hashtag_chocobro | Room 221; Tuesday Evening [05/07].

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Room 221; Tuesday Evening [05/07].

Ahhh. Poor, sweet, obvlivious Prompto. It had been quite a journey, but, through the weekend, through finding out Vette and Sidon were fine and seemed actually weirdly cool with him, talking to Yang about it, snuggling a million puppies, distracting himself with the newbie picnic, squeezing in a ridiculous amount of training, and maybe even getting a taste of normalcy with classes yesterday, he was....actually starting to feel a little fine about everything again.

For better or for worse. Especially since he'd yet to realize that there was at least one person out there a little less forgiving than everyone else. But she couldn't avoid him forever. Especially when he didn't even know it would be wise to avoid her. But Prompto had a mission, he had a plan, and he couldn't execute this plan to the fullest capacity without Nina's help.

So that evening, there was a complicated knock being played out on the door of room 221 in the familiar cadence of a certain chocobo song, followed by an all-too-familiar whine of a name that was sure to be the exact things she'd want to hear right now.

"Niiiiiiinnnnaaaaa! Nina, it's Prompto! Knock three times if it's just you in there. Knock four times if it's you and Vette. And if this is actually Vette and not Nina, never mind, this is something super top secret that doesn't involve you so just forget about it."

There. He figured that would get the door opened no matter who was in at the moment.

Well, unless they were both out at that time. In which case he'd just be talking to a door, but whatevs.

[[ for she of the modded door who is not blue. As in the color blue. I make no assumptions about state of mood or disposition! And if they get to it (LOL), the fact that Prompto came to Nina for help is fine for broadcast, but if the details could be NFB, I'd greatly appreciate it! ]]

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Ohmygosh.

It was... was probably a good thing, truly, that Prompto did not see the truly spectacular full-body flinch that Nina gave at hearing his voice. Her pen skittered off her diary, leaving behind a line that gave mute, horrible testimony to how little she'd expected him to seek her out.

Was he truly that stupid?

And yet, as she craned her neck at the door, listening to his madness, it was obvious that a) he was and that b) some stupid, irresponsible part of her was still glad he was acting like that.

Maybe she was really the stupid one.

"Go away!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Because, truly, that was the safest thing for him and Nina had not yet figured out what to do with her anger about everything he'd caused. Foomy beeped at her, questioningly.

"You know, like, he didn't mention you at all," Nina said, in a voice far too low for Prompto to make out. "So, like, how about you go get the door????????"

Foomy could not actually open the door, being a small, round jelly demon of appalling cuteness. But Foomy could, in fact, roll off her bed with cheerful noises and then squeeeeeeeeeezeeeeeeee under the door...

To beep at Prompto's shoes.

Nina buried her face in her pillow. Maybe that was mean of her. It was still probably better than decking him.

Edited 2019-05-07 11:34 (UTC)

Prompto frowned at the response that was neither the requested knocking nor an opened door, and he was about to make a truly brilliant counterargument to the request to go away when his attention was pulled down to this feet with that little beep.

And then he blinked down at his feet for a moment, because he'd never actually seen Foomy in the daemon flesh before. A part of him realized that he'd sort of forgotten to take Foomy into account in this whole matter, and now he was worried and feeling a pang of distress, because what if Foomy didn't get along with cats? What if Foomy just tried to eat this whole plan???

But, no. No, that couldn't be right, because if Foomy was the kind to eat other pets, then Nina wouldn't have her whole 'let's get Vette a pet' campaign. Unless, of course, Nina only wanted Vette to get pets with the intention that those pets would only be food for Foomy, which--

Prompto shook his head sharply. Focus, you idiot! He gave Foomy a little bit of a nervous chuckle, because, sure, he was cute and all, but still a daemon, and it was just weird. "Hey, buddy," he said. "How's it going? Nina around?"

...of course she was, you dolt, she just told him to go away. Maybe she'd sent Foomy out to chase him off or scare him? If that was the case, Foomy was doing a really terrible job of it. Cute, but terrible.

