tearmeanewone | rendez-vous + APPOINTMENT POST

Mister DeWitt [because in speaking to this stranger, he would show DeWitt every bit of respect he could muster for the man] has gone to great pains to keep Elizabeth safe.

Surely you can understand why he would be protective of her where a stranger to him is concerned.

[And, well. It went without saying that he might have received a better first opinion from DeWitt if Elizabeth had properly spoken of and especially introduced him beforehand.

But that was her error, not this young man's. Robert intended to speak with her on that point at a later time.]

[Ah. Now there's a better question - one she does not already know the answer to. Rosalind leans back against the side of the desk, half-turned toward Elizabeth as she speaks.]

It was. To support him is in part a simple matter of self-interest, but not entirely. [She studies the floorboards for a moment, thoughtfully, eyebrows lifting and head canting to the side after a second, as if in allowance of the argument she knows Robert would make.] Really, everything we do is ultimately a matter of selfishness. We seek pleasure and flee pain. What we call character is simply a matter of what brings us satisfaction, and how deeply we fear.

[It isn't exactly a pretty explanation, but it's one Elizabeth understands and accepts as true. She was doing this because she was more afraid of Gai and Booker being hurt than she was for her own safety. Was that strange? They both brought her 'satisfaction' as Rosalind put it, and it would be painful if they weren't in her life. Especially if she could have prevented it.]

Robert seemed very lost without you, Miss Lutece. [She tilted her head up at the other woman, curious but hesitant.] Are you afraid of losing him?

[Well, there is something to be said about exotic locales... but the heat might be a bit of a turn-off. Or a turn-on, who knows. Either way, he's not expecting much of anything to happen.]

Something tells me that's not where the hope is going to be springing.

[Look, Elizabeth, he will even be good and stand perfectly still so you can hit him this time.]

[Oh boy!]

[She socks him lightly in the side with a half-formed fist.]

You're incorrigible.

[Gai will take that as a compliment and just laugh, keeping his arms around her.

If she wants to stay like this until it's time for them to leave, that's just fine with him.]

[Little wonder Robert took to the girl so well - he was just as sentimental as she was. Unfortunately at the moment, she was rather incisive too, and showing very fine instincts for a girl who had been raised in isolation in a tower. Rosalind took her time in answering - it was hardly the sort of quastion one could rush into addressing.]

Worry is a waste of time. [She still isn't looking at Elizabeth as she answers, and certainly that is telling enough, the way she studies the middle distance with lidded eyes.] I cannot imagine a way he could be taken from me that I, with sufficient forethought, might prevent.

[She almost leaves it at that - another incomplete answer, another enigma. But then, on some silent and unspoken impulse, she does not.]

I find it difficult to imagine life without him, though.

[It was exactly what Elizabeth wanted to hear, strangely enough. Even if the situation isn't at all the same, something about Rosalind Lutece admitting that she cared about her brother makes Elizabeth feel less like she's made a mistake. She can't imagine life without Gai or Booker, and while she can imagine so many ways they could be taken from her that she couldn't prevent she felt better knowing she would be there at least.]

I won't worry, then. [She smiles slightly at Rosalind, hands resting properly on her knees.] That energy is better spent on preventing things, right?

Precisely.

[And just like that , Elizabeth comes right back to practicality, to simplicity, to sense. A neat little circle, reason to emotion to reason, and there's something perfectly-suited about how cleanly she ties it all together.

The common strain of humanity is a crude and unsatisfying thing, to Rosalind, who has always been drawn to the undreamed-of. But after everything that's happened, seeing dozens of dozens of iterations of the girl, there is an unanticipated, quiet pleasure in these quiet suggestions that Elizabeth is exceptional in a way unlike any of the men or women who have brought her to this point.

Perhaps it should not be so unanticipated. Rosalind, after all, has always gravitated toward the exceptional. She glances back at last, pushing lightly off the desk and clasping her hands in front of her.]

Preventing what you do not desire, and pursuing what you do. Not that you seem to have especial trouble with either.

[Elizabeth chuckles.] No, I don't have a problem with that. Hazard of being an only child, right?

[That was a sort of off-color joke, Rosalind might appreciate it? Strangely enough, Elizabeth doesn't mind Rosalind's extreme practicality on most things. Booker had a tendency to view things in a purely pessimistic way, and Robert and Gai would only tell her everything would turn out for the best. Rosalind was obviously the middle ground, and seeing that variation makes her smile in the face of walking into the unknown.]

