sirenspull_logs | Old habits die hard...

Entry tags:

Old habits die hard...

Who: Eponine and anyone who happens upon her
When: May 21st
Where: Sector 5
Summary: Eponine, terrified that the luxury of the newcomers' apartments will be snatched away from her, is up to her old tricks. She's found the richest area of town she could, and is on the look out for anyone she can pickpocket or who would be interested in 'entertainment'.
Warnings: Eponine will try her best to pick your pockets. So, I guess, if you're the type to swear... language?

Eponine had been in Sirens Port for a few days now. She didn't really understand what had happened, how she'd ended up here, or why. Or really, where here was.
But in her opinion, ANYWHERE was better than France. Especially when that 'anywhere' provided her with the most luxurious room she had ever had all to herself, AND gave her food. It was more than Eponine had ever dared to dream would become a reality for herself.

But Eponine was all too aware that dreams ended. And she was determined, that when this dream ended, she wouldn't be thrown back into a nightmare empty handed.

Which was why she was stood in the shadows of Region 5. After exploring, she had determined that this was a more affluent area of town, and the people here more likely to be carrying valuables. She stood, waiting patiently, for a target to walk past. And then, on silent feet, and with a featherlight touch, Eponine would be pushing her hand into their pockets to take anything she could.

((ooc: So Eponine is pickpocketing. Feel free to catch her nicking your stuff; I have an open-write policy, so I will go with whatever you dream up for her!))

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"The river might be, but the friend isn't. He was already waiting here when I got here."

Which he's just been accepting all this time, but suddenly realizes doesn't quite fit with reality as he knows it. He frowns a little at the thought, but keeps climbing the stairs. Past the second flight...oof. Halfway up the third...

It doesn't seem nearly as close to the seventh floor as Eponine claims it is, but it's nice of her to say so, anyway.

"May we rest at the top?"

She can see that Yosuke is getting puffed, so she pretends to be out of breath. Actually, constant fleeing from angry shop keepers, rich people and police men has left Eponine surprisingly fit. She's not puffed at all.

When they reach the top, she sits down.

"Your friend was waiting here? Is he still here? You could fish together here?"

"I don't think I'm much of a fisherman." Yosuke admits, sinking heavily to the landing. He climbs these stairs every day, sometimes several times in the same day, but they're suddenly exhausting. There's a light sheen of sweat starting to break out on him, and they aren't even halfway yet. And things are tilting and turning again. He shuts his eyes for a second, but he's smiling. "He's the same friend I told you about before, who wanted to go to the beach. His name's Seta Souji."

She looks at him in concern. He is obviously ill. But she doesn't know how to help him, other than getting him into bed as quickly as possible. She decides to ignore it...

"Seta Souji?" She stumbles over the syllables. "Perhaps he can fish at the beach then? And you could swim in the water."

"Oh, do you like swimming?" Yosuke gets back to his feet again, a little slower this time. It'll be a relief to make it to his own landing. "That's probably just how it'll go, too. He can fish and I scare the fish, and then we'll have a picnic. He's a really good cook. Sometimes I plan it out so I'm in his neighborhood right around dinnertime."

She shakes her head. "Don't know how to swim. Don't think you'd want to swim in the Seine."

Though she had contemplated drowning herself in it...

"You should tell me next time. About the food, I mean."

She offers her arm again, gripping him tightly.
"Lean on me, monsieur..."

In spite of his earlier determination not to, this time he does lean on her a bit. He's not huge -175cm when he's standing tall and straight, just under 53kg, though when he'd arrived it had been nearly 58- but he'd still rather not burden her. It can't be helped, though, at least not until they make it up.

"It's probably all things you haven't heard of, but I can try." He shakes his head, slowly and carefully so he doesn't make himself dizzy again, and climbs up the fourth landing with her.

"Shall we rest again?"
Eponine isn't strong herself; years of malnourishment have seen to that. But she is determined.
It occurs to her, then, and she wonders why it hadn't before-

"Monsieur? I like on floor six. Would you rather come to my flat?"

"Ugh. I would like that, but my clothes are upstairs and anyway it's not very nice to bring someone a bunch of germs for their sofa."

Up the fourth landing, and most of the fifth. He stumbles just before they can finish that one, but he catches himself on the wall and drags himself up the last few steps. Between the fifth and six floor he drops to a crouch without Eponine's prompt, and rubs at his face in a tired, put upon way. This whole thing is ridiculous and humiliating. He shrugs apologetically, and rests his head on his knees for a moment.

"I don't know what's wrong with me, sorry. I felt just fine this morning."

"You are perhaps ill, monsieur."

Eponine looked at him in concern. How was she going to get him upstairs. If only she could carry him... but she wasn't strong enough, at all.

She sat down next to him, and put her arm comfortingly across his shoulders. Or at least, she hoped it was comforting.

"How can I help you up, monsieur? Will you be sick again?"

"Hopefully not in the stair well. The landlord wouldn't like that." Yosuke grins a bit, though it's another minute before he manages to get back on his feet. Every landing they climb feels twice as long as the last one, even though he knows that's absurd. He's a bit slow to start up the sixth, but he goes anyway. "It's kind of you to stay and help."

"Do not worry, monsieur. Vomit can easily be cleaned.So if you need to, do it."

It'll cost him extra, but they can m=worry about money later.