So he sighed and knocked on the door a little again. "Come on, Nina," he said. "This is important! I need your help with something!"

But that 'go away' did sound upset, and Prompto bit his lower lip for a moment before adding, "But if it's a bad time, I can come back later; I was kind of hoping to do it sooner rather than later, but it's fine. When....when would be better?"

Man, Prompto, the very idea of Nina feeding Vette's pet to Foomy was terrible, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself for thinking it.

Foomy rolled around Prompto's feet cheerfully burbling. If it was a scolding, it was a very upbeat one. Possibly Foomy was just glad Prompto was around for Nina to rant at instead of taking it out on her diary. Or Foomy just liked meeting new people.

It was hard to tell with a jelly demon.

Nina stayed with her head buried in her pillow a moment longer, wrestling the dual feelings of anger and happiness that he'd sought her out.

She was so pathetic.

Beating her head against her pillow once, twice, three times, Nina pried herself off her bed and over to the door. She took a moment to straighten her clothes—though there was no rescuing her hair, tumbling in mad, unruly curls now—and yanked the door open.

"What is important??????????" she demanded, staring up at him with a defiant sort of air.

Nina wasn't sure what, exactly, she was defying. But yeah, she was defying something.

Edited 2019-05-07 12:31 (UTC)

It would have been impossible not to grin at those dramatics, really; it wouldn't really be Nina without those dramatics, but the grin, while still pretty crooked, was a little soft and reserved because, dramatics aside, even he could tell that she was really upset about something, and he was tempted to ask right after it, but, no, he should focus on the reason he came here and once that was figured out, then he'd ask. He didn't imagine this would take that long, anyway.

And whatever it was, by the look of her, it was probably something big...

...and Prompto wasn't so oblivious that there wasn't at least a small tickle at the back of his brain that wondered if it had to do with last week, and if it didn't have to do with him, and if that was the case, then...that would totally make sense, and he bit his lip a little nervously all of a sudden while telling himself to take care of one thing at a time, here.

He took a moment to try and maybe peer over Nina's shoulder into the room a little before continuing, though. "It's just you right now?" he asked. "No Vette?"

Because that would suck if he went babbling off all his plans and it turned out she was there the whole time, just being quiet. Or avoiding him. But he liked to think that if she wanted to avoid him, she wouldn't have bothered finding him on Friday.

Nina's expression went a little stony.

"Vette's out," she said and resisted the urge to say things like 'so stay away from her' or 'you're not allowed to talk to her' because, while Nina was livid, Vette herself was still willing to talk to Prompto.

Not that Nina had really done a whole lot of talking to Vette, yet, herself about the whole thing. Mostly because the only times she might bring it up, she thought better of it, and Vette, for all her forced cheer wasn't sleeping through the night and Nina knew it was about that.

So, to the best of her abilities, Nina had been nothing but chipper to Vette, since that seemed to be what Vette needed from her. The fact that Nina was absolutely, definitely not okay and was staying not okay with what had gone down herself had been carefully concealed from Vette.

Foomy rolled around her ankles and Nina knelt to pick up her pet, then stepped back, turning to head right back to her bed, where her diary lay.

"If it's important, you might as well come in."

An invitation was probably not supposed to sound so cold.

[The Vette-modding cleared with Shannon, yo.]

And everything that Prompto had been trying to build up about being a little more okay with what happened started to drain away from him as if someone punched a hole in his soul and all the pathetic little bits of good stuff he'd managed to put back into it since last week began to leak out. Sure, he'd like to think that this very un-Nina-like Nina in front of him had something to do with something else entirely, but....come on. Come on. He would be willing to bet an awful lot that the odds were not in his favor.

So he was properly subdued and even a little grateful as he bobbed his head in a nod and ducked into the room after Nina, but the thread of excitement about this whole thing shot back through him as he opened his mouth. "Thanks," he said. "I only asked because it's about Vette. Or, I mean, it's something I want to do for her." He shook his head, amended. "Something I need to do for her, and the best way to do it is going to require your help, because I want it to be a surprise. She....kind of needs a nice, good surprise right now, I...I think."

