ellectrical | (no subject)

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Elle is curled up into one side of the couch, head leaned against the arm, sparks snapping around her neck. Farrah, who has chosen to settle on her stomach, is watching the sparks crackle, head moving back and forth very slightly as the electricity flares and flashes on her skin.

Fortunately, she hasn't resorted to batting her paw at them.

That probably wouldn't be pleasant for anyone.

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"Oh."

It makes sense.

"They make it easy to tell."

She nods.

"It's better than if I - don't know."

"Yes," X agrees, after a moment or two of thought.

"It is better to be sure."

This next pause lasts a few seconds.

"But people are not always jerks. When they are honest."

"I know."

And she does, though after a moment she adds, "I know that now."

X shifts a little, nudging her foot against Elle's leg.

Again.

"Okay," she says, quietly.

"Good."

It is important.

"But -"

She closes her eyes, and opens them again, trying to force something together to make sense of this.

"Sometimes they - I think they don't say what they mean."

X considers that.

Then --

"Yes. Sometimes people do not know how. To say things."

Beat.

"Or they do not want to."

She doesn't fidget.

"It is not always bad."

"But they say something else."

Beat.

"Or they ask me things..."

Elle is starting to stare rather intently at the sofa.

X's frown is growing pronounced.

"I am allowed to ask?"

She can't tell.

And it seems to be not okay.

"I do not -- "

Elle doesn't need it pointed out to her that she's basically starting to do the thing she's complaining about.

She's still quiet for a long moment, but finally -

"I talked to Bruce again."

"Oh."

Now X looks a little bewildered. Just for a second.

"He was a jerk?"

It's a really nice couch X has. Or another reason Elle is staring at it.

"Maybe I was bad at it again."

She blinks up to the wall. "I don't think I was - that bad."

"I do not think so, either."

Her frown does not look like it is going anywhere.

Neither, of course, is the foot that she has pressed against Elle's leg.

"And he understands me. When I talk."

X thinks Elle is not as bad at talking as X herself is. It could be true!

"I don't think he says what he means. To me."

Beat. "Sometimes."

"Oh."

X considers that for a few seconds.

Then --

"He pretends a lot. At home. Because people are always watching."

She does not shrug.

"I think he forgets. Sometimes. That he does not have to pretend in Milliways."

Beat.

"Most of the time."

This pause is longer.

"You are okay?"

"I can't talk to him."

Beat. "If he's pretending. Or I don't know. And I'm not."

"I will tell him," X says, then hesitates.

"If that is okay."

If Elle does not mind.

Elle's not sure what the protocol is here, as she's never had a social circle big enough to cause this kind of thing.

So she answers, "I don't know if you have to."

"I think it will be less confusing."

But X's opinions may be suspect.

She is not exactly a social mastermind, either.

"Okay."

She doesn't have any other reason to protest it. After a pause, the sparks move to her neck again, and Elle sits up, slightly shifting Farrah to her lap. The cat takes interest in the sparks again, but doesn't complain.

"I'm glad he doesn't pretend with you."

"Yes," X says, very simply.

"I am glad, too."

Otherwise they would not be who they are. Or maybe how they are is more accurate.

And this, of course, is the moment that Steve McQueen chooses to make his belated -- and very energetic -- entrance.

X's midsection will never be the same.

Otherwise Elle might not see this as she does now: completely not her business.

"Are you okay?"

Maybe it's not just about the cat.

X repositions Steve McQueen in a way that is more comfortable for both of them, then looks up at Elle.

She considers her question for a few long moments, then nods.

Carefully.

"Yes. I am."

Beat.

"Even when it is not quiet."

"It's not quiet?" she asks, slightly pressing down on Farrah's back, as she looks close to batting her paw at Elle's neck again.

X takes a careful breath.

"More people have found the Facility's research. It is problematic."

So, in a way, it's same old, same old.

Just like always.