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[nitro_is_ace]

There's something terribly familiar about this scene.

Ace, with a lanky doberman following close on her heels, trudging down the hallway that leads to Raven's door. Except this time, she's walking in the exact middle of the hallway, as far from either wall as she can get, shoulders hunched, her whole posture that of someone expecting and dreading a blow from behind.

It's almost more than she can do to reach over and pound on Raven's door. Those walls are awfully close.

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[creator_raven]

The door opens in the midst of a knock, and Raven blinks at her a little blearily.

"Ace?"

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

"It's dark out there, Raven." It's an explanation, of sorts, to the question he didn't ask but she imagines he did - why isn't she tucked away inside her TARDIS, where she belongs?

It's dark out there.

[creator_raven]

"Yes."

Raven blinks at her again.

"It is a consequence of night."

He steps back from the door despite his confusion, waiting for her to come in.

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

It takes a moment.

Just a little moment.

But she has to get close to those walls in order to go through the door she isn't entirely sure will be there when she reaches it. For once, for possibly the very first time, she doesn't immediately pounce on his bed and steal all the blankets.

She goes, and stands, in the very center of the room. Farthest point away from all walls.

"Yes. It's dark out there."

[creator_raven]

Raven's own eyes are dark as he watches her, head tilted.

This--this is very strange.

"You have said, I think. Possibly you are not meaning only outside?"

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

"It's... dark. And cold." She informs him, arms crossed and pressed tight to her chest. "And... there's no one to trust. Not out there. Just voices in the dark."

[creator_raven]

Raven steps forward, then, one hand coming to rest on Ace's shoulder.

"You were in the spaces between?"

He does not sound horrified, only wary.

And quiet.

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

The metal on her various pins and patches are still frosty cold, there hasn't been time yet for them to warm to room temperature. She hadn't noticed the cold, fully, while she was in there - she was too worried about Bev, too angry at that god-type, too busy.

Not busy now.

"Yes, in the spaces. Hallways and rooms and chutes and doorways turning into mouths and gullets. But it was all dark. And cold. It's dark out there." She just can't walk out into the dark right now. She tried, but...

No.

[creator_raven]

Raven does not jerk his hands away.

Clay is good for that.

Instead he moves, wrapping one hand around Ace's upper arm and tugging her toward the bed.

"There are blankets, here. It is good for warm, I think, yes? And there is light. So."

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

She digs the heels of her boots into the floor, resisting movement.

"They might move." She insists, low and urgent, staring hard at the walls near Raven's bed. "They might come down. Shift and growl and talk and... they might move."

[creator_raven]

"No."

Raven's voice is firm, certain.

"Not here. It makes me twitchy."

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

This presents a moral quandry.

Raven has promised that the walls do not move here.

Ace has, however, absolutely no faith in the solidity of walls.

But Raven promised.

But they are walls, and she knows they move.

She solves this problem by coming along quietly, but hiding behind Raven as they approach the walls. They are, after all, much less likely to eat him.

[creator_raven]

Raven tilts his head, studying her carefully. Then he sighs quietly and sits on the bed, sliding up so that he rests against the headboard. He tugs Ace down after him, pulling over a blanket and tucking it over them both.

"Now where it is, I am wondering, that things are moving?"

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

She nestles into the crook of his arm, hiding there from the walls that she's still pretty sure will come crashing down at any moment. Sure, they're quiet now, but that rumbling always comes back.

"There was a door. In the bar, there was a door, one I haven't seen before. An' I'm not stupid, I wasn't goin' t'go through it, I know better than t' just wander off down strange hallways..."

Pause.

"Most of the time."

Pause.

"Lately, anyway."

Pause.

"Sometimes. But there were voices, two men an' a girl, an' the girl sounded scared, so... I went in. An' the door closed behind me, an' I don't know how 'cause I propped it open, but... I got lost, an' it was so cold. Very very cold."

[creator_raven]

Raven rests his cheek on her hair.

"It is not so bad, perhaps, to be brave, and to care."

He's quiet for a moment. Or perhaps two.

"And you are back, now. It is something, I think."

And if fire flares in his eyes for a moment, she cannot see it.

This is probably best.

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

Considering her recent experience with fire-associated god-types, this is definitely for the best.

"Am I? Did I actually leave? It could be here. Just. With the lights on. Eventually the lights go out. And. Then it is dark in here too."

[creator_raven]

Raven is quiet, still, arms wrapped tight around his sister.

Possibly he is thinking.

Then he shifts, just a little, to fish in his pocket.

A moment or so later there is something tiny and bright in his hand.

He presses it into Ace's hand.

"This light, I think, will not. It is a small thing, but true."

Stars are like that, after all.

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

Raven?

Is officially the best brother ever.

She curls around this little pinpoint of shiny brightness.

Magic, the poor forgotten puppy, huffs at the pair of them and flops underneath the pink sparkly perch.

"What is it, Raven?" She finally asks, quetly.

[creator_raven]

Raven smiles a little.

Just a little.

It would be difficult to discern even if Ace were not curled up.

"It is a star. They are tricky things, I think, and they get places they are not meant to be."

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

"It's a star? A real star? But it's so tiny!" There's the gleeful Ace we know and love.

She was just hiding.

A little.

Hey, a house just tried to eat her, alright?

[creator_raven]

Raven laughs, almost soundlessly.

"How else did you think they fit in my pockets, I am wondering?"

Think of them like bonsai stars. Possibly it helps.

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

Does she need to learn how to prune it? Are there tiny star-pruning shears?

"Does it have planets?" She asks curiously, peering at it closely.

It's possible she's forgetten entirely about the walls for the moment.

[creator_raven]

Raven tilts his head, studying it in turn.

"Not at the moment, I do not think."

There is a short silence.

"Those are things for later, perhaps."

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

"... Tiny star accessories?" Ace asks after a short, very bemused silence in turn.

[creator_raven]

Raven snickers.

"Mostly when the star is not so tiny, I think."

Beat.

"It is a thing that changes, in time."