raisetheearth | home is where the heart is

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home is where the heart is

Who: Rakka and Raye
What: The aftermath of the Shepard's Haven attack has raised... some concerns.
Where: Shepherd's Haven, Rakka and Raye's house
When: Sometime in the afternoon, the 5th

The fires in Shepard's Haven.... What a mess.

So many people hurt or scared by the attack, so much money to go into repairs, and all the people that heard about it on TV. Some people were giving their sympathies to the Numbered plight, while others... others had chosen to mock them for it. They'd even took it onto the national news, as she learned this slow afternoon as she sat on her living room couch. People were talking about any number of thing, but the "issue" with the Numbered arose again and again.

Bleh. It just never was as simple as that first year was, where they merely had to go into hiding and fight some aliens along the way. Now, it was so...big. As big as the world itself. It wasn't bad, but...

A sigh. That was enough TV for today, and grabbed up the remote to switch it off. She'd just surf the net on her laptop for the rest of the afternoon, and then.... Well, she didn't know what she'd do next yet. Anything could happen.

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Ugh. What a fucking month it's been. Between the mysterious monster attacks and that crazy son of a bitch attacking the small village.... It had been a ton of work just cleaning up after everything. By some miracle, their home hadn't been badly damaged but there'd still been a decent amount of fire and smoke damage to clean up. And that was just their house... as the resident heavy lifter she'd been hard at work helping reconstruction ever since.

... And needless to say she'd been in a sour mood. She never showed it much around home, certainly never toward Rakka or Abigail but the signs were there for anybody who knew her. Long, recklessly fast motorcycle rides, whole afternoons spent in the garage or elsewhere with raging, heavy metal blasting out. Time to herself and plenty of angry music, the classic signs of a sour mood.

But it seemed that mood at finally come to a head this afternoon. As Rakka's net surfing is interrupted by Raye abruptly dropping onto the couch beside her, wrapping her arms around her tight and burying her face into her shoulder.

"... I'm really glad you're okay." That's probably about the hundredth time she's said that. Doesn't matter. She'd been dragging her way through some dark thoughts and having Rakka close was just what she needed right now.

Yes, there had been no small shortage of work to get done after the attack was halted... Pff, "attack" - A terrible prank on the Numbered, more then anything. Rakka cringed at what it meant for their current standing in the world. But this could have happened to anyone! They were as Human as the rest of the world!

...Well. Some of them were. A thought she needed to keep in mind a she figured out her problems with the news that day. More and more, she'd stated to worry about how things were happening, even as she poured her own money and resources into the costs of repairing the town. She couldn't do as much labor as her girlfriend, but that didn't mean Rakka wouldn't help.

The rest of the time after that had been... stressful, and rather morose. Raye dealt with it with living loudly and dangerously, and Rakka chose her own way. Noticeably, she was quieter these past few days, staying inside more often, keeping her eyes on her laptop.

What could she really do, but wait?

She nearly drops her laptop as Raye plops down, but it's gonna get set aside anyways, so it's fine.

"... I know." Rakka knew how much Raye worried. The least she could do was return that hug. Raye being here... made a lot of things better. "Really Raye, I'm fine. The fire didn't get me, too much."

Raye hadn't bothered to check the news very often since it happened, not that she ever really did. The thoughts and feelings of the rest of the world weren't her damn problem anymore, as far as she was concerned, not since... that one incident months back. Besides, she could already take a guess and she didn't need the extra stress.

No, everything she cared about was right here. Or if it wasn't right here at the moment, it at least had a house here.

She makes an unhappy sound at Rakka's remark about the fire, and her arms go around her a little tighter. Her head comes to rest on her shoulder.

"It shouldn't've got you at all." She mumbles unhappily

Raye made a good decision, on the stress part. Rakka was just a bundle of nerves at time already. This sort of news really wasn't something she needed right now, but, what could she do?

...For starters, she could shift herself a bit, bring her arms around Raye, and turn this into a cuddling session. That was fine, right? Rakka didn't think Raye would object to that.

"Raye...." Still, she knew Raye's unhappiness wouldn't be so easily fixed. It was a mess they found themselves in. She pressed her lips to the top of Raye's head, a simple kiss.

"I'm still here, Raye. Right here."

