(Untitled)

[hylianqueen]

Zelda was used to the bookshelf providing...dubious forms of entertainment upon occasion and this evening was no exception. She was researching a few concepts she'd learned in Dr. Zimmerman's class (Dissociative Identity Disorder, specifically, because it fascinated her) and had hoped that the bookshelf could provide her something in the way of

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[whatdiesinside]

"Wouldn't you already know," Snafu asks, standing next to her and running his fingers over the smooth cover pages. They're a little new to him, not that different from fuckin' contraband until you get to a page about furniture or how to eat, but somehow they're for women.

Considering who else Zelda sleeps with, maybe it's not that strange. "Get him in bed and tell him you're pregnant, that'll blow his mind."

[hylianqueen]

Zelda snorted lightly and turned a page before looking up at Merriell. She hadn't, in a little while, but that didn't mean she wouldn't share a bed with him again. Their relationship was not as easily defined as those outlined in the pages of the magazines.

"Somehow I don't think that would go over well with the other party," Zelda said, tilting her head a little. "I think they mean for you to impress the man."

[whatdiesinside]

Snafu shrugs, dragging his fingers down and off the magazine and appreciating the faint sound for it. Going over well is about as far from his concerns as a thing can get, even if he's tilting his head opposite hers and smirking. "Didn't think you needed help with that."

[hylianqueen]

"Not in my experience," Zelda agreed. "At least not with you, anyway. We seem to end up that way without really needing to impress one another. It's a lot more simple than these magazines make it out to be."

She gave him a little smile. "Are you well, Merriell?"

[whatdiesinside]

"So what you're saying is I don't impress you," he says, cocking his hip against the table and snorting. It's not exactly a surprise: not much seems to impress her, and he's never exactly tried.

Not even the other night, letting people beat on him just to feel something, and the bruises have faded by now, but he licks the cracked scab on his lip reflexively. "Doin' alright, mostly bored," he answers. Bored enough that he leans fully into the table, tucks a bit of her hair behind her ear and crosses his arms. Bored enough that he asks, "You?"

[hylianqueen]

"You impressed me just fine," Zelda said evenly, giving him a small smile. "You are very good at what happens behind closed doors and I hardly need to discuss it with you for you to know that. It is, what's between us, no more and no less."

At the soft touch, just that one simple gesture of tucking her hair behind her ear, her aloof mask dropped a little.

"Well enough. I think I missed you a little, as busy as I have been since term started. I can't go making a habit of that, can I?"

[whatdiesinside]

What happens behind closed doors, and he can't help it, he's laughing sharp and silent so it almost hurts his throat, he almost chokes on it. "You're the weirdest person I know," he says, shaking his head and wheezing a little.

She looks different though, softer, like it's the wrong to say it, and he shakes his head again, clears it all out and shrugs at her. "Any time you want to drop by," he says, "my time's not worth a pair of shits as it is."

[hylianqueen]

"I don't think eccentricity is a flaw," Zelda countered, giving him a wide smile. "And I should come see you often, especially since you're nearly alone in Currahee. Perhaps I should come live there so you have someone nearby."

[whatdiesinside]

"It's a ways out," he says with a shrug, hard pressed to have a feeling one way or the other for it. It makes sense that she wouldn't visit, it should make sense that he likes to be left alone, but. It's an empty place and an empty way to live, and Shari has enough on her plate these days. "There's plenty of space."

[hylianqueen]

"I have never minded a nice walk," Zelda reminded him gently. "I just always imagined you would like your space so I never really pushed the issue. Your preferences and my own can be markedly different at times."

[whatdiesinside]

"My preferences don't exactly matter," he says, matter of fact and unthinking. Released from service, it feels a lot truer now than it did when his decisions were made for him, because the decisions he makes now are just. Stupid, boring, empty.

He likes his space but there's so much of it here, so many kinds. "So don't take the room right next to mine," he says, because he wouldn't want that anyway, doesn't want anybody in that room Gene's never coming back to. "Two whole buildings out there, you can have your pick."

[hylianqueen]

"I will move down the hall," Zelda mused, thinking to herself that she too didn't want to take Eugene's room. She still missed him, as short as their friendship had been, and wondered what she might do with herself had Merriell gone too.

"Then our chance meetings might happen with more frequency. That's what I've been studying lately, frequencies and probability. I'm not sure how it relates to the human mind, exactly, but it's not difficult work. I would just rather study how the mind works, ill or no, than numbers."