River Tam (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
river_meimei) wrote2007-08-28 12:33 am
river_meimei) wrote2007-08-28 12:33 am
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This city's never fully dark. There's no star-spangled black in this sky, not even the close second-best that a clear atmosphere sometimes arches overhead; here the light pollution is ubiquitous, and the sky's a hazy humid grey under sulfurous street-lamps.
But it's night. Night, and growing later.
When there's nowhere else to go, you keep
(flying)
running. One step behind, one step ahead.
River's looking for something. A key, a rose, a door.
But here, in the city that (as they proudly say) never sleeps, it's anyone's guess what she might find. And what she won't.
But it's night. Night, and growing later.
When there's nowhere else to go, you keep
(flying)
running. One step behind, one step ahead.
River's looking for something. A key, a rose, a door.
But here, in the city that (as they proudly say) never sleeps, it's anyone's guess what she might find. And what she won't.
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The cell phone's out, open, at his ear without him ever actually looking at it, in one automatic motion, like drawing a switchblade.
"Spike," he says into it, one eye on the girl to see if she'll bolt.
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*Andrew's voice over the phone sounds only mildly put out, not worried. Not urgent.*
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Angel's probably drycleaned his sodding phone again.
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Wearing a look of slightly extravagant patience, when she's not watching the shadows warily, but not bolting yet.
(Listening, though, maybe.)
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"Not now, Andrew. I still don't have Angel in my back pocket, and I've got company."
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*A note of curiosity.*
Anybody I know?
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It's interesting, apparently.
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You've never watched a single action movie ever in your life, have you.
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It doesn't help.
"Of course I bloody have. They're full of explosions, and people dying. And explosions." He pauses. "And sometimes nunchucks. Bit of a busman's holiday, really."
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So how have you not figured out yet that anytime you say 'not now' to somebody twice in succession, it's always important?
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"Wait. I don't know what you're talking about," he says to Andrew. He looks at the girl. "I don't know what you're talking about." He hands her the phone. "You're perfect for each other."
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"Your conclusions are fallacious," she says blankly, over the top of the phone more than into it.
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*There's a rather startled pause.*
Um.
Hi.
Who's this?
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And then River's eyes widen, and she jerks the phone up to her ear.
"Andrew."
Her voice is strained and tight -- with stress, with urgency, and maybe with suppressed hope.
"The teeth ate the doors. All the intervals. I need an exit."
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*Incredulous:* River?
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Andrew obviously had a more interesting social life than Spike thought.
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Her eyes are fixed on Spike, fierce and desperate, but it's the phone she's talking into.
"City's wrong. It's a twin but they cut the umbilical cord."
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She doesn't answer, but she shoves the phone at Spike. The gesture is sudden, swift and almost fierce, and in nearly the same motion she slips the crossbow bolt into her coat pocket.
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"Yeah?" he says cautiously.
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*Andrew doesn't get that clipped businesslike tone often.*
I don't know how she got here, but that can wait.
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He flips the phone shut and drops it in his pocket and then, in a parody of the manners of his human days -- offers her his arm. "May I walk you home?"
(no subject)