Roof, Late Tuesday Evening

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

Two very simple and important facts: Rose was back in Fandom, and Rose had had a rough trip. The really bad kind of rough trip, it sounded like, from what she'd said on the phone.

Elena didn't know the specifics yet. She didn't need to. Not until Rose wanted to tell her.

In the meantime, there was a roof, and there was alcohol, and there could be talking, or silence, or staring at things. Whatever worked.

"I brought rum," Elena said helpfully.

(the guardian modded with permission. open roof is open.)

Comments

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"It's why you're a good friend," Rose said, giving Elena a little smile. She wandered over to the edge of the roof, climbing to sit on the wall there. "How was Fandom?"

Shh, it was easier.

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"Less fun without you," Elena said, picking up one of the bottles for herself. Vodka. Okay, citrus vodka. She was allowed to be girly sometimes. "The dance was pretty sweet, though. People here are even prettier once they clean up."

Rose could totally take her time, here. It wasn't like Elena was going anywhere.

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Citrus vodka was awesome. Don't knock it.

"That's always hard to believe," Rose admitted, finding herself checking the edges of the grounds. "I'm sad I missed it."

And maybe she could've talked Dimitri into getting dressed up.

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"We could go clubbing," Elena suggested. "But that's more skankwear than evening gowns. Unless you want to hit the club wearing evening gowns, just to watch everyone stare."

Maybe they could get matching dresses, pretend they were bridesmaids at some horrible wedding they were happy to have escaped.

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Too much noise and music, and Rose reached back for the bottle she'd totally and really brought over with her and opened it, taking a drink.

"They'd stare no matter what we wore," she told Elena. Because she thought that's what should go next.

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"Our hotness is fairly impressive," Elena agreed, taking a swig from her own bottle. "Think we could get picked up wearing burlap sacks?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Rose ducked her head a little, remembering a particular guy picking her up in training clothes earlier.

"Um, yeah," she said. "They'd be lucky to do it."

Which - also reminded her of Mason, and shit, did everything come back to that?

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

Elena considered letting that slip, but instead hesitated long enough to ask, "... sore spot?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Rose admitted, not able to look up yet. "Sorest."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"Sorry," Elena said. She let the silence spin out for a few more moments. "One you want to talk about?"

No pressure. Seriously. This shit was usually pretty ugly, and sometimes too fresh to put words around.

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Definitely not your fault," she said, her voice a little thicker as the pictures flashed through her head again - Mason, Isaiah, the sight of their bodies. She took a breath then another swig of the rum.

"My - friend" she'd spent a moment, trying to figure out what word to use. "-was killed. He came back to try to save me."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

Elena closed her eyes, letting the enormity of that wash over her.

"I'm so sorry," she said, shaking her head. "He ... saved you?"

Ow. Ow. Someone else coming for you, and then dying, that was gut-wrenching.

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"No," Rose said softly. "He died. His neck was broken. And then I killed Isaiah and -" she glanced up at Elena and stopped from using her name "- I killed the Strigoi who did it."

She was oddly torn between trying not to cry and trying to avoid that wave of rage at the memories.

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"Bad luck can happen to anyone," Elena said carefully, pulling one of her knees in against her chest. "I mean, being good at the job means you've gotta be good, every single day, but nobody's perfect every day. Someone gets the jump on you and they only need that one chance."

Or, possibly, the kid had fucked up, because fucking up was also a part of the job and something that happened constantly in the field, but on the off-chance that he hadn't, it was better not to suggest it, for fear of sounding rude.

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"I told him to take them away if we got the chance," Rose muttered. "He promised he would. He said he could."

She shouldn't be mad at him.

"They come first. Mason knew that, and he came back for me."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

Oh, ouch. Much thornier, then.

"Leaving someone ... on the field, that's ..."

Tossing the head to Reno, and tearing back across the crater. Sure that she could get to Tseng before the Remnants did.

"It's hard. Training, and your head, they can scream something at you, but walking away from what could be a teammate's death ....."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Rose shook her head. "We have a saying. Only they matter. It's not even a choice to protect them anymore; it's automatic."

She sighed, taking another drink and leaning her head into her hands.

"If he'd just kept going with Mia and Christian and Eddie. Fast and far. He'd be fine. And - why am I angry at him?"

And Rose wouldn't've, but she'd already accepted that. Accepting Mason's choice was harder.

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"Because he fucked up," Elena said bluntly. No point sugar-coating it, was there? "It's an understandable mistake, yes, but he still made it, and he knew better. If you had both made it out of there, you would have tore a piece off him for pulling a stunt like that. Stupid idiot could have got himself killed. And he did get himself killed, so you feel guilty being pissed at him even if it's his own damn fault."

That sounded heartless, almost cruel. Sometimes, it really worried Elena, how little that bothered her.

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Rose eyed Elena for a long moment, unsure if she was pissed at her or not for saying that about Mason.

Instead she finally buried her head in her hands, hair falling over her face.

"He came back because he liked me," she admitted, trusting Elena to pick up the type of 'like' she meant. "Because we'd hung out a little the week before, and I was going to find him to tell him nothing else was going to happen when I found out he was gone."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"And I went back for Tseng," Elena said, hugging her knees again. "But I finished the mission, first, even though there was gunfire all around us, even though he'd already taken a bad hit and they were closing in. Secured the objective, then went after him and almost got my idiot self killed."

She glanced over at her friend. "The mission comes first. This isn't your fault, Rose. Would you have gone back for Dimitri?"

Of course not. Because Rose did the job.

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Dimitri wouldn't -" okay, that was a stupid sentence, and Rose swallowed the rest of it.

"I would've wanted to," Rose admitted. She glanced over at Elena. "What happened? When you went after Tseng?"

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

It got so much messier, when you put real faces and emotions to abstract situations. Finish the mission, and then it was someone you loved, bleeding on the ground.

"We were on a job," she said, completely unnecessarily, "and creepy fucks showed up. Tseng got shot. I got to the chopper, tossed the head to Reno, and I ran back for Tseng. Probably only got halfway back before I got hit."

Inhale. Exhale. Okay. So. The rest of this was easy. Really.

"Spent the next day or so tied up and playing What Color Is Your Spleen while they tried to get us to talk. We didn't, so they slashed us up and left us there."

Where they would have died, if not for someone competent doing a better job on the rescue. Full marks all around on that one.

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

The head. Rose was pretty sure she wasn't supposed to focus on 'the head' part of that story.

It sounded like a lot of the same elements. Fuck ups and trying to atone for them and then trying to do the best with the bad situation presented.

She shuddered at the mention of being tied up and just barely kept her hands from going to her wrists, the aborted movement still visible.

"Creepy fucks ever get theirs?" she asked finally.

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

Elena heard the near-snickering and was not going to let that drop, no.

"Suuuuure, laugh at my near-death experience," she joked. "That's what I'm here for, to amuse you with my pain."

She noticed the strange flicker toward Rose's wrists, and tried to watch subtly to see if she could see scarring or bandages, without Rose knowing she was looking.

"Reno, Rude and a helicopter full of explosives took care of the fuckers," she added. "So it was still family. Isaiah and the other one you killed, they were the ones who hurt your friend?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"You were getting a head," Rose replied, trying really hard not to snicker again. "It seemed to appropriate with what you tell me of Reno. And anything that ends with 'helicopter full of explosives' is good with me."

She tensed a little again, too wrapped up in everything to notice Elena's glance, and let herself rub at her wrists gently, pulling the sleeve back a little over the bandages.

"Isaiah killed him," she said, a little flatly. "He threw Mason to her to feed from. I couldn't let them do it. So I cut off her head." With a dull sword.