Saying out loud made it sound like so, so, so not ever enough, but it was something. Something was a good place to start.

What Vette really needed was for the whole series of events to have not happened but that was asking a bit much and, despite herself, Nina found herself the tiniest bit intrigued at what, possibly, Prompto could think was a happy surprise enough to even pretend to make up for everything.

She sat primly on her bed, perfect posture, not even looking as she reached over to shut her diary firmly. That, though, really had nothing to do with current affairs since no one, ever, was allowed to read her diary no matter the circumstances.

Foomy settled himself on her lap, puddling there so that he looked more or less like a strangely coloured pancake that made noises to himself.

Nina studied Prompto, doing her very, very best to channel Lord Shin's way of expressing extremely disapproval without having to actually open his mouth. Given that she was not six feet plus of tall, lean warrior, it probably wasn't nearly as effective coming from her. But she tried.

"Okay," she said, her voice clipped. "What's the surprise?"

And, really, all of that was working surprisingly well, Nina, on making Prompto feel lower than even the lowest worm to ever be smeared on the bottom of someone's shoe, but it was almost all entirely swept away the moment he started to launch into the answer. Because tiwas seriously the best and impossible to not get excited about it if he was talking about it, grin immediately surfacing, hand held in front of him and gesturing as he explained and bounced a little for good measure.

"I'm getting her a kitten," he said, almost all one rush, and then, just as quickly, he added a placating, "I know, I know, you've been trying to get her a pet for, like, ages, but I'm telling you, I think she's finally ready for one, she came into the shelter on Friday and we kind of talked about it, but I told her she should probably wait because there was a lot going on, obviously, and besides, some of the kittens at the shelter are really convinced that Sidon is food and I wanted to make sure she didn't wind up picking one out that'll do more nibbling and less cuddling."

...he was pretty sure Sidon had had more than enough things trying to eat him for a lifetime, now. Even a Zora lifetime. But he wasn't going to exactly say that part because it was super grim and dark and none of them needed that right now.

"You can help us pick out one, too, but it sounds like Sidon might have one in particular in mind, and, I mean, if anyone's going to know the right kitten for Vette, it's got to be him, right? So we were going to get the kitten and a bunch of the stuff from the shelter and I was kind of hoping we could get the little dude all set up and everything in here on Thursday so that when she gets back after work..."

He shrugged, a little sheepishly, because the more he talked about it, again, the less it seemed like it was even remotely close to enough, but he held out his hands in a restrained dramatic gesture, "Surprise? New best friend that's sweet and cuddly and adorable."

And not a big fat disappointment like people could be.

As he talked, and talked, and got excited about it, Nina's mouth fell open.

On one hand, yes, Vette getting a kitten was both a great idea and something Nina had been lobbying for literally the better part of a year (though it hadn't had to be a kitten).

On the other hand…

"And that makes up for getting her killed?!"

Appalled was not a word strong enough for how she felt right now.

On the list of possible reactions to 'hey, let's get Vette a kitten!', that was...not even remotely close to what Prompto had been expecting.

It maybe should have been, he realized, but it hadn't.

So he just needed a moment to blink a little and stare at Nina while his brain caught up.

"What?" he said, followed quickly by a horrified sounding, "No! Gods, no. Of...of course it doesn't! I...I'm not expecting it to, but, I mean....that is...I just..."

He shook his head a little, took a deep breath, sorted out his thoughts. "I mean, Nina, gods, if you know of anything that could ever make up what happened, let me know, because I'll do it, in a heartbeat. But short of somehow managing to go back in time and redoing everything, I don't think there is anything that could make up for this. There just....isn't. But I can't just not do anything. I have to do something, and I know this isn't, like, great or whatever, but it's still...that, it's something and it'll make her happy, and...and if that's all....I mean, I'm going to do everything I can, I know this isn't going to just make things better or make things like it never happened, but, dammit, Nina, it's something I can do! I have to...do....something."

