In Each Other

Author's Note: Could it be? Another chapter? I know, right... Such a rare occurance now. I'm tempted to say that they'll come faster now that things are almost resolved, but I don't want to be a liar, so I won't. I assure everyone that's been hanging in there, though, that the next chapter will contain at least a little smooching. Possibly more. It depends on how big a bastard Norris is being. But yay! Last entirely talky chapter! Go me! There'll probably be two more after this one, and possibly an epilogue depending on whether I want to give the story a happy ending or not. Stick around!

*****

It wasn’t fair.

That was the only thought going through Karsh’s mind as he climbed up out of the hideout and squinted into the sun. It wasn’t fair that he should be so thoroughly rebuffed, that e tim time he found love it was summarily snatched away from him before he could even taste it. Although, considering the debacle this entire affair had been so far, he was hesitant to call what he felt for Norris “love”. It was more like… Well, he was damned if he knew, but it wasn’t quite love. They didn’t really know each other well enough, after all, and obviously Norris didn’t return the affections.

Except that he did, and Karsh knew it, and he was just rationalizing the whole mess to keep it from hurting so bad. Because it did hurt, worse than when Riddel and Dario had announced their engagement. Then, at least he hadn’t been open about his feelings. He’d been able to keep the pain private, work through it on his own. How many people knew about Norris, now? Orlha, his mother, probably Riddel. Norris himself, which made it even worse. He wished he’d never opened his big mouth. None of this was worth the aggravation.

“Problems, big guy?” Karsh rolled his eyes before he could help himself; that was possibly the last voice he wanted to hear right now, barring Norris’s own. With a soft sigh, he turned to face Orlha, directing a world-weary glare at her cheerful countenance. Her expression fell in the face of his sourness, and she cocked her head. “Uh oh. Boy trouble.” Karrowlrowled at the phrase, but didn’t yank away when she took his arm and steered him out towards the trees. “C’mon, we clearly need to have a little talk…”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” he answered, sullen as though he were a child. There really wasn’t. Talking to Orlha had gotten him into this mess in the first place, and he wasn’t in the mood to rehash this latest rejection.

“There’s always something to talk about,” and her voice was so happily firm that Karsh just gave up. There wasn’t enough fight left in him to resist Orlha’s overtures; she’d been lucky and caught him at a particularly down time. He’d just sit there and let her prattle and reply with the occasional monosyllabic encouragement. It’d make her happy, and she would leave him alone.

They walked for a fair distance, crashing through the shrubbery in search of a good resting point. Although he knew there was no danger, Karsh began to wish he’d brought his axe along. He hadn’t wanted to take it in with him when he’d gone to see Norris, and Orlha had pounced on him before he’d had a chance to grab it again. There is nothing dangerous here, he reminded himself firmly. Radius had thoroughly cleansed the island of all aggressive beasts before he’d settled there, and as far as Karsh knew, no more had migrated there. Still, these were strange times, and it wouldn’t have surprised him if something had leapt out of the undergrowth at them.

Nothing did, of course, and Karsh’s morbid daydreams of bloody death ended abruptly as Orlha shoved him to the ground. He snarled in annoyance, but that was as far as it went. Orlha was a pushy woman and he’d more or less learned to deal with that. Besides, he wasn’t going to hit a girl. Particularly not a girl who could kick his ass with her eyes closed. “What do you want?” he muttered, trying his damnedest not to look like a sulky child.

“Brat,” Orlha chirped, ever cheerful as she flung herself to the ground beside him. He wondered if her perpetual good spirits were an act. He was inclined to think so; on several occasions he’d caught a glimpse of deep, ferocious sadness in her violet eyes, something he couldn’t quite pin down. Something he wasn’t sure he wanted to pin down. “Okay, so, tell me what the problem is.”

“There’s not one,” Karsh muttered. He knew that for some people, talking over problems could be cathartic. He wasn’t really one of those people, though, and the fact that Orlha was trying to make him into one was annoying. He loved her like the sister he never had, but enough was enough. “Just leave me alone.”

“Karsh,” she murmured, laying a hand on his forearm. It was small and brown and deceptively strong. “Please, I just want to help. You talked to me before…” She had him there, of course. He’d spilled easily enough when he’d been nervous of Norris’s intentions towards him. This was different, though. It was a private pain, something he wouldn’t even have shared with Dario, had Dario still been alive.

“It’s not something I want to talk about, all right?” Hew hew he was snapping, and that Orlha would probably get angry and storm off into the forest. He hoped she did. It might do him good to simply be alone with his misery for a while. He wasn’t one to bottle up feelings, but unless he sat with this for a bit, it would simply result in apathy. And that, at least, was something that he had no tolerance for. “Go away.”

Orlha was silent for a long time, though she made no move to get up and leave. Every moment that she sat there, saying nothing, made Karsh just a le bie bit more tense. Why wasn’t she going? Why was she giving him the silent treatment? He wanted her to storm off! He wanted her to scream at him and tell him he was horrible, so that he could apologize later, when he felt better. This was too much. It reminded him of his childhood, how when he was in trouble, instead of accusing, his mother would just sit across the table from him in total silence, waiting. It had always worked, too. He’d always spilled his guts, sniffling and guilty, unable to bear the heavy cloud of nothing. He wondered if Orlha had taken lessons from Zippa; it would certainly explain a lot.

