(no subject)

[clumsy_auror]

Distractions are a positive thing.

Books are somewhat helpful, but her attention keeps wandering; the television or music are even less effective. Doing something with her hands is a definite improvement, so Nymphadora's sitting on the couch with a scrap of fabric, a spool of thread, a needle, and her wand in her hand. She's practicing the sewing spells Molly taught her.

As a concession to Bernard's nerves, there's a blanket tucked around her legs, and a cup of tea on the table in front of her.

Comments

[mnt_mike]

"For you, Kahlo, anything."

He looks at the cookies, and then looks back over at the kitchen.

"Do me a favor?"

[clumsy_auror]

An eyebrow gets a questioning raise.

[mnt_mike]

"If your ball and chain ever makes you cookies like these can you scream out my name during sex?"

[clumsy_auror]

Gravely, "You have my word on it."

[mnt_mike]

"That right there, is like the best thing ever."

[clumsy_auror]

"I do try."

'Dora's smile fades, and she nibbles on the cookie a bit more.

[mnt_mike]

A fading smile can mean one of two things. Either he's not doing a good enough job of keeping her mind off of things, or the task itself was too much for him to begin with.

Mike watches her closely. He doesn't know what to say, because he doesn't know what she's feeling. He wonders if being human would help, or if this is something that would always be just beyond the scope of understanding.

After a few moments of silence, Mike offers her his hand.

[clumsy_auror]

That simple gesture makes Nymphadora's eyes well up. She takes Mike's hand, her eyes focusing on that rather than his face. It's easier. "I'm all right," she says softly, after a moment. "Really. Just, um. Kind of don't know what to do with myself."

[mnt_mike]

He gives her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"I admit that I'm not the best one to be giving advice on anything related to emotions, but it was my experience that if you just let yourself feel bad things will start to sort themselves out."

[clumsy_auror]

She nods, eyes still on the contrast between green and pale skin. "Of all the things that could maybe have happened..." A couple of tears spill over, and 'Dora wipes them impatiently away. "I never expected this."

[mnt_mike]

"Oh Kahlo."

Mike shifts on the couch so as to be able to offer her his other hand.

"I'm so sorry."

[clumsy_auror]

Nymphadora takes it, gripping it tightly. Me too, she wants to say, but her chin trembles enough to make her wary of opening her mouth.

The tears keep steadily coming, though.

[mnt_mike]

"See, now's the time for stories. Like, right now I should be telling you some great powerful zen story about how adversity was overcome by meditation and mind over matter and tea. But...I never really paid all that much attention to those stories when Splinter told them, so that like...isn't helpful in the slightest here."

He takes a breath.

"You're strong for being able to do this. To cry, I mean. You're strong. Rest of us, we hide from it. No one in my family does it, copes I mean, except April. And she's strong too. Rest of us are just dumb guys. Can't face up to loss. Leo sharpens, Donnie fixes, Raph...he just breaks things. Me, I hide in the closet kitchen I can find. Nothing ever gets resolved.

You though, you're stronger than us. Stronger than a good deal of the people here."

[clumsy_auror]

It's nice, having someone believe in you like that. Because for all that 'Dora knows that she's strong, there are moments where she utterly fails to believe in her own ability to move on.

Good thing there are people to bodily drag her.

'Dora leans her head on his shoulder, idly reflecting that it's a bit harder to accomplish when Mike has a shell.

Doesn't change the comfort factor, though.

[mnt_mike]

"Oh, yeah, watch your head."

He cringes. In order to compensate, he stretches his head further out his shell than normal.

"Life is good, Kahlo, and life goes on."

[clumsy_auror]

A faint smile. "Life is good," she repeats, holding tight to his hand. "And life goes on."

[mnt_mike]

"Mmmm."

Mike clears his throat, an act that brings his voice down two registers lower than normal.

"Hai. Good. Now drop and give me twenty."

Says the aging Japanese man now seated on her couch.

[clumsy_auror]

There is a long silence.



And then Nymphadora bursts into teary giggles.

[mnt_mike]

Mike can't help but join her in the laughing.

"Oh I see my formative years are funny for you. Fine fine, see if I care."

[clumsy_auror]

"No, I just had a flashback to Academy training, is all," she splutters. "If Mad-Eye Moody were Japanese, you'd have nailed him just then."

[mnt_mike]

Mike snorts.

"Mentors. Can't live with them, can't get mentally, emotionally, and physically scarred without them."

[clumsy_auror]

"You can bloody well say that again. Still, Moody wasn't all that bad, in the end. He's barking mad, of course, but what Auror worth their salt isn't?"

[mnt_mike]

"Mentors. Can't live with them, can't get mentally, emotionally, and physically scarred without them?"

Oh what?! She's the one who bloody well told him to.

[clumsy_auror]

Snickering, she thumps him on the shoulder. "Git."