Room 505, Tuesday Morning

[thatsamilkshake]

Nice of Fandom to let her survive the weekend, Francine had decided upon listening to last night's radio broadcast, before throwing something else at her. It was sometimes generous like that.

Francine was sometimes generous too. For instance right now she was sticking around her room failing to kill things online, instead of going out and failing to kill things elsewhere.

[OOC: Expecting the Ears for SP of dooom, but also open if you want to deal with her, sure.]

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[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Making a face, he sat down on her bed. "I'm sorry about all this."

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine shook her head. "You didn't do anything to be sorry for, either of you. I know you wouldn't."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"And people think we did anyway."

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine's lips did a thing that you should never, never tell her she inherited from her mother, that looked like she just sucked a lemon and then licked a battery.

"I guess. People ought to know better." And okay, selfish, that beyond being pissed on their behalf, she wanted to kick things for herself? Maybe. "And it'd be nice if they remembered I exist."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"We could let Brynn chase after them in the park," Merlin suggested after a moment.

[thatsamilkshake]

"...People who believe the radio?"

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"...I was thinking the squirrels, actually."

[thatsamilkshake]

"Oh." Francine was more stuck on the other one than the squirrels, despite the cathartic flash games. "Doesn't she do that already?"

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"But this time we can let her off the leash for it."

[thatsamilkshake]

That at least got a laugh out of her. "I'd be afraid she'd actually catch one, and then what would she do with it?"

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"...probably leave us with an injured or terrified squirrel," Merlin replied after a moment's pause.

[thatsamilkshake]

"I don't actually want to hurt them. I just want to...throw shoes at them or something." Francine sighed. "It's not the squirrels anyway, it's people. It bugs me that they'd think those things about you; it bugs me that they'd think you cared that little about me. Or else they didn't think of me at all."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin nodded, holding out a hand for her to join him. "I don't think they know us all that well if that's what they think."

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine pushed her chair back and stood up to take it, using his hand to turn herself around and lean against him, wrapping it around her waist.

"It shouldn't bother me, I guess. I do know you. And the people who matter know me. I just... I'm not real big on trusting guys right now, you know?" That would probably wear off in a disappointingly short time, at least from Katchoo's POV. "So I don't like people thinking I'm dumb for trusting the ones I do."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin hugged her back, chin resting on her shoulder. "I think our... relationships are a bit too complicated to follow."

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine tried for a laugh and more or less succeeded. "There's only four of us; it's not like you need a flow-chart." Yes, she said four. Shut up. Hush. Shut up.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"Four now?" Merlin asked, more amused sounding than alarmed.

[thatsamilkshake]

"...Shut up." But there was a shape burned into her skin that wouldn't let her make the same old argument that ended in 'you're crazy.'

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin smiled and kissed her on the forehead. "Feeling better?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"I guess..." Maybe a little more focused, at least. On something besides feeling guilty for setting imaginary squirrels on fire with her brain. It might not be the sanest focus ever. "Do you. I mean. If." Or the most easily verbalized. "Do you want to? With Arthur?"

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"No. Yes. It's---complicated."

[thatsamilkshake]

"Ha!" It was the kind of laugh that hurt your throat a little. "When isn't it?" Francine reached up to tangle fingers in her bangs.

"Because of me?" she asked after a moment. Francine Peters, center of the universe, yes.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"Yes. And no again," Merlin replied. "I wouldn't do that to you, and... I'm not certain if--"

He made a face.

"--to a degree, he used sex like Katchoo uses alcohol."

[thatsamilkshake]

You don't want to know the images a slow-to-connect brain can make of a statement like that.

"Run that by me again? Not the me part. I got the me part." For certain to-be-revisited definitions of got.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"He slept with people to--escape things," Merlin replied, looking elsewhere.