Thirty-Fourth Theory [Voice]

[i_speak_softly]

Filtered to Raine Sage || Unhackable

Professor Sage... I won't be coming back to school in January.

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[i_speak_softly]

[Later, after dinner...]

[Don hesitates in the doorway of Raph's room, a little surprised to see his brother already going through the motions of bedtime.]

Oh - are you going to bed?

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

[He's undoing the knot of his mask when Don appears, pulls it off and tosses it on the nightstand.] Huh? Oh, yeah. Was out in the cold all day. I'm beat.

[i_speak_softly]

Where did you go?

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

[He sits down on the bed and starts undoing the buckles on his kneepads.] Oh, the woods. Winry's. All over. Tree had to come from somewhere. Thought she'd want one too.

[i_speak_softly]

Do you still see her much?

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I stop by her house every now and then. We ah, got in a fight a while ago. Guess I'm still makin' up for it.

[i_speak_softly]

I think you mentioned that. [And didn't want to talk about it.]

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

[He dumps his knee pads on the floor and works on the elbow pads in silence. He's hedging about telling Don what happened between them, but he doesn't know if it'll come out right if he tries.]

[i_speak_softly]

[He won't ask. It's not as though he has any leverage at the moment.]

Do you mind if I sit in here for a while?

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Go ahead.

[He clicks on his electric blanket and crawls into bed.]

Want me to leave the light on?

[i_speak_softly]

[He shrugs vaguely, and takes up a position by the window, looking out into the darkness.]

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

[Fine. Off the light goes. He turns over on his stomach and tries to fall asleep, but his head's too full of Winry now, along with a slight bit of worry for his brother.]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don knows he won't sleep tonight. Probably not tomorrow night either. The worst part is that it's not even related to the things he'd rather not think about, but he won't be able to stop himself from thinking about them anyway.]

[Sunrise will be a long time coming.]

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

[Raph drifts off for a while between the worlds of sleeping and waking, a whole mess of memories and emotion running through his head. But eventually, his mind traces its way back to that day by the lake, eating salami sandwiches in the rough grass, the feel of her skin against his lips.

He opens his eyes, swallows, tries to quiet his racing heart. For a while, he lays there studying his brother's silhouette in the window.

Finally, he works up the courage to say something.]

Can I ask you somethin'?

[i_speak_softly]

[It takes him a while to register that someone is talking to him. He doesn't know how much time has already passed.]

Hm?

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

First, you gotta promise you're not gonna act weird about this.

[i_speak_softly]

[He sighs heavily.] I'll do my best.

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

All right. Here goes.

[He clears his throat.]

Have you ever uh...you know, us livin' like we are...have you ever thought about gettin' yourself a girl? I mean, you think it might be possible there's some chick out there might actually not scream if you asked her out?

[i_speak_softly]

Hardly anyone has screamed at me at all. Then again, I don't usually ask questions like that. [Mostly avoiding the other half of the question? Maybe.]

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, what if I told you that I did?

[i_speak_softly]

Did what? Ask a girl out?

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Sorta.

[i_speak_softly]

Am I right in thinking that it didn't go well?

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

How'd you guess?

[i_speak_softly]

If it had gone well, you wouldn't have asked me about it in such a hypothetical and roundabout way.

[He moves to sit on the corner of the bed.]

Are you okay?