Homeplot #2

[roartonrisen]

This whole situation is stranger than Kieren knows how to deal with.

The being home part is such a relief, even if it's not perfect (because even home hasn't got Amy Dyer, what with her being dead still), but he's got his Mum and Dad and Jem's here. The being alive part in Roarton is something to get used to, finding that people are still staring at him, though. He's used to that by now, but the truth is, he's sort of surprised that people are staring at him for being normal. It's like he can't win. Of course, that staring starts to get worrisome when people like Zoe catch sight of him, hissing loudly that he's clearly done something or made a deal with someone.

He wishes it weren't so obvious that he's alive, but then, cover up and contacts never really did what a warm beating heart can. The one complicated thing that Kieren hadn't really counted on and knows he'll have to face is the fact that he's got to see Simon at some point. The last time he had, before Darrow, he'd been telling Simon that he'd been glad that he's going to stick around.

If he's home for good, he owes him a conversation.

Heading up to the bungalow (having told Sirius to follow after, once his parents let him loose), Kieren braces himself as he takes in a shaky breath and knocks on the front door, trying to mentally rehearse whatever the hell he's going to say when it opens.

Comments

[roartonrisen]

Kieren works hard not to flinch at Simon's words, because it's not the man's fault that Kieren got kidnapped somewhere where he warmed up, got a heartbeat again. "I wasn't like this for that long," he admits, tugging at the sleeve of his jumper to pull it down lower over his palms, the old habits dying hard.

"I was PDS, still, for ages," he says, mouth dry as he recalls how long. "I had, there was the homemade neurotriptyline, your sort, I had some of that to tide me over. Sometimes, it didn't work and I had an episode where I went rabid, but then, I started to forget things, my nose would bleed, my hands shaking..." He's been staring at Simon this whole time, because he knows that warming up, becoming human again, it's not for everyone. It can't be.

"There's also," he says, keeping his voice steady, "there's also someone else. I met him in that place, Darrow, and he's come back here with me, somehow."

[first_woken]

He listened carefully, took it all in, silent and stone-faced. With his grey-skin and dead eyes, he might as well have been a statue. He hadn't felt so wholly, unnaturally dead since he'd left his father's home, but now, in the face of Kieren and all his vitality, it was impossible to ignore.

"Someone else," he parroted flatly. The only indication that the revelation affected him all was a faint twitch of tension in his jaw.

[roartonrisen]

Kieren's very rarely ever felt uncomfortable around Simon. Wary about his methods, unsure about his motives, but uncomfortable? Not really. If anything, he'd been a line he'd sought out when things in Roarton started to get too rough, only then he'd gone away and left Kieren wondering if he'd ever come back. Then, well, then Amy had happened. Kieren stares balefully up at Simon, not sure if he ought to be apologizing for that or for becoming human or even for coming here.

He just knows that he wants to apologize. "I spent a year, at least, hoping that you would turn up," he says, the honesty aching to say. "For a bit, Sirius was just a mate." It hadn't taken long for Kieren's interest to be stirred. "He came here with me, somehow, from the city to here."

[first_woken]

Finally, Simon's calm mask shifted, and his eyes fluttered, nostrils flaring as he drew in a breath he didn't truly need. He looked away, then. He wasn't sure if it was remembered pain he was feeling, an echo of something long dead, but his chest felt ready to collapse.

"Well," he said, "It's good to hear you weren't alone."

What the bloody hell else was he supposed to say? Thank you for waiting, I only wish you'd waited longer? Or perhaps, what in the hell kind of name is Serious?

[roartonrisen]

Kieren had felt it, for a very long time, and that hitch in his throat is proof of it, seeing as he'd felt so isolated and alone because he'd been the only PDS around, someone that no one else could understand. His heart aches to be here, to have to ask what's happened or changed, and he's going to keep pressing.

"He's here with me too, I can't explain how or why," he admits. "I'm here, I'm not sure if it's permanent, but I'm here. How long has it been, since..." He steels himself for this. "Since Amy passed."