i brought you something. (closed)

[noscope]

who. north (noscope) and carolina (myturn)
what. north brings home a burned varren pup after the event.
where. their home in zeta district.
when. right after the event.
warnings. sap and north generally making up for making Bad Decisions before now.

The whole mess with the water supply being offline, the space monkeys and the fire and the varren had been a lot for him to handle. Granted, he knew things weren't exactly going to go smoothly when they showed up here, but he'd at least thought they might catch a break since the last bit of nonsense they'd encountered.

.. Yeah. Like he could ever catch a real break. Even outside of the Project, things weren't that simple.

It wasn't until he was walking around on his own, trying to scope out the damage to see if there was anything he could help fix when he saw it. A tiny little thing huddled up in a corner, curled in on itself and whimpering. North couldn't help but to squint at it, because if it was what he thought it was? He couldn't imagine one of those things whimpering for anything.

Except, when he got closer, it was exactly what he thought it was.

He crept closer, worried that the varren would react as most injured animals do - but to his surprise, the little thing practically crawled into his arms the second he got close enough to it, and there was no way in the world that he could leave it behind. Looking down at it, even as he was making his way back to their home, he was already wondering what Carolina was going to think when she saw it.

He really was hoping she would take pity on the thing, considering it had a burned paw and had probably lost its mother to the fire. Which .. was really damn depressing.

".. Roxie?" he called as he stepped through the door, peeking into their living room looking for her. "I .. I have something to show you."

Comments

[ex_myturn41]

And that ship had been dangerous above all else- dangerous in ways that their normal line of work wasn't. Getting lost in mazes and dying of mysterious illnesses- something she still didn't like to remember and dwell on- it was all entirely worse than what they had to face at home.

The fact that he kept his opinion to himself on that one was something she was grateful for. She didn't want to be coddled and treated like a child- she knew what she was doing. And she knew North, above all other people, would understand that.

That little kiss, though, had her blinking. Made her look up with some small bit of confusion even if she didn't put words to it. He looked oddly pleased but she can't put her finger on why, even if she's glad he is. She nods to his comments, looking down at the pup in his lap again with some contemplation. "We can try it. If it's too much, we'll have to look into something else, but... we'll give her a try."

[noscope]

The fact that they both remembered dying - the fact that they'd died period was traumatizing enough - but remembering it was something else entirely, and knowing that they'd actually come out of it all right was something that he was willing to forgive and let go.

Because if he'd somehow managed to lose her indefinitely .. there was something about it that he just couldn't think about, and that was all there was to it. He couldn't think about being without her. In any capacity.

But she was still agreeing to keeping the pup - at least for the time being - and that alone had him smiling wider than he thought he had in a while. At the very least, since he'd been able to start spending more time with her again. "Really? You're sure?"

[ex_myturn41]

Dying had been terrible, certainly, and remembering it even worse. She had been so glad to wake up in the gravity couch after that, to find him afterward and hang on to him, that she doesn't think she can ever forget that. Even if some nights she wishes she could.

The thought of losing him is something she doesn't want to entertain. She's seen what something like that does to people, and she doesn't ever want to have to live through it herself.

She was more than a little amused with how much he was smiling about it and she nodded to his question. The pup in his lap looked pleased as anything and, well, it was pretty easy to keep delivering rubs and scratches to the wiggling creature. "I'm sure. If those weird looking bastards with too many teeth can handle these, I think we'll be ok."

[noscope]

The one thing that he would never forget about that - aside from the pain - was that he'd been terrified that it would be permanent. That he would never get to feel her close to him again, see her smile. Know that she was safe and taken care of, and once they'd found each other again once the whole thing had blown over, it had been incredibly difficult to let go of her.

If he'd been just a little protective of her since then, even more than he usually was, well .. he didn't think he could really be blamed for that. Not in the slightest.

It was ridiculous, really, how much he was smiling about something as simple as keeping an alien dog. (That was what he was calling it, even though it sounded just a bit .. not-nice, but he didn't think the varren would know the difference either way.) The laugh he gave at her response was genuine, pleased. "Well, then .. what should we name her?"

[ex_myturn41]

She's been more than a little protective of him, too. While being back home had her relaxing just a little, because at least then she knew what the threats were, having died with him on the floor of that ship made the idea of losing him all too real. If he's been more protective of her, well, she hasn't exactly noticed.

The only person who's been overprotective of her these days is York, as far as she can tell. And she doesn't exactly appreciate it.

But he seems pleased about the pet, even if she's a little bemused by the entire thing. She never pegged North for wanting a pet so much, but she's glad to give him this. It will be a welcome distraction, at least, to focus on training this little thing. "Hrm, we're sure she's a she?" she wondered, looking the animal over.