“I was in love once,” she said, very abruptly. It startled Karsh, and he jumped a little, heart pounding. If Orlha was trying to unnerve him into speaking, she was doing a very good job. He was almost ready to confess everything, if it only meant she would stop being so damned subdued. “It didn’t work out, because most loves don’t. But it was real, and it was strong, and I thought we’d be together forever.” She paused again, long enough that Karsh began to wonder if that was all of the story. Before he could ask what the hell she was getting at, she spoke again.

“I didn’t want him at first. I had other things to worry about. Training, my sister, the bar… Real life things, that I thought were more important than whatever he was offering me.” A little smile spread across her face. “But he was persistent. No matter how many times I told him no, he kept cominoundound. Always with that same damned smile, too. I wanted to slap that smile off his face sometimes. So infuriating! God… He wanted me to marry him.”

Karsh was starting to get bored. He was glad that Orlha and her boyfriend had conquered blah blah blah and gotten together in the end like a big stupid fairytale, but really. It was getting ridiculous, and he was in no fucking mood for anecs. s. But he kept quiet, and seethed, and wondered if he could get away with grabbing her by the ponytails and slinging her into a tree. Maybe if he took her by surprise…

“I eventually agreed to go on a date with him, and you know what? It was grand. I had a wonderful time, and he walked me home and… well, that’s not really relevant.” Karsh wondered bitterly if any of it was. “The point of the story is, he didn’t give up. And trust me, I was a lot harsher with him than Norris could ever hope to be.” And that was the last straw.

“First of all, shut up,” Karsh roared, twisting to face her. All the impotent anger he’d felt towards Norwas was pouring out now. Perhaps Orlha wasn’t its intended target, but she was a target nonetheless and Karsh needed desperately to get it out of his system. “I told you I didn’t want to talk. That means I didn’t want to hear any fucking stupid stories about your love life, all right? I could not possibly care less about Prince Fucking Charming and how he didn’t ever give up on your true fucking love because first of all, what the hell does it even have to do with me, and second of all, IT DIDN’T WORK OUT ANYWAY!”

Orlha, in the face of his fury, sat very calmly, arms folded over her knees. If Karsh had been at all coherent, he’d have noticed the spark of grim pleasure in her eyes. He wasn’t quite through, however, and he drew a deep breath for the next portion of his tirade. “This is all your fault anyhow, you silly bitch! I never would have said anything to him in the first place if you hadn’t been pushing me to make a complete ass of myself! Fucking women! Did it ever occur to you that maybe you shouldn’t meddle in people’s lives!? Hmm? Did it!? Good gods, woman, what did you hope to accomplish? Are you trying to live vicariously through everyone or what!?”

He fell silent then, gathering up for yet another good rant, and Orlha spoke. “Feel better now?” she asked, very softly. She was infuriatingly calm, which only served to further enrage Karsh. He leapt to his feet, arms waving wildly.

“NO, I don’t fucking feel better! I feel worse! Do you know how many times I’ve been rejected in the past few days? Do you?” No answer. “NEITHER DO I. I lost count. Do you realize how fucking pathetic that is? I should have kept my mouth shut, that’s what I should have done. I should have beat off a couple of times and kept my fucking mouth shut. Would have saved me a lot of trouble, wouldn’t it? Don’t just fucking sit there, Orlha! DAMMIT! You’re making me insane!”

Orlha, through all of this, remained supremely unmoved, and Karsh finally quieted down. There was something a little bit unnerving about her silence; the Orlha he knew would never simply sit by and allow someone to vent his or her spleen in such a manner. Slowly, almost sheepish, he met her violet eyes and sunk back down to the ground. Part of him was still furious over his situation, and part was enraged by the way she was making him feel. Most of him, though, was guilty as all hell for screaming at Orlha when she’d clearly only meant to help.

“Sorry…”

“It’s fine.” Orlha reached out and patted his knee softly, smiling. “You just looked like you needed to vent some anger. Feel better now?” Karsh’s mouth worked in silent astonishment as his brain began to grasp her meaning.

“That whole story about the guy was fake, wasn’t it?” he demanded. She just nodded, ponytails swinging gently. “You were being deliberately annoying so that I would yell at you!” Orlha smiled, and it was a touch smug this time. Karsh sat for a moment, torn between fury and laughter. She’d lied to him! But it was in the interest of his mental and emotional health, so he couldn’t really bring himself to be too angry.

“So, are you gonna kill me now or what?” Orlha teased, rising and brushing her clothes off. Karsh rose as well and offered her his arm.

“I won’t if you’ll come have a drink with me,”answanswered. He was still upset over the Norris debacle, would be for some time, but he had no intentions of letting it ruin his life. There simply wasn’t time for moping over things that he couldn’t change; he’d known that with Riddel and Dario, and he knew it now with Norris.

“I’d be delighted.” Orlha looped her arm through his and smiled up at him, and the two of them set off to find Fargo and the rum.