lt_blade | (no subject)

(no subject)

With people, there is always a sign or two that one gives when it's clear that some thing's either not right, or just on their minds. For Sonya, in this case, it was the fact that she was at her hut and not actually doing or anything, except waiting for some breadfruit to finish cooking in its banana leaf wrappings over the fire pit. It was one of those rare moments when she didn't want to think, but she didn't really feel like doing much else.

She should have known, when she didn't see his boat by the docks that morning. She tried to reason with herself that he was only on the other island, but after a few days her senses couldn't be denied any longer. By that Saturday afternoon, what Sonya had started to deny became a fact-David Webster was no longer on the island.

Even though they hadn't really talked much lately, Sonya couldn't help but feel something else behind his disappearance. It brought back the memory of after Joe's disappearance, when she and Webster argued over him leaving, and now with him- she felt even more alone than usual. At the time, it was because she was aware of how she had no one, and while she shouldn't have let it affect her, it was her friends vanishing off the island that made her feel how alone she was. It was how it always was, in a way, she would end up by herself. The irony now was that she had someone she loved..more as a friend, someone that could disappear any day now: she could wake up and find his side of the bed gone cold. She knew it was inevitable, but she hated the thought of waiting in fear for something like that.

He wasn't at the hut when she returned from a jog-relatively easy going with her leg still sore, but she expected him to be back any time soon. What she was thinking may have been irrational, but then what on this island was ever rational. She wanted to spend the rest of her time on the island with him, she was aware of this now-even if it took Webster's vanishing to have her come to that realization. Sonya wasn't sure if Scorpion would agree or not, but the only way she'd know for sure is through him.

Her face was grim as she poked one of the banana leaf casings: still not done.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Harry had smelled the cooking food while he'd been working in his garden, and had eventually felt compelled to follow his nose up to Sonya's hut to see what was going on.

He found her by her fire pit, not looking in the best of moods, which wasn't a great surprise. As he recalled, her and Webster had been pretty good friends.

"Hey, Sonya," he called, voice a little softer than usual. "What're you making there?"

She looked up, both surprised and not to see Harry.

"Hi." Sonya tried to smile back, but she had too much on her mind. "Bread fruit and bananna slices. Was hungry, but I didn't feel like going to the compound." She also mixed in some cinnamon, because otherwise it would've been a little too bland. "You can have one when they're done, had to make several of these at once."

Thankfully, the fruit keeps easily.

"Jungle food, huh? Sounds like just the thing - nothing like tidying up hurricane damage to build an appetite," Harry said, crouching down next to the pit. There was something soothing about watching a flame. It had a way of entrancing you and making you forget your surroundings - which he knew all too well could sometimes be a liability, but for now was quite welcome.

"So, how's things?" he asked, leaving the conversation open for Sonya to choose whether to reveal what had her so subdued, or for them to gloss it over and choose a more lighthearted subject.

She carefully picked up a small pouch and handed it to him. "If it's too hot just set it aside."

"Just finished clearing up after the hurricane." She picked up one for herself, opening it carefully. "Slight roof damage and a tree limb through the window. What about you?"

"The Officer's Club and the barracks are fine, but the dell's a mess," Harry said, taking the pouch from her. "Just when it was recovering from the monsoon, too... I managed to cover over the flowers before the winds got too bad, but one of the trees fell, and there's still not much left alive. I'll have to get some seeds from the Compound garden to fill in the gaps."

Having never gardened before, it surprised him how well he'd taken to looking after the dell, and how protective of it he'd become. It was soothing, somehow; having something to do with his hands took his mind off other things. He'd reckon Sonya was cooking for similar reasons.

"The weather's been hell lately. And it won't be long until Halloween, either..." He thought back to last year, when he'd been woken by zombies at the door, and shook his head. "I suppose it keeps us on our toes."

"Kinda like the military, long periods of boredom with short intervals of chaos." She allowed herself a small smile. "SNAFU Island's starting to look more and more like an appropriate name."

The smile faded. She wasn't used to faking humor for long, and she figured it was on their minds already. "Suppose you saw that Webster's gone."

She tried to remind herself that he was better off at home, but that didn't remedy the fact that her circle of friends was growing shorter.

Movement near the trees caught her attention, and she turned to see Max emerging through the trees. He usually went for Sonya during her morning run, but she wasn't there so he followed her scent to the hut-she usually had something there to eat. The scent of the man with her was 'sort of' new, but he had food.

