The Roof, Wednesday Afternoon

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley hadn't handwavily gotten back to Fandom until late last night, and he was still in something of a funk about everything that had happened.

Fired. Again.

The last time he'd been fired, he'd been sent here as punishment. Now he'd been fired from the job he'd intended to take on after graduation, and he... hadn't applied to university. Hadn't even thought of it very much, to be honest; the idea of going away to university now after having worked on the Hellmouth and gone to school at Fandom and worked for Angel for two years, dealing with all the crises that emerged along the way (the mayor's Ascension, Panem, the rock, the disappearances and memory alterations, Faith...) was... a bit preposterous, really. But now he had nothing to do but possibly see if his father might take him back in, and, well. Wesley didn't really much want to do that at all.

So. Here he stood. Brooding. Because that would solve the problem.

At least he wasn't drinking?

[[open roof of broodiness, la.]]

Comments

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Gabrielle didn't brood, so that wasn't why she came up to the roof; she'd just wanted some fresh air, and the particular view of the island that you got from up here. If you wanted to get hypothetically metaphysical about it, it was entirely possible that she'd ended up on the roof because of the brooding, because somehow or other she always ended up getting drawn to broody people.

"Hello, Wesley," she said lightly, wrapping her still eyesearingly yellow shawl around her shoulders as she came to stand nearby.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Just flaunt that chipperness, Gabs. Flaaaunt it.

"What? Oh -- hello," said the very distracted ex-Watcher and ex-paranormal investigator with whom she was sharing the roof. "Ah. How are you?"

It was probably not the friendliest he'd ever sounded.

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

It's imperative for the narrative to digress for a moment, and contemplate the epic leather-clad broodiness that would probably eat the world whole if Angel and Xena ever ended up in the same place at the same time.

Okay, terrifying moment over.

"All right." Gabrielle actually turned to get a look at him now and finally got a sense of his mood. (Without looking, she was inured to broody-vibes by now.) "You don't look like you could say the same. Is something wrong?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

...Good god. The world might implode. Possibly violently.

"Oh," Wesley said, aiming for casualness and failing horribly. "Just, ah, work... matters. Things at home. Nothing, er, terribly pressing."

And yet the brooding, it was immense.

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

But not driving Gabrielle off! That was a plus. OR WAS IT?

"And here you are, looking awfully unhappy for not having any pressing matters on your mind," she said, delicately as she could. "That seems like a shame."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley blushed faintly. "Right," he said. "Well, that is, it's nothing I mean to trouble you with. Just, ah. An unfortunate circumstance."

A failure, like he was always a failure, he thought to himself, but didn't say.

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

"Unfortunate circumstances aren't unimportant ones. Besides, who says it's any trouble to me?" Gabrielle asked. "Give me some credit here."

She turned to take a seat on the ledge, everything about her posture clearly indicating that she was happy to get comfortable and listen for a while if she had to.

"If it's something you want to talk about, I'm here."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Finally Wesley relented a little, some of the tension sliding out of his shoulders. "It's just, ah. My employer back home. He's, er. Discharged me."

...wow, it sounded stupid when he said it like that.

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

"I'm sorry," Gabrielle said immediately, because any questions could wait until after she'd expressed her sympathy. "From a job you wanted to do? Did he have any good reason?"

[life_inshadow]

Tara wandered up to the roof after class. She sometimes liked watching the ocean from up there.

She glanced over to Wesley, half reading his body language as stay-away, half wanting to help with whatever was wrong. In the end, she offered a tiny smile.

"Hi," she said. "You, uh, you missed Rio."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"I did," Wesley agreed, pausing his moping for long enough to turn around away from the side of the roof. "Did you, ah, enjoy yourself?"

Sorry if he didn't sound super enthusiastic, Tara. It came with the broody territory.

[life_inshadow]

"Kind of," Tara offered. "It, um ... the city's kind of big for me. And noisy. But the beach was pretty."

She shrugged a little. "What did you do instead?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Oh, just some work back home," he said, trying to sound casual and not mopey. Not so successful. "Nothing especially thrilling. But, ah. The beach, that sounds nice. Was the weather all right, at least?"

[life_inshadow]

"Yeah," Tara nodded. "It was a little cloudy a couple times, but mostly ... yeah. Nice and warm. I even got a little bit of a tan under the sunblock."

She looked him over. "Sorry the work ... um, it sounds like it kind of sucked."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley gave a little half-shrug. "I'm likely exaggerating the severity," he offered. Sure, Wes, go right to self-deprecation. Do that. "It's just been, well. Unpleasant."

And here he seemed so chipper!

[life_inshadow]

"Yeah, you kind of don't give off an, uh ... fun vacation kind of vibe," Tara observed, with an apologetic little smile. "Can you talk about i?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley took a breath. "I was fired," he admitted, looking down.

[abitlowkey]

"Must you do that here?" Loki was the kindest of people for Wesley right now, wasn't he?

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley instantly bristled. "Do what?"

[abitlowkey]

Loki gave him a look as though to ask why he must insult the godling's intelligence.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Well, if it offends you, you're welcome to go elsewhere," Wesley said, a bit peevishly. LOOK, LOKI, THAT WAS THE ROOF. THIS IS WHAT THE ROOF WAS FOR.

[abitlowkey]

"Why should I need to leave?" Other than the obvious reasons.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"By all means, stay, then," Wesley said, sounding tired. "But for goodness' sake, desist with the questioning."

He was very bitter today, Loki. Sorry about that.

[abitlowkey]

Oh, Wesley. Wesley. "Why?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

LOKI, YOU TOOL, THAT WAS A QUESTION.

Wesley let out an exasperated noise. "Because I came up here in order to think," he said. Duh.