IC CONTACT

[hellraiser02]

Hey, you've reached your good pal Shinigami! I'm a little busy right now and can't answer my comm, so leave your name- or alias- and I'll get back to you in a jiffy!

[click!]


[functions: voice, text message, image/media text]

Comments

around midnight

[fource]

[He was asleep, having some unremarkable silly dream with dogs and neon lights and city streets curving up and over his head, like they should be, when suddenly it changes. Quatre stops (everyone around him stops with him, like actors after calling cut, and they all turn collectively to look off into the absent horizon with him). There's a heavy weight in the air, appearing without warning but lingering like a slow suffocation. It takes his subconscious a second to name it; in the dream, Quatre says "Duo?" Then he snaps awake in bed in Heropa, and the distant melancholy is still there.

He's getting dressed even as he sends the text.] What happened?

[hellraiser02]

[It takes... a little bit, for the reply to come. Not worryingly long, but long enough that he’s obviously ignoring it- or distracted with something else- for a little while. Maybe Quatre manages to go back to sleep in the meantime.]

I’m back

[Hm. Just long enough not to trigger the auto-send, huh... Just having a laugh, Grinbitch, or is there a nasty surprise waiting for him?]

[fource]

[Nice try, Duo. By the time the response comes, Quatre's already set up at a laptop scanning the newsfeeds with one hand and checking the network on his communicator with the other, searching for either some emergency at the Porter or some other sign of something going wrong. He's fully dressed and ready to head out just as soon as he knows where to go.

Ah, but communications are restored.]

Welcome back. You can't have been gone for more than 24 hours on this end. What's wrong?

[hellraiser02]

Looks that way, huh

'i'm back' isn't enough? Haha..

[Mmmaaaybe he can get outta this one? Probably not, huh.]

I didn't go home



btw

[fource]

[Quatre's not even going to dignify that with a response.

That's interesting. Despite everything, the twist of worry in Quatre's stomach eases just a little bit; at least this wasn't a reaction to what Duo felt back home, that this isn't the confirmation of some horrific disaster waiting for them back in the Earth Sphere. He feels bad as soon as he recognizes it, for that moment of selfishness in the face of what Duo is going through right now, whatever that may be. Was it the missed opportunity, disappearing in this world but not going anywhere? Maybe 'I'm back' really was the answer, at least partly.

Asking if Duo misses it is redundant.]

Do you want to meet me at the beach? Stargazing.

[It won't be the same, but it'll be something.]

[hellraiser02]

Honestly Q

not really in the mood for company

[Or more precisely, not in the mood to handle what he's feeling right now, handling poorly, with company. Company that doesn't understand, doesn't know.]

[He feels guilty as soon as he says it, anyway. Quatre will probably feel that too.]

[fource]

[He gets the guilt just about the same time as he reaches the end of the text messages. He just feels-- sad. Sad because he can't help Duo, and because that's making Duo feel worse. Because insisting and finding him anyway will not only upset Duo more, but make the both of them sit in those feelings reflected back at each other.]

That's okay, I understand. [Well, he doesn't, but he understands that Duo is telling the truth and feels bad for it, and the least he can do is take that part away.] This is advice from Heero, not from me: find a dog. (If you want to borrow one from work, the code for the kennel is 5786 and they need to be back by 5 AM.)

[hellraiser02]

Leave it to yuy to have the best advice and never take it

bastard

[Duo chuckles to himself and it gives a tiny flare of emotion all rolled up in one- nostalgia, amusement, sadness. Quatre didn’t know about that, either- how Heero had come and gone on them, on how the both of them had been so affected by it. But he’d still get it, as much as any of them could. They all knew what Heero was to them, to the world.]

Thanks buddy, you’re the best

Promise I won’t feed em anything weird

[fource]

[He takes the nostalgia as a good sign, even if it comes with its own tint of sadness. Heero's Like That, he's just going to have that effect on all of them.]

It's nothing. I'm going back to bed, but call me if anything comes up.  ["Let me know if you want to talk" is both a given and a long shot, so he doesn't bother saying it.] There are treats in the top cabinet.