sirenspull_logs | Just a middle-aged man

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Just a middle-aged man

Who: Xerxes Break and Phancyhive
When: September 24th
Where: Under a blanket
Summary: In the aftermath of this (squick warning), Xerxes Break is hiding from the world. Unfortunately, the world can find him pretty easily.
Warnings: References to eye squick

[ Break had spent the first few days afterwards recovering: sleeping mostly, and occasionally poking at his NV. But now, as he's feeling better, the enormity of what happened is beginning to sink in…

Not so much his eye popping out in front of everyone at dinner, that could happen to anyone (that his erstwhile eyeball has been marauding the mansion is a detail of which he is, as yet, blissfully unaware).

But that Gilbert, of all people, had chastised him. And he'd deserved it. Even worse - the way he'd been behaving for weeks and weeks, so much foolishness, over something that hadn't even happened! He's been so public about it, so obvious…

Well. He's… he's just going to be here in his room. Under his blanket. ]

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[ He's up. Sort of. He's got the blanket protectively over his head, still. ]

Uh. I mean. Er.

Mister Reim~! Why yes - I'm up. And how are yooooooou, this lovely day~♥

[ Nnggh. AWKWARD. If Reim had bothered to knock, he would have tried hiding somewhere--

Anyway. He'll try to brazen through, but it's... it's hard. Even he can tell he sounds unconvincing. ]

[Typical. Now Reim is at a loss; he was just going to wander around and irritably tidy the same few items he's already tidied about four times. Conversation did not occur to him.

At the very least, he can be cross about Break's painfully forced casualness.]

Fine.

How are you feeling?

[ PAINFUL AND MISERABLE AND ASHAMED! ]

Good, goooooood~!

[ Flap flap flap wave. Somehow even his pajama sleeves manage to be floppy. ]

I want some candy.

[It's so awkward and obvious that he's finding it hard to muster the will to shout about it. He shuts the door and produces a piece of candy from his various stashed pockets, but doesn't do anything with it.]

You should eat some real food...

[ He hears the cellophane crinkle and sits up, positively Pavlovian. ]

I...

[ Is Reim really going to make him beg? His shoulders slump; and then he drobs back down onto the bed, pulls the blanket down completely over his head.

His voice is muffled: ]

I'm not hungry.

[Beg, no. He is simply considering the piece of candy, alright. Were Break able to watch him stare intently at it, it would be very funny. He sighs.]

Stubborn. You should eat something, eventually.

[He...

...walks over to the bed, and drops the candy onto the Break-lump. (Sharon would be furious. That is, perhaps, why he did not invite her on this routine.)]

[ A long pause; and then a hand shoots out from beneath the covers and grabs the candy.

SHLIP

It disappears! Presently, there is the muffled sound of... crunch crunch crunch crunch. ]

Hn.

[ Reim, go away. No; don't go. There's no question that Break is fond, not that there was a question, not ever since Reim was a wee, chastising thing. Under ordinary circumstances, he'd be leaning or sitting on Reim, laughing at him...

His current embarrassment is making this impossible, however. He has only his candy, for solace. ]

[At least, Reim thinks, he is still gluttonous when it comes to sugar. He has dealt with Break's moods uncountably many times, but it's so much more awkward to actually be a large part of the reason for said mood.

He stands there, unsure. Leaving so soon also would be awkward. But he's not going to keep dropping candy until Break actually talks to him, so after a pause he does turn and walk away--

Break will hear him fussing with trinkets elsewhere in the room. He picks them up, dusts with his hands some dust that isn't there (as he did this as recently as yesterday, go figure), and puts them back down... basically in the same place.

Fuss fuss.]

[ He'd made a spectacle of himself, and his feelings, that's what had been so embarrassing. He's doing the same thing now, huddled under his blanket, particularly as Reim isn't going. He can hear Reim fussing; he's clearly annoyed, he has to be. Any moment now, he's going to launch into a tirade...

Any... moment... now... ]

[ The anticipation begins to become more painful than the punishment. Fine. You win, Reim. Break tosses the blankets off and sits up. ]

Well, well! Out with it! I knoooooow you've got a lecture prepared, Mister Reim~♥

I'm surprised you've been able to hold out this long, you must be bursting!

[He isn't quite sure what he's annoyed at, is the problem. At himself, for not figuring it out; at Break, for not saying anything--and Gilbert, to that end, could do with a lecture on easing up on Oz for ten minutes to be aware of other people. Not even approaching the subject of the eye! There are plenty of things deserving of his scolding, at present, and he already wants to crawl back to his own room and stare at paperwork he loses the ability to think about anything else.

Yes. That would be excellent. He turns away from the trinkets.

And says absolutely nothing. He had a lecture prepared, but that was days ago and he's thought of half a dozen more things to be upset about in that time. Mentally, he adds a check mark next to "Xerxes not being serious enough about serious things."