"Max!" Sonya called out as the wolf tried to get at the breadfruit. "No.."

The wolf only looked at her with what she could swear was part pleading and part 'why not'.

She huffed. "Harry, this is Max. He used to be with Cameron Mitchell, not he sometimes hovers over between here and New Atlantis. Max..this is Harry and that's his lunch."

Even here, it wasn't every day a massive wolf came and stuck its nose in your food. Harry jumped back when he saw it, holding the bundle away from himself (though perfectly aware that the wolf could easily jump up, take it, and bite off his whole goddamn with it, if it felt like it), and then settled down when Sonya called it to heel.

He looked at her, then back at the wolf, which was now sitting there as docile as any dog.

"You have a pet wolf now," he said. Not a question, just a statement of ridiculous yet undeniable fact. "That's... well, it's different."

He unwrapped the leaves, tore off a bit of the breadfruit and threw it to land at the wolf's paws.

"There ya go, boy."

Sonya tried to bring herself to laugh, but she didn't really feel like it.

"He's not a pet, just comes by when I'm on my morning run." She watched as he caught the bread fruit in the air. "Or when he thinks he can get an easy meal."

Max found his attention between the two of them. The man gave him food, but he was more familiar with the woman. Maybe the man would give him more food?

"Like now."

She tossed her fruit to the direwolf, who caught it and started tearing the rest of the leaves away.

"Webster's gone." Sonya wasn't fond of repeating herself, but she wanted to know if Harry knew as well.

The wolf seemed happily distracted now, which allowed Harry to focus on other things. When Sonya mentioned Webster, he nodded, and allowed himself a small sigh.

"Yeah, I know," he said. "It's probably for the best. He wasn't very happy here, not since Liebgott left. Well. He wasn't all that happy even when Liebgott was here, but he at least had a bit of life in him." Harry had probably been a bit hard on him at times, but he couldn't help it. Webster's personality just rubbed him up all the wrong way.

"So now it's just me and Lip. I keep wondering which of us is gonna go next."

Sonya wasn't that surprised when he told her that Webster wasn't that happy even with Joe around. She wasn't all that aware of it but figured if anyone knew, it'd be Harry.

"That's what I keep telling myself in situations like this, that it's for the best. But it's starting to become a cliche right about now." Because as much as she could tell herself that, it didn't help.

Max seemed to understand that she needed a willing ear and walked over to her, his tail wagging even as he sat down next to her. Without really thinking, she scratched him besides his ear.

"You have a bigger reason to go home next, but on that note, it's another friend leaving-and I don't have that many left here."

Sure she had Scorpion, and a number of good acquaintances, but it wasn't the same.

"Yeah, you and me both. I'm gonna have to make an effort to talk to more people," Harry said. He'd adapted, but there was no denying he missed Easy, and Dick and Nix in particular. After seeing them every day for three years, having them gone and unreachable was a bit jarring.

"Anyway, it doesn't matter how much I want to go home or how good the reasons are, the island'll only kick me off when it feels like it. Knowing the island, it'll probably pick Lip before me, 'cause he actually has somebody he loves here." He shrugged, and picked at his serving of breadfruit. "Y'know, if you ever get fed up with living in that hut, there's plenty of space at the Officers' Club. You're an officer after all, that entitles you." He chuckled. "Though on second thoughts I can see why you'd rather not share your space with a couple of noisy, untidy men. Or one noisy, untidy man and Lipton."

"You and me both." Sonya said, in spite of herself: she wasn't the best with talking with people.

She gave her fruit to Max. "Thanks, but Hanzo-Scorpion-and I've been living together for awhile, otherwise I'd probably accept the offer-so long as no one would me to clean up after them." She was an officer after all, not their mother.

"I can clean up after myself, y'know. I just choose not to," Harry said, with a chuckle. He wasn't that bad - the habits that'd been beaten into him at boot camp died hard - but he liked having the liberty to leave his bed unmade and his clothes on the floor and not have a drill sergeant yell down his ears.

"And that's great about you and Scorpion. I'm glad to hear it's working out well for you." He shook his head, looking a little wistful. "I swear to God, all my friends seem to be getting together all of a sudden. I'd say it was something in the water, but the island's never that subtle when it wants to force people into things, so it must just be good luck."

Talking with Harry helped cheer her up a bit-she knew she was friends with him for a reason.

"Ah," she remarked. "But you never had to grow up with an army officer for a dad-I've been making my bed army style since I was five years old."

