doku | VISIONS I HAD BURIED UNDERGROUND / RETURNING TO ABUSE US

[Lowly:] Stop it.

[He'd look her in the eyes if he could, but he's kind of...driving.]

We've both made our mistakes in our lives. We'll probably make a lot more. But that doesn't mean any less that you're one of the best things that has happened to me.

[She was kidding!!! ... No, she wasn't, and he clearly knew it, and that's what unnerves her, right along with his Super Serious Adult Voice. For a long moment Nariko remains as she is, staring ahead as if the road could tell her how to sort out her own dumb feelings. There's a part of her that wants to snap back, but it's actively - very obviously repressed.]

Fine.

[Yes, she's pouting a little bit, though it's a bit difficult to place why. Maybe because he shouldn't get under her skin so goddamn much and yet here they are.]

[And it might be a bad idea, but he reaches over and places his hand on hers, whatever it might be in the middle of.]

You want to talk about it?

[He has no idea what's going on in her head, but he knows there's something and it's not good. If they're going to work out as a duo, they're going to have to get used to speaking their minds with each other.]

[She'd just been drawing idle designs on her notebook, nothing particularly important.]

There's nothing to talk about.

[It's not a lie in the most direct sense. How is she supposed to voice something that she can't even put to words in her own head? It's like explaining an abstract painting to people who hate art: You can try but the point will never quite make it, and you'll only dumb it all down the harder you try.

But her hand turns up to hold his properly, she tilts her head towards her window, relaxing minutely. He means well but she's never been very good at talking about the parts of herself that don't make a lick of sense.]

[He knows the feeling, even though she's not conveying it. He finds that the best way to deal with it is to rant senselessly until the energy drains from him, but he's hesitant to let her witness that in any context.]

I doubt that. But if you don't want to, you don't have to.

[It's not a matter of whether she wants to or not it's just ... She can't. How is she supposed to get into all of that? Frankly, it seems much easier to fuck three guys at once than deal with all of that mess. But that's not exactly the most kosher response and they don't have any tequila on hand so she squeezes his hand a little, and won't let go of it until he takes it back.

One way or another she's probably going to try and shove him off to bed around midnight so that's what, six more hours?]

I'm goin', I'm goin'...

[He's happy to hand over the wheel to her when the time comes, it's just...moving from one place to the other. He drops by the trailer first to grab a pillow and a blanket before coming back and curling up in the back of the cabin.

It's all yours, girl.]

[Off they go, night edition!

The first few hours are pretty boring, she sings a little, tries out some of the lyrics she wrote to different melodies in her head, it's considerably easy to keep herself amused. But somewhere around four in the morning she stops at a mostly abandoned gas station and sags into the driver's seat, closing her eyes.

... He's asleep, so it's not even going to matter, and didn't Krieg say that he was a heavy sleeper? She'd asked specifically for this reason. Since they're stopped and she needs to work her legs a bit anyway Nariko hops out of the driver's side and briefly heads into the trailer before coming back.

Krieg's asleep, so he's not going to hear anything buzzing very animatedly.]

[What the fuck, Nariko. You could totally just..do that in the trailer and have all the privacy in the world. He's out cold, it's not like he's gonna wonder where you wandered off to!

...not that it matters, he's not even wondering what she's up to. Because he's asleep like the dead. Just don't diddle and drive, okay?]

[What if something happened and she wasn't here!! His health is more important than her desires! But since she can figure out how to make it work there's no reason to not cater to both!

Also uh no the whole point is to drive with the thing inside of her! It'll be fine. Maybe by the end of it she'll even be relaxed enough to actually sleep! You never know. Besides, they're halfway there, or something along those lines, and if she stops and gets all involved in herself then she'll fall asleep and they'll lose time ...

This is the more efficient way to go about it! She'll tap out at six in the morning and then go to bed, so either way he can go undisturbed.]

[Krieg has no idea, but if he did, he'd be thankful he woke up the next morning. At least there's like, no one else on the roads at that hour, right?

He couldn't point fingers, either, because he has his own vices to address. Groggily, he wakes up shortly after Nariko calls it quits and watches the sunrise while sitting on top of the truck. After that, he heads inside of the trailer--quietly--to take his meds along with a protein shake, changing his clothes so he can go out for a short...two hour run.

He leaves a note stuck to the fridge, at least.]

Gone out for a run.
Breakfast in fridge.
Microwave 1:30.
Call if need.
- K

[She wakes up exhausted as fuck all and alone, on top of that. For a good, long moment Nariko just laid there, staring at the trailer before she dragged herself out of bed once and for all. She sees his note and manages to get some food in her, but it does occur to her that she has no idea how long he's been gone, when he might have gotten up.

