldn't resist, though, sitting next to her on the bed, but not as close nor as comfortably as he once would have.

"I wasn't mad at you, I was," how to explain it? "Situationally upset. Frustrated, as we all were. And I didn't handle that very well."

[cordy_estwynde]

"Being frustrated is allowed," she said with a shrug of dismissal. Gods knew that she had been plenty frustrated as of late. And anyway, whether or not he had been upset and whether or not he had been slightly snippy in their last exchange, he had never been mean to her which already made him easier to talk to than Cherry.

"I guess that's bound to happen when you keep getting pulled from place to place," she added. "You went from your world to Jhelbor to Birdsong to the desert to..."

She glanced around.

"Wherever this place is." Her eyes turned back to him. "Either way, no hard feelings, right?"

[itworks_bitches]

"Jericho, I believe it's called." Which had gotten Hood thinking about the connection between Rowan and Earth again. If the worlds had indeed been interrelated (which, there was no reason anymore to believe that they hadn't), when had that connection been lost? Was the naming of this city directly related to the Jericho on Earth (after all, it is one of the oldest cities still existant), or was it some kind of racial memory? In either case, the humans were likely a good place to begin investigating that aspect.

"And no," he said after a moment, having been briefly lost in thought. "No hard feelings, Cordy."