Sallie, back in the bar.

[realmrsreynolds]

Sallie is stuck.

Rutting stuck in a gorram arm cast for four to six gorram weeksAnd she has to go back to Milliways. Home was easy enough, though the gentler way her employees treated her pissed her off to no end. Skouris' expression her first day home never changed, and when Sallie thanks him for it she calls him Peter

Comments

[themidnightson]

"Evening." Simple, smooth and designed not to surprise.

Even if sudden!not-customer is still quite sudden,
at least his demeanor is calm and his focus specific?

[realmrsreynolds]

"Wèi," Sallie returns from behind the bar before Mike can see her working.

She is far grumpier-sounding than usual.

[themidnightson]

Edward won't tell. For now.

He'll lean his chin on two fingers.
"How long aren't you supposed to be working?"

[realmrsreynolds]

"Hmm?"

As though Sallie didn't completely understand the question.

[themidnightson]

Edward simply raised his eyebrows. Calmly. Pointedly.

Neither of them was stupid, and his stubborn points went back longer.

[realmrsreynolds]

"I'll have the cast 'bout a month and a half; rehab's supposed to take a couple months after."

[themidnightson]

He takes those with unblinkingly.

"Smooth procedure?"

[realmrsreynolds]

"Shi a, nothin' went askew with it. Still can't rutting tell that of course with the cast, but so I'm told."

The frustration is easier.

Don't know how I'm going to tell Malcolm --

[themidnightson]

"And then things will be easier than they have been."

He does mean the prior over the latter.

[realmrsreynolds]

That seems to deflate Sallie's chest-pounding the tiniest bit and she nods.

"That's the goal. It's just...god I hate gettin' old, some days."

[themidnightson]

Edward knows about time and death, more than aging and dying.
"And yet you still chose to change back to yourself now."

....if it's left field, it's almost complimentary.
He may have missed those days, but the memories still existed.

[realmrsreynolds]

It takes Sallie a second to follow, and for a few more, a memory of herself during Cubefall, joking and laughing and feeling beautiful more than once in that time, pervades her thoughts.

They are quickly excused.

"This is who I am," she offers roughly. "I had my time."

[themidnightson]

"Youth rarely owns that shade of grace or certainty."

He says while his eyes follow his fingers touching down on the bar.
It's far less a compliment and more of a simple, certain comment.

[realmrsreynolds]

"Guess that makes me a rare bird," Sallie offers in return in a softer tone, studying Edward for a second.

"You too, really."

[themidnightson]

He tipped his head to one side, slightly.
But there wasn't a shrug that could have come.

He can never appear more than he was, or less than he's become.
Nor can he even look to be the time he has seen.

[realmrsreynolds]

And really? Sallie isn't all that enthused to explain her conclusions.

I should be fine, she thinks pointedly instead, and gives Edward the slightest of smiles.