[ CLOSED ]

[khajidont]

WHO: Jaime Reyes & Ruka
WHERE: Misc. White Tower Party
WHEN: Before Synod
WHAT: There's a happenstance meeting between Ruka and Jaime. It doesn't go particularly well.
WARNINGS: None anticipated!



[ Jaime had good reason for leaving Krakoa early. He didn't want to tell anyone about his sudden conflict of conscience with what's going on in the world - though he fears some may guess - but going back to the dreaded White Tower to meet with a couple of old friends before the Synod is an excuse that passes muster for most people, so that's precisely what he goes with. Of course, for that to hold water, he actually has to do the damn thing. Which is how he finds himself at one of White Towers plentiful parties, there to put a location tag on his social media account, put up a couple of cute pictures (#oldfriends #backtogetheranditfeelssogood) before he can do what he really wants to do.

That, and there's no place like a good party to get a hold on what people are really thinking, try to get some information out of them underneath the guise of the petty gossip that places like this thrive on. He's gotten good at this over the years anyway. He has a couple drinks, hits the dance floor with a few people (he still isn't great at dancing, but all they really ask from the boys is to wiggle around a bit), flirts with some of the girls, gets a few selfies. The usual. He doesn't find out much he didn't already know, but it's not wholly a waste either. Nothing in his demeanor gives away what he's really feeling, or the anxiety he feels at finally beginning to make a few moves, but he feels the jitters nonetheless. It's easy to hide when everyone else is sloshed too. It takes a dumb joke, a wink and a smile, a hoarsely shouted, "no, no, I gotta get a picture, come on guys!", and nobody's any the wiser.

Besides, these people don't really like him. Nobody here does. It's all for fun, for show. He doesn't expect anyone to be paying any attention to him.

After all, he didn't expect to be suddenly confronted with a lover from a past life. But that realization will come later. For now, they still have yet to meet. ]

Comments

[dragony]

[ It was already on her schedule, so she had to go. Ruka isn't totally clear on the reason for it happening, if there is a reason at all, but she'd spent the better part of four hours before arriving flipping through tagged photos like flashcards, hoping to retain at least some of the names she would need to shout over music.

Frankly, it's a little horrifying how easily she's slipped into the skin of this other life. Not because it's a natural way to act, or that it's easy to learn and infer so much from so little, but — the longer she spends around the people who know that other Ruka, the more she realizes how little they look. Few suspicions, no expectations — a simple elongated vowel or a correctly-timed smile is all anyone needs to see. The longer this goes on, the less likely it seems like she'll be caught — and so the longer she'll have to endure pretending.

She's several drinks down and feeling none the better, on the verge of cutting out early when she hears— god. No, of course not. She knows it can't possibly be who that sounds like, but it's still enough to turn her head, to squint into the crowd of the beautiful, wealthy young. There's no way what she heard was reality, but her heart beats a more anxious tempo in her chest. She should just get going— ]

... Jaime?

[ —but the name slips out anyway, barely audible beneath the noise. God, this is stupid. The loneliness is driving her crazy. If he were here, he wouldn't have made her wait this long. She knows that.

She's still too sober for this. With a huff, Ruka heads back towards the bar. Maybe if she's lucky, she can erase the whole shitty week. ]

[khajidont]

[ The selfie Jaime is capturing captures him looking slightly askance, staring just beyond the camera to where he thinks he heard his name. Khaji buzzes a low assent under his skin; Jaime could have misheard it, but Khaji never would. That's weird. That girl shouldn't even know he exists, let alone his name. Did she catch him? Has the White Tower been following him? Do they know what he's doing?

He looks over at one of the girls with a feckless smile that in no way reaches his eyes. ] Hey, what's with her?

Oh, you mean little miss Divaaaa? She's way out of your league, Reyes.

Pshht. Like that's what I'm interested in. I'm still from Krakoa, you know. She was just, um... looking over here weird.

Uh-huh. Well, if you must know, she's probably in between parties. I don't see any of her friends here. They must've ditched. Lame, right?