And a kitten and other ways to just try and make Vette happy seemed a little bit better than just going home in disgrace and never coming back. If anything, that was just as cowardly as running away in the first place. He figured he should at least have to look his mistake in the face for a while before he did that.

Edited 2019-05-07 16:28 (UTC)

Lana had told her that Prompto was human, that so was herself, Nina, and that meant mistakes were going to be made. Nina had brooded on it, nibbling around the edges of it when no one else was watching, and clung to her anger.

Her anger was very real and, in her point of view, very justified. It was also easy to be angry. It had been so easy to be angry at Norman, who'd locked himself away and refused to deal with what he'd done.

Confronted by Prompto, this way, Nina was still angry, but something ugly and twisted and horribly betrayed by Prompto's actions felt a little better, at him being here, saying nothing could ever make up for it, what he'd done, and still wanting to do something.

Nina pulled her legs up to her chest, wrapping her arms around her knees, and looked away from him. "Vette will love a kitten," she said muted, and tired, and defeated.

And still angry. She didn't know what to do with the anger.

And Prompto huffed out the breath he'd been holding, partially relieved, his shoulders slumping with it, but there was something else there now, too, a weird sort of disappointment that Nina went and threw that at him, only to then just sit there and dismiss everything he'd just said like that. And then a little flinch, because, really, he couldn't blame her. At all. It would have been nice to have let that all out and have Nina tell him it would be fine, or suggest what else he could do to help make it better, but, really, it wasn't fine and there wasn't anything that could make better. He didn't deserve her sympathy or consolation or any of it.

Still would have been nice, but...

He was quiet for a moment, looking at her, and knowing that even if he looked a fraction as pathetic as he felt, it still wouldn't be nearly pathetic enough. But what could he do about it? Probably nothing. Maybe think of something dumb and small to try to make it up to Nina, too, but...she hadn't even been there, and if the two people who had the most right to be angry with him weren't...

He sharply shook his head to chase that thought away. No. That wasn't right. Everyone had the right to be angry with him right now, and he really couldn't blame Nina at all.

"So..." he finally ventured, quietly, looking away and gesturing slightly with one of his hands, "...you'll help?"

"For Vette," she said, almost a sigh, before looking up at him thoughtfully.

She didn't think she was going to hit him, not right now, though she was going to hold that in reserve, just in case, but she had to… she couldn't just let it pass.

"I know that I'm younger than you," she ventured, finally, after regarding him those few moments with solemn eyes. "And that I'm often rather silly." And Nina was good at being silly. It was fun, it was easy, people liked girls who laughed and had a fun time. "So, like, maybe I missed something, but I don't… I don't understand why you and Norman were so careless. Insomnia is surrounded by a barrier and you'd never try to take that one down on a whim, but it was… okay to do that here? To not even see if you could figure out what was behind the barrier? And I don't get it, because you… everything you want to be involves protecting people, not hurting them."

And that, really, was the crux of things.

"Lana told me to stop thinking about the what 'ifs', but they're… I can't. I keep thinking about if it had happened anywhere else. If you'd brought down a barrier in your home or in my home and there would be no easy fix. No coming back from that. I-If Vette and Sidon hadn't been… hadn't come back to life… and I… I don't know what to do because I'm so mad at you but I'm also… I'm also really sad."

Prompto's eyes danced back toward Nina when he felt her looking at him, but they danced away pretty quickly again. And then he tried to make himself look back, and did a pretty good job of it, too, until her mentioning Insomnia made him flinch. He opened his mouth to say something at that point, and would have stopped himself even if she didn't keep going, and so he just sucked in a breath, looked back at her, and listened.