Cuddling was good. Cuddling was definitely good right now. It gave her something to hold onto after a good while of being miserable alone. Rakka was still here, still safe and sound and that alone was enough to drag her away from that one though she didn't dare let take too much shape in her mind. The one that made her heart twist in terror at even considering.

"I know." She mumbled again, closing her eyes briefly at the kiss pressed to her head. "I'm just... I'm not sure if 'right here' is the right place for us right now...."

It was awful that, even in this situation, Rakka had no idea about the thought circulating through her girlfriend's mind. Would she worry about it? Of course she would, Raye would always garner some amount of concern from her girlfriend, nigh-invulnerability or not. She knew how badly Raye would worry when she was in the thick of danger... and the thought that her worries weren't entirely unfounded had struck Rakka now and then.

She didn't expect what Raye said next, catching the hint rather quickly. "...You think we should leave Shepard's Haven?"

"I dunno... maybe? Yes?" She gave a heavy sigh, not even sure what she herself thought of the whole thing. She Shepard's Haven well enough, and she'd put a bunch of work into the place. Not just in the house they're in right now but the whole town had seen at least some of Raye's handiwork. Even if it was just pitching in on the heavy-lifting aspect. It wasn't that she wanted to leave, far from it. The little village had been her home for quite awhile now, but...

Well, since when had Raye ever let what would make her happy be a priority?

"It's just... we came here to get away from all that crap, have a place where we didn't have to worry about fighting, y'know? Now it's comin' here anyway, so...." She trailed off, looking down.

".... Hmm..." It wasn't like Rakka didn't have things to say to that. It was just... well, she was tired. Same as Raye was. Shepard's Haven really was going to be their safe place, somewhere they could go and get away from things for a while, and nothing could touch them. Rakka had put a lot of effort of her own, and money, into this place.

And she did it again. Because it turns out that they weren't too safe here either.

In came another kiss, this time to Raye's temple. "...Yeah, I know. And... I've thought about it too, a little."

Her gaze shifted back to the TV. "...Where would we go?"

"... I don't know." She admitted with a heavy sigh after a few moments of thought. She closed her eyes at the kiss and then followed Rakka's gaze to the TV.

Where the heck could they go? Locke City was out, and the rest of the States wasn't all that more accepting. Maybe Tokyo or somewhere in Europe or... damnit, this was starting to sound stupid even to her. And unfair. Rakka had already put so much resources and investment into this place. And then Abigail... she'd already been moved around so much and to just shuffle off to another country.

Ugh, what the fuck was she doing?

"Christ, I bring it up and I don't even have any ideas." She raised a hand, scrubbing it over her face and muttered. "Sorry, I'm just being an idiot."

That admission... Rakka goes silent, letting the two of them just lay there, together, the rambling sounds of the TV being the only white noise to fill the room.

"...You're really worried about me," she finally states, Rakka's voice a little over a murmur as she tries to look into Raye's eyes. "aren't you?"

She barely even hears the TV droning on, the sound of her own words beating it out as they bounce around in her head. It all seems so silly to her, so she lets the silence hang between them, resting her head on Rakka's shoulder and letting herself lean on her for once.

"Of course I am." She practically whispers back, taking a second before she raises her eyes to meet Rakka's. "And it's not that I don't think you can take care of yourself, I know you're strong. It's just... I think about what could have happened and I...."

She can't hold Rakka's eyes anymore and her gaze drops away, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Sometimes it feels like you're the only thing holding me together and if..." the very idea dies in her throat, as if she can't bring herself to speak it into existence, "... I don't think I could make it through that."

It was getting hard to listen to the news anyways, Rakka had other immediate things that she wanted to focus on. Like Raye, she especially wanted to focus on the dark-haired woman sitting in her arms. This person who had slowly come to be one of the most important people to her.

"You mean, like in the fire..." Even with the television on, Rakka could hear Raye's words loud and clear. She always knew that Raye worried for the longest time about her, before she became a precure... and after.

She just wasn't sure how much.

"Raye...." Her arms noticeably tighten a little around the taller woman, like she doesn't want to let go.

Her tone turns even, though it's just as quiet as Raye's whispering. "...Do you remember at that funeral, when I got you to promise not to die?"

Edited 2016-01-19 04:11 (UTC)

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