nebulochaotic | action + text; (canon update catch-all)

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action + text; (canon update catch-all)

wednesday 10/14, early morning; (closed to klaus)

As the car pulls up in front of the apartment building where she used to live (where she lives, some part of her brain corrects), she can only stare in silence. She doesn't know how or when it happens, but one second she had been standing in front of their father (in front of Ben), and then she had woken up in some office as someone rambled about orientation, Eglaf, and being displaced. And, in that moment, the memories of Eglaf had started rushing back, colliding with everything that she has lived through for the last two and a half years.

Now, she's here. In Eglaf, Florida, in front of the building that is now home (again). She doesn't remember the conversation after orientation, or even if there was one. She doesn't even remember agreeing to get in the car. But as the haze in her brain begins to lift, the car feels suffocating and she gets out just as the man driving her asks if she's feeling okay or if he should take her back to get checked out.

Allison, we’re different than everyone else, she remembers Luther telling her, in her home, in her kitchen. In the life that she had, with the man that she will never see again. We’re special. And good or bad, that means we don’t get to live normal lives. Here or anywhere.

Is that why she's back here? Is that why they saved the world, but had ended their own? The thought makes her vision blur for a moment, but she doesn't slow down her trek to her apartment. The sound of her boots seem to echo in the quiet weekday morning, but she doesn't have the energy to really care right now. She just needs to sit and regroup, at least enough to figure out what the hell she has to do next.

Shifting her coat to her left arm, she moves to unlock her door. Just as she does so, though, the sound of the front door opening at the apartment next to hers catches her attention, and she lets out the breath she had been holding at the sight of her brother. Some part of her hadn't known what to expect, unsure how much time had passed here and if her siblings would even be here. But Klaus is here, still her neighbor, and she smiles even if it wavers. God, she thinks, if this isn't the version of her brother that she remembers from her first round in Eglaf, she might lose her mind.

"Hey, Klaus."

Network, locked to the Hargreeves, Prim, Sirius, Derek;

[ When the video comes online, she looks a bit different than the last time she had been on the network. There's a cut and a bruise on the left side of her cheekbone where Lila had managed to get her during their fight, but other than looking somewhat tired, she seems relatively okay.

She sighs. ]

So. Apparently it was my turn to go home for a bit.

[ It's until then that she realizes she's talking for the first time on the network, that there are some here that have never heard her talk before, and a faint smile crosses her lips. ]

I just got back this morning, voice and all. I'm okay, just...trying to absorb everything. If you want to swing by, feel free; I'm home. I'll be rejoining the search tonight, and I'll be at the gym tomorrow.

Everyone okay?

Network, OTA;

Hey, everyone. I'm back. Thanks for helping Klaus continuing the search for those that are missing. I'll be there tonight, so if you're joining us today, I'll see you soon.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

By some miracle he’s managed to slip out of his apartment shortly after waking. He hasn’t slept much, anyway, and to avoid waking the two men in his apartment, he forgoes his usual coffee in favor of a cigarette. Hindsight might well tell him he should have put more clothes on than just a pair of leggings, but the dark circles under his eyes and the tired, pale face go well with the dark fabric, after all.

He’s just managed to open the door, letting the lock click softly behind him as he it closes when he hears her. For a second, he freezes, his body going rigid with tension and he’s sure he’s hearing things. A taunt of a ghost, the creeping despair that she’s gone. But it’s when the sound almost echoes in the empty hall that he turns slowly to stare across at her.

She looks different, a version of Allison he remembers from home, but not the Allison that lives here, with him. Dread fills his chest to bursting the instant the thought crosses his mind: this might not be his Allison. This Allison will still very much be his sister, but won’t be the woman he’s shared sleepless nights with, the woman who will remember the two, quaint little dolls he saved, the dogs, won’t remember the attack, the confessions, the days spent lounging with trash TV in the background...

He can get by without her. People like Tony and Sirius and Sarah bolster him, remind him that he’s made it this far on his own strength, and he can move forward with that strength. But does he want to?

“Allison?”

