[PRP] The Couch Has Ears (Otto + Molly)

[Bittiface]

Otto was nearly boiling over now. He'd been stewing over certain thoughts and musings too many times it was becoming obscured. He needed to vent. Not just to himself, where the feedback was certain to be negative and detrimental to his psyche. No, he needed to actually talk to someone.

Lately, not a lot of his closest most trusted people were around. He barely seemed to see anyone he used to know. But there was one person he was growing a little attached to. Someone he knew would listen.

And so, Otto banged several times on Candace's door, knowing full well Molly might be there. Molly, as much as he was loathe to admit, was a lot like a Mother. A kind but stern presence who could help him sort his thoughts.  

[Lucyal]

Molly was indeed in.

She was sunk into the couch, in her sleep clothes, and holding a warm cup of coffee between her freckled hands. She wasn’t doing anything in particular…more in a daze than anything else really, until there was banging on the door. The Mist trainee startled, jarring the coffee cup in her hands, but luckily not spilling it. She blinked back into awareness, and a worried frown pulled on her lips. Who could be knocking like that? Hopefully it wasn’t someone for Miss Candace, as the woman was out right now.

Setting her cup down on the table, Molly pulled herself up from the couch and made her way to the door. Undoing the locks, she opened it, and immediately beamed as she caught sight of Otto. “Hello!” She chirped, and tilted her head, waiting.  

[Bittiface]

"Uh.. Hi. Um.. is it just you? Can I come in?" Not that he had a problem if Candace was in, but he really didn't need a crowd for his rare need to dispel his inner demons. Opening up was hard enough without an audience.

Once there was enough room, Otto slipped past Molly to weasel his way into the room. "Sorry.. were you gunna sleep? Maybe I should go..." She was in sleep clothes. And hey, maybe letting his feelings out was a dumb idea. Yeah! Super dumb...  

[Lucyal]

Molly blinked again. “Just me…? Oh, oh yes! Miss Candace is out.” She informed, nodding her head a bit. “Oh, yes, of course!” Molly giggled sheepishly, and moved back, opening the door wider. She closed the door once Otto was in, and folded her hands on her stomach.

“…Oh, no!” She assured. “I knew I wasn’t going out for the rest of the night, so I changed.” She smiled. “Do you want anything? I have a pot of coffee…or if you want a juicebox, I have those! I also have some cupcakes if you’re hungry.”  

[Bittiface]

"Yuegh.. No, I hate coffe---" Otto stopped and stared at Molly, blue eyes wide. "Juicebox and cupcakes, please." See that? With Molly, he uses his manners.

Otto paced around the room, pretending he was checking things out, but mostly postponing saying anything until he had some comfort food.  

[Lucyal]

Oh yes, Molly was very delighted that Otto said ‘please’, as one could tell by the wide smile, and the way she clapped her hands. “Alright!” She disappeared into the kitchen, and returned a few moments later with a plate full of melon flavored cupcakes with vanilla frosting, and a juicebox for Otto. She placed the items on the coffee table by her cup.

“Here you are!”  

[Bittiface]

Molly was the Mother Otto wished he had.

The teen slowly sat on the couch, eyes fixated on the delicious looking confections on the table. How could life suddenly be so amazing after all the crap he dealt with on a daily basis? Even hunters had their own nirvana, once in a rare blue moon.

The blonde took a cupcake, taking a sizeable bite from it before even attempting to start speaking. It truly tasted like heaven!

"Mmm....So good..." He licked his lips, almost lost in cupcake bliss until he remembered why he was there.

"Oh! Right. Uh.. Can I like.. ramble at you? I got stuff that keeps repeating over and over in my head and I dunno what to do to make it stop." In the meantime he fiddled with the juice box, popping the plastic off of the straw.  

[Lucyal]

Since Otto settled on the couch, Molly followed suit. She resumed her spot on the corner, and pulled her legs up, tucking them underneath her. She picked up her cup from the table and took a sip, just beaming as Otto ate and complimented. She looked over at the teen though as he spoke up, and she blinked before she realized what he was asking.

“Oh! Oh, of course you can! I’ll try to help and listen the best I can, I promise!” She shifted so that she was more angled towards the teen, and waited.  

[Bittiface]

Otto's eyes shifted their gaze from his half eaten cupcake to Molly's knees and back again, never lifting them up high enough for eye contact. Speaking his mind like this was hard, since he was so used to internalizing everything. Like this, he could perhaps pretend he was only talking aloud to himself.

"It's about Eva.." He started, idly swirling marks into the frosting. "I mean.. I know we're both really busy... and I knew that going into it.. but don't couples usually.. try see each other at least a few times a week?"

He grimaced. His heart didn't want him to ever speak ill of Eva, blaming any short comings onto himself instead. "But I never hear from her. On one side I mean, maybe I should have tried to get a hold of her more... but then why wouldn't she do the same for me?"  