She takes his arm again, and tries to make him lean on her. "We are nearly there."

Yosuke swallows a little at that, but he's pretty determined to keep whatever is left in his stomach where it belongs for now. He leans against Eponine, but only lightly, to keep his balance. At the top of the sixth landing, he leans against the wall for a minute to rest again.

"Almost there." He repeats, trying to reassure them both. He's only one floor away from a shower, and bed. What a relief. Finally, he starts up the seventh flight.

She takes a firmer hold of his arm, and guides him up the last flight of stairs. Nearly there. Eponine keeps up a steady monologue of nonsense to try to help Yosuke forget about his sickness, but she can't help but sigh in relief when she sees the landing appear.

"Which is your flat, monsieur?"

Instead of wasting the breath to answer, Yosuke just points to it and then walks that way. He takes a key from a chain around his neck and opens the door, then sighs in relief. "Water?" He offers, as he kicks his shoes off to the side and goes to get a glass for himself.

She followed him in, almost falling over his shoes. For a moment, she was of half a mind to just take his shoes and run - perhaps he was so gone in his illness that he wouldn't remember that she had been there in the morning.

She stepped inside, inwardly cursing her kind heart.

"Monsieur? Perhaps you should take to your bed. I will bring you water."

And perhaps some cool cloth for his head. If he didn't mind a bit of tatty skirt material dunked in cold water.

Bed...bed did sound nice. Instead, he dropped onto the sofa and curled up around one of the stupid decorative pillows, still trying to get his stomach to settle after the rat story and that miserable climb up the stairs.

"There might be soda in there if Keigo didn't drink it all."

She wanders into the kitchen, opening cupboards and the fridge until she locates a lone can she has no idea how to open (though after spelling it out, she finds it contains 'lemonade' -whether this is the soda Yosuke referred to is a mystery) and a couple of glasses. She turns on a tap, still marvelling at the fact that water actually comes out of them, and fills both glasses.

The, she selects a knife from the collection, and with a sigh, digs it into her skirt, a couple of inches above the ragged bottom. She runs this under the tap, trying to rid it of some dirt, and any lice that might be on it, before taking it, and a glass of water, and the can, back to the sofa.

"Monsieur? I found a lemonade, but I do not know how it opens. But close your eyes now.

She applies the material to his head. "If you can sit up, I will give you water."

Yosuke doesn't quite obey the request to sit up, but he blinks at her blearily for a moment before, almost comically, rolling his eyes upward to try and see what she's just put on his head. "Is that yours? Aw, man. We have flannels in with the linens..."

But since it's too late for that anyway, he just sits up slowly and cracks the lemonade for her. He's still hugging the pillow to himself, bit he uncurls his legs so there's room beside him and pats the seat. He's clingy when he's sick. Earlier he played with the hair of a girl he'd just met, and then taken Eponine's hand right away. It's comforting somehow, to touch and be touched in return. So he tries to coax her over with the lemonade as a lure.

Bribe her with edible stuff, why don't you?

She goes to sit by him on the sofa, close to him.

"Drink, monsieur. It will make you feel better. And later, I will make you a broth to sip so you don't starve."

She looks at the can curiously. "Such a funny noise. Is it a drink?"

"Mhm. It tastes best when it's cold, so don't let it get warm." He takes a small sip of water, himself. The lemonade would probably be too sweet at the moment, though the comment about making him broth gets another smile out of him.

"I really stumbled over the right kind of girl."

Not that she can cook... But she can boil things down and turn them into mushes that will feed more people.

She takes the can. "I drink from the little hole?"
Without waiting for an answer, she takes a sip, and only just manages to stop from spitting it out.
"Monsieur. It is..."
What is it? She means fizzy, but she's never experienced fizz before.
"But lovely." She takes another sip, and then more, before she burps loudly.
"Sorry... I will be quiet now. Monsieur. You must rest."

Yosuke snorts at that, not particularly attractive himself at the moment, but definitely amused. "I didn't know girls could do that." He teases.

He stretches, tired but content, and curls up on himself again. This time he curls his knees up to the side so he can face Eponine, and watch her spazzing over the lemonade.

She smiles, embarrassed when she sees him shift, and reaches out a hand to touch his forehead.

"You are hot, monsieur. I will be a moment."
She gets the other water and brings the glass bachk. She sits on the sofa again, and reaches for the rag on Yosuke's head. This she plunges into the water, before re-applying.

"Close your eyes, monsieur. Even if not to sleep."
She watches him, unsure really what to do for an ill person. When she was ill, her family abandoned her under the bridge to either recover or die, and they weren't particularly bothered about the outcome. But Eponine obviously couldn't abandon Yosuke now. Did she stroke his hair? Have sex to make him forget? Sing? Or knock him out and rob him blind?

Definitely not that last one.

Yosuke leaned willingly into Eponine's touch, though he peeked through his eyelashes even when she asked him to close his eyes. "I could find you something to change into, since you ruined your skirt."

He didn't feel completely well, but he definitely felt better than when he'd been trying to climb the stairs. Even his stomach wasn't as topsy turvy as it had been when they'd been working to reach the landing. "And there's a shower. The citrus soap is mine."

It was probably a bit rude to point out how dirty Eponine was, but in his feverish state Yosuke didn't seem to be aware of it.

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