"It's not like we intended to hurt anyone," he said, quietly, after a long moment, and looked away again. "If anything, we were trying to help. I don't think anyone here will argue with the fact that that barrier....was not a good barrier, Nina. It wasn't there to protect us, not like the one in Insomnia, and that's different, because Insomnia's barrier has always been there. I've spent a lot of time thinking about this, thinking that I should have known better, because of that, but you know what? It's different, and I would know that it's different, because my whole life I've spent under this protective bubble that did nothing but make me feel safe. But when I looked up and I saw that dome there...I didn't feel any of that. I felt the opposite of that, and Norman felt it, too, and that's why we did it, Nina. It was something there to keep us in, so that we weren't a threat to what was going on outside of that barrier."

And now that he was getting some of this out, he was picking up momentum, gaining some speed, all of his emotions rushing at him at once. "You're right to feel mad. And sad. I feel all that stuff, too, and of course, you can't help thinking about all the 'if's, they're all I think about now. But...at the same time, if this was anywhere else, if this was Insomnia or your home, where there weren't easy fixes, then....no, I...I don't think I'd have done it. But it's different here. If Norman and I hadn't done it, Nina, someone else would have. Vette told me she and Sidon were trying to figure it out, Yang told me she'd have done the same thing. We just...got to it first, I guess, and should we have waited and talked to someone and figured out a better plan first? Yeah, of course we should have. Would things have turned out different if I'd have stayed and tried to help? Maybe. Maybe not. We can't know, and we can't change it. People got hurt, important people that both you and I really, really care about, and if you think that doesn't just eat me up inside, then you obviously don't know anything about me, Nina. If you think something like this would happen, and I wouldn't do what I thought was right to help, then...then...."

All the momentum by that time had faded. He didn't think he could get many more words out, anyway, not with how his throat was tight, and he wasn't even sure when he started crying, he didn't even notice it until he sniffled, went to run a hand under his nose and felt that his cheeks were wet, too, and that wasn't any good, so he rubbed his face and sniffed them back and breathed out shakily again.

"I know I'm not any good at this," he managed, but barely. "But I'm trying. I want to be. I will be. But I'm not perfect. I never will be. And I know...there was a lot to risk, but...you know we helped a lot of people too, right, Nina? They're not people you know. They're not people any of us know. But it's not just about helping the people we know."

Edited 2019-05-07 18:02 (UTC)

"I know that!" she snapped, stung at the very idea that she'd only care about those who personally mattered her, even though he was crying and that was terrible and it really had to stop, like right now.

Nina reached out to hook her fingers into his shirt, tug him a bit closer.

"I know that," she repeated, modulating her voice into something softer. "But even on the island there's old people and babies and people who can't defend themselves. It's not just… just people who can, on the island. So… so I just… I know that saving the people on the mainland was important but I just can't… it shouldn't have come at the expense of the safety of everyone on the island either. And… and if it hadn't been you and Norman, then someone would have done it, but nobody should have done it. Not that way. I know you never meant to, you wouldn't ever mean to put peoples' lives and homes in danger."

But she was still so horribly, horribly upset that he had.

"And, like, I don't know how that dome felt. I know that. And… and I know there's no going back in time, there's only going forward. And that it is different here. That it's usually okay to be careless… or to do things you wouldn't, because it's not your home. But… it's someone's home, here."

Prompto wasn't really sure what Nina meant to accomplish by grabbing his shirt like that; in that moment, his first instinct was to just pull away. Especially since he felt if he let her pull him closer, he'd just collapse on her and break down again and that wouldn't do anyone any good, either. So he just sort of stayed uselessly, awkwardly there, with a little futile lift of his arms to emphasize his uselessness.

He didn't even know what she wanted out of this whole conversation right now.

"It wasn't that..." he started, made a frustrated sound, and tried again. "I just...I'm sorry, Nina. I am, you have to know that. And it's....it's fine, if you need to be mad at me, I get it, I just..."

He rolled his eyes a little, glancing away, wanting so badly to say that he wished she wouldn't, but who could seriously blame her? But it was just so frustrating how everyone else seemed willing to forgive him...even himself, a little bit, though not entirely, never entirely...so why couldn't she?

"I'll just go," he said. "I'll send Sidon to get everything set up on Thursday; we're switching shifts at the shelter this semester anyway because of our class schedule, so it's fine. It's whatever. You won't even have to deal with me."

