Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey

C-4, I do that damage—My ego is titanic

The patch job on the stained glass window earns a quizzical look, steps slowing faintly, though never quite stopping as Kaisel's eye follows the testament of damage as long as he can until it's out of sight. He does stop briefly at the doors, inhaling deeply, rolling his neck, before crossing the threshold into the permanent twilight of the Hanged Man.

It takes a moment for his eyes to adjust from the daylight outside, but as they do he sweeps his gaze over each change that's been made here, not having fully marked it all at the last party here given everything that happened then. He can't really find it in himself to truly appreciate the changes, not knowing that the transfer of ownership wasn't entirely a happy exchange. Like most things she's endured on the behalf of others, he's sure that Flora has layered over the hurt and moved on from it, but that the little mound where she had to bury it sits there at all, because of him, forces a stone to settle in his gut.

He exhales through it, pulling on a smile as he moves towards the bar, remembering all too well the first time he'd seen her back behind it that night. "Caly?" he calls out, placing down the pepper and tamarind flavored vodka on the counter so he could properly lean into it, head craning to spot her around the curve and couple of patrons. He props his head up on an elbow, fisting against his cheek, violet sweater lifting faintly over his black jeans.

Kaisel

I woke up in self-destruction mode—Watch me go, I'ma do it again

enjoy the ride

She’s kept to herself, keeping a relatively low profile and worked since the revelation of her father leaving and Kaisel staying in Torchline, trying to prevent it from being a thing that sends her in a rage again and again. In fact, she’s almost gotten used to the fact that he isn’t visiting the Hanged Man, content to feel as though she doesn’t need to keep scouring the bar lest she see him.

So, today is like any other day, unaware and unfortunately unprepared, the sunshine girl flashes a sunny smile at the group in the back as she collects their money and snags the empty glasses as they filter out, piling them up on a tray as she begins to drift back toward the bar itself. She wears warm wool black pants, a golden sweater with a scalloped V neckline. Her hair’s pulled up, the comb in her hair from Vesper glints faintly from under the chandeliers and golden jewelry settles along her chest and ears (though they earrings aren’t the ones Kaisel had given her).

She sets the tray down and snags one of the glasses to dunk in the bucket to be cleaned later when she hears her name called out and stills almost immediately, the slight sneer tugging on her face suddenly vanishes before she’s looking over and spots Kaisel with his head in his hand, propped up by his elbow, in a sweater with a drink of some kind in hand that one of the helpers had grabbed for him.

“Kaisel.” She says flatly, not stopping what she’s doing as she continues to dunk the empty glasses before she moves onto the sink to clean them out, focused on her task in a way that would allow him to speak if he felt inclined to.

Calypso

C-4, I do that damage—My ego is titanic

The drink he's garnered from someone else while he waited is just soda. The bottle of pepper and tamarind vodka is a gift, for her. Seemed better not to show up empty-handed to tell her that he could not, in fact, uphold the plans he'd laid out for her.

His features brighten when he spots her at last, but the light doesn't linger fully for long, not when she looks like she did that night she'd been left to close down the bar at the party. She's just as irritated and moving just as fast, but there's significantly less patrons now versus then. She says his name at least, but it's the one with all the letters and no smile around it. Shit, he caught her on a bad day. Not the start he'd been hoping for.

"Good to see you." And it is, good to see her, even if he's lacking the lens he normally watched her through, the one that made every little motion sparkle a bit more. It'd been the one he first saw her through, when she'd been all stunningly gold heat and smoke, close enough to reach out for if he didn't mind the risk of her fire. Now, there's something colder to her, more like charcoal and soot losing heat when the bonfire's burned out and everyone's gone to bed. He can't quite tell how much is him and what he sees, and how much is her and what she's putting on to display. She's still beautiful, even muted.

He slides the bottle closer towards her, smile tilting with the unease he feels, though he tries to shove past it. He's not quite sure how to though, not with her, not when the solution would have been to sneak a kiss or jump behind the counter with her and take over. "I got this for you," he declares instead, relying on the bartop to help him navigate this. He's trying his best not to hurt her with what he's here for.

