Friends in Need; RL with Azula

[iknowucan]

After securing a worldhop (which was actually pretty hard to get, considering all the crazy "shadow" things going on, but Ryan is magic and gets what he wants), Ryan showed up at the AU house that's completely empty. Well, okay then. Azula always struck him as a minimalist so, cool.

He wandered through the place a little cautiously, since he knew that Azula was a little... um, easily annoyed. "Azula?"


((OOC: THIS IS WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU DON'T MAKE EXECUTIVE DECISIONS let me know if any o this should be changed :X))

Comments

[iknowucan]

...Pause.

"What?"

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"You're singing. Why?"

[iknowucan]

Ryan looked at Azula like she'd grown another head. "...No I'm not."

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"Yes you were!" Was he insane as well as stupid?

[iknowucan]

...You know, thinking back on it, hadn't Chuck asked him that when he'd first met him? That was... really weird. Ryan just wasn't very good at meta.

"...I didn't think I was singing." So weird. "Maybe I just... got carried away? Huh. I like to sing, though." Chin scratch, "Did it sound good?"

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"No." He had, but she wasn't going to admit it.

"Why are you still here?"

[iknowucan]

"Weird!" He was kind of excited about this, no lie. A little disappointed that he hadn't been at the top of his game, but he wasn't exactly freaking out over the new situation. "I usually don't have to warm up much to sing but maybe that's why."

The question took him by surprise, since he was still thinking about how he was singing unconsciously. "Um, because..." He chewed his lip and leaned against the wall. "Well, okay. I'm here because I want to be here, honestly."

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"I think you're lying." She slid further down against the wall, almost slouching.

[iknowucan]

"I'm really not!" He grinned. "I'm a really bad liar, I stutter and look away and get super awkward. I saw your post and I didn't want you to be alone. Even if you think all you want is to be left alone, trust me, it... sucks after a while. And I really didn't like how all those people were treating you - virus or not, being a jerk isn't cool."

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"I'm already alone." Bitterness? Surely not.

[iknowucan]

Hey. Hey. Ryan frowned and made a less cautious, more deliberate move forward, finally sitting down a few feet from Azula. "C'mon. You're not alone. I'm here, aren't I? I know I'm not, like, the best company or whatever, but I like to think I'm better than nothing."

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

She turned her head to the side, determined not to look at him straight-on. "Random people don't count."

[iknowucan]

He laughed. "Oh, come on, Azula! I'm not some random guy. I mean, I do random stuff like singing, I guess, which is still really weird - but I mean, I'm not just randomly around to bother you. I'm trying to be your friend."

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"You're random enough. What would you do if I just grabbed your mother, threw and acquaintance at you, and told you that that was supposed to be good enough?" If questioned about the "mother" thing, she'd come up with an excuse; no matter how she actually felt about Dr. Cuddy, calling her something like "mother" full-out seemed kind of weird, unless she was doing it to tease or test somebody (especially given her own issues with Ursa, who she still always insisted on referring to as her former mother). But it was a good enough comparison, and that was what mattered.

[iknowucan]

Ryan really wasn't offended or upset by that - he was more... surprised. He blinked. "Whoa, what? I'm not - I didn't mean to act like I'm good enough or something, I just..."

Man. He frowned and tilted his head towards a wall. "I just want to try and help you as best I can. I don't really get a chance to do really good things a lot so I wanted to... try." He looked back at her after a minute. "...You really care about her that much? Like, as a mom?"

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

Azula's face stayed blank. "What does it matter now?"

[iknowucan]

He furrowed his brow. "...What do you mean, what does it matter? It matters a lot! If you really care about someone and then they leave, it hurts. I really, really am sorry." And it was definitely obvious in his voice that he really meant that. He couldn't imagine losing someone in his family, or one of his friends, or... well, anybody, really. Actually, he couldn't really figure how he'd lose them, anyway. But that didn't matter. "I figured you cared a lot about her, but I didn't know it was like that."

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

She made a frustrated noise. "It doesn't matter because she's gone."

[iknowucan]

"It does matter, because gone or not, you still feel really close to her! If it didn't matter, you wouldn't be in an empty version of her house."

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

Azula didn't say anything. Her lip trembled just a little, so she bit it-- hard.

[iknowucan]

Ryan wasn't exactly good at reading emotions, so he wasn't sure if she was about to... kill him or something - would she do that? He wanted to think not, but...

She looked honestly more upset and he felt even worse. He wasn't actually good at being nice, he was failing really hard at it - "...Azula, please - um, at least trust me when I say I really, really just want to be here for you. I don't know if, like, you think I have some kind of creepy motive or something but I seriously don't. To be honest," and honesty was always key, and he really hadn't been doing the two-way street thing, maybe that was what Azula wanted? "You remind me a lot of my sister, and you kind of get upset like her, but I can just take her to the spa or buy her a smoothie and she feels better. I really don't know what I'm doing here, but I'm trying really hard. So - at least don't think I'm trying to hurt you more than you're already hurt or make you mad or something."

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"I don't get upset," she insisted. "I get angry. This place is pathetic." Though at the moment, she certainly looked more upset than mad.

[iknowucan]

He couldn't help but laugh a little. "Like I said, you're like my sister. I've gotten tons of shoes thrown at me - though I guess you'd probably just punch me." Yeah, Azula didn't strike him as a shoe-thrower. "What do you mean, though, this place? This house, or the community, or...?"

[peoplesprincess.livejournal.com]

"The community. And I don't punch." She bent fire. "... I like this house."

[iknowucan]

"Okay, no punching. But definitely not a shoe-thrower." He looked around the room. "It's a nice house. And the community isn't really pathetic - it's just full of people who... are kind of weird, is all."