Ah, but see, if she was holding his shirt, he couldn't just run away.

Jerk.

Besides, if she had to deal with her horrible confusion, then he could deal with it being dumped on him. That was super not fair, she knew that, and she didn't care. She was fourteen and sad and allowed to be selfish and confusing and a mess.

"I don't want you to go away! I don't… I don't want to not have to deal with you, you stupid jerk! This would be so much easier if I didn't want to be friends, if I didn't want to laugh with you, or have you visit, or be able to spend time with you or helping you or just hanging out! I want all of that, but I'm still mad and sad and really disappointed!"

So, what? Should Prompto just go ahead and be the actual jerk Nina was suggesting he was? Make it easier for her to just not want any of those things? As if he'd had a real choice in the matter himself. It wasn't like he didn't always tell her...

And there it was. Prompto almost laughed, it seemed so obvious all of a sudden, and he might have if he didn't just still feel like crying.

"Nina," he said. "If you're expecting to be friends with me and not be constantly disappointed, you're gonna have a really bad time."

And he'd told her as much before.

She just never believed him.

Well...now she knew.

Edited 2019-05-07 19:52 (UTC)

The absolute worst part of him beating himself up like that was that, right then and there, Nina was tempted to let him. He should feel bad about everything that had happened. It was terrible and awful and she didn't understand how everyone just got over it so easily.

(Except that Vette couldn't sleep a night through. What was easy about that?)

Nina let her breath out in a hiss.

She was not going to cry in front of him. Nor was she going to hit him (however tempting) or toss him out or… or… stop being his friend.

That last bit came as an almost painful realization because if she really, really was upset, wouldn't she stop being his friend? Shouldn't she—with what he'd done—wouldn't it make sense to stop being his friend, do what he expected her to do, just toss him to the side and forget about him?

But she didn't want to and rationalizing it was impossible. Every thought she had said one thing and her feelings said the complete opposite.

"Don't," she said flatly, looking down. "What you did—my being disappointed—doesn't mean you're worthless."

She grit her teeth, because yes, she was angry at him, but weren't people allowed to be angry with their friends?

"I am disappointed. And I'm mad. And I'm sad. And I'm not going to pretend I'm not." It was a bit late for pretending at this point anyway. "But, as your friend," she looked up at him, "I still love your stupid face. You can't get rid of me. I'm not going to leave because I'm not happy with you."

Prompto tried to look back at Nina when she look at him, but he had to turn his head away after not very long, sighing as he folded his arms defensively in front of himself. "I'm not trying to get rid of you," he said. "I'm just trying to help you. Because eventually, it's going to stop being so much about the 'yeah, you're right, you should be mad and disappointed' and it'll be just a whole bunch of 'I told you so''s."

He shrugged, even with his arms still folded. "I don't know where you seem to be getting this idea that I'm somehow this person you seem to think I am. Especially you. You're, like, the one person at this whole school I've even been remotely honest about it with. I'm just a big, stupid nobody, trying to be someone, and I'm really bad at it. But I guess I'm a whole lot better at pretending then I give myself credit for, huh? Even when I tell somebody as much, they still, somehow, believe me. Or..." He sighed. "Maybe you just want me to be that person, but I'm just...not, Nina. Okay?"

One day, one day, she'd figure out a way to get his boyos to hear any of this and let them squint at him. But all the ways she'd thought of so far were rather… too unethical for her to use for something like this.

"I did think I wanted you to be someone," Nina said, which was kind of an ugly thing to admit right there, wasn't it? "Like, you're handsome, you're sweet, and you're training to be a knight. Which means you're good, and you want to be strong, and protect others. Basically everything I wanted. But you're not just those things. You're awfully stupid sometimes. You're careless. You're lazy in the details and always flying by the seat of your pants. You punish yourself for things no one else cares about and beat yourself up over things long after everyone else has forgotten them. You spend way too much time playing video games. You worry about food. You worry about being good enough. You're lonely and sad. You make mistakes and mess up and break things."