Somewhere during the conversation, Max started getting bored and cocked his head to the woods. His ears picked up a sound and he ran off for the hunt.

"I've had some shitty luck." She said. "My first real love is now six feet under, the admirer after him is a soul-sucking bastard.." She let out a sigh. "And the man I'm in love with now-we can only be together as long as the island allows."

Kinda ironic: She could only be with Scorpion for a few years at the most and then never be with him again, whereas Harry had been away from Kitty for years but still had the hope of being reunited with her.

She thought to change the subject. "You're birthday's coming up pretty soon, isn't it?"

Harry watched the wolf dash off again, feeling (despite Sonya's reassurances) slightly relieved that it had gone, and nodded understandingly as Sonya listed her grievances. Much as he sometimes felt lonely, it was probably for the best in the long run that he couldn't have relationships here; there literally wasn't any way for them to end well.

He never knew what to say about things like that, though, so he was glad for the change of subject.

"I know, it doesn't feel that long since my last birthday here," he said, nodding. "Jesus Christ, I'm gonna be 28. That's only two years off thirty."

"You suddenly feeling old?" It was a little bit of a surprise for her: Harry always seemed like someone who never really felt 'old', experienced and seasoned yes, but never someone who thought they couldn't do something because of age.

"You have anything planned, or is it just going to be a quiet number?" Harry was one of the few people she could attend a party for without thinking up an unterior reason.

Harry laughed, realising how he must sound.

"Heck no," he said. "Getting physically older doesn't mean I have to grow up, does it? Nah, it was just making me realise how long I've been here, that's all. And you bet I'm having a goddamn party." You couldn't have a birthday without a party. He didn't understand people who wanted to keep it quiet; even if you didn't like getting old, that was just all the more reason to get drunk.

"I think I might have a themed party this year. Haven't thought up a theme yet, mind you, but there's still some time left for that."

His laugh was contagious-or maybe the need to feel some sort of mirth was so strong she just fell right in.

"Never stopped you before, growing older I mean." She still remembered the first time they officially met, and with him high tailing it up a tree just because he could.

"You could go for a retro style theme-if you're the sort who's big on trends." She thought back to what he said at the roller skating party. "And hey, it's your party, you could go with what you'd consider 'retro.'

"I like that!" Harry said. "Now that does make me feel old, people having nostalgic parties for decades I haven't even lived through yet. Of course, choosing a decade might be hard - the forties aren't long enough ago for me to feel nostalgic about them, and the thirties weren't exactly fun for anyone."

He thought about it, stroking his chin in thought. "The twenties? Jazz and cocktails and movie stars, and all that other flashy stuff that I wasn't old enough to enjoy at the time?" Not to mention that small-town Pennsylvania had hardly been at the centre of the Jazz Age; he'd absorbed most of his impressions of the times from weekends spent at movie matinees. "That could be fun. What d'you reckon? Not too long ago for everybody else to have completely forgotten about it?"

"There was a jazz theme some months ago at the catscratch club that did pretty well, so there's a good chance a 20s is a go. And hell, at the Officer's club, the setting fits even more, not to mention twenty's fashion is a lot easier on the eyes than the seventies."

Sonya should know, she's lived through that time-and the 80s, but during that period it was mostly military issued clothing: dull yes, but relatively safe.

"Then it's sorted," Harry said. A lot of people he'd have liked to have invited weren't here any more, but he still had plenty of friends on the island, and was happy to welcome strangers if they got into the spirit of things with everyone else.

"And you don't need to tell me about the seventies fashion. Sometimes me and Zell go and watch that television up in the rec centre - some of the shows are good fun, but my god, everybody in that decade needs a goddamn haircut." Going by the way the island's other citizens looked, civilisation would indeed advance past that strange phase of strangely-shaped pants and beards from everyone, but it was going to be an odd ten years.

Sonya wasn't so sure if she should laugh or just stare.

"Okay, what you just said there-would've been exactly what my father said during that decade." Translation: you really just showed your age there, buddy.

"It was a rough time-the end of vietnam, watergate, inflation. People were fed up with the government and long hair was a way of rebelling against the status quo."

Hey, Sonya may've not been a follower to trends, but that didn't mean she didn't understand them either.

She paused. "Actually it's a little ironic. The same people I remember with the long hair and going to protests, they grew up and became yuppies-that is business people just concerned with becoming wealthy."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only