You do not actively go to Benny's. You end up at Benny's.

[paishodown]

Who: Asami and Envy
Where: Ambiguously named restaurant that serves mediocre pancakes at bargain prices and ungodly hours.
When: Late, June 12
Summary: Sad pancakes and bonding over loss???
Rating: PG
Log:


Asami pokes at her food dejectedly. She's been sitting in this dismal restaurant for longer than she would like to admit. It's just past 10, a ridiculous time to be at a restaurant, but this is the only place open right now.

She can't sleep, she's hungry, and and she isn't up to cooking anything right now. She still isn't very good at it.

Korra always did most of the cooking.

And this place really is... sad. The harsh florescent lighting does neither its faded interior nor its guests any favors. There's a mysterious substance on the booth seat across from her. The window next to her is dusty and its edges are crusted. Asami sighs and puts down her fork, her appetite suddenly gone. Nothing feels right, right now.

Comments

[exeggutorhead]

Asami isn't the only one who's hungry and can't sleep tonight.

Envy isn't in as bad a place as he was a month ago, but he's still nowhere near better, no matter how well he's able to act it. He could have eaten something out of the pantry at the house, but...he didn't want to chance being stumbled upon by a housemate in the middle of sadly eating cereal.

At least if he's sadly eating breakfast food at ten o' clock at night, most everyone else will be unhappy at Benny's. He'll blend right in.

Except he isn't expecting to see a familiar face when he walks in. He's tempted to either leave and come back later, or to just go sit in a booth it'd be hard for her to spot him at.

But Envy'd seen the message on the network earlier that day. It's a mix of that and impulse that gets him to walk over to her booth. His hands are in his pockets, and while he's got something like his normal expression plastered on his face, there's something decidedly quieter about it. He's not looking to annoy.

"This's a shitty place to eat alone," says the man who had just come here for the express purpose of sitting alone and eating questionable pancakes.

"Mind if I sit?"

[paishodown]

She didn't exactly expect to see Envy here. Or that he would ask to sit. It's... a nice surprise, to be honest.

"It's a shitty place to eat," she gives a tired laugh with that. Yup. Asami Sato just said 'shitty.' You know it's been a great day when...

She glances back down to the mush of syrup that remains of her food.

"I don't mind." The company would probably do her some good. She's suddenly glad she didn't make too much of a blubbering mess of herself on the network earlier.

[exeggutorhead]

"Ha, true. But hey, it's open."

He slides into the booth on the opposite side of the table, leaning his forearms on the table. A waiter will notice him and show up eventually, he's sure. He might be hungry, but this food still isn't something he's eager to get.

"I didn't think I'd see anyone I knew in here."

[paishodown]

Asami manages a sullen little smile.

"Well, it's not exactly my go-to for a midnight snack. But I was hungry, and... only just realized that I hadn't been shopping in a few days."

She's more than a little off-kilter.

[exeggutorhead]

He can tell.

But being a little off-kilter is something he's become very intimately familiar with lately.

"Yeah, it's not mine either."

He's quiet for a second before adding, "I saw what you put up on the network earlier."

He doesn't say 'I'm sorry' out loud, but it's there in his voice, genuinely. That and just...tiredness. People leave and there's nothing they can do about it, it's happened before and it'll keep on happening.

[paishodown]

Asami's chest squeezes uncomfortably when Envy brings up the post. She isn't sure she's glad he did or if she preferred he had just pretended it hadn't happened. It doesn't matter how hard she tries, forcing down the emotions that have been simmering and occasionally spilling over these past few days is a trying task.

She's just so tired of losing.

"I didn't want to say anything, but she had friends here." There's a bit of a waver in her voice. Asami knew that she had been a bit more emotional in a public video than she would have liked, but she had already waited long enough.

[exeggutorhead]

He doesn't mention the waver in her voice, just pretends he doesn't notice it. That's a look that he's become entirely too familiar with while he's been in Johto.

The longer you stay, the more people you lose, and the more people you see others lose.

"I know how that goes. You were close back in your world, too?"

He has a fairly good idea of the way they were close here, but he's not entirely certain. And so even if it does come out a little awkwardly, he's willing to make an attempt at commiseration and reassurance.

[paishodown]

It's a simple question, but the implications behind it are something Asami's been pondering over. She shouldn't be worried. It had been Korra's idea to go away, surely the whole point of that was for... well... them.

But nothing really happened happened until they were already here. There's a bit of wistfulness in how she stares at her soggy dinner.

"Closer than anyone. At least for me." Korra has more people in her life than Asami does, and she's thankful for that. "I know that she'll be okay. It's just the forgetting part."

[exeggutorhead]

Envy's jaw clenches noticeably when she mentions forgetting, and he looks down to hide his expression.

No, he's still not all right, and words just sort of start tumbling out of his mouth before he can hold them back. Maybe it's because Asami's dealing with the same problem.

"Yeah, that part, it's--I lost someone, about a month ago. Someone told me that even if he forgot, that we'd gotten...close for a reason and there wasn't any reason it couldn't happen again. But that doesn't make it better."

He stops talking abruptly. And now he's really not looking at her, an embarrassed frown set on his face.

[paishodown]

Asami's face sinks into an empathetic frown, and she watches him in spite of his having looked away. Envy hadn't really seemed like the type to be so close to someone until now, though she supposes she shouldn't assume.

She isn't about to tell him that she has the comforting thought of what's waiting for her when she does return and forget.

"Someone from home?"

[exeggutorhead]

To his credit, Envy manages not to flinch at the question. A month ago, he would have. He supposes that must mean he's getting a little better.

He just shakes his head and says simply, "No, he's from somewhere else."

Only one of the many, many issues that make it impossible for he and France to be together anywhere but here, but he doesn't want to dump all of THAT on her.

He scratches at a piece of the table that's cracked and flaking up, trying to figure out what to say. Heather's good at this kind of thing, what would she say?

"I've been here a long time, a really long time. I've had a lot of people come and go, and they come back sometimes. But...there's nothing to do besides keep going and try to remember them however you can."

[paishodown]

Oh. That puts a different sort of weight on Asami's chest. She watches him pick at the table rather than looking at his face.

"I've lost a lot of people."

This isn't something she really talks about, but Asami feels sort of... raw, right now.

"Come close to losing more. But I don't think that's quite the same as someone disappearing, from here. There's always that sliver of hope that they'll come back, memories intact."