Hnn.]

Perhaps I should let you go back to sleep.

Ah--

[ Break knows he ought to be grateful for this reprieve. Reim can leave and then he can return to his assiduous wallowing.

However - he doesn't really want to go back to wallowing. He's wallowed enough; now is the time when Reim usually shouts at him, throws candies at his head, calls him a moron. And the fact that he isn't...

Break is still too wrapped up in his own head to be able to seriously fathom that something might be wrong with Reim. He is, however, dimly aware that he is... missing something. Some assumption he had made, which has turned out to be wrong. There's the obvious, glaring one; but there's another. ]

I'm not sleepy.

[ He swings his legs over the edge of the bed. ]

Perhaps I'll get dressed.

[Reim looks at the trinkets again, picking up the stuffed bird (which is in no condition to be returned to his master, something else he makes a note to complain about, eventually). He is possessed, suddenly, by a feeling that has plagued him in his idler moments since his arrival; he needs to do something, before he starts feeling uneasy. Something as simple as picking up birds and fiddling with them, to concentrate on something small and inconsequential, rather than--

Well, a lot. He pulls out one of the pins, and pointedly does not fuss over to Break's wardrobe to toss coats at him. Unease or not, he is still cross.]

Do as you please.

Ha! Ha! Ha! Don't I always~?

[ He's putting on his fool's facade once more, but this sensation that he's missing something is getting stronger. Reim's behavior is--

Well. He must be very cross, not to be lecturing. In which case, he ought to be slamming doors and stomping off in a huff. Yet he had come in to Break's room--not to talk to him. Not to fuss. He's just sort of - fidgeting. Odd, very odd.

When he's at an impasse, mental or otherwise, Break has learned to push. Playing the fool usually makes people snap, but Reim is used to that, so...

He waves a floppy sleeve, gesturing vaguely towards the top of his wardrobe: ]

Get me my hat!

[ On the top shelf, there is a top hat, tied round with a lavender ribbon. ]

[Reim puts the bird down sharply, moreso than he'd intended.]

You do.

[You shouldn't, you should stop, try being invested in something less dangerous for a change -- he's said it all before, no one listens to him...

The request, at least, is enough to pull him out of his fidgeting, and he retrieves the hat.

Beat.] This isn't getting dressed.

[ Break startles, involuntarily, at the sound of the stuffed bird's wooden base hitting the table so sharply. This irritates him - no matter how well he adapts, he cannot predict every sound...

But he recovers quickly, because Reim is chastising him, and that feels more normal. ]

It's a start.

[ He puts the hat on his head and beams-- ]

[ --suddenly, he pulls a face. ]

Mister Reim, there's something wrong with this hat!

No one starts with their hat...

[This is already becoming ridiculous. He wonders briefly how long it will take for Break to get to the point of whatever nonsensical thing he's most certainly setting up to laugh at him about.

A sigh.]

What's wrong with it?

Nobody starts with dessert, either, but they're wrong!

[ Chastising and now wearily sighing. Good, good, good - that's good.

Break flips the hat off his head, rolling it down his arm like a showman. ]

What's wrong with it? What's wroooooooooong with it, you ask? I'll show you, shall I?

[ He reaches inside the hat, up to his elbow and draws out-- ]

[ --a rabbit! ]

[Reim simply stands there, waiting, the picture of resigned patience, until--

Well, he wasn't expecting a rabbit. Something more like "the ribbon is crooked, waste all afternoon fixing it" - that, he would have been prepared for. As it is he makes a surprised noise and steps back.

When did it get there...]

What are you doing with that-?

Me?

This is yours, obviously. You got rabbits all over my hat!

[ He's got the rabbit by the scruff of the neck. It's very much alive, and wiggly. He holds it out to Reim. ]

You really should try to be neater, Mister Reim. I've spoken to you before about shedding hares everywhere!

I didn't--

[Oh no there's a rabbit in his personal bubble what does he do except TAKE IT AND LOOK PERPLEXED ABOUT IT? If anyone asks it's because he doesn't trust Break to not try and balance it on a tower of china, or something. That is precisely the reason he is holding a rabbit now.

why this cute]

That's not funny! Why do you have a rabbit?

I believe it's you who's got the rabbit, now.

[ He's up, and off the bed, hat on his head once more. He heads for his wardrobe and starts pulling clothes out. ]

Hmmm, well. I suppose we ought to put it with the others.

[ His little push seems to have worked. At least they aren't where they were, which is something. ]

[Reim won't turn down a distraction, although this rabbit loves him so much and he isn't accustomed to holding onto things that keep wiggling in excitement. It requires some effort, and while Break goes through his things, Reim tries to get a handle on his new friend, occasionally saying things to it like where are you going and oh my.

However:] You have more?

[He is mildly horrified, as he assumes they are also hidden in Break's things somewhere. Is that wardrobe full of animals?]

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