towerofanimus | ❝hold your own, know your name❞

Characters Willow (

guiltapalooza) and you! OPEN.
Setting: The infirmary.
Format: Action to start, but I'll match if you want prose.
Warnings: Maybe some mention of past violence.
Summary: Though she's laid up in the infirmary with some pretty debilitating wounds, Willow's feeling a lot better than she has in months, and is more her usual self. Her magic is finally back, and she's welcome to visitors.

[Willow is currently propped up in bed, a stack of pillows fluffed behind her and the layers of blankets tucked around her. There's healing, scabbed scrapes on one cheek, and her right hand is splinted; she's wearing rather boring gray thermal pajamas, but along the neckline clean white bandages can be seen wrapping across her torso. It's not a surprise that with how battered she is she's also very tired. She's rather dazedly holding a mug of tea in her hands, cradled in her lap to stabilize it while she rests and not bother her injuries.

But despite all this, when someone enters she looks up to greet them with a sleepy smile.] Hey.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I have kind of an unfair advantage when it comes to the flap-level of Stein. You can't exactly live with someone for three years and not figure out how they look when they get flapped. She wasn't flapped beyond all repair, but she was flapped enough that her passive aggressive Post-It notes to me lacked their usual bite.

Wow. I guess I haven't been giving her enough credit if she was worried enough to go easy on you in the great Post-It note wars. [It's a flippant comment, but Willow is sincerely impressed, and a little embarrassed that this took her by surprise. Sure, Stein was creepy, but she wasn't a bad person at all. Willow would save her from her disturbing stalker witch any day. She should give her the benefit of the doubt.]

I know right? [Luckily, Birkin is king of flippant comments that actually mean a lot, so he could read the feels behind it pretty well.] Her last comment was basically just "No you" so I figured I should come down here and check on you so I could give her a status report.

Though don't get me wrong; I was worried about you too. I'm just less of a protector-slash-huge mother hen about it.

[Using flippant comments to reveal your true feelings without actually talking about them was a tried and true method. It was an established language, and Willow was always thrilled to find other people that spoke it. It just made life easier.

Though now she's even more embarrassed, and is both shy and sheepish when she answers, hunching her shoulders and fiddling some more.] You guys don't have to worry about me so much. Well, you probably do, given my track record, but I don't want you to? I don't like making you worry.

[Birkin laughs, loud and long.] Look, don't worry about making us worried; Francine over there has a mile long protective streak, and to be honest I'm not any better.

Plus, we're both older than you and we both know and like you, so you're kind of like our kid. You know, without actually being related to us, and her and I ever having sex.

Your-- your kid? [Willow is taken aback. She hadn't thought they knew each other well enough for either of them to care about her to that extent.

She tries to play it off with,] Maybe your redheaded step child. You might have to be jealous of that redhead I remind her of.

[Birkin's face twitches and he forces out a laugh.] Don't- Don't worry. I'm already perfectly on top of the being jealous of Spirit situation.

Though I doubt you'd be a step anyway; he - or she now, I guess - already has a kid, so you're safe from turning me into a wicked step-mother.

... That was sorta meant to be a joke. Sorry. [She gives him a sympathetic look, feeling genuinely badly for having brought it up.]

Maybe we can just stay not related. It's simpler and also implies fewer holiday obligations.

[Birkin chuckles sheepishly] Nah, don't worry about it. I'm just too jealous for my own good, to be honest. It's funny; the most flirtatious people always tend to be the ones who get jealous over nothing the easiest.

Though us not being related does make things easier; and less creepy considering you remind her of Spiritette.

I've never really been all that jealous, so I wouldn't know. There was one incident, but it was sorta not about my dating person so maybe it doesn't count here.

I'm sure she-- oh, uh, I mean he-- isn't someone you need to be jealous over? [Willow's actually not all that sure, but she wants to be supportive, so she looks earnest as she says it anyway.] He wouldn't be with you if he didn't care about you.

I know that, but I guess... I know in my own case, the person I have a history with was more important to me than Stein was for the longest time. So I guess in a sick sort of way, I expect the same out of him.

Sometimes you don't really want a history, though. You have one and you can't escape it, but it's all so much. Not just water under the bridge, but a... a typhoon.

But what happens when that typhoon ends up sweeping you away whether you want to stay on the bridge or not? Sometimes these things just... Happen, I think. And it's no one's fault or anything, but I just like to keep myself on guard.

Well... I know it's not easy, but if there's one thing I've learned, don't go borrowing trouble. We have enough of it already as it is.

So don't worry too much until it happens?

...Yeah, that's a good point, actually.

Thanks, you're pretty good at this whole thing. You ever think about going into being a therapist?

Me? I haven't really thought about going into anything. I had to drop out of college. The world ending sort of took precedence.

[She looks genuinely glum about it, too.]

...Well think of it this way! You're practically the adopted daughter of two scientists, so... If you wanted, I'm sure Stein and I would be willing to teach you some stuff. I know I would, at least.

❝hold your own, know your name❞

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