ellectrical | (no subject)

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(no subject)

The first thing Elle asked, after X brought her into the apartment, was to take a shower. She's glad she won't be leaving traces at her motel back her own world, but as for why she should feel safer here than her room in the Bar – there's no good reason for that. But Elle also really doesn't care.

She's still rubbing a towel against her slightly damp hair when she emerges into the main room. Her bloodied t-shirt has been exchanged for a different, light blue one, and her jeans for gray sweatpants. Without her makeup, the bruise on her face is clearly visible, but for whatever reason, neither it nor her broken rib bothers her so much here.

Her bare feet pad quietly against the floor, and she takes a few steps into the room before she looks up, and spots X.

"Thanks," she murmurs.

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X is quiet for a moment or two.

Then --

"Okay."

It seems good from where she is standing, at least.

Elle's hands move into her lap, and fingers fidget slightly.

"I'll - get out of the country soon, anyway."

It'll help. Once she's through.

X tilts her head very slightly, studying Elle.

"But you will come back?"

"Yeah."

Beat.

"Not to New York."

At least not for a while. (She might be deciding that just now.)

"Oh."

X absorbs that.

"Where?"

Elle stays silent for a long moment, but then -

"It won't be for a while. I have to go to Tokyo, too."

Pause.

"And I - can't leave here until -"

She vaguely gestures toward the bruise on her face.

"Oh."

X echoes herself.

But something in the set of her shoulders eases very faintly.

"I have been to Tokyo. Before. Multiple times."

"Yeah," Elle murmurs.

After another long moment, "Are you -"

She's not really sure how to finish that question.

"Did you -"

"What are you doing?"

It's the best alternative she can think of to 'Are you okay?'

"I have been here. A lot. Training."

Beat.

"And Tomas wants me to play baseball. In the spring."

X is not sure how else to say she is okay without lying.

Beat.

"With other people?"

Elle doesn't sound skeptical, exactly - but it was different doing it in Milliways.

X hesitates.

"Coaching."

Beat.

"His team."

"Oh."

"That's -"

Elle doesn't know exactly what it is, so she leaves it on a neutral tone, as though expecting X to finish the sentence for her.

"I do not know if I would be useful."

There's uncertainty there -- more than a little.

"That wouldn't be the problem."

She doesn't use it often with X, but Elle's voice hits a nearly 'Don't be stupid' tone.

X flinches, but only a little.

"I know."

She just does not know what else to say.

Elle blinks away, but then meets X's eyes again.

"It's - hard. When you're hiding."

X nods, just once.

"Yes. But I do not want to leave."

She hesitates, then gives a stiff shrug.

"You're good at hiding it. And if they -"

Even Elle has the sense to feel awkward asking if Tomas' safety matters much to X.

So she says, instead, "No one can - make you do anything, now."

"No," X says, careful and quiet and more sure than she was a few moments ago.

"They cannot."

Beat.

"They will not be able to make you, either? In Tokyo."

Or wherever else she goes that is not the US.

"I don't think they'd try."

Right now, Elle doesn't want to say that it's because she doubts they'd keep her alive that long.

X's nostrils flare a little, but she stays silent.

Until --

"Okay."

Elle presses her lips together.

"Maybe when I - go to Tokyo, you can -"

Beat. "Visit."

X nods, relaxing a little more.

Momentarily.

"That would be good."

Beat.

"If it is okay. For you."

Elle nods.

Then, "I'm going to London first."

Not that she thought X had forgotten.

"I remember," X says.

Maybe it is acknowledgment enough.