[FIN] Don't Wanna Talk About it

[BlackFireKitsune]

Seraphine wasn't quite sure what she was doing, wandering around this part of Camphoreon, wandering down the street that was so near the hospital. Father had gone a couple weeks ago for a routine check-up, but they said he was perfectly fine. Fine, fine, of course he was fine, why wouldn't he be? That first heart attack was just a fluke or something. A random, spontaneous occurrence from all the stress he was suffering from lately, although she wasn't sure about what, exactly, he was so stressed over.

She frowned and sighed at the ground before she looked up and scanned the sidewalk ahead of her to find something else, anything else to focus on--

-- and happened to spot a familiar head of red hair coming in the opposite direction. Was it.. Luke? It must be; it certainly didn't look like his jerk of a brother, whatever that a*****e's name was again, but he was certainly looking just as gloomy as his twin. With a frown, the brunette sped up her pace a little to meet up with him. Not too much though, of course. "Luke? What's up?" Wow he looked a lot gloomier than usual.  

[Suudonym]

Usually a routine visit to the hospital that ended in "everything seems to be fine" was cause for relief, but even such a subtle lift in spirits did not visit Luke's mood, and he walked from the building like a condemned man. He was surprised to suddenly hear his name, having not taken notice when the familiar girl approached him, and he regarded Seraphine in a temporary daze. When he acknowledged her vocally, it was with a partial smile that couldn't even be called halfhearted, "Hey, nothing much." His gaze fell to the ground. "They're talking about starting to set appointments for physical therapy, but it sounds like kind of a hassle."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The brunette blinked confusedly, eyebrows raising ever higher at his demeanor. Yeah, Luke was never super happy or peppy all the time, but he was usually... Not nearly as depressing and mopey-looking as this. Holy crap. "That's.. uh," she paused to try and process his words, which sounded much more positive than he looked, "that's a good thing though, isn't it? Physical therapy, I mean. It doesn't sound like a bad thing, right..?" At least, she didn't think it was...

Either way, there had to be something bothering him because physical therapy didn't sound like a bad thing at all. Or, at least, not as bad as he looked. "Is... everything okay?" Sera asked with a slowly growing frown, and tilted her head a bit to better look at his face.  

[Suudonym]

He raised a hand to run through his hair, "Yeah, I mean, I guess so. Generally speaking." In short, yes, but calling anything good at this time wasn't nearly as easy as calling them bad, or at least as behaving impartially.

Feeling her gaze incline towards him, he turned his from her, holding himself in silence for a time. "Things have been better," he admitted at length.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Sera straightened and folded her arms behind her back as he kept his gaze away, and frowned even more at his response. Or rather, his lack of a substantial response. Wasn't physical therapy good though..? "Is.. it your health that's been better?" Her brows furrowed more; none of this was making any sort of sense to her whatsoever. The possibility that it could be something else entirely unrelated hadn't occurred to her yet.  

[Suudonym]

A single, slight, and hollow laugh, "Well, yeah. But my health's been a lot worse too." He realized, then, that she was probably trying to guess at the cause for his disposition, and he was just making her run around in circles to get to the point. "Sorry," he said, "I didn't mean to turn this into twenty questions or something. I just kind of…" Just kind of what? He grasped his hands lightly upon themselves, furrowing his brow in desolate silence. Supposedly talking about something was supposed to make it less painful, but the words to acknowledge the tragedy had vanished from his vocabulary.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

This was just getting more and more confusing, and the thought was evident on her face - especially when he apologized and was about to explain... but stopped. Her brow remained furrowed, the frown still present on her face, and she tried to puzzle things out. It wasn't his health... Oh, was another pokemon of his stolen? Maybe that was it..

His demeanor and the subtle movements of his hands weren't telling her much, though, and she never did like guessing games. "Did.. something happen?" That must be it, but which one? ...actually, she realized, she didn't know a whole lot of his pokemon except for Mieu, but he was already stolen. What else did he even have...?  

