[Reg] See You Again (Cordelia & Lucien) Fin

[Skye Starrfyre]

Her hands trembled as she paced the living room of her apartment, fumbling her phone. She had an important phone call to make, knowing that the message would go to voicemail. Lucien had a habit of not answering his phone, mostly due to the time zone difference-- No, that was what she liked to believe, but that wasn't really the case. He just didn't enjoy talking on the phone. Stars, if she was to be honest with herself, it wasn't like she did either... Not after everything.

His number had been programmed into her phone and set to dial without hitting 'send' for longer than she'd thought it would have taken her to make the call. Wording was everything. There were things that she couldn't say over the phone or through email. Hell, she would have simply called his senshi phone or sent the text through that, trusting it to be more secure, if she'd even thought he kept it on him anymore.

Closing her eyes as she paused in the middle of her living room she hit 'send', waiting for the tell-tale beep that she had reached the end of his answering service.

"Lucien-- Luc, it's me. I know we haven't exactly talked much lately, but... You're going to get some news soon. It's going to be terrible, and you're going to want to act accordingly, but trust me when I tell you that it's okay. Don't call me back when you get this, Luc. Don't write me an email or send me a text. Just-- Luc, just come home. I need to talk to you in person. Please don't worry about me, or about the news you're going to get. Just come home." Her voice was pleading by the end, although she'd managed to keep her tones even throughout the message, adding on quickly at the end, "Text me with your flight information and I'll meet you when you get in. I miss you, idiot."  

[Skye Starrfyre]

Text to Luc: I'll be there.

He'd booked an earlier flight than she had anticipated, but it was easy enough to trade off on shifts at work to make arrangements to pick her cousin up at the airport. Everyone at the Paw had been incredibly understanding, many of them having friends that had been at the other night club the night of the attack-- No, they weren't calling it an attack, were they... What was it they'd figured? Gas leak that had put everyone to sleep followed by an electrical fire?

Many had been injured that evening and there hadn't been as many casualties as there might have been had she and her friends not been there that night. The Negaverse could certainly claim a victory over the establishment, but she counted the victory that she'd had even bigger in reclaiming one of their members.

The obituary for Rikard Ulysses Colby listed his cause of death as complications from the injuries sustained during the unfortunate events that took place at a local night club. He was survived by a mother and father, divorced, but mourning the loss of their only son. The write up was short and spoke nothing to the person Rik had been. It didn't talk about his smile or his interests; made no mention of what he had been studying in school or what sort of promising young life had been lost. She could only assume it was because his parents had never invested enough time in him to actually know anything about the son that they'd lost once he graduated highschool.

The article closed with a link to a web page where condolences could be made to the family. No mention of a service was made, nor was a final resting place listed. It was certain to be frustrating for those who considered Rik to be a close friend of theirs, those wanting a chance to say 'goodbye', but believable enough given the inattentiveness of both his mother and father to begin with.

She sighed as she closed out the article on her phone, brushing her fingers back through her hair before snagging her keys on her way out the door to pick up Luc from the airport.

Grymoire

 

[Skye Starrfyre]

Cordelia had found a bench to sit on near the bag carousel that all of the luggage from Lucien's flight was being brought to. She checked her phone to see if there were any updates, making sure that her ringer was still on as well just in case Luc called her if he didn't see her sitting there waiting for him.

It had been worth a chance hoping that he would read a book on his flight instead of skimming through news blogs concerning Destiny City. He'd spent enough time away that she had hoped he would just trust her to fill him in on what had been going on around town. There were things she hadn't wanted him to find out from anywhere else, but there were risks that she also hadn't been willing to take so she was, at the very least, ready to face the consequences.

Grymoire

 

[Skye Starrfyre]

Cordelia cringed at the look on Lucien's face coupled with the biting tone of his voice. She didn't blame him-- Couldn't blame him, really, assuming he'd seen the same post that she had only hours ago.

"It's not what you think," she murmured softly, keeping her voice low as she rose to her feet. She wanted him to trust her, but if he'd already let the doubt and worry in it was going to be harder to insist on that. "I can get your bag, if you'd like. We can talk in the car."

Grymoire

 

[Skye Starrfyre]

She paused for a moment, glancing around before reaching out to lightly rest her hand on Lucien's arm, half expecting him to jerk away from her touch. "I promise I'll tell you everything once we're in the car. Luc, please, just... Trust me. I know I'm asking a lot right now. I was asking a lot in asking you to come home, but just this once, even if you never do again, trust me."

Grymoire

 

[Skye Starrfyre]

"You left, Luc. You chose to leave all of this behind. How was I supposed to know you'd answer your other phone?" Her brow furrowed as she cast a glance in her cousin's direction. "I didn't-- Stars and stones, Luc, I didn't want to drag you back into all of this if you didn't want to be a part of it again. If you were safe somewhere else I'd rather you be there, but..." She couldn't just lie to him about what had happened to their mutual friend.

"And, for the record, I'm sure I could be more cryptic, but I don't actually enjoy being that way. There's a reason why I'm not living at home anymore."

Grymoire

 

[Skye Starrfyre]

Her lips pressed into a thin line as they made their way outside in silence, heading through the parking garage to where she'd left her car. It was easy enough to see what he'd done as leaving everything behind if only because he hadn't come back. She didn't blame him-- Couldn't, really, when she had been so sorely tempted to leave and never look back on her own.

She popped the locks of her car open, opening the trunk so that Luc could throw his bag inside. While he did so she moved around to slide into the driver's seat, sighing as she brushed her fingers back through her hair to pull it up into a pony tail again.

Grymoire

 

[Skye Starrfyre]

"You never answer when I call you. Why should I have thought this time would be any different?" She snapped back, eyes narrowing as she glanced at her cousin for a moment before starting her car up so that she could back out of the parking space.

"I called you to tell you to come home so that we could talk in person, for once. You should know by now that you can't trust everything published in the papers, especially the papers here... I was at the club that night too, Luc," she murmured, grip shifting on the steering wheel. "Civilians started dropping like flies, energy drained, and then by the time we realized that something was wrong this idiot Captain showed up and so did a youma."

Grymoire