Not a dollar or a crowd could ever keep me here

[yearrounder]

Who; yearrounder and whoever wants to comfort a crying teenage girl.
What; Minor breakdown. It’s been building up for a while.
Where; The library
When; Tuesday, afternoon/evening
Rating; G-PG
Status; OPEN; ongoing

Comments

[tereteindahouse]

Libraries. Dude, if it wasn't for the DVD collection the place offered then Junpei would never have found his way to the place. Ever. As it was he often became lost in the large place and it seemed this time was no different from the rest. He walked through each aisle until he thought he heard somebody, bringing him out of his daydreams. There were probably a bunch of other things he should worry about but, as it was, he would always be a 'focus on the present' type of guy.

He turned the corner and blinked. Annabeth?

"Hey. Uh... Yo."

[yearrounder]

Crap. It would be the one person in the Underworld that she still wasn't sure about--the one she'd been avoiding since...yeah. She couldn't hlp but glance up in surprise at hearing a voice. let alone that familiar one. It was too late to even try hiding it now. So she didn't, instead curling herself into a ball, pulling her knees into chest and dropping her eyes to them instead of him. It was easier if she wasn't looking at him. At least she could pretend she had some dignity left.

"...hey."

[tereteindahouse]

Man. How the hell were you supposed to cheer up a person you tried to kill? He could have killed her. He had wanted to. He kept a frown off his face, forcing cheeriness as he stepped forward, just keeping enough distance to avoid scaring her too much.

"Um... You okay? I mean, I know you aren't but. Wanna talk about it? Unless it's about that thing. Then we can not talk about it. I could just go, you know, and pretend I didn't see anything."

[yearrounder]

"It's not that." Entirely. That was only part of it. It was mostly all of the broken promises that had left her on her own down here--Luke had promised, and then he left, galling to Kronos' influence and then dying on Olympus; Percy promised and then he vanished. Twice. She had friends, sure, but it wasn't the same as someone from home--someone who could relate to this being so close to familiar, but just off enough that it felt like she was slowly going insane.

She managed a deep breath after a moment, even if it was a little shaky, and scrubbed at her eyes with one hand. She didn't even care if it made it worse.

[tereteindahouse]

He could only stare, shifting awkwardly on one leg to another, as he watched her. What could he say? How could he make it better? She needed to smile! Oh, he knew where to start. He grinned, digging in his pocket, before pulling out the pocket size tissue pack he carried out of habit. He tore the pack open and held it towards here.

"Uh. Here. Maybe talking will help. I mean, I know I have a big mouth but I kept that one secret so far. I'll keep my mouth shut if you just want somebody to listen or something."

[yearrounder]

She shrugged--it felt almost stupid saying it out loud. What was she even supposed to say? "I have no friends" was a lie and "I have no friends from home" made it sound like her new ones didn't matter.

She gave it a good and awkward 60 seconds of thinking time before she finally had to give up trying to verbalize it.

"I...it's...complicated."

[tereteindahouse]

"Man, aren't they always?"

He rubbed at the back of his neck, feeling awkward since he really didn't know what to say. But he could listen, right? Junpei stretched before sitting down, making it clear that he wasn't going away any time soon.

"Hey. We've got plenty of time so why not just talk about it. It won't kill you, right?"

[yearrounder]

"Probably not, no," she had to agree. It probably wouldn't actually kill her to talk about it. She just really didn't want to. She was supposed to be firm and unshakable--the clever strategist that could think her way out of anything.

"...I don't want to think about it."

[tereteindahouse]

"Oh. We could talk about something else?" He grinned at her, allowing her to leave the topic alone. If she wanted to talk about it he'd be willing to listen. He stuck his hands in his pockets and leaned back, making himself comfortable.

"What do you like to do around here? Read, right?"

[yearrounder]

She shrugged--it wasn't exactly the most uncommon or exciting hobby in the world, but it was all she had, without becoming entirely masochistic and chasing monsters in the forest. It was getting rapidly to that point, though, and she was trying to stave that off for as long as possible.

"Mostly. I'm almost starting to lose interest, I guess."

[tereteindahouse]

"Huh. Wow. I didn't take you for the type to lose interest in books."

That didn't seem right. That was like Mitsuru senpai not studying. Something had to be wrong. Junpei tried to think of things to talk about buuuut.... Man, he just kept drawing up blanks. Oh. Maybe a direct approach?

"So what does interest you around here now?"

[yearrounder]

"When it's all you have to do, it starts to get boring fast." Never mind the ADHD, and that was why she'd started laying more and more open around her--so she could move back and forth between them and at least pretend to keep herself interested.

"I don't even know anymore. It's not like I can just get up and go find something. I can't just...I don't know, go to the mall or something. It's the same thing every day and I'm tired of it."

[tereteindahouse]

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Man, I don't know about you but I miss just going for a walk at the mall. You'd see all types of people walking around and there was so much to do. Hey, but this place has things too! I mean, there's an awesome DVD collection kept in this library, video games, and some of the stalls have stuff from our worlds, right?"

He kept his grin on, even as he tried to think of what could possibly interest her but, at the end of it, he just defaulted on talking a mile a minute.

"This place sucks. A lot. But we need to make the most out of it! There's others here, businesses run by our friends, and if you look hard enough there's plenty of things to do."

oh my god I suck at tags right now I'm sorry v____v

[yearrounder]

She was doing a lot of shrugging and it felt somewhat immature, but she doubted anyone would care. All she had to do was cry and she could get away with pretty much anything. There were a few people she could think of (and all from Cabin 10) who would have used that to their advantage at every opportunity.

"I don't know. I just want to go back home." Even if it wasn't exactly great there right now, either. Hunting for Percy, trying to survive another war, all that good stuff that demigods had to deal with on a regular basis.

s'ok I had class anyways ^_^

[tereteindahouse]

"I'm sorry." His grin finally slipped away and he slouched, unsure what else to say. He missed home also, as crappy as it was. Even if he had to head back to fight the Shadows and whatever else was happening. Even if he returned to his alcoholic father.

Dude, who was he kidding? He wasn't going anywhere. He was dead.

"There's still a chance you can go home though, right? I mean people leaving randomly all the time. You just need to stay alive."

He gave her a sad smile.

/sobcling

[yearrounder]

That little line brought up all kinds of things she didn't want to think about--not the least of which was his own death, or how close she'd come during that whole...demon mess. Or the number of people that had ended up in a same-but-different version of the Underworld in one war that had ended and another that was just beginning.

"...yeah. Easier said than done."