heyfreemagic | Take a Walk [Closed]

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Take a Walk [Closed]

[It had been a few days since Greg had come back - long enough for him to recover a bit, as far as Wash could tell, and long enough for Wash to reacclimate to Freesia. He'd headed by Greg's apartment early in the morning (but not as early as usual) to get Greg up for a morning walk. They'd work back up to the jog - for now, this was routine for the sake of normalcy.]

[It had been once around the high rises, and then into the park. About halfway in, Wash stopped in the shade of one of the larger trees.]

How're you feeling?

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["Wash's coping mechanisms" and "healthy ways to deal with trauma" was a Venn diagram with almost no overlap. He's not exactly the greatest basis of comparison.]

Can't sleep, and when you do, you have nightmares about it. Yeah, I know. But...it's only been a few days. It'll get better with time.

[Greg doesn't have Wash's memory. For Greg, the worst of it should blur and fade and eventually scar over. It'll never be gone, but it won't be nearly as bad.]

Have you talked to Rose about it?

[Greg barely had the slightest clue as to Wash's levels of trauma, and he was still pretty sure the guy wasn't handling it great.

He rubbed at his neck, reluctant. He could see where this was going.]

Yeah... it's tough. Gems get hurt and regenerate all the time. But Rose... she's seen a lot.

[That's not a difficult conclusion to come to when you can hear him screaming at night.]

Makes sense. War, right?

Her point on your timeline is a lot earlier than yours, isn't it.

Mmhm.

[It's in answer to both comments. Greg knew Wash wasn't a fan of Rose, and he was waiting for the other shoe to drop.]

A long ways. It's kind of funny, I'll bring up stuff that hasn't happened yet, or she'll tell me something I already heard from my time... [By 'funny' he means 'really pretty depressing']

[Yeah, he kind of figured. There really wasn't a way to phrase this next one gently.]

She's not around at your point in the timeline, is she.

[Greg was many things, and none of them were good at lying. He shot Wash a startled, anxious look, and shrank in on himself a bit, hugging his arms in close.]

Why would--why d'you say that?

[Yep, there it was. He was dead-on, and some part of him felt absolutely awful about it.]

It's partially how you to act around each other - you're still acting like she's too good to be true, and she's acting like seeing you is situation normal. Or- she was. [Probably right up until a few days ago. Yeah. Moving on.]

It's also what you've said about Steven. If he's being trained by the Crystal Gems, and she's a gem, why wouldn't she be with them - with her son? It doesn't make any sense, unless she's...not there anymore.

[Greg hesitated. He hadn't ever planned on talking about this, with any of the guys. It had been hard even talking about it with Rose. This didn't feel like his information to give.]

You're pretty sharp, Wash.

[He heaved a long sigh, and watched the ground very hard.]

Yeah... you got it. When Steven was born, she... she left us.

[Being sharp still didn't prevent him from being blindsided sometimes, and this...well. Eventually he'd get through a conversation without ruining it for someone. Eventually.]

[For now, he reached over and laid a hand on Greg's shoulder.]

I'm sorry.

[Greg closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.]

It's so weird. I thought I'd moved on, at least a little, but...

[Her being here really screwed with his head. It should've made him happy, but it just made him confused.]

You think you've got it figured out- you think you've moved on, and then... [He shakes his head.] It's always different when they're standing right in front of you. You just...don't know what to say.

[Oh yeah, he's familiar with this.]

There's all this stuff I wanted to say... but she's from way before all that. So it's just... complicated.

...Does that get easier, too?

[He may not be the best person to talk to about this one.]

That probably depends on how you handle it. I had a friend from much earlier on the timeline than I was, from before - [before Freelancer collapsed, before he went insane] - before everything went to hell. He knew something was wrong, I wouldn't tell him anything, and it...tanked our friendship pretty badly.

But that's me, and I'm pretty bad at this sort of thing. You're a lot more open, and a lot better at this than I am. You'll be fine.

[It always seemed, whenever Greg hit a wall, Wash had hit it first, only harder. If nothing else, the poor guy was a lesson in what not to do. ]

Yeah... I'll be fine.

[After a beat, he eyes Wash. ]

How about you?

[North is in the Realm of Dreams, or back in the past, or...somewhere. Not here. Not something Wash needs to worry about.]

[He blinks and looks at Greg. He has no idea what Greg's asking here.]

What?

Edited 2015-09-20 00:05 (UTC)

You just came back from a whole 'nother war, right?

[ Like with genocide, and betrayal, and stuff. It sounded........ stressful. ]

You doing all right?

[...oh yeah. He takes a few moments to really think about it - to really do some searching - and...]

Believe it or not, I'm actually okay. I mean, war is hell, there's no denying that, but...I think I handled it better than I did being here. On Chorus, I was capable; here, I'm at square one. When you've spent half your life fighting - when it's what you're good at - that's...not easy.

[He shrugs.] Aside from that, as long as I can get back and make sure my team is okay, I'll be fine.

[It's a little surprising to hear... but it certainly puts a few things in perspective about Wash.]

You're not too bummed about being back here, are you? Away from your team?

Even if I was, there's nothing I can do about it. Plus, they can handle themselves. They've always been good at that.

Yeah... I guess you just have to trust them, at this point.

[He's sure his own friends back home are more than capable without him. They don't really need him at all, honestly. But he misses them.]

I do. [It's calm and level - he means it.]

Plus, I'll wind up at the exact same moment when I left. Either way, I'll be there when it plays out.

[He's going to get through this, get back to Chorus, and fight his way through as much of the staff of Charon as he needs to to extract his team. Step one is getting through the war in Freesia first.]

Right... weird time junk.

[However long all this took, they could count on not missing anything important. It wasn't wholly a comfort, but it was certainly worth something.

Greg stretched, thinking over his words.]

Hey--for what it's worth... you're great at way more than just fighting.

Yeah, pretty much.

[That takes him by surprise, and he snorts. 'Having conversations' is probably not on that list of things he's good at that aren't fighting.]

Yeah?

Yeah... you're real determined. One way or another, you never give up. That makes you good at pretty much anything you're up for, in the end.

Exercise... ukuleles... [He grinned, elbowing Wash gently.] ...or whatever.

[...oh. He's always just thought of it as stubbornness, an inability to know when to stop, a survival tactic - stopping meant death, so don't ever stop. But to hear Greg frame it like that...]

[He's smiling before he knows it, and he laughs when Greg elbows him - a small laugh, sure, but it's there.]

Coming from a guy with that much potential, that means a lot.

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