[PRP] Amongst the Rubble (Ami/Lex) [FIN]

[chiickadee]

Ami just stared at the dilapidated house with a heavy, but strangely mundane sigh. It wasn't like this was anything new. She'd just hoped to delay the inevitable a bit longer, that was all.

Walking through what was left of the doorway, Ami was displeased to find that most of the entry room and kitchen had been eliminated. The structure was still somewhat in place, but it was a repair she'd need Marcus' help for. The bedroom was no longer in tact, fire having burned through the whole thing, but her clothes were (luckily) protected by the thickness of the dresser they'd been kept in. Her dresses that had been hanging in their closet suffered a bit more, but at least ALL of her clothes weren't gone.

The books though.

The books though.

Ami just sort of stared with a malaise and an empty dissatisfaction. Damn you, insanity titan.  

[Carhop Cavalier]

A small echoed sigh came from behind the woman, a warm hand squeezing her smaller shoulder. He was glad they'd made it out alive, at the least, but...their poor house. He supposed he should have expected it when he moved in, but actually seeing the catastrophic damage to the place he'd called home was different than just the theory.

And while Ami's clothes were stored in a thick dresser that he was thoroughly convinced to be indestructible, they'd kept his in the closet with her dresses. Digging through the rubble, he managed to pull out one pair of relatively okay jeans. That left him with...a shirt and two pairs of jeans. "Well, this sucks."

He smiled nonetheless, folding the jeans and tucking them under an arm. He pursed his lips as he looked back to Ami, giving her a puckered smile. "You think Marcus and his crew have repaired my dorm by now?"  

[chiickadee]

"I do not want a dorm," she responded dejectedly. "I want my books."  

[Carhop Cavalier]

"And I want more than one pair of underwear." He retorted with an undertone of disappointment, but a cheeky grin. "But we can't all have what we want, dear."  

[chiickadee]

Ami's mouth opened for a comment, but she shut it, face slowly steeling over. She instead chose to say nothing, moving to rummage through the piles of nothingness. She did, however, scrunch up her nose at the idea of one pair of underwear. That was disgusting.

"I'll need Marcus' help on the kitchen, but the living room and bedroom should be easy enough." She'd learned the last time she'd had to do this by herself. "Grab what you can and we'll move it to your dorm."

There was no excitement in her voice, but neither was there an annoyance. Just a despondent sense of urgency, moving her to scavenge what books she could fit in her arms.  

[Carhop Cavalier]

"Of course." Lex nodded, picking up a few loose odds and ends around the scattered rubble. A few books, a scarf, even a semi usable bunch of pens. It wasn't much of a victory - but they had to take the small victories if they wanted to remain above the metaphorical water.

< Really sucks, Whelp. Really really sucks. >

The man's eye twitched, not justifying the Gryphon with a response. Yes, it did suck, but they needed to stay positive. Optimism, however thin, was their best bet. Ami more than likely thought the exact opposite - but she was used to the cynic's mind.

"I don't think there's anything left here to scavenge, Ami. Let's get out of here - it's not good to just stick around." Especially when he could see goliath silhouettes in the distance.  

[chiickadee]

"There's more here, we'll just have to come back for it later," Ami said stubbornly, turning heel and heading towards the dorms.

< Chin up dude! You could have lost like ... me!! >

Kindly learn the art of appropriate timing.  

[Carhop Cavalier]

"Of course, love." Lex responded, giving her back a wan smile. The condensed tenacity of his girlfriend never made for a dull moment in the Raine-Jamil house - even if the house was badly damaged. Sighing as he looked over his shoulder again, he flinched a little to see the silhouettes were getting closer.

Once at the dorm, Lex placed his cargo off to the side before falling into his newly restored bed, just as uncomfortable as before. He sighed at the ceiling, crossing his arms. "Well...at least we have a bed, shelter, some sort of food? That fulfills at least the base of Maslow's pyramid..."  

[chiickadee]

Without turning around, Ami said, "Stop flinching like that." She could just tell. "They aren't getting any closer." She assured them both of that.

---

Having arrived behind Lex, Ami shrugged her own belongings onto the standardized desk all hunters received. "You shower first," she grunted, sitting on the very corner of the bed. "I ... want time to arrange where things will go."

Yes. That was totally it.  

[Carhop Cavalier]

"Not much space to arrange, but go for it dear." He smiled, pulling out a pair of underwear that hadn't been taken by the bracelet explosion from the dresser. Well, at least he had two pair now. He gave the petite Huntress a peck on the cheek, grabbed a towel from the closet, and headed for the communal showers.

Hopefully they could repair the house soon.  

