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Post by Delilah A. Black on Aug 24, 2013 19:02:09 GMT -8
Sitting on the couch was a pile of folded clothes; a new-ish looking pair of jeans and a black wife-beater. A small note sat on top if it.
Back in a sec, grabbing dinner.
The rest of the room was open to his exploration. On the shelf sat several pictures in self-made frames (seeming to be a recurring theme in this place). One of Delilah sitting in a window, holding a small bundle in her arms. Another of a small, white haired boy with one solid black eye and one bright blue. A third picture held two people who might look familliar to Cain; Two men with eye-patches, one a blue-green haired grump of a man sitting across from the other, a man with long white hair and a satisfied smirk. Standing attentively beside the latter was the boy again, peering at the chess board that lay between them. A fourth one was at the other end of the mantle, face down. The other side showed a younger, less scarred Delilah leaning her head against the shoulder of a man with shaggy blue hair and two eyes that were black as pitch. The glass in the frame was cracked, as though it had been knocked over once or twice. All the pictures had various signs of fire damage on them.
Other than that, there wasn't much. Assorted weapons near the door. Some armour beside the couch, covered in black spikes. A shoebox on top of the cupboards in what passed for the kitchen. Other than that, there were the rooms, and the chest of toys beneath the mantle.
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Post by Vespyr on Aug 24, 2013 19:21:27 GMT -8
Once Cain had read the note and slipped into the new clothes, he sat idle at the kitchen table for about a minute. After that, though, he rose to his feet again and let his sullen eyes wander around the apartment. The framed photographs afforded nothing more than a glance; it felt like peering through a window at something very private, which normally wouldn't have bothered Cain, but did now for some reason when it came to her. His gaze would skip over anything reminiscent of her son for reasons he could not explain. It made him unhappy to think about so he avoided thinking about it, and he didn't pry his own heart about the reasons. The face down picture prompted to be lifted only momentarily, then set down again with a slight sigh.
For a second he thought about poking around in the kitchen cabinets for something to drink, but a moment later that notion was struck down by a pang of penitence. He dragged his feet over to the couch to rest until Delilah returned. Depending on how long that was, she would probably find the man slumped with his head leaning heavily on his hand, asleep.
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Post by Delilah A. Black on Aug 24, 2013 19:41:27 GMT -8
It was only a couple of minutes after Cain had seated himself on the couch when Delilah returned, two paper plates of food balanced on one of her arms as she shoved the door open with her foot. She swept in, placing the plates down on the coffee table before whisking herself off to the kitchen to grab plastic forks for the basa fillets, white rice, and corn on the cob. She'd even managed to snag a few packets of soy sauce from the various collection of chinese restaurants that had been ransacked in the early days.
Returning with this and a large glass of water in hand for Cain, Delilah sat down on the couch beside him with a tired sigh. Leaning forward slightly, she reached up to the back of her head and undid the clip that fastened the ebony hair in place, tumbling down to her shoulders like ink poured from a jar. For a while, Delilah would simply lean her head back against the couch and close her eyes, breathing slowly. Calming herself.
Her already frazzled emotional state was amplified by Cain's grief. She couldn't deal with his emotions if she couldn't handle her own. She needed to take a step back from her own mind and take a moment.
After several minutes she finally opened her eyes lolling her head slightly to the side to look at Cain, lips curving upwards into a slight smile. "Good shower?"
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Post by Vespyr on Aug 24, 2013 20:28:59 GMT -8
The door opened, and somewhere behind his eyelids Cain stirred but did not open his eyes. It wasn't until Delilah sat on the couch that he did, just in time to watch the hair cascade over her shoulders. By the time she had leaned back with her eyes closed, he had already done the same. An ambiguous amount of time passed, half-conscious, until he heard her move again.
"Yeah, it was nice."
Cain lifted his head from his hand and sat up a little straighter, red eyes meandering to the table. He leaned forward, with his elbows on his knees and stared at the plate of food appreciatively.
"Thanks," he added, and picked up the fork with awkward hesitancy. The last time he hadn't eaten with his hands seemed like such a long time ago. Then the next few minutes would pass unbearably fast as he ate, stopping once in the middle of the meal to refill his glass of water to its brim, and resuming, his fork stabbing diligently down to the very last grain of rice.