Super lame, [ Jaime agrees, eyes tracking her across the bar. He stretches his arms above his head, considering the possibilities. Should he be forward and just try to get near her? See how she reacts? ] I'm gonna get another beer. You want another vodka soda?

[ The girl makes a face. ]

Nah. I'm gonna go fix my lipstick. Catch you outside?

Maybe, [ Jaime says, without any intention of doing so, and makes his way back to the bar. He manages to shoulder his way through the crowd politely, even cutting in line to make sure that he gets there at the exact same time as her. ] Another beer, please. With lime. And, uh... [ He looks at her. ] One of whatever she wants. So long as it's not on the top shelf. Sorry, but I'm not made of that much money.

[ There. A good, casual lead-in. If things are normal, she'll scoff at him and blow him off. Or accept the drink and then wander back off. If not...

Well, they'll just have to see. ]

[dragony]

[ She's gotten herself ninety percent convinced of the trick of loneliness when that other ten percent just brushes her every thought aside; at this close distance, there's no mistaking that voice for anyone else. She can't get a word out edgewise when he talks to the bartender, and her heart is racing a mile a minute.

It would be easier if it was anxiety. Easier if it was fear of being found out. But it's nothing of the sort.

She bites her lower lip to keep from speaking too soon, and with a slow, held breath, she turns her head to glance over at the man beside her, and... god. She didn't think it would hurt this bad — didn't think it would comfort her this much. ]

Jaime Reyes.

[ There are differences, of course, but they're the little, superficial things. The way he wears his hair slicked back, in the fashion of the fashionable guys around here. The clean shave of his jaw. The fit and the cut of his clothing. The cologne. The fact he's ordering beer.

The way there's no warmth in his voice, when he mentions her. The way he looks at her without his eyes crinkling at the corners or his lips even retraining a smile.

It's a different kind of hell, but it's hell all the same.

Ruka pivots to lean a little more firmly on the bar, something to offset the weakness of her legs, and she smiles like tightening a wire. ]

You could have fooled me. [ He can be made out of exactly however much money he wants to be made of. She lets her chin rest on her upturned palm, still skimming the details of his face — all his missing little scars. ] Surprised to see you here, though. Don't tell me you're already bored of Paradise Island?

[khajidont]

[ So... she doesn't want a drink, then. He doesn't know her well enough to know that something's off. Of course he doesn't. But he still knows that something is, her smile tight and her stance somehow rigid. But the thing that stands out most about her is that she knows who he is, where he's from, that easy confirmation of something he'd half-thought that she was going to try to hide. What does she know? Does she actually know anything?

God. If the Princess of White Tower knows he's up to no good, he's hooped. He needs to play nice. It shouldn't be a problem. He's good at nice.

He's just not sure if he'll be good enough for her. ]

Oh, you know. Even if it is beautiful there, everyone needs a change of scenery now and then. I had some old friends to catch up with. [ He doesn't particularly like them. But they don't know that, and even if they did, they'd hardly care. ] But... I'm more surprised that you even know who I am.

[ He's not exactly Mr. Popular. Rarely in the news; rarely on the network, not with everyone watching. ]

[dragony]

[ He doesn't actually like them. The friends he's here to see — if there are any. It's a strange thing to lie about, if he is trying to lie, but she can hear it in his voice. There's no tilt to his smile, no warmth to his tone or in his eyes, all the things that should be easy and natural for him absent or shuttered away. That's weird, isn't it?

It's Jaime, but it isn't. Is she still on the mark, cleaving the differences — or is he so different that she can't read him right at all?

She shouldn't even spend this much time looking at him. She doesn't know how transparent her examination is, or if he even knows how to see emotion in her face, but it's too risky. She turns her gaze towards the bottles on display. ]

Mmm. I'm sure you'd find me full of surprises. [ Ugh. That sounds like an invitation. When the bartender comes back with Jaime's beer (seriously, beer? how miserable is he?), she finally makes her own request and... it's just the strongest concoction she can get. She needs all the help she can get. And while she waits for that, she should say something to blow him off... something to get him to walk away and not think of her a moment longer...

