(no subject)

[infamousdelsin]

Delsin has been trying not to hover. Liz had been through one hell of a thing, getting those pictures and that weird, creepy dude on the weird, creepy record player. He doesn't want to hover and freak her out, and he doesn't want to stay too distant and make her think that what he saw or heard actually scared him off. Because it hasn't. It really hasn't.

He and Liz share an apartment building. They're floors apart, and it's not like it's any hardship to go see her, but . . . He doesn't need to stay glued to her side, right? He can just . . . be available for her. That's what he keeps telling himself. With Spark to take care of, it's easier. Having something else to focus on takes his mind off of how worried Delsin is about her, but it may be telling that he's having an issue taking care if the dog after all. 

So, finally, he tells himself to man up and go check on her. If she doesn't want his company, he'll politely back off. But he just needs to make sure she's okay and maybe help her take her mind off things. He doesn't know. He just needs to do something.

Before he goes, he takes Spark down to the patch of grass just outside the building to encourage him to empty his bladder (and maybe more). It's not an easy visit, like normal, but he has treats, now, per Coraline's suggestion, so Spark is learning that when he does certain things, he's rewarded for them. Peeing on the grass is one of those things.

After he finally goes, Delsin brings him back into the building and tucks him into the bathroom. He's lined the floor with fresh newspaper and tossed in a few toys to keep Spark occupied and away from Delsin's things. Then, finally, he heads up the stairs to Liz's apartment. 

(He hopes Booker isn't home.)

Comments

[wipeawaythedebt]

Frustrated, Booker turns on his heel and heads to the kitchen, pulling a bottle of whiskey from the cupboard and a glass from another. As angry as he is, he still has the wits to know that drinking from the bottle right now isn't the impression he wants to go for. He's got nothing tangible to hold onto except the glass in his hand and he can't understand why he can hear the Luteces' in his head, laughing smugly at some joke he just doesn't understand.

So he speaks without thinking, "You don't trust me, Elizabeth, don't want to know what I think, that's fine. You're not the first. And maybe you should get your own place, you've been on about it enough and I won't have to wonder who you're letting into my home." He knows this isn't the way to deal with things, but everything in him wants to shut down and his head's about to split wide-open.

[infamousdelsin]

"Whoa, whoa," Delsin says, hands going up. "You're seriously going there? Is that what's happening right now?" Delsin liked this a lot better when they were about to shoot each other, he decides. This business of possibly kicking Liz out over him is a little overkill, and he's not going to stand for that.

[cagedlamb]

Elizabeth had hoped he'd understand. That he certainly never told her anything himself, so the fact that it had come to this - that he couldn't understand why there were things she needed time to figure out herself - felt like an end to her. She wasn't going to argue if he refused to listen.

"Delsin, stop," she said as soon as he began to try to plead her case, though her eyes were on Booker then. Though she felt hurt that he wouldn't listen, she'd never let him see it. No, her voice was remarkably even despite the turmoil bubbling underneath. "If that's absolutely all you got out of what I just said to you, if you really think what I said means I have no faith in you, then fine. I will find someplace else to live and be moved out of your apartment as soon as I can."

If he could not even bring himself to admit this was a shared space, perhaps he never really considered her an equal - a friend - even as he spoke of caring about her. It hurt to know he saw all she had done, all she'd accomplished despite everything, and still treated her as though she could not stand on her own two feet. Perhaps this was for the best.

"Delsin and I are leaving," she added, because she knew the longer she stayed, the less likely she was going to hold herself together. "I'll be back for Oliver once I find someone to stay with until I can acquire my own apartment again."

She would not ask Delsin. Even she knew it was inappropriate and that she'd be uncomfortable herself in such a situation. Sybil, perhaps, or one of her other friends. She would figure it out, even if she had to sleep a floor for a little while.

[wipeawaythedebt]

Booker tells himself he doesn't really care. She goes storming out with her... her beau and he downs his whiskey like a man drowning and he tells himself it doesn't matter. There's been nothing but trouble in his life since he took that job, people trying to kill him, falling into this strange world, and he wants nothing more than his old life back where he only had to worry about which game to play to cover his debts from the last one. She's the reason he's been trying to straight and narrow, with her gone, why fight his inner demons?

He's lost her, not that he ever thinks he really had her and he tells himself he doesn't care while his head splits and he can here that bastard Lutece, Bring us the girl, and wipe away the debt.

"FUCK THE DEBT!"

And just before he passes out, his glass shatters on the wall where he throws it.