Kaisel

I woke up in self-destruction mode—Watch me go, I'ma do it again

enjoy the ride

She’s had good days. But it’s his arrival that has sparked it immediately into a bad day. Not that she’s planning on telling him that right out the gate. She continues to clean, the soap foaming up around the glasses as she nods. She heard him, but she isn’t sure what to say back to him. It wasn’t good to see him in return. In fact, she’d been hoping to avoid him. “Yeah.” That’s all she manages to say before she begins to rinse out the soap from the glasses, setting them to dry on the drying rack.

It unfortunately frees up her hands and her task, however, in time to see the bottle slid toward her. The frown tugs on her face before she reaches over to take the bottle. “Thanks.” She takes the bottle and inspects it for a moment before setting it on the back counter, returning to face him with her arms folding across her chest.

She forces herself to look at him – to actually look at him – to take in the violet sweater and the look of awkardness like he isn’t sure entirely what to do while she reacts like this and it only forces her to keep the status quo. She isn’t going to change how she reacts because it makes him uncomfortable. “What’re you here for, Kai?” She asks, long slender fingers tapping against her biceps as she stares at him, guarded and careful.

Calypso

C-4, I do that damage—My ego is titanic

A fragile smile fits into place at her gratitude, a sliver of his anxiousness easing. Maybe on a different day she would have said more, shined with delight, even offered to drink it together then and there, but today he's met with short words and folded arms. On instinct he wants to sprinkle in some humor or charm, anything that might crack through some of this frost and return the warm, bright smile he remembers so fondly. It's not his job to make her lighter anymore though. In fact he rather thinks he's come here to do quite the opposite, no real other way about it. Since it seems she's short on time and patience, he won't draw this out longer than he needs to—it'll be worse for both of them anyway if he does.

She drops the other letters of his name this time, but he can't quite tell if it's from familiarity or efficiency now. He hands find the edge of the bar, palms pressing around it, fingers fluttering over the cool top. "Sorry I didn't come to see you sooner, like I said," he starts. The fragile smile grows just a touch with the sincerity of it, though it tilts faintly at the end as the reality of why pricks through. "I actually, uh, ended up moving here." He glances at her, sheepish, knowing the news should’ve been cause for celebration between friends. "Took longer to get settled than I thought, and I’ve been running up to Stormbreak to help when I can." Excuses, explanations, all just glinting distractions really from the heart of the matter. Turns out it's harder to march up to this cliff edge than he thought, especially for someone used to living on a floating city. Not because he's not sure about stepping to it, but because he doesn't want to wound her. He has never wanted that.

His fingers still, pressing harder into the counter like it might hold him steady. He can hear his pulse in his ears as if he's got his head right on the shore. He can feel the creep of something surging up through him with a tingle. Not quite nausea, not yet anyway, just the adrenaline of admitting to disappointing her, again. "Even so," he continues, his voice staying more even than he expected. "I’m not really gonna be able to come by all the time like I planned." He holds her steady in the amber of his gaze, despite wanting to look anywhere else, somewhere safer than the crease of confusion or the dip of a frown that he anticipates.

The words he’s been circling squeeze in on his chest, then spill out in one breath. "I started dating Flora." Voice to hear concerns, a truth even he never expected. Finally saying it rips off the band-aid he'd been tugging at, and his shoulders loosen with the weight of it put down. "So I don’t…I can’t see us staying friends. Not after what we were." It's everything she'd once asked of him, that he said he couldn't do, but is now offering to Flora without hesitation.

Kaisel

I woke up in self-destruction mode—Watch me go, I'ma do it again

enjoy the ride

He cuts to the chase and Caly’s fingertips tighten against her bicep, her jaw set as she offers a curt nod. She’d heard that he’d moved here. Secrets weren’t exactly a thing here in Torchline when people were and could be so intertwined. “Uh huh.” She murmurs, listening to the excuses for what they were – even though she was fairly confident it was better that he didn’t come around. And while she doesn’t know the intricacies of whether or not he and Flora are together (so far, at least), it had been enough to assume.

She doesn’t interject any further while he speaks, instead waiting for him to let the ball drop before she accurately lets her mask of indifference slip. She’s glad that he’s decided he can’t come by all the time like he’d initially planned – but when she hears him say officially that he’s started dating Flora, she can’t help the quirk of her lips that’s a mix between amusement because of fucking course he is and the snarl of you fucking lying piece of shit.