He wasn't much like the knight she'd always wanted at all.

"But you're you. And I like that you a lot more than I don't like that you."

Proympto was geared up to launch into a protest right from the get-go on that (seriously, Nina, did you need glasses now, too?), but any argument he had faltered with a faintly strangled sound the moment she started getting into the other stuff. All of which was resoundingly true, and he was pretty sure he could come up with a few things she'd managed to forget, there, too.

And he didn't know what to say, because how could anyone go down the list and read him for filth like that and still follow it up with...with that?

"Well," he said, figuring he should at least say something, even though all he could think of wasn't really much, "maybe you shouldn't. And then you wouldn't be so angry or disappointed or...sad."

Edited 2019-05-07 21:16 (UTC)

Despite herself, Nina huffed something that was... well, pretty close to a giggle.

She let go of his shirt to bop herself, lightly, on the head.

"Well," Nina said, "I guess I'm pretty stupid too."

"You're not, though," said Prompto, the expression on his face a pained, defeated one, as he tried to grapple with figuring out if she was just doing what she did...what they did...to ignore the heaviness and the complexity and the difficulty, by covering it up with that sheen of happy-go-lucky teasing and bullshit.

But at the same time...if she really didn't see it, if she had it all laid out in front of her like that....

"Well," he amended, with a chuff of a laugh, the ghost of a smirk, "maybe a little."

So whether she meant it sincerely or meant it merely as a tactic, Prompto figured it really didn't matter anymore. He sort of knew what he had to do now.

Nina shifted, dropping her hands, to study him, that huff of air, that expression.

"I am," she said, even though it wasn't something she liked about herself. Though in this case, Nina was willing to be stupid. Nay, in this case, at this point, she was going to embrace it. "I'm too stupid to stop caring about you. So you're just going to have to deal. Even when you're being stupid or careless or a total jerk. Even when you make mistakes or you're sad and you don't want to talk to anybody. Even when I'm mad at you. Even when you think everyone should stay away and leave you alone because you're worthless, you're garbage, you're no good at all. First, you're wrong."

So, so wrong.

"Second, I'm still going to be too stupid to stop caring."

So he was just going to have to cope.

Not wrong, but okay. If he was wrong, he was pretty sure they wouldn't even be having this discussion right now. A discussion he was honestly exhausted of and just wanted to get out of but wasn't exactly sure how to get out of it at the point.

It didn't help that he just didn't know what to say that wouldn't only just spur things on or make them worse.

"Yeah," he finally settled on, rubbing the back of his neck, "that is pretty dumb."

"Yes," she said haughtily, since it seemed wrong to be annoyed with him for agreeing she was stupid when she'd just listed a whole bunch of ways that she was stupid but, well, there it was.

Nina never pretended to be consistent here.

"Now that that's settled," because if it wasn't settled she was just going to hit him with her bookbelt or her diary or possibly toss Foomy at him, "you're still stupid and if you do something like what you and Norman did ever again I'm going to have to beat you up."

That was not a particularly idle threat, either, since sure, Prompto was good with guns. Nina was better at basically every other method of combat no matter that he was older and bigger than her.

"And," she added, in a burst of inspiration, "if you do it again, I'll tell on you like the very worst of bratty little sisters."

Prompto leveled a look at Nina, and felt, for a moment, that it was a real shame he didn't dare make a comment just then about how she kind of already was the very worst of bratty little sisters.

He may have thought he was the absolute worst and everything, but he still had some sense of self-preservation.

"Well, it's not going to matter," he said, "because it's not going to happen again. Not like that. Not ever."

Good boy, Prompto. Good boy and good call.

"Good," Nina said vehemently, then, in one motion, collapsed back on her bed. "Now, like, tell me about this kitten and what all supplies you want to get for Vette??????????????????"

She was still grumpy with him but it was a grumpy that was just going to have to be allowed to fizzle out with time. The worst of it, the ugly, twisting parts, had been satisfied.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Room 221; Tuesday Evening [05/07].

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