[Lucyal]

Otto didn’t want to meet her eyes, and that was okay. Molly could understand that. Sometimes it was easier to just talk with the presence of someone there, than to look at him. She held her cup in between her hands as he spoke though, and her brows knitted with worry. Okay, this was a subject she had little to no experience in…so…what if she didn’t give him good or helpful advice? She needed to try, though!

“Um…” Off to a great start. “…I think…I mean…ah…that couples…do see each other a lot…especially on Deus I mean…Miss Candace and Dakota spend a lot of time together…” Oops…she didn’t mean to say that to make Otto feel bad…it was just the best reference she had to go by. Molly hummed softly, wondering how to address the second part. “…Um…I think…that yes, people do get busy…but I don’t think they ever…forget about you?” She offered. “People can just get caught up in what they’re doing but um…have you spoken to Eva about talking more…?”  

[Bittiface]

Otto seemed to grow a sort of shadowy gloom about himself. Yes. He was aware how often other hunter couples got to chat together. They didn't need an excuse like time off to impede on their love. So why did it feel that way to him?

"No." Otto shook his head, mouth formed into a thin line, as if talking to Eva about Eva problems was the last thing he'd do. "I don't want to.. I don't wanna know why she hasn't talked to me. I mean, theres a good chance she's just off in Evaland. That's the thing with her.. I feel bad that I wanna be clingy.. cause Eva? She's.. a free spirit, yanno? Ya can't just cage her. I don't wanna burden her with my feelings."  

[Lucyal]

Ahhhh! Molly’s brows furrowed more as if she could feel and see the gloom settle in on Otto.

Molly hummed again, and she took, was looking anywhere but Otto now. Not that she was embarrassed…she was just trying to think. “…I don’t think…you’re being clingy.” Molly finally decided, releasing a breath. “If you two aren’t seeing each other as often as you’d like then…I don’t think you’re being clingy. I think you miss her, and you want that company, and I think that’s okay.” Gosh…not that she did before, but she’d never take Jeremy, Candace or even Dakota’s company for that matter for granted. “…You can’t think like that, Otto.” Molly stated, her voice certain for the first time since they started to this talk. She was looking at him now.

“What you’re feeling isn’t a burden to anyone who cares about you.” This was a long and hard lesson she had to learn, but it was thanks to people like Candace, Dakota, and Jeremy that she was getting it. “Because well…first you’re friends…and friends always care about how they’re friends are feeling, good or bad…and well…if you’re in a more committed relationship then…I think people need to talk to each other, good or bad. No one is a mind reader…no one will know how you’re feeling unless you tell them.”  

[Bittiface]

Molly's reasoning was logical. Sound. It made perfect sense, even if Otto had been avoiding thinking about something so simple.

"I should tell her.." Otto murmured, "I'm probably making a bigger deal out of this than it really needs to be... it's just that my last girlfriend I had, I actually was too clingy." Not that Eva was anything like his old flame. "It was fine at first, cause we always saw each other. But when she wanted to leave me cause of her parents, I got totally selfish. If I had just listened to her, and allowed myself to understand what she was going through.. I coulda still had her as a friend. But I was pretty stupid back then."

Talking as if such a big incident was ages ago, when in reality it had been a little over two years ago. He felt like that Otto was a completely different person.

"I know I won't be like that again. Not to Eva. But I'm scared."  

[Lucyal]

Molly nodded her head, curls jostling in time to her nods, and listened to the teen. “I think…it’s really good and mature to look back and see and know what the issues were back then.” She murmured. “Listening to others is really important.” Sure, one could hear someone say something…but it was a whole lot harder to actually listen to someone.

The red headed trainee reached out and place a freckled hand in assurance on the teen’s shoulder. “It’s okay to be scared.” She smiled. “Being scared means there’s something you value that’s at stake.” She squeezed his shoulder gently. “And courage is the action of doing the right thing, with the presence of fear.”  

[Bittiface]

Oh man. Molly said the M word. She pretty much called him mature. Such a small word meant a world of good to Otto. It gave him a little more strength, and a little more confidence. His gaze finally lifted to meet Molly's hazel eyes. So that's what courage was, huh?

"Yeah.. somethin' very, very valuable." But the more he talked, the more he felt since it was Eva, there wasn't a whole lot to be scared of. He'd never lose her as a friend. Not easily. She was too nice. Nice to everyone. No one person got more attention than another from her. She just seemed to care about everyone. So something like this.. it probably would concern her, but she would genuinely want to make things right. He just hoped she'd take her own well being into account more often. Her friends always seem to come first with her.

Otto heaved a sigh. "You're right." Maybe deep down, he wanted an out. Some way to avoid confrontation no matter how small it may seem. But that was why he went to Molly. Sure she was flaky, and definitely sweet; she also had a soft and kind way to lay down what needed to be done.