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 Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 4:42 pm
It had been months since the battle, and yet it still kept him thinking, worried, and deeply concerned for the senshi around him and for his own abilities. While he could find other distractions like television, learning how to text, and trying to get familiar with technology, he could see moments where Delilah was not able to escape. There were plenty of nights he kept having to move in fear her tossing and turning would throw him off the bed and where his own loud purring could not dissuade her turbulent sleep.
He noticed the half-formed ideas, the papers pushed aside, and the toll it was all taking.
That night, he requested Delilah's company. He wanted to go for a walk.
And so, walking beside her, they left the apartment and went down the city streets together.
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 4:58 pm
The past few months had been a battle for Delilah. She had been able to hide the truth from most but Arthur knew more than the rest. How many times had she woken up in a panic only to find him next to her? Thankfully she didn't think she had ever thrown him from her bed.
But tonight, instead of curling up in an attempt to sleep, Delilah found herself walking down the streets of the Destiny City with her beloved white fluff ball with her. Arthur had asked her for a walk and of course she would be happy to accompany him. However, even as they walked, she had her henshin pen in her pocket with phone and keys.
That was something she would not leave at home.
"Any place you have in mind Arthur? A particular coffee shop?" The words had a particular smile as she looked down at the guardian feline.
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 5:14 pm
He walked with direct purpose, not pausing the check which street he was on, to inspect a shop that might take his interest for the night, or ask if they wanted to take a scenic walk through the park to pass the time. No matter where he was in Destiny City, he could point himself like a compass to the very spot that made the heart of himself. It was a distant, cold pang on his radar, like a bird being called to migrate, but one that always called to him in the worst of times.
He turned into a subway entrance and paused on the first few steps to look up at her. "I want to go home." He told her.
Turning, he went down the steps with the grace of a slender cat, exposing a bit more of his actual age than his own words would lead others to believe. On the bottom, he called up to her. "Come along. The subway will be coming any minute now."
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 5:40 pm
"Home?" Delilah had to question as she watched him slip down the steps. The answer confused her but as he called up, she did not question and followed him down the steps, waiting for the subway to speed past them.
It was hard to shake the feeling that the last time she had taken the subway, she had found herself inside the belly of a youma.
Without thinking, her hand slipped to her pocket and she wrapped her hands around her henshin pen. The feeling of just having it there allowed her to take a deep breath and exhale all of her stress.
"Well, lead the way."
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 5:46 pm
He waited behind the yellow line of the gate, looking back and forth down the tunnel for any signs of the subway train before looking back at Delilah to make sure she was coming over. Sitting, he looked over at the station clock before looking down the tunnel.
"My earliest memories were of being a stray." His tail flicked behind back and forth behind him.
"Before anything and anyone, I remember being alone on the streets. I wasn't Arthur. I wasn't a Mauvian. I was a stray. Just a cat." He looked up at her.
"Just like it must feel like for people. Just human. Alone on this big planet."
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 6:05 pm
Unable to just slip in like her feline companion, Delilah pulled out her card, paid for a two way pass and passed through the gate. Joining Arthur at the yellow line, Delilah only gazed down at him.
"Just human. Just something caught in the middle of all this without much of a choice..." Delilah added, nodding as she too gazed at the station clock, listening for the sounds of an incoming train.
"But I am having a hard time seeing you as a stray Arthur. You have a love of comfort."
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 6:10 pm
"I was taught a love of comfort. You cannot know love or express it to others if it's not shown to you. To be made aware of something. Back then, I was just a stray. I had no name. No home. No motivations other than the basic need to survive. Even then, I was a bit of a scaredy cat too." He said with a chuckle as he thought of his former life.
There came a rattle of a train further in the distance. "I didn't know anything about what I was or who I was. I didn't have time to think that. I felt things, a pull at people, but I didn't like people at the time. There was no connection. We were all alone. Just animals with no names walking on the same street."
The subway train clattered past then and slowed to a halt. The soft voice to mind their step when exiting and entering the cabin echoed out.
Arthur jumped over the gap and walked into the back cabin, looking around for anyone that might hear them, seeing the cabin was empty, and jumped up onto a seat before pawing the seat next to him for her to sit.
"We get off on the third stop." He informed her.
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 6:23 pm
Following, she too gave the car a quick scan. It was not until she was sure it was empty that Delilah relaxed a bit and headed to the back of the car to sit next to Arthur. Hand reaching out, she naturally went to brush her fingers down Arthur's back.