But... it's so good to hear his voice again, even in this state. ]

I can pretend that I don't know you, if you're that attached to the idea. I can't imagine you want this kind of blow to your reputation.

[ The "being seen with and buying drinks for Ruka, of all people" thing. Here, finally, she glances back his way. ]

Easiest way to ditch your friends, though.

[khajidont]

Would I?

[ It's too easy to slip into easy flirting, the stupid, meaningless way everyone does with everyone at a party, without heat or intent. It's like they don't know any other way of communicating, sometimes. Jaime knows that he can communicate better with people, better than this, but... sometimes it's just easier, isn't it? When you're playing a game like this, you don't have to be too serious. You can talk a little, laugh a little, and part without thinking about each other very much at all at the end of the day.

Of course that's not the case with someone like Ruka. He knows her. Or, rather, he knows of her. This isn't something you forget. But it's not something he intends to brag about either. ]

I'm not trying to ditch my friends. I'm mingling, [ he defends himself lightly. ] But I dunno what you mean by all that. You're the famous one here. You're the one tabloids are gonna write about slumming it.

[ He takes a small drink, then taps his chin with his finger. ]

You still haven't told me how you know me. C'mon. I'm curious.

[dragony]

Mingling, sure. [ She doesn't sound like she believes him, but it's a mild retort. Her nails click against the bar in arrhythmic taps, like punctuation without a paragraph to break apart. She doesn't know what answer to give. She's a little too inebriated for this kind of questioning, but not drunk enough for this kind of torture. There are too many easy truths that linger on her tongue that she can't put into the air.

Her focus gets pulled to the motion of his hand, and the clean line of his shaved jaw, before her gaze drifts back up to meet his. ]

... I pay attention, [ she decides, still unable to keep herself from soaking up the details of his appearance — the differences, the similarities, and trying not to think about how long it's been since her and her Jaime went even two full days without talking.

She can feel the little vibration when her drink is placed in front of her, but she still can't look away. ] And I have a good eye. And there are only so many imPorts who aren't paper-white.

[ One constant through all dimensions: the Porter is always a little bit racist. ]

Anyway, I wasn't talking about tabloids. It's not like you care about that kind of stuff anyway, right? I meant your friends at home.

[khajidont]

[ How would you know? Jaime wonders, then bites the question back. He doesn't want to seem too aggressive. Still... she seems to know an awful lot about him, or at least she thinks that she does. More than what he thinks shows up in the news, but then again, when has he paid much attention to what they say about some random C-List imPort like him on the news? ]

I think they're probably too busy with their own stuff to pay attention to the tabloids, [ he says instead. His smile still doesn't reach his eyes, but it hasn't since he got here, and it seems unlikely to ever happen. He leans against the bar, grabbing his beer by the neck of the bottle and casually tips it back to take a drink. ] They've all got important work to do.

[ Leading and dating whoever's leading, respectively, it seems. ]

Buuuuuut... you're right. I guess me not being white would stand out! [ He says with a quiet huff of laughter. It's not... disingenuous, exactly, which makes it better than anything else she's gotten out of him. ]

Say, where are all your buddies? Don't you have, like, an entourage?

[dragony]

[ There's something in the way he says dismisses it — in the too busy, the important work — that strikes her as familiar. Obviously everything about him is familiar, if slanted and held at strange angles in the dim light, but it's the kind of familiar that makes her heart ache in her chest. It's a familiar sense of upset, of hurt, like wires binding around her fingers and organs and leaving her paralyzed.

And maybe that feeling shows in her face, in the sharpness of her eye and the bend to her brow and the way her lips pinch a little at the center — she's too vulnerable and too inebriated to mask it properly, but how well does he know how to read her? How well can he read anybody?

She finally breaks his gaze, turning enough to take her drink, knocking back more in one go than she rightly should. Maybe if it hits her hard enough, she won't be able to feel how much this hurts. ]

They're off the clock, [ she says with a dismissive little wave of her empty hand, glancing out towards the rest of the party. ] We finished the mutual promotions, like, two hours ago.

Why?