I'll be in a desert, apparently. What can you tell me about deserts?

[From here!]

"A backrub?" Elizabeth immediately looks less concerned and stressed and more curious. Laying down sounds great, and of course if Gai's suggesting it it's probably going to help.

"Yeah. They're a great way to relax if you're feeling tense." Gai almost says something to the effect of Sometimes I'd ask Inori to give me one but then decides against the inevitable questions that would result from that statement. "And I happen to be something of an expert at giving them."

"Really?" Elizabeth grins. The more she learns about Gai, the happier she feels--even if it's a silly thing like he's an expert at backrubs.

"Come on, then," she takes Gai's hands out from around her and pulls him back to their bundle of bedding.

Gai is all too happy to be led back to their bedding, even if it's for something that's completely innocuous. He's not sure he's in the right state of mind for anything more, to be honest, and he could do with something to focus on to get his own mind off of everything that's just occurred.

When it comes down to it, just being around Elizabeth is already helping him relax.

Completely innocuous, yes. Elizabeth is too hot and too tired for what they usually do when they go to bed, and she just wants to think about something else for a while. Gai is usually very good at distracting her, just by talking.

She sheds her dressing gown but lays down in her combination. She's worn less in front of Gai, she's completely comfortable just like this.

Meanwhile, Gai shrugs off his own coat, leaving him in just his red shirt and black pants, then settles down behind her and presses a kiss to her neck. The heat is much harder on her than it is on him, he can tell, and for a moment he debates asking her if she'd be more comfortable with that off too before deciding that such a question would probably come across as too much of a come-on for the situation.

Any questions she might have about what exactly a backrub entails will be answered when he reaches out to rest his hand on her shoulder and then begin to knead at the muscles there with his thumb.

Elizabeth has absolutely no idea how Gai can live in that coat during the day and sleep in pants at night, but she's afraid to ask in case it opens up bad memories. This is nice, just how it is.

She runs a hand over Gai's hair when he kisses her, and that almost melts all of her tension. But her shoulders are like rocks as Gai begins to rub at her, but she gives a little hum of pleasure even if it hurts a little.

A wise choice on her part; while Gai wouldn't be against telling her about his childhood eventually, this really isn't the time or place for that sort of thing. They're trying to relax, not make things even more tense.

He can feel how tense she is - he'd been expecting that much - and shifts his efforts to focusing on a single knot at a time, just trying to work out some of that tension there. "Tell me if anything I do hurts," he says, because he suspects that it will. She's really knotted up.

"It hurts," Elizabeth says flatly, with a little quiet laugh. She rotates her shoulders a little, not to throw Gai's hands off of her, just to test out what's happening with her shoulders.

"But I'm starting to forget why we're here, and if you stop I'll remember."

"I thought it might," Gai says, easing up just a bit with the pressure. Some pain means the knots are being worked out; too much means he's just being too rough, which isn't what he wants.

It's doing an excellent job of distracting him too, though, and for that he's grateful. "Maybe someday we'll be able to do this every night."

Her eyes had drifted shut while Gai kept working at her shoulders, but the mention of doing this every night has her opening her eyes again in mild panic.

"...You mean you want me to start leaving my window open at night? Seems like a lot of effort to climb in and out just to rub my back."

This time Gai actually has to bite his lip to keep from laughing out loud at the mental image her comment produces. That's certainly one way of doing things, but it wasn't exactly what he had in mind.

"I suppose I could do that, but I was thinking more along the lines of being able to spend every night together."

Yes, Elizabeth was afraid that was what Gai was suggesting. She curls her fingers together, fidgeting as she tries to figure out what she wants to say. It would be wonderful, waking up every morning in his arms like they had been doing.

"I can't leave Booker..."

"I know."

And he does know. He understands, at least, even if he doesn't have any familial (or family-like) connections of his own. In a way, he's almost envious of what the two of them have-- his only real father figure had been Keido, who didn't even deserve that word applied to him.

If he had someone like Booker... he doesn't think he'd want to leave them either.

Elizabeth rolls around to face him, puts her hands on his chest as if Gai was about to roll over and leave her. She doesn't want to have to choose between them, they both mean the world to her. How is she supposed to choose?

"I'm sorry, that was stupid, of course I want to wake up next to you every morning."

rendez-vous + APPOINTMENT POST

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