[PRP] Cat Sweaters (Borr & Sunny)

[iloveyouDIE]

Borr sat on the bed with a a few cardboard boxes and took a deep breath. He'd been in a constant state of chest-tight anxiety as soon as he started his current chore but he wouldn't have bothered if it wasn't time.

He was going through Darlene's clothes.

Millie had helped convince him, told him about the church rummage sale coming, suggested anything too meaningful be handed on to others who may appreciate them. He didn't have much sentimental attachment to most things but some he could picture her always wearing, keenly triggering memories of good times (or even bad) that made it hard for him to part with them.

Only when he reached some particularly unique sweaters did he pause and take out his phone to text Sunny.

shibrogane

To: Sunny

would you like any of darlene's sweaters?

catsweater.jpg

 

[shibrogane]

Rather than answering the text message, Sunny just appeared, right there, in the bedroom, like she'd been there the whole time. She scoped out the situation, unsettlingly violet eyes reading the cardboard boxes, the slump of Borr's shoulders, and then she said, "You can't just get rid of her, she's--she's going to come back, you know, she always does. Really. You can't, okay?"

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"I'm not-" Borr smoothed a big hand over his forehead, furrowed in a concerted effort to keep himself composed, "She's gone. We shouldn't have to do this every time.."

The big man took a breath and dropped his hand to his knee, "And if she rises from her grave and comes shambling in here we've got a lot more to worry about than if she's got her sweaters."

Borr picked one up, something with a cat embroidered into it, "Interested?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Yes, she's gone this time," agreed Sunny impatiently, "but it's not going to be this time forever."

But she dropped it, and took the sweater, and pointedly sat on the bed with the air of someone who has laid claim to everything on it. "I understand, you know. I was startled, is all." She buried her face in one of the sweaters she unearthed, avoiding eye contact. "You don't usually do this."

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Borr's brow wrinkled in concern, "I don't know what that means.."

He wasn't sure it was worth dwelling on. The large man had remained, so far, blissfully untouched by the weirdness and only environmentally aware that his friends and neighbors had things going on. Still, he was very good at simply rolling with the flowering cats, creepy fliers and people developing sudden urges to climb up on his roof (yes he knew, there were security cameras).

"What do I usually do?" Borr leaned into a drawer which had been removed from the dresser and put on the floor in front of him. Darlene had always been a looker (Borr thought so anyway) and as a younger woman hadn't been shy about dressing to her strengths when she could - bust bearing crop tops and shorts to show off her thigh tattoos. Of course with age came a bit more coverage, and domesticity and work packed the crop tops away and replaced them a bit more modestly.

"I've got some of her older clothes but you don't seem to be the daisy dukes type," He smiled.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Nothing," she said, abandoning her beat-up purple hoodie for a argyle sweater with a cat print over. "You leave it. It's very sad. Sometimes I cry, even. But this time everything is very different, so... I shouldn't be surprised."

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Well," Borr took a deep breath, exhaling audibly from his nose, "I'm not sure Darlene would approve of us moping around and crying over things."

Even if they had a tendency to collect, nothing like her mother of course, she'd always said if they were poor and destitute on the street with no pennies to rub together, what was important was having one another.

Oh no he was getting sniffly again.

"Oh here's one-" The sweater he produced had a comic beaver on it, lounging on a beach towel on it's dam with the caption 'Just another gratuitous beaver shot'. "Must be from Millie.."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"They're things that represent memories," said Sunny, taking up a sweater and hugging it. "You can hold them and think of things that happened when she was here. I am sure she would be glad to be remembered with happiness, even if it is also sad."

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"I'm not getting rid of everything," Borr chuckled a bit, "I have plenty more meaningful things to remember her with."

A pink crop top made out of some sort of stretchy material was produced from the bottom of a drawer. It had been lost to time.

"Just don't think I need an extra, unused, wardrobe," The top was given a stretch stretch.

shibrogane