[Suudonym]

The more the conversation progressed, the more viable it felt to crawl off somewhere into a hole. Her question was answered with a short nod and an increasingly pained expression that continued to refuse eye contact. His shoulders drew taut, hands tightening at the inescapable thoughts and memories that were so easily revived.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Seraphine frowned even more, lips pouting a bit because of it. She tried to dredge up the memories she'd had of when he told her that Mieu was stolen. They were painful for her, as well, because Anastasia had been stolen at around the same time, but still... If she remembered right, he wasn't nearly this upset back then. "That bad, huh?" The brunette asked after a slow exhale, watching his expression and just how upset he looked in general. Well, as much as she wanted to know... "Do you not... want to talk about it..?"  

[Suudonym]

"Sorry," he said again, raising a hand that lingered at his forehead. At this point he was starting to feel cruel, baiting and leading her with vague answers that failed to respond to the sincerity of her concern. Another bullet point on the list of reasons why he was the worst person ever. "It's just kind of hard to…" He bit his lip, fighting back the excuse. When he spoke again, finally summoning the words, it was in at gradually retreating volume, "My mother kind of… passed away, recently." If it was at all possible before for him to look more miserable, he achieved that possibility now.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The girl froze in place as she processed his answer, not noticing that she'd grown a bit tense. How was she supposed to respond to that? When Rosie had told her of her mother's death when she was just a girl, that was different. It had happened far before Sera had even met her friend. When Luke had told her that Mieu was stolen, she could at least relate to the feeling because Anya had been as well, but this? Recently. She'd never had to deal with this before, at least not with her friends. Some of her parents friends had said the same, but she usually chose that precise moment to exit the room. There hadn't been any reason for her to deal with admissions like that up until now. "That's... that's awful," she offered lamely.

Upon realizing how tense she was, she forced herself to relax more, though while her body did, her mind did not. This was so awkward now, she didn't even... What was she supposed to do in a situation like this? She couldn't even imagine what it would feel like if one of her parents suddenly died, nor did she really care to, and with no prior experience at all to draw from... That was it. What would Rosie do? Sera summoned the will to voice her next question, kind of surprised at herself for really asking such a thing, "Do you, ah.. want.. a hug..?" Surely Rosie would offer hugs in such a situation, right? Probably.  

[Suudonym]

Seraphine's response was unexpected, and Luke finally looked to her with an expression that was in part startled and in part confused. It shifted to a smile more sincere than he would have imagined being capable of, accompanied by a light laughter that recognized the inherent awkwardness of the conversation. "That's okay," he said with lightened features. "I'll be all right. Thanks." His voice and countenance softened, "It just seems like bad things keep on happening to everyone. Kinda hard to stay optimistic these days."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

When he somehow managed to laugh, she wasn't sure how considering the circumstances, she visibly relaxed. She even offered a small smile in return. "Okay." At least he looked better. His observation made her frown again though, this time at the pavement in thought. "Yeah.. I know what you mean. But at least," she added, raising her gaze to his face, "at least nothing too bad has been happening recently. Well, I mean, Team Rocket hasn't done anything bad recently. I don't think, anyway," she finished awkwardly as she reached a hand up to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. Whew, that was close. "Like, nothing's been stolen and no one's been hurt or anything like that for a while, right?"  

[Suudonym]

A nod in agreement, "If no one's getting hurt, that's really the best we can ask for." He had had more than enough of witnessing the suffering of his friends. The fact that Team Rocket hadn't been appearing in the news lately was a plus as well, but Luke understood that it was naive to think that that was enough to end worries of their actions throughout the region.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Yeah," Sera agreed with a similar nod of her head. She paused then as the realization dawned on her that she'd been wandering aimlessly before spotting him, and probably should end her wandering and head back to her, ugh, apartment. "Oh, I should probably go," she said with a frown after the effects of the sudden realization left her face, and caught herself before she could add that her mother would probably worry if she didn't. Well, that would have been exceedingly awkward. Instead, she added with an ambivalent shrug, "You can text me though."