thecapitol | (no subject)

Who| Tess & Joel
What| Dragging the old man out for some coffee - or trying to - since he's been keeping himself holed up in his room for so long
Where| From D8 to the coffee shop
When| 17th?
Warnings| None, maybe some swearing

She's asked herself numerous times on the way up to the eighth level and again while she's standing outside of his door - why the hell is she here? Why the hell does she even bother anymore? She isn't trying to get anything specific out of him, Tess just longs for things to go back to the way they once were. Misses the banter between her and her partner, how comfortable things once were. How easy it was for them.

Doesn't seem like it's not going to be easy any time soon - it hasn't been, so far.

They danced all of two times, that's supposed to mean something? Tess figures it was all for show, for the sake of the cameras and anyone keeping tabs on them. And now with Ellie missing from the equation, that's rocked and shattered Joel's world more than she knows or can understand.

It's begun to get to her, how long she's really been gone back home. What she missed on the journey to get Ellie to Tommy's. There's been too much that's gotten under her skin since she showed up here relatively healthy (infection aside) and alive, breathing and able to bleed and pump hot blood from her veins.

"You should walk away," Tess mutters to herself as she stands in front of his suite door frowning. She hesitates another few seconds. "Fuck it."

Her knuckles knock against the door and she waits, hands stuffed in the front jean pockets.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Joel hasn't left his room much at all in the past week. He hasn't needed to. No one has any claim on his time right now. He's got his own stash of food right in his room. If someone needs him for something, they know where to find him, but who would need him?

Ellie needed him, but she's gone now.

So he's here, where he always is, and he can't help the pang of annoyance and sorrow when someone knocks on his door. Ellie would probably just barge right in.

"What?" he calls out, letting some of the annoyance creep into his voice as he approaches the door, unlocks it, and swings it open. Some of the annoyance dissipates when he sees Tess on the other side, but not all of it, by a long shot, and it's mostly replaced with wariness.

She was being polite, doing the considerate thing of giving him time and space to deal with whatever he was dealing with on his own. That was what he wanted, to be left alone. For her to leave him alone. In that time Tess had gone on with the week pushing him out of her mind and moving around the Capitol from this or that. Coffee most mornings, browsing or else shopping, the training center, watching others.

But here she was now, a week later, knocking on his door because she doubted he would come to her any time soon or any time ever, now that things were different between them than how they were before everything.

"You busy?" asks Tess, looking him over.

Tess has that look about her. That determined look, that says she's not going to put up with anything he throws at her, or even listen to him, really. Joel is very familiar with that look, and he's not sure he has it in him to fight her anymore.

At least she's not breaking the goddamn curfew again.

"Would it matter if I was?" he responds wearily.

"It might." Her hands come out of her pockets. He looks tired and seeing that, Tess might feel a tiny bit bad for coming here to bug him.

Part of her wants to wave him off and say goodbye, not bother with getting him out of his room. "When's the last time you saw the sun? And I'm not talking about the fake light that wall of yours gives off."

"There's no answer I could give that you'd want to hear," Joel points out, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Why don't you just tell me what you want?"

He has a point and for that, Tess pulls a face.

"Or you can not ask questions and just follow to wherever I take you?"

"You know I hate surprises," Joel says, more quietly this time. "Throw me a bone, here, Tess."

Hasn't he been through enough? Can't she just be straight with him for once?

"Coffee." And that's all she says. He wanted her to throw him a bone well...there it was.

Tess cocks a brow and tilts her head, waiting for it to click for him.

Coffee. She wants him to go out for coffee. Joel sighs, his shoulders slumping a little, giving in.

"Fine," he says, waving her forward. "Lead the way, boss."

"Just an hour, two tops," she says as she backs up to give him space to come out. Then adds with some cheek, "Then you're free to lumber back to your cave for the rest of the evening to hibernate."

"Cute," Joel says, shoving his hands in his pockets to follow after her. "I'd've thought you would've found better company than me by now."

It's not that he's unaware of how he is. He knows. That's kind of the point - to keep people away. Why she keeps coming back to him is a mystery, as far as he's concerned.

Tess is stubborn. Oftentimes she can get downright determined about something if her mind's been made up, all of this being something he should already know. She doesn't understand it herself, why she keeps going back to see him; it's something she's been questioning a lot as of late.

"Who says I haven't?" Tess tosses back over her shoulder at him, shrugging.

Truth be told, she hasn't bothered. She might have bumped into Shepard a few times or someone else she's encountered through some event or other but Tess has yet to sit with someone and enjoy their company for more than a few minutes, even if their presence is a grouchy one like his.

Is he the first person she would go to? If something bad happened, yes. If she needed or wanted company, no. Not anymore, not without questioning what could come of it be it arguing, nitpicking, saying the wrong thing, him or her being too sensitive. Not without somehow fixing things. That doesn't mean she would cut him from her life, Joel makes up for a decent amount of it, roughly a solid decade.

Because if she had, she wouldn't be wasting her time trying to drag Joel out for coffee, that's what he should probably say, but it's not happening. He just - watches her, follows after her, lets her lead the way, as usual.

He doesn't even have it in him to argue with her at this point.

Tess can feel his eyes on her, almost like they're boring holes into the back of her head and burning the back of her shoulders. She doesn't know if he's watching her intently or wearily, probably wearily. He's following easily enough, no arguments rising out of him. Another thing she doesn't know, whether or not that's a good thing or...a bad thing.

Little is said as she leads him to the elevator, silent as she enters it and presses the button to take them down. She keeps her attention up on the glowing numbers, watching them as they count down the floors.

Silence between them, dragging silence, it was such a comfortable pass time. They never needed to talk. And now it's like they can't, like they don't know what to say or how. It's uncomfortable, for her.

It is for Joel, too, though he can't put quite such a neat finger on why. As far as he's concerned, it shouldn't be that way. He would like to pretend nothing happened. Pretend that the events at the Capitol building in Boston were a bad dream, though every time he looks at her, he sees her broken, bleeding on the floor below as he and Ellie bolted away.

Everything is so fucked up.

"Next arena should be soon," he eventually points out, as the elevator comes to a stop and opens out onto the main floor of the tower, the glittering city beyond.

That was the last thing she wanted to talk about. Tess makes a quiet sound of acknowledgment low in her throat and doesn't comment on it immediately, stepping out of the elevator. She'd love for nothing more than to pretend everything had been a bad dream, that this was part of one.

"No point in talkin' about it." They'll follow the same plan as they did in the last one, or that's what Tess assumes will happen. They meet up, they stick to each other, like glue. They keep each other safe and look out for one another.