[chiickadee]

Ami, almost out of spite, rubbed her cheek as though to remove the kiss. Even now she wasn't overly fond of lovey dovey s**t, even things like an innocent kiss on the cheek weirded her out. She sorely wished he'd stop using pet names, but there was no stopping Lex when he'd caught on to something.

She was thankful the Codex had been moved to a lab for further examination this week, unlike its usual spot in her house. It was a lucky break that the Codex had been moved. It was also a lucky break that Lex had a dorm at all. Additionally, it was lucky that most of her clothes survived.

Yet Ami felt less lucky than Mrs. Hutchinson in The Lottery. Instead of arranging anything at all, she slumped sideways, laying herself on the pillow. The sheets stank with abandonment, and the room already had a thin film of dust across it. This wasn't home.

She clutched the other pillow tightly to her chest, and for the duration of Lex's entire shower, she just laid there on her side, mind thinking and analyzing every part of this terrible, horrible luck.  

[Carhop Cavalier]

Scrubbing himself down carefully, making sure to get every niche of his body, Lex let a stream of thoughts trail through his mind. It was fortunate this dorm hadn't been given to one of the freshly awoken Hunters, and it was fortunate that he was even able to shower still. He was fortunate that he was alive, and that she was alive. Their home could be rebuilt, dresses and clothing could easily be bought.

He took the soap to his hair, lathering up the long locks before dunking his head under the ice water spurting from the nozzle. It was unfortunate, however, that this entire thing had happened. They were defenseless for the most part, having to rely on a system so painfully base on pure luck that their entire lives were a gamble with even higher stakes than before Merlin and Excalibur had done their dance. They were both stressed out, everyone was, which created a toxic environment, prone to exploding at the smallest spark.

On the way back to his room, he'd hung his head in an unfortunately growing common display of defeat. They were screwed - if the monsters didn't kill them, they'd kill each other. Caelius seemed more than happy to do that. Lex wouldn't put it past H, or even Allan if necessary, to take out more of their subordinates. He opened the door and took note of the woman slumped on his bed, looking about as down in the dumps as he was. He took a seat next to her, ran a hand through her hair, and sighed out a "Tag, you're it."  

[chiickadee]

Ami rose silently, blank look in her eyes as she avoided meeting Lex's. Sulking off to the showers, she'd realized she lacked any sort of hygienic materials. Sighing, she realized she'd have to pawn off someone. Stormy was on this floor, wasn't he?

---

She returned to the room as wordlessly as she'd left. Lex being on the bed, she took the opportunity to curl up to his side, hair just barely damp still and clothes from the day still on. She didn't feel like putting pajamas on yet.

"The whole reason I bought a house was to be away from these ingrates," she said quietly. "Now it seems I've become one." The tiniest sigh escaped her without meaning to and with it, her appearance seemed to become years older and more tired than ever. "We're going to need a plan. We'll survey the house tomorrow in our spare time and see what needs reparations, then we'll have to ... I don't know, beg Mark to let us through a portal or - I don't know." For once, there was something Ami didn't know

carhop cavalier

3 yrs later

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

Taking the opportunity to draw Ami a little closer before resting his chin on her slightly wet locks, he sighed alongside her with a defeated smile. "Of course. Maybe if we threaten to sick Kat on Mark, he'll even avoid telling Caelius that we'd left." He joked, though a little serious too. Hell, they probably wouldn't even need to do anything to convince Kat to prey on Mark's fear of the woman.

Grey eyes wandering around the neglected room in a silent survey of the distress they were in, Lex resigned himself to mirthless face as his gaze went to the ceiling. They were so helpless right now; practically defenseless. It was all really a matter of time before some other harbinger of Insanity, or Distortion, or Fear decided to visit their violence upon the island. "This isn't what I signed up for. No one told me we'd be attacked - we were supposed to be the heroes; but we're just struggling victims lashing out when we can." His brow furrowed as he griped, grip on Ami loosening. "I guess I was just naive to believe I'd be saving the world."  

[chiickadee]

Ami didn't break even the slightest of smiles at his mention of Kat and Mark. She knew very well just how terrible Kat's wrath could be. It was certainly an option though.

"Shut up," she said, tiredly moving to sit more squarely between his legs. "You knew that. Don't act like its a revelation fit for prophecy." The inevitability of death was a flimsy subject between the two. Lex had yet to be as close to it as Ami had, thus the tension.

Honestly, Ami could've cared less about their vitality. She was more worn by the fact that the effort had to be spent fixing their house when it could be better spent elsewhere. Seeing Lex's own expression softened her own, and she put a hand up to stroke his hair gently. "I'm sorry, its just a tired subject," she murmured. "Knighthood doesn't suit you."

carhop cavalier