[PRP] Rejoice Although This World (Melany & Horace)

[The Semblance of Unity]

Horace had needed a day to process. Or so. Horace had also immediately collapsed face-first into his bed and resisted the urge to scream after coming home from meeting Oliver. Now, he had peeled himself out of bed because sushi was here and he needed to get it.

A few minutes later, sushi in hand, he wandered through the house. "Mels, where are you? I got sushi."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"I'm outside," said Melany, who was in fact on the back porch, face-down with her hands pressed into her stomach. "Hi. How was your meeting and your nap?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Horace paused a moment, seeing Melany on the ground. "Melany? Are.... are you okay?" Then, he grimaced. "Is your back hurting?" It seemed like the only logical reason she would be flat on the ground. Though, he'd have preferred she do it inside on a couch or something. He crouched down near her.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Yeah, a little," said Melany. She pushed herself up, verrrry slowly, until she was kneeling. (A little?) "Sorry. Um, you said sushi?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Horace eyed her. A lot. "Need a hand? Promise to do my best not to shock you." He'd been getting better recently, anyway, although he felt the tips of his ears flush at that. The feeling was immediately replaced by concern for Melany again.

"I did say sushi. I got a bunch of different things, but I think I remembered some of what you like. C'mon." He slipped the handles of the plastic bag up onto his arm and held out his hands.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Melany eyeballed him doubtfully for a second, but she seemed to decide that either way getting up was gonna hurt and she'd go for the one less likely to permanently injure her. She took his hands and hauled herself up (she was surprisingly heavy for someone her size; it was all that muscle). "But you promised to tell me about the meeting," she reminded him as she followed him into the house. (Once she was on her feet, she seemed fine.) "What happened? Was Ezra there?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Whew, he didn't shock her, but she was certainly solidly built. "Mhmm. He was there." Horace set the sushi down on the table in his living room and flopped onto the sofa. Slowly, he bagan to take the trays out and pop them open.

"I hate to ask, but was he always so... I dunno, but he's not very nice. He always got pretty wasted pretty quickly." He shot Melany a glance, knowing she was still into Ezra. "Maybe he was just stressed."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"He can be a jerk," said Melany, "but..." She looked worried, her dark brows knitting together as she surveyed the sushi on offer. "I... I don't know, it doesn't sound like him? He's very... dry..."

She pressed her fingertips together. "I don't know why he would've gotten drunk at something so important. He's always been concerned with his duty, why would this be different?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"He was... upset. It seemed like he thought we all couldn't do anything, couldn't change anything, like he didn't believe we should even try." Horace sighed. "I don't know. Everyone voted to destroy the ...the thing, though. But it's in you, so, I'm not sure how to do that." He leaned over and grabbed some kind of roll with tuna in it. He rubbed his head with his free hand. Horace had a headache from thinking about this, and from thinking about Oliver. He tapped his lips. ******** so dumb. But... Oli- ugh. Horace needed to focus. "We'll fix this, though. I think Silk would be happy to see you again."

shibrogane

italics is him accidentally insta messaging her lol

 

[shibrogane]

The look Melany gave Horace pretty clearly said well I'd already said I'd die if I have to. But she looked down at the sushi rolls and took two, set about figuring out her soy sauce and ginger situation. "Oli? Like... Oliver? Why are you dumb?"

Anything but talking about her ex.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Horace sighed. He could tell Melany was still on the 'okay with death' side and he didn't feel like arguing about it. He blinked.

"W-why are you bringing up Oliver?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"You brought him up," said Melany, rising her eyebrows. "You just said 'I'm so dumb. But... Oli,' and then you made a noise."

She sighed. "We can talk about my boy troubles if you don't wanna talk about yours. It's good either way."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

He frowned; he hadn't.... God dammit. "Sorry," he said. "My thoughts are a mess. I do need to come up with a plan, but yeah... yeah... we can talk about Oliver and how I'm only the worst friend ever and should never talk to him or Elliot again." Maybe once he got things off his chest, he'd be able to clearly think about the important things... like the charter.

Horace closed his eyes. "I kissed Oliver Beaumont." Then he groaned and buried his face into his hands.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Okay," said Melany reasonably. "So you kissed Oliver Beaumont. Why is this a problem?" She pushed one of the trays of sushi over at Horace. "Did he not want you to kiss him? Like, did it go badly?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Well, n-no, he said he liked it. It was fine. It was great." He dropped his hands only to poke half-hearted at a piece of sushi. "But that's the entire point. Like.... Okay." He took a deep breath.

"Elliot LaBelle is definitely in love with Oliver Beaumont. Oliver Beaumont could easily fall in love with Elliot; he's probably already partly there. And I like them both." Prod the sushi, prod. "So I'm supposed to help them get together. They'd be perfect together, but here I am, ******** everything up again like an idiot. They both deserve love and not me mucking around."

shibrogane