Afterparty

[toooldforlosing]

Raylan survived an entire night of being trotted around the party as Hasi's escort without doing anything embarassing, or getting attacked because he was mistaken for someone else. On the whole, he considered this a win.

The truth was, in his work, he'd occasionally been to a fancy party, but always as the outsider. It was work. Boys from Harlan county did not get invited to that sort of party as a guest. It didn't bother him, but it left him feeling a little displaced. (Of course, with some of the people he'd met and seen at the Xanadu affair, he could have been bright green and no one would have batted an eye. It did make a bit of difference.)

Even so, he was glad enough that it was over. He'd had... quite a bit to drink, though his steps were steady enough. Hasi probably knows him well enough by now to tell he's feeling the alcohol a bit, but he's still in control. Maybe glad he's not driving home, but more or less fine. Even though he's quiet, he's relaxed, and with no idea of packing it in just yet.

"I'd ask your place or mine, but frankly, you don't want to see mine. Hell, I don't want to see mine."

Comments

[norea]

She tucks her knees up, tilting her head back against the wall.

"I don't know how you--" Cope with this, with seeing this all the time in his job. A man died in her apartment and she can't stop thinking, over-empathizing, with what he might have left behind. "--I don't know. The last person I saw die in front of me was my husband, and I killed him. I don't think I'll ever be used to seeing that."

Which is maybe a good thing, but understandably doesn't feel like it right now.

[toooldforlosing]

"It's always hard," he says, simply. "If it ain't, you should quit." Because when it stopped being hard, you shouldn't be making the kind of calls you had to make. He probably, himself, wasn't upset as he should be - but then again, he tended not to feel his anger until he couldn't help it anymore.

"You got every right to be upset. It's natural."

[norea]

She presses her fingertips to her collarbones and realizes with muted surprise that her heart is hammering now - she felt the death. It's not the first time she's done that (felt the flare of energy as someone's life left them, and it always hurt), but it's jarring every time.

She reaches for Raylan's hand -- the hands that had blood on them not very long ago -- and, if he's inclined to let her, presses it to her heart so he can feel how fast it's beating.

"It doesn't feel natural," she says, quietly rueful, looking up at him steadily.

[toooldforlosing]

"Why not?" he asks, the question legitimate. If his relationship with Hasi has taught him anything, it's how much he doesn't know. It doesn't bother him, exactly, but it puts him off balance.

His hand is warm against her chest, and he doesn't pull it away.

[norea]

"It catches inside me." She knows she sounds a little crazy when she talks like this, so she tries to push it away, shaking her head again. She lets go of his hand, and pulls herself onto her knees again so she can go to him. He might not want an armful of mildly traumatized Hasi right now, but it's instinctive for her.

"What do we do now?"

[toooldforlosing]

He shifts to be sitting, rather than crouching, so he can hold her more properly. "Well. You've taken care of the logistical part. Do you want to try and sleep?"

[norea]

Things are a little tangled in her head right now, and she shuts her eyes to try to clarify, emotionally, who she is with and what their relationship is. It's not the resemblance that's getting to her now- it's the comfort.

"Maybe," she hedges, after a pause. "Are you going to be able to...?"

[toooldforlosing]

"I don't know," he says, honestly, "but I could try, if you wanted to lie down again."

[norea]

She pulls herself up a little- still leaning on him, but not quite as much- and smooths one hand over her hair.

"Maybe, but I don't... you know you don't have to stay if it's weird. It's been a really fucked-up night." It started off so well, too!

[toooldforlosing]

It really had.

"I'd rather take some time before I go back to Kentucky, to be frank. But if you need to decompress, I can go back to Xanadu for a bit. Stigmata's always open."

[norea]

"No, no, I think you should stay." She gives his arm a squeeze, gentle, breathing out. She has to be okay. It's no good to fall apart when she's not the one who pulled the trigger.

There's a pause.

"After something bad happens," she says, slowly, "you take a holiday. That's how it works. I have a friend in Monte Carlo right now- she lives here in Chelsea, she went off to New York for their fashion week and just...hasn't come back. I could maybe take us all over to hers for the night and tomorrow?"

'Us all,' pets included.

[toooldforlosing]

He considers. He has the day off, and he's not on call. It's his business if he wants to disappear.

"Alright. That sounds good."

[norea]

She reaches for the phone on the little hall table nearby, not quite willing to stand up to get it- it inches closer to her hand without much thought on her part. She dials the number from memory.

"Hi, Hils?"

The conversation that transpires is short and tired; in Hasi's social set, there's a lot of this house-sharing and the like. Most people aren't as private as Hasibe, and she has a knack for making friends quickly, convincing them to let her stay a while here, to loan her a key there. Hilary tells her where the spare key is, and Hasi hangs the phone up.

"You'll like her place," she says, starting to pick herself up, "or I hope you will, anyway."

[toooldforlosing]

He stood, helping her up. "At this point, as long as it has a bed and maybe some food, I'll take it."

[norea]

"Several beds- and a swimming pool, actually." Which she intends to make good use of, after she's slept.

"I'm going to go pack up and get the animals all ready- you go get dressed and meet me by the door in fifteen, okay?"

[toooldforlosing]

"Right. Anything you need me to grab?" As putting a shirt on would not take fifteen minutes.

[norea]

"Leashes, and--oh, I have a packed bag in the back of my closet-room." You know, the terrifying one. "It's white and has a big Chanel C on it, you'll know it when you see it. I'm pretty sure Hil's place is stocked, but I'm going to bring a bottle of something just in case."

They drink a lot, these two. She's a bad influence.

[toooldforlosing]

In more ways than one, probably, but he just nods and follows instructions.

He is sure he has both guns before they go - he doesn't want to be leaving either of them lying about her flat.

[norea]

It's a short walk to the other house, but it's cold and late and she is, quite understandably, a bit spooked, so she's watching their surroundings carefully.

"They've got to be long gone by now, yes?"

[toooldforlosing]

"Yeah," he says, quietly. "Too soon for them to have gone and come back, and they won't be hanging around, not when they don't know if their buddy said anything before he bought the farm."

[norea]

They reach her friend's place (she finds the key underneath a statuette on the front stoop), and the inside is twice as lavish and sizable as Hasi's place. She gives their gilded surroundings a once over, leading Huan and carrying Zabibe inside.

"Does this kind of thing happen to you a lot, Raylan?"

[toooldforlosing]

"Define 'this kind of thing,'" he says.

[norea]

"Strange men busting in during the middle of the night," she shrugs, taking care to ... securely lock that door behind Raylan.

[toooldforlosing]

"Not often." He looks back at her. "Most of the shit I get, I get in the line of duty. Directly or otherwise."

He'd be targeted in his home, but if he'd let things be, that wouldn't happen.

[norea]

"Aren't we lucky to have received a house call." Well- Hasi knows that was about her and her interesting collection of books, but Raylan got to deal with it with her, so he's included in that.

"They'll come back eventually, probably. I'll have to figure out what to do with that."