Howard Bassem (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
iselldrugstothecommunity) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thecapitol2013-04-23 07:16 pm
iselldrugstothecommunity) wrote in thecapitol2013-04-23 07:16 pm
Entry tags:
We Could Wake and This Could All Be Gone [Closed]
WHO| Howard and Eponine
WHAT| Howard tracks his best friend down.
WHERE| Training Center
WHEN| Late week 5, after Howard's death by Hyperion.
WARNINGS| Descriptions of gore.
The first thing he does is look for Eponine. Before he eats, before he tries to shower off the memories of the Arena in the lavish Capitol baths, before he finds R or Julie or Sigma, he goes searching for her. He asks for her by name and by description, and everyone says they haven't seen her. They don't know if she's been brought back. So he tells himself, think like Eponine thinks, and it comes to him fairly easily.
He didn't hear from her in the Arena. He doesn't know if the last memory he'll ever have of her is of her dead body slumped in his lap, pieces of her head on him, a splatter of blood and brain and bone and matted hair. Her teeth red and yellow, her dainty profile pale against all the splash around her like a dark halo, her eye rolled up so the discolored iris is only a tiny slip against her eyelashes.
The idea rolls in his stomach and he has to pause his search to vomit in the sink on the first floor. It the only detour he makes on his search for her.
He finds her in the training center basement, where it's dark and quiet and she can be alone. At first, he barely recognizes her - any weight she's put back on in the Capitol has been stripped off her from the resurrection, and her hair hangs lankly over her face. He knocks on the opened door, illuminated by the light of the hall.
"Eponine?"
WHAT| Howard tracks his best friend down.
WHERE| Training Center
WHEN| Late week 5, after Howard's death by Hyperion.
WARNINGS| Descriptions of gore.
The first thing he does is look for Eponine. Before he eats, before he tries to shower off the memories of the Arena in the lavish Capitol baths, before he finds R or Julie or Sigma, he goes searching for her. He asks for her by name and by description, and everyone says they haven't seen her. They don't know if she's been brought back. So he tells himself, think like Eponine thinks, and it comes to him fairly easily.
He didn't hear from her in the Arena. He doesn't know if the last memory he'll ever have of her is of her dead body slumped in his lap, pieces of her head on him, a splatter of blood and brain and bone and matted hair. Her teeth red and yellow, her dainty profile pale against all the splash around her like a dark halo, her eye rolled up so the discolored iris is only a tiny slip against her eyelashes.
The idea rolls in his stomach and he has to pause his search to vomit in the sink on the first floor. It the only detour he makes on his search for her.
He finds her in the training center basement, where it's dark and quiet and she can be alone. At first, he barely recognizes her - any weight she's put back on in the Capitol has been stripped off her from the resurrection, and her hair hangs lankly over her face. He knocks on the opened door, illuminated by the light of the hall.
"Eponine?"
no subject
"I'm afraid of a lot of things, but not of those things. Well, hunger a little bit, but I'll do it for you." The truth is he's terrified of starving, but he's also used to it. He knows ways around it.
He decides to steel up his nerves and lay it out there. "We could be more than friends, you know, I mean, if you wanted to, no pressure or anything. I'm cool with just friends."
no subject
She strokes his head a little, smoothing her fingers through his short hair.
But she stops when he asks.
"More than friends? Like, courting? Howard..." What's she supposed to say? She's flattered - and she likes Howard better than Montparnasse.
She sighs.
"At home, have I told you? My Papa had arranged for me to be 'Parnasse's. He is my husband in all but name."
And the fact that she hates him. But since when did Eponine's opinion ever count.
"But whilst he is not here... he'd kill you if he knew. And I do not even want to think what'd happen to me. If he comes, we cannot stay together."
no subject
He pauses, unsure if he's trying to persuade her or affirming a decision she's already made.
"Like...yeah, like courting. Dating. Handholding and sometimes kissing and it doesn't have to be anything long-term if you don't want."
no subject
She runs her hands back over his hair, and down onto his forehead as she gently begins to trace around his facial features with her now-bitten nails. She's doing it idly, enjoying the intimacy, but not particularly realising that she might be leading the poor boy on a little.
"You are not joking me, are you?"
no subject
"I wouldn't joke about that. That'd be mean. And I'm only mean to other people."
no subject
"Nobody has ever said such a thing to me, Howard."
Take it as a yes. Please take it as a yes.
"I think I would like it, Howard..."
no subject
"I think I'll like it too."