So she waits a few heartbeats of a second, letting her anger simmer into something even, letting her words punctuate rather than spew with all the chaotic energy of someone better suited to be Dygra than Safrin’s daughter. “You’re a fuckin’ hypocrite, y’know that?” She starts, the laugh leaving her cold and burning, the sun reflecting off snow to blind. “It’s real fuckin’ easy to do something for her when she asks but it’s too much if I ask the same thing.” Yeah, Kai, she remembers how you couldn’t decide. Funny how you can now, huh?

“Y’came off as bein’ such a nice guy and carin’ and puttin’ your friends first but you’re just a liar.” Her laugh is sharp, pointed, serrated like knives. “It’s only for her. Who cares who else gets hurt in the process, yeah? Doesn’t fuckin’ matter when y’just wanted the girl.” She rolls her eyes, silently wishing she were like her sister with magic at her fingertips.

Instead, all she can do is lean forward into his space across the bar, her hand snapping out to grab the collar of his violet sweater to at the very least keep him rooted. “I don’t ever want to see you again. Keep your fuckin’ "parting" gift an’ your lies and get the fuck out of my bar.” She releases him with a shove, turning to the bottle he’d gifted her only to grab it and launch it at him. Maybe he catches it, maybe he doesn’t.

“Have the life you deserve, Kaisel.” And I hope you fucking suffer for it.

Calypso

C-4, I do that damage—My ego is titanic

His blink is more like a flinch when she laughs. It's a stranger's sound already. He's never heard it before at least, has never seen the stark chill of her like this, so it feels like he's looking at someone he doesn't recognize. When he once said he wanted to hear all her different laughs, this had never been one he expected, and now he's certain he could have done without ever being gifted it.

That's always been the problem, he doesn't know her well.

He wanted to change that, once, not very long ago. He couldn't forfeit things that were important to him though, not while he'd still been learning how much she meant to him. He still cares about her, but he doesn't even know if they ever would have been friends, not when it all started with a burn. He doesn't know if they would have lasted, especially beneath the strain of her family's weight. He doesn't know what she even wants, because last they'd talked, it hadn't been him. Nevermind that he guessed wrong once already to her mother too.

There's not much point in arguing. There's no better end to this, only worse ones. She's hurt, and he's the one who hurt her, and no apologies or gifts or promises would take it back. He did fuck up, he does know that, and he wishes it could have gone differently in dozens of ways, for her sake.

Her words land sharp and stinging, and he tries to swallow them back as his hands retreat over the bar. She's upon him suddenly though, and all that panther grace humming beneath her skin practically rises as she claws his collar into her grasp and hauls him further over the counter. He doesn't resist—he'll take whatever blows help her through this—but surprise streaks across his features. He expected this wouldn't go well, but the intensity of her outrage is more than he ever could have guessed. "Caly—" he starts, but it's quiet with the strain of guilt and it gets swallowed up by her vehement refusal to keep any part of them intact. He didn't think they could be friends, he didn't know that meant they'd immediately be enemies. The shit list he'd groaned about to Flora seems far more real than he'd like now.

He stumbles back onto his weight and his legs as she releases him. His eyes have widened gradually, but they flash now as he ducks, barely avoiding the bottle that smashes apart on the ground behind him. "I never meant to hurt you, Caly!" he doesn't mean to say it, but it wrenches out of him as horror and shock and grief mix into one thundering pulse inside him. So much destruction here that he never meant for, all because he thought the golden girl behind the bar was pretty. "Things change—I didn't lie, I didn't know it would end up, like this." Even as he says it though, it feels awful. He had loved Flora, and he'd tried to use her to bury it, and denied it when she uncovered it for him. That he didn't do that consciously, or with the intent to harm her, doesn't change the outcome.

All the while he's been retreating back to the door, not positive she won't shift and clamber over the bar with literal claws next. "I wish you the best," he says lower, aware that doesn't include him, not anymore. There's no sunshine left between them. He sighs, slipping out the door.

[FIN]

Kaisel

I woke up in self-destruction mode—Watch me go, I'ma do it again