A satisfied sigh was all the man could muster as he leaned back and slumped into the couch, feeling considerably less empty than before in one way and another. He kept the glass of water in his hand and drowsily watched Delilah without feeling the need to say anything, and for once not feeling the need to do anything either. He took another sip of the water.
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Post by Delilah A. Black on Aug 24, 2013 21:06:52 GMT -8
Watching him with a raised brow and a vaguely amused smile, Delilah picked up her own fork and began to eat, much more slowly in comparison to Cain. She couldn't imagine he was eating overly well where he usually was. It made her feel bad, sort of; Here she was forcing herself food that was beginning to taste like cardboard to her, not because she felt like eating but because she needed the nutrients, and Cain probably had to subsist on...lizards and cacti or some shit.
Once she had eaten what she could, which was just over half of the plate, She dusted her hands twice and sat back again, turning her head to look a at Cain who was finally looking right at her with those coals for eyes he had in his head. She managed another smile.
"So. ...Been busy, huh?"
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Post by Vespyr on Aug 24, 2013 21:16:24 GMT -8
Cain swallowed, and gave a slight nod.
"More or less yeah," he said, pausing only to double-check that he wasn't about to disclose anything he shouldn't have. "Moving around all the time, lootin' and shit."
'Looting and shit' would be putting the nature of their business rather lightly, but Delilah would probably be able to tell that without any help from Cain-- especially after what he had already vaguely described and insinuated in the few letters he had sent. The man took another drink of water and closed his eyes for a long moment, slowly nodding to himself. He swallowed.
"It's good though. I like bein' on the road and all, but this is nice too."
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Post by Delilah A. Black on Aug 24, 2013 21:29:33 GMT -8
She noted the rather ambiguous "and shit" that he added to his sentence with a small shake of her head. Impassive as ever. Some things never changed. And she found herself glad for it.
"'This', huh" she echoed with a soft, wistful note in her voice. As he had spoken, her fingers had curled up into her hair at the root, running her hand through her hair, clenching it at the crown, releasing, and repeating.
"I can imagine. I haven't left the city in...oh, years now." and no end to that dry spell in sight.
She shifted closer to him, curling her legs up on the couch and propping her arm against the back of the chair to continue massaging her scalp. Looking at him with soft chips of ice behind black lashes.
"What's America like out there?"
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Post by Vespyr on Aug 24, 2013 21:40:02 GMT -8
Cain's brow tensed thoughtfully and regarded her with a look like he was about to say something she wasn't expecting to hear; or maybe, she was.
"Empty. Y'know, we haven't run into any of Barker's guys since we crossed outta Cali. And I'm tellin' you, we've gone a long way since and still no sign of him. Took over the world, my ass." he grunted. Of course with his limited understanding and apathy toward politics, Cain didn't know how much of a game-changer that fact might be later on. It was all very convenient as far as he cared.
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Post by Delilah A. Black on Aug 24, 2013 21:50:02 GMT -8
Delilah listened closely, turning his words over in her mind as if panning for gold in a small stream. Not much different than what she had heard from Stu when he returned. A thought occured to her, and her vision narrowed slightly.
"Were there any other groups out there? How many people each? Women? Children?"
It wasn't super important, but once the wheel started spinning, it was hard to make it stop.
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Post by Vespyr on Aug 24, 2013 21:58:17 GMT -8
Cain stared into his water cup.
"Well there's all these towns. I guess the kinda small groups of people you'd expect to find out in the middle of nowhere," he recalled before he took the last drink of water and set the cup on the coffee table. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and turned his gaze over to Delilah with an honest look.
"They're all gone now, though. You wouldn't find nobody out there but us."
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Post by Delilah A. Black on Aug 24, 2013 22:13:48 GMT -8
Delilah nodded her understanding, eyes switching off to the left for a second. Interesting.
So, apart from the insinuation that they were the reason that no one was in that part of America anymore, that there were some places out there still functioned mostly as normal? ...It made sense. Barker was concentrating on problem areas. It would be stupid of him to spread out his forces so thin as to have an outpost in every town. It simply wasn't feasible. Which put to rest the thought that if those areas had been empty to begin with, that Barker had been harvesting people for his sick experiments in droves.