With her other hand, she offered Arthur her lap should he want to ride there.
"I don't think you would be you if there wasn't a little scaredy cat in there." Delilah spoke warmly. "Are you sure you want me to come with you?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 6:46 pm
"A little, maybe. Avoidant....maybe." He said, moving to take the offered lap and curl himself there. He laid there, quiet as he watched the lights flash from behind the train windows.
"It wasn't until I was in a very bad storm....when I was nearly dead...that Eleanor found me. It was late fall and it had been raining for a long time. The water was very cold. Even then, it didn't seem weird for a cat to die that way. I thought it wasn't strange at all. My purpose was surviving. There was no bigger picture to any of it. Dying was just the alternative and a result of not doing what I was set out to do. The only direction I had." Aside from catching tail of course.
He curled into her and closed his eyes a moment.
"I wouldn't have asked you to come if I didn't feel like it. I'm inviting you to my home....just as you let me stay with you."
He looked up from his glasses at her, large blue eyes looking up from her lap.
"It's hard living. But it's even worse dying without any purpose." He looked back out at the windows again. "Just living isn't any fun."
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:04 pm
"I know you wouldn't." Delilah whispered, a hand gently going under his chin when he lifted it. "But you seem so sad so I had to ask."
Leaning her head down so she could gaze into his blue eyes, Delilah felt her shoulders soften. "Have you found a purpose then? Because it sounds like I owe Eleanor a good deal to have you with me now. I just hope I can help you with your purpose."
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:08 pm
He didn't answer, closing his eyes in the fashion of cats as if he was smiling, and giving off a few low purrs as he was scratched.
"Reminiscing can often be sad, but that's not a bad thing. It's necessary. I find myself doing it a lot. Old folks like us like looking at the past. It lets us ignore the future." He said. "I said I was avoidant."
The subway chimed that their stop was coming, and he perked up and went to sit on her lap instead. "I don't know yet. Sometimes I wonder if I'm just still trying to survive. If I'm afraid of all of this. Of this life, with all it's purposes, then maybe I'm being no better than that stray." Then would he be Arthur then?
He jumped down and waited by the door. "Our stop is coming."
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:15 pm
"But isn't that part of it as well?" Delilah rose from the seat, following him towards the door. How often did he come this path without her knowing? "It's like what I try to do on the moon? Looking to the past I mean. Not to ignore the future but to learn for it."
Light as a bird on her feet, she came up behind the cat to wait as the train slowed. "But you are right. Sometimes, especially lately, I have to wonder if there is any reason to it besides surviving..."
That part hit home ever so softly. Her eyes closed a moment listening to the ding above them. They had to survive. What else was there?
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:30 pm
"You have grand ideas, but beyond that, you work towards them. That motivation and drive is admirable." He said as the train jostled and the doors opened, the same voice warning them about waiting till the train came to a complete stop and the gap.
He jumped over it and waited for her, watching the same fluttering grace take place in the slender woman despite her exhaustion.
"I think a lot of senshi must feel that way. Maybe all the others too. It's one thing to be something, but it doesn't have much weight when goals are lost. There is so much talk of the past. I'd like to know about it, but there is not much talk of the future. Not unless it's just fear. Fear of loosing. Fear of the consequences. Fear is not a good motivation. It's not different then telling a stray that if you don't fight to survive, you'll die. After a while, of just thinking that Not Dying is the only reason to keep living, you start thinking it's not so terribly bad when it happens."
He walked towards the steps. "Even cold storms start feeling nice." He whispered.
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:45 pm
"I don't think I could disagree with you." Delilah spoke softly, following him towards the steps. This time though, she did not allow him to climb them alone. What he had said...she just needed a moment to wrap him in her arms and hold him close to her own beating heart.
It was just for the walk up the stairs and once her chest was level, she allowed him the ability to jump free so he could lead on.
"Because I don't know what future we have anymore..."
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Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:51 pm
He could see the effect his own thoughts, his own words, were having on her. It was not an accomplishment he was proud of. "Maybe a lot of people are feeling that right now. We did an attack because we wanted to see the war end. So much fear for not winning, of the consequences, isn't always the best motivator."
The hug before was warm, gentle, and it had made him once again aware of her own beating heart, her own body, and the ever present pang he felt when near a senshi. Despite being powered down, there was still that something he could never shake off. But beyond even that, he could still see her as Delilah. A young woman with aspirations that had been skewed and questioned, to ask the same question so many people had: What was the point?
"Can you tell me what it was like for you, when you first became a senshi?"
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