[FIN] Hard to Handle

[Blood_Goddess]

With her hair being back to mostly tame, Rosie took another look around the store again as Luke took the offered sweater the second time around.

She had never been in this bookstore before, but she had spent enough time in bookstores to know her way around one.
Reaching up to hesitantly push her hair behind her ear, taking a moment to gleam over the cover of some books set up on a display nearby.

The rain was still coming down hard, it could be heard clearly enough, and eventually the sound of thunder joined in.
"want to take a look around? We've got a bit of time it seems."  

[Suudonym]

Returning the dampened sweater, he responded to her suggestion with a noncommittal shrug in acquiescence. Paying much attention to the bookshelves and their contents wasn't high in his priorities, but staying near Rosie was - in fact, it was probably the only thing on his list at the moment. He would follow wherever she led, so long as she permitted him.  

[Blood_Goddess]

At his wordless reply she considered other options. "Do you want to sit down instead? Do you want to talk? Or... um..." she ended uncertainly, her eyebrows arching as she tried to come up with something else.  

[Suudonym]

The sudden introduction of options left him floundering temporarily, unsure of how to respond. He eventually found his voice, though it was small and careful, "I don't mind either way. I just want to stay with you."  

[Blood_Goddess]

swallowing hard, to try and chance the familiar discomfort in her throat, back to her chest where it had mostly settled, she opted to nod, glancing down at the sweater draped over her gloved arm.
She managed to put on a small smile, nodding again at him, though having a hard time directly looking at him. He looked so upset.

Rosie wasn't looking for anything in particular, in fact, as she walked by the books, she might have been scanning the spines, but she was reading none of them, they were all just blurry stacked books to her.

Eventually, when the store had been lapped a couple of times, they would find themselves in the Cafe aria of the bookstore, sitting by one of the tables by the window, where the rain splattered against the glass with a consistent rapping,
Rosie payed no mind to it though, pulling out a leather bound notebook that she had bought, and a pen that had been available at the front desk.
"I had the idea when I saw this." she started flipping through the blank sheets of the journal "To write something to Sera, and maybe give this to her." Rosie tilted her head, closing it back up and placing her hand over the dark leather.
"Maybe... there is something we can do with it."

Peeling open to the first page again, she stared down at it.  

[Suudonym]

He'd dried off a bit more by the time they made their way to the store's cafe, and the climate didn't seem quite as uncomfortable, not that he had ever been paying much mind to said climate. The thrum of the falling rain offered a pleasant sense of stability, however small, and he listened passively as Rosie indicated the notebook. The explanation of her intent, however, drew a sudden wrench of panic, and he reached a hand out to cover the page. "Why?" he said, his words a breath of baseless terror. "What kind of letter?"  

[Blood_Goddess]

Luke's reaction to this took her by surprise, her eyes wide as she looked up at him when she found a hand over the page she had been looking at.
"I don't know." Rosie answered after a second, not knowing where this fear was coming from. "we love you, get better soon, we're here for you." She tested out the meanings, a few options for the letters theme, though it was clear she didn't have a concrete idea.
"Not in so few words.."  

[Suudonym]

The harsh quality subsided from his expression, and he withdrew his hand. "Okay…" Having heard the explanation, he understood how silly and misplaced his concern was, small traces of shame lingering in his features. Stupid, selfish nuisance.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Rosie continued to sit, looking bewildered by his sudden reaction. She watched the shifting of his expressions with growing confusion and worry.
"Why? Whats wrong?"  

[Suudonym]

His hand clenched lightly, his gaze low and distant, his words coming only after great hesitation. "When I was in the hospital before, when I woke up, there was Asch's letter, explaining…" He didn't really have the strength now to finish the sentence, though he was sure Rosie would understand its direction. He shook his head. "I'm sorry. I'm being stupid." Without being able to see Seraphine, it was nearly impossible to divorce himself from his fear.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Like he would assume, he didn't have to finish for her to understand, and she felt instantly bad. She had not even.... Considered that.
"No, you're not being stupid." She replied, gently. "I had forgotten about that,"
She reached out to hand him the pen though.
Had she been thinking about it she would have probably approached that a little differently.
"I'm sorry, I promise I won't write anything like that though, so there is no need to worry."  

[Suudonym]

He looked to the pen as it was transferred into his possession, giving a small nod to accept her words. Was he to write something, then? He wasn't exactly confident in his ability to produce any kind of encouragement, though… "I'm really terrified," he admitted haltingly. "Just saying Sera's okay, after seeing her like that, I'm afraid. What if it's not true?" Like Shroedinger's famed experiment, could anyone really be sure without seeing her? He placed his forehead in his hand. "It feels like you'll disappear if I just turn around. I hate it. I'm sorry."  

[Blood_Goddess]

She watched him lower his head onto his hand her posture falling a little, her features downcast as he voiced his fears.
Glancing down at the table she leaned forward.
"She might not be okay for a while, but she is alive, she's going to be alive. I think that for Sera's sake, what she's going to need from us is to believe in that, so then she can start getting better, and start being okay."

Rosie glanced up from the table. "I want to convince you that I'm not going to just disappear, but after today I understand what you must be thinking... I don't want you to be worry about this though, I want to help, and I don't know how to."  

[Suudonym]

He nodded mildly in understanding, knowing the importance of support in times of distress. For now it was just a matter of bearing in mind the fact that there was someone to receive that support and of keeping faith that the nurse hadn't lied about Seraphine's survival - which should have been easier than it was proving, given that the nurse had no reason for such deception.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, a small sigh accompanying. "I'm such a pest." There was a slight frustration in the words and in his features, an anger in the face of knowing that he was once again causing problems for others. "I'll be fine; don't worry about it."  

[Blood_Goddess]

"You- are- not- a- past." She said, lifting herself and with a determined furrow in her brow she enunciated each word as she slid her chair over next to him.
"I know you'll be fine, we all will, but that doesn't mean we're fine right now. and of course I'm going to worry, I always worry, because I care. so telling me not to worry... if like tell you not to be upset, and I think... right now we have a right to be pretty upset."

She reached out to put a hand on his shoulder. "I just don't want you to give up hope."