For now, at least. It was easy to see that as his 'solution' for heavily populated areas, like New York. But that was all speculation, and she had no way of knowing for sure.
Giving her head a small shake, Delilah forced her brain to turn itself off for a moment. Her eyes flicked back to Cain's, and then down, to his neck. Staring for a moment.
Leaning towards him slowly, she reached for the bird-skull necklace she had given him, seeing if it was indeed hanging on his neck. If it was, she would hold the long pendant in her hands, gazing down at the little piece with a sombre look in her eye. If it wasn't there, her gaze would rest on his adam's apple.
"It's kept you safe, so far?"
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Post by Vespyr on Aug 24, 2013 22:50:42 GMT -8
She would find the necklace there of course; it was almost as permanent a fixture on Cain as his tattoos. His eyes would follow her attention down to the pendant with similar focus.
"Seems that way," he affirmed. Cain withdrew his warm hand from the stretched pocket of the gray jacket and cupped it against her hands cradling the charm. His deadpan gaze shifted over to Delilah, hardly cryptic. His other hand emerged to guide her toward him as he leaned back, so as to lie down on the couch with the woman hugged to his chest. His eyes shut as soon as the back of his head touched the cushion and he breathed a long sigh out his nose like the hiss of a doused flame. Perhaps uncharacteristic, the man would be complacent just having her there as he lapsed back to dozing.
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Post by Delilah A. Black on Aug 24, 2013 23:20:01 GMT -8
Large, spindly fingers encased her own, easily twice the size of hers. She marveled at their warmth. Her eyes lifted to his face, only to connect gazes again. His expression was flat, unreadable. But was that...she could have sworn that there was a softness to his eyes that wasn't there before and had never been. Her heart seized painfully in her ribcage, completely unexpected.
He began gently urging her toward him and she followed suit, laying down with him on the couch, her head tucked into the space between his collarbone and jaw. Their hands rested on his chest, hers cupped around the pendant and his enfolding hers. Experience told her to be wary, but for whatever reason, she couldn't bring her body to tense up at all. As his long sigh lifted and lowered her head on his exhale, she closed her eyes and sunk her teeth into her lower lip.
Now? Now I have time to regret this?
She thought she knew him. Or at least, at the time, she thought she was able to guess at his thoughts and feelings...or lack thereof, to be accurate. It was almost like he was a completely different person. She marveled at that, felt herself drawn to it in a way that was different than how she had once looked at him. He had changed, whether because of her influence or because he learned the true finality of consequences and death...and now she would never get to know this new man.
Quietly despairing, she turned her head slightly to press her nose against his neck, curling into him. It would take her sometime before she dozed, bu eventually, sleep would come and her dreams would move to the steady beat of his heart.
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Post by Vespyr on Aug 24, 2013 23:41:45 GMT -8
Eleven hours. If undisturbed, Cain would sleep for that long, his body compensating for the 36 or so during which he had not slept at all. The rising and sinking of his chest was unnaturally but comfortably warm as if she were nestled against a sleeping tiger. It was around midnight when he finally stirred, first moving his hand a few inches from its current position, and then grazing his fingertips gingerly against whatever was there.
If Delilah had gone elsewhere by that time, Cain would sit up, blinking sleep away from his eyes. But if she was still on the couch, he would remain where he was, only opening his eyes to stare blankly at the ceiling for a few minutes. There were no discernible fragments of dreams to be found, but Cain awoke with the feeling that he had been somewhere though he couldn't recall why. It was an unsettling feeling, but he liked where he was right now. Perhaps it was the feeling that he would soon be somewhere else.
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Post by Delilah A. Black on Aug 25, 2013 0:06:20 GMT -8
As Cain stirred, Delilah groaned a small protest against his neck and burrowed deeper, still mostly asleep. The hand he brushed his fingers against would twitch, then clutch at his shirt and the pendant, then relax again.
Slowly, after that mild disturbance, her body silently urged her frazzled mind awake. She didn't feel refreshed or renewed; sleep was usually impossible for her these days anyway, same as eating. When she did sleep, it was usually nightmares, the sort of things that only seemed possible while sleeping. She would clack her teeth together once and a soft growl emanated from her throat. Despite this, she curled herself closer around the warm beast she was nestled against.
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