OPEN | my only weakness is a list of crimes

[vinovidivici]

Who: Claire Stanfield / OPEN
When: Around a week or so following 12/4
Where: Pinched. Doing time. Gone away to college. College, you know? The hoosegow? The joint? The slammer. The pen. The can. The big house. You know?
Summary: Visitors or whatnot
Warnings: Added as needed

Comments

12/5, afternoon

[stoicloyalty]

[ In a way, the self-assured stance and look Chane has adopted for this visit reminds her of the time she had boarded that train. Closed off to the chattering of men. Only one person weighing on her mind. It is nearly unusual to have to actively explain her reasons for coming here, as though she had not spent time in the city at all

[vinovidivici]

[ He waits for the guard to let him in with interest, but not much anticipation. However the world turns it'll be somebody worth speaking to, considering how dull jail is turning out to be. His best bet is on Firo.

Seeing Chane through the opening door, regardless of the setting, sends a jolt that's downright pleased through him, stronger than the usual butterflies he gets when meeting her. Of course, he couldn't have known she'd do something like visit him in prison without putting up with actually going to prison. The door hasn't been shut completely before he's stepping to the desk; he pulls the chair back and sits in one smooth motion, ducking his head towards her line of vision eagerly. ]

You came. [ He leans in, the whole length of his forearms pressed on the desk. The fingertips of his right hand rest where it meets the bottom of the window. Beyond his usual optimism, this is a wide-eyed happiness at the here and now. ] I didn't know if... I mean, I wouldn't have held it against you if you didn't. I'm glad.

[stoicloyalty]

[ She sits; the tone of his voice resounds less with her than his motions do, as she notices when her eyes finally draw across to meet his, and widen. The surprise in his expression is so raw and honest that it arrests her, stops her in a simple action like smoothly completing that in-breath.

It's unexpected. A kind of happiness that is not only present in flushed cheeks and confident smiles-- at the very least, it is unexpected in him, and surprising that a mere visit would draw this reaction. Surely he should be certain she would come, as he is of the way the world works, or of their ability to find one another

[vinovidivici]

[ It'll be a cold day in hell before that voice fails to get a smile out of him, surprise-parted lips curving up. ] It's a lot to ask. [ Which was why he hadn't.

His gaze lowers to just below her eyes, dropping her gaze while he works to come up with a better explanation. ] I'm not gonna assume something like that. Even if I know how things're gonna end up, how things are now... [ He trails off. The hand at the base of the window fidgets. There would come a time when, hypothetically, she'd care for him enough to go out of her way for him when he had relatively little to offer in return: that much he was certain of. He'd not imagined that she'd already come so far from where they began, to offer him something beyond her time, or her company, or her acceptance. He's not sure what he said is enough of an explanation, but putting all that into fancy words is beyond him right now; his eyes raise to meet hers again, gauging her understanding but also simply because he wants to. ]

[stoicloyalty]

[ It is a chore making that first contact and still barricading her mind enough that Claire's words will win over the volume of his thoughts, but she manages, enough to watch his anxious hand movements with a slightly unfocused gaze for all the effort it takes to listen as well. 'How things are now'-- perhaps the open end of that sentence catches her attention before the meaning settles in, but either way, she raises her eyes to blink at him, shaking her head gently in rebuttal of that first point. It isn't a lot to ask, especially since he hadn't asked at all.

She does not want to believe this is the result of an exceptional circumstance. Little overly-complex planning had gone into this-- but it still feels like a good decision, or at least a natural one. Unlike those rash actions she had once undertaken in retaliation to having a loved one imprisoned

[vinovidivici]

[ Smiling as broadly as he can at that confirmation - their similarities come apart here, his acceptance of the why of it coming much easier than it does for her. Her motives can't be anything but the simple fact of what she says, and so the surprise that still thrums through him is straightforwardly joyful. The length of his arm, his wrist, doesn't move from the desk, but his fingertips come up to rest on the glass. It's a reflexive gesture, one he only feels peripherally as he's focussed so intently on her eyes. ] I love you. And I'm never gonna leave you. This is just a short-term inconvenience, I promise.