Oh well.

She goes ahead and takes a shower, which is a long and involved affair unto itself since she's washing her hair. Chances are Krieg will come back to one of two sights: Nariko brushing her hair out in a towel while cursing, or laid out on top of the trailer in some shorts and a tank top.

She forgot to buy a damn blow dryer and hopefully this won't take as long as air drying.]

[She's all the way up there when he gets back! If she looks down at him as he approaches, decked out in one of those jogger sets they salvaged from his condo, he'll give her a little wave before hopping into the trailer to do a shower of his own!

When he comes out, he's in his pants from earlier, but now he's ditched the tank to bask in all of his shirtless glory! Someone's feeling better today. He'll join her up on the top of the trailer when he comes out, taking a seat next to her.]

Hey. How was the drive last night?

[When he comes back she waves in response but otherwise doesn't move. It's nice out and there are few things better than lying out in the sun, so if he's not in a hurry to get her to move then she isn't in a hurry to think about anything except the unfortunate tan lines she might end up with if she doesn't buy a new bikini.

Also, uh, how honest should she be with that answer ...]

It was fun! I kept myself very busy!

[There, uh, that's pretty honest! Although her grin might be a little too insinuating.] How was your run?

[She gets an arched brow for that. If he bothered thinking about it for a while, he might figure it out, but he doesn't care to dwell on it. He just hopes that she didn't leave a mess in the seat.]

It was good. I needed it. Kind of exciting to take a run in a place I don't know at all.

[She bought tons of lysol wipes for a reason, thank you very much.]

That sounds horrifying, personally, but I'm glad you had fun. [Granted, Krieg's probably far less likely to be harassed when he's alone and running than Nariko might be.] Did you sleep well?

[Y'know, he really does have good reason to be proud of his abs, though she keeps her gazing a little discreet.]

[Yeah, a little. But it's not like there were a ton of people that would've picked on her. It's nothing but desert out here, no people to speak of. Just lizards and birds.]

As usual.

[You gonna be alright to drive with his shirt off, Nariko?]

[Lizards are dangerous. And also creepy. But he might have a point all the same.]

You usually sleep cramped up in the back of a truck? I was worried you were gonna bump your head.

[Probably not, let's be honest. You know, there is a way to fix that - on her end, at least.]

[He shrugs.] It took a while to get comfortable, but I was fine when I did. Not a half-bad ride for sleeping--pretty quiet in that cabin.

[Yeah...

"Quiet."]

... Quiet, yeah. Good!

[She, uh, got a little emotive there towards the end. Someone who didn't sleep like a rock left by a pond probably would have woken up much sooner, though it wasn't as if she was screaming.]

Krieg. [Him and his stupid lack of a shirt and his kindness and she's stupidly impulsive anyway. So whatever, have a kiss. It's not anything complicated, she just leans forward and puts her lips on his, and that's it. It barely lasts more than a few seconds.] Thanks for breakfast.

[Her hair is mostly dry so she begins to tie it into a lazy braid.]

[Be more obvious, Nariko. He's having a hard enough time politely ignoring the elephant in the roo--

Oh.

Oh my God.

He's not really sure what to...do, so he ends up licking his lips in the pause that follows.]

Th--thanks. [WAIT, SHIT.] I mean--you're welcome.

[His lack of response isn't particularly hurtful, she had figured that if the guy was a version then he might not have ever been kissed or that if he had been it wasn't too often. Instead she finishes with her hair and smiles at him, as if nothing out of the ordinary occurred.]

Cool. I still have to finish with this mess [She points at her head.] but after that I'll be ready to go!

[The elephant in the room is now gone, right? Maybe it would have helped to actually talk it out but that just requires so much energy, and she's still kind of tired.]

[No! No, it's not! In fact, the elephant just kissed him!]

I'll--meet you in the truck.

[He'll wait for her to get down before he crawls down too, quietly...packing himself into the driver's seat.

...

And he wipes his brow with the back of his hand.]

[Krieg, she didn't even slip you the tongue! Or crawl on top of you! The elephant restrained itself quiet well!!]

M'kay! [She slowly works her way back down the trailer and inside of it to brush her hair and finally deal with it before she pulls on her shoes and gets back into the passenger side! Look, as far as she's concerned everything's dissolved, there's nothing to feel awkward about.]

How much longer according to the GPS? I don't remember looking at the time last night.

[She just listened when it told her to get onto a different interstate or whatever.]

[He's piddling away on his phone when she joins him, doing nothing particularly important, just passing the time. ~~Neko Atsume~~]

Just three more hours.

[He puts said phone away before starting the ignition and taking off.]

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