Just me and my shadow... (RP for brave-soldier)

[little_leaf]

Chicken Little has flown the coop.

"Great." Jane sighed, hiking up her reading glasses to better see the text message she was reading. All of the triplets had condos in the same building, each of them on a different floor. It let them stay close, have privacy...and watch John.

Who didn't go out alone often, at least not outside of work. As a rule, he could be trusted on his own during cases he was deep into, otherwise he stayed home or at the office by choice. Now that he had a girlfriend, that would probably change...but John out alone and sans a case still felt like trouble.

Jane texted Jock back after a moment's thought.

Your problem tonight, not mine. I have a broken heart to nurse, bugger off.

Jane tossed her phone on the coffee table right after, vowing not to answer another text message for the rest of the night. She knew Jock would at least pretend she was still wounded by Bob's treachery, but she was pretty sure John had told him everything. After all: twins usually did. They all knew what she was really brooding about...at least Jock would preserve the gentle fiction, and her last scrap of dignity.

Men sucked.

That was her story, and she was sticking to it as she burrowed deeper into the cushions of her ratty old sofa with its threadbare maroon cushions, trying to make herself read the deposition for an eviction case she was taking to court in two weeks. She found herself scanning the same paragraph repeatedly, though, remembering the feel of stiff whiskers against her cheek, the sinewy back under her hand, the bright and adorable smile that made her forget everything and feel like she was something rare and amazing...

Why the hell did John have to be...John? She wouldn't blame Paul if he'd deleted her number the second she was out of sight. Bloke like that could have his pick, war hero with an irresistible accent and that lethal grin...

"I do not care." she muttered to herself, trying to make herself believe it and failing. "I don't care...didn't fancy him that much anyway. I can do much...oh, bollocking shitbags, someone just beat me unconscious and leave me to my fate..."

Comments

[brave_soldier]

He found himself smiling broadly at her. "Dear Jane, I think I would do backflips for you, if you asked it of me. It might be a bit awkward, though. I haven't done backflips in... well, it's been a very long time," he concluded with a chuckle.

The waiter swung back around and Paul places their orders before returning his attention to her. "So, tell me about yourself. And I mean yourself, not your sibling."

[little_leaf]

Jane blushed fiercely at his remark, trying to hide it behind a swig of her beer as Paul ordered for them. When he asked about her, though, her smile faded just a touch and she found herself staring into her beer.

"That's...not really an easy task." she explained slowly, shrugging as she risked a glance up at him. "My brothers and I are triplets. Very close...very broken triplets."

[brave_soldier]

He watched as the smile faded a bit, and he knew his own had done the same. Identification issues, then. Close with her siblings. Her fellow triplet siblings. "You don't seem very broken to me. Perhaps you're overly protective with John, but I can see why."

Paul remained silent for a moment, pursing his lips. "My sister and I... we're not very close. I envy you that sort of relation, really. It must be nice, knowing you have support whenever you need it." He's never had that before in his life. Just briefly, but it hadn't been Henri that provided it. It had been Mary. He rubbed his chin lightly, clearing his throat. "So, you like jogging. What else do you like to do in your free time? Let me guess: knit. You knit jumpers in your free time."

[little_leaf]

She chuckled a little at the crack about knitting jumpers, and she absently decided to try her hand at it. Just to make him one, just to make him wear it.

Just to maybe be able to take it off of him.

"That's the thing people always assume...but the thing is? You don't have support." she replied hesitantly. "Not when part of the trio is broken. Then over identifying turns into co-dependency and just..." She trailed off, swirling her beer around in her glass before taking a sip.

"John is brilliant, he's a gift made manifest, and it destroyed him. Jock's a genius, and John's his twin...he's kind of broken by default. I'm the one that has to pick up the pieces. It's all I've ever known."

[brave_soldier]

"You're the reliable one. The steady one. The one they turn to when things go wrong. And one day, you find yourself wanting to do something for you." Up until that point, Jane probably assumed that he had been talking about her. Up until that point, he'd been talking about them both. "So you join the military to support yourself, to give yourself the education you never would have had otherwise. Suddenly, you realize that having a proper channel for yourself is precisely what you've always needed in your life. You don't have to worry about the alcoholic sister, or the father that abandoned you, or the fact that you barely remember your mother." Paul gave her the faintest of smiles. "You just know that you've found out what a relief it is to be able to put it all behind you and just be yourself."

He stopped then, lapsing into silence. "I know, Jane. Or, at least, I can imagine. Everyone wants to get away from their lives for at least a little while. So let me ask again. What do you like?"