But the dread doesn’t last long; it can’t. Even if she’s not the woman he knew a few days ago, she’s still his sister, and God in heaven he’s missed her. “Allison!” He shouldn’t shout, but he can’t help it as he crosses the short distance and throws his arms around her, gathering her up into his chest and squeezing her as tightly as he can.

“H-hey, Al,” he laughs, something watery and wavering, fingers of one hand reaching to touch the back of her head softly, practically cradling her to him. “Welcome back.”

Will she remember him? Remember this place? Remember everything they’ve shared, everything she’s accomplished? He’s not sure when, but when he pulls back to look at her, tears spill down his cheeks.

The way he shouts her name makes her laugh, the sound breathless and shaky, and she nods as she rushes over to him as well. There’s a distinct memory now, of the way she had jumped into the pool on his mansion, the way they held each other after they feared they would never see each other again, and just like that day she clings to him the moment that he’s within reach. The uncertainty of everything, the way that the ground still feels shaky beneath her feet as her old memories and the life she just left behind are converging with each other make her feel like she can’t quite catch her breath, but his embrace helps. It gives her something solid to hold onto, so she won’t feel like she’s floating away into nothing.

Welcome back, he says, and it makes her hold onto him tighter as she chokes out a chuckle that gets caught in her throat as she tries to hold back her own tears.

She’s wildly unsuccessful at it, though, so when he pulls back to look at her, her own tears are running down her cheeks. As she reaches up to wipe his away, she smiles at him. “So you’re still my neighbor, huh? I think I’m going to need a new key...unless me staying with you for a week was too much to handle.”

She says it teasingly, but it’s her way to confirm that this is her same Klaus. That she hasn’t quite lost everything, that at least some of what she remembers is still there.

Her brow furrows, her voice turning softer. “Are you okay?”

The comment about her week keeping vigil in his apartment almost undoes him in a way he hadn't expected, heals stinging wounds and patches up the sorrowful what-ifs he unearthed in her absence. "Bold of you think I won't be making you suffer the same fate, now that you're back. I still have a key to your apartment, thank you very much. And I won't be moving my ass from your couch for the next year if I have to."

He swipes at her tears as well, reaching a hand to brush the backs of his fingers against her cheeks. His smile could split his face in two, lighting up his eyes, and does something to bring color back into his cheeks.

"Am I okay?" Klaus mutters, incredulous, eyes widening at the sheer audacity of her asking. "Are you okay? It's been two days here and besides a few search parties and sleepless nights, I'm just as peachy as when you left. Better, really, but don't tell the boys you're my favorite."

It's so easy to joke like this with her, to feel like a pressure has lifted from his shoulders, to feel like his lungs can move air again. He doesn't let go of her, arms fluttering from her shoulders to her forearms, before he all but tugs her into another hug. When he speaks again, his voice wavers.

"Which, by the way, you're not allowed to do that whole disappearing act again, I refuse. I have decreed it, so it be."

The quick response makes a laugh choke out of her again, relief and happiness suddenly overwhelming. She had just seen him, had just been with the whole family (and then some), but to have him, to be able to at least retain the bonds that they have been building in Eglaf... It's more than what she had let herself hope for.

His question if she's okay catches her unguarded, and for a moment her smile fades because she doesn't even know where to begin. Is she okay? She's okay now. Physically she's just sore and exhausted, but emotionally it's a whole box of messy crap that she doesn't even know where to begin in sorting it. That's why it's easier to latch onto his joke, making her smile almost immediately almost as if she's preening. "I'll have to contain myself in sharing that little detail, but as always, your secret is safe with me."

Two days. She has only been gone for two days? That piece of it doesn't click until Klaus is hugging her again, and she wraps her arms around him tightly.

"Then so it shall be," she assures him with a small smile, even if they both know she has very little control over what can happen. That she had somehow been transported away to spend two and a half years in Dallas, Texas, in a whole other decade, very much against her will. She had to spend a full year without her voice, without telepathy. Without powers, without any semblance of control before stumbling to find some semblance of a life. A life that is now gone, but the aftershocks from it are still running through her.

After a moment, her hold on him tightens. "I'm so glad you're still here."

Edited 2020-10-14 20:02 (UTC)

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