[For Veronica]

[plantfood]

There are many things about Henrich that drove Mathias crazy before Mexico and the ruins, things that now and then resulted in physical altercations or shouting matches which left them both feeling sheepish and hurt, but there is one thing Henrich was so good at. One thing Mathias wishes he could have learned from his brother, something he still can't quite seem to grasp no matter how hard he tries or doesn't try, as Henrich used to advise.

He's terrible with women.

It's been a month and a half since New Year's Eve and Mathias has done almost nothing to impress Veronica or further what relationship they might be developing. In fact, with the exception of assuring her there is nothing going on with Stacy, he's barely made any indication that he's interested in her, which he realizes is incredibly stupid. He's very interested and absolutely terrified. Coming to her while stuck as a woman hardly counts as making an attempt at getting another date, so earlier in the week, he'd gathered up all his courage and asked.

Which is why he finds himself heading down the path toward her hut, a bag with some food slung over one shoulder and his towel folded over the other. In a fit of panic, unsure what people do for dates on the island, he'd suggested dinner and swimming at the waterfall, hoping it isn't too forward to include swimming. Already he's starting to doubt himself, but he schools his face to blankness and then raps his knuckles gently against her door.

He can do this. It's a date, after all, he's been on dates before.

Comments

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Veronica said, the word an exhalation. "Me too." For a long time, she hadn't thought it was necessary. The learning curve on that one had been more than a little steep. "Even when it stops being... necessary, it's not an easy habit to break." It wasn't even one she'd tried to break, no matter how much easier things got here. She'd softened in her years on the island, that was certain, but not by as much as all that.

[plantfood]

"My mom was... very much like me," Mathias explains, nodding his agreement to what Veronica has said. Unlike the dancing, it isn't something she'd taught him, just something he thinks he's acquired from her in a way. Like his height and his frame, he's quiet like his mother.

"She didn't like to talk about things, she liked to watch people and hear their stories," he continues, smiling a bit. "We used to unnerve my brother and my father, the two of us, just sitting, not saying a word."

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

"I don't think I've ever been exactly quiet," she said, half-laughing, bordering on sheepish. She talked a lot, but she didn't say much. That, too, was a difficult habit to break. "I used to think I was like my mom, but the older I got, the more I became like my dad. Which is how I like it." She still worried sometimes that she was as much like Lianne as she'd once imagined. Worry was, she sometimes thought, all that kept it from being true. "You and she were close?"

[plantfood]

"No, not really," Mathias answers with a small, sheepish smile. "My parents were very... social. They liked to be away from home, liked to travel and go out to parties, things like that. Henrich and I spent a lot of time alone."

He loves his parents, but in a distant, distracted way, more because he knows he should than because he knows them well.

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

"Mm," she murmured, nodding. "We weren't that social. I mean, I went to parties, but mostly because my best friend was into them. Being sheriff, though, didn't always make my dad a lot of friends, and then when he wasn't anymore, there were even fewer of them." There was a sense in her that it was okay to say these things, to let bits and pieces of her life slip to him. She'd trusted him enough to be here. Tiny hints of the truth were fair game.

[plantfood]

"Do you have any brothers or sisters? Or was it just you?" he asks, knowing she's close to her father in a way he's never managed to be. There's a part of him that is almost jealous, wishing he'd had the same sort of relationship with his parents, but he had Henrich. He knows not everyone has a sibling they are close to like he was with Henrich and he knows he's lucky to have had that.

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

"Just me," she said, shaking her head, smiling fondly. "But I had Lilly. She was the closest thing I ever had to a sister." Wallace, too, had been like family, and even though they'd both been gone a long time, she still missed them like pieces of herself. She could live without them just fine, but she didn't have to like it.

[plantfood]

"Did you want to strangle her as often as you had fun with her?" Mathias asks with a small smile, knowing that seems to be the defining aspect of any sibling relationship. There's something about loving someone unconditionally, though, that only seems to have in families. Now and then, when it happens between such close friends, he finds himself a little awed and a little envious.

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

"I think she wanted to strangle me more," she admitted, laughing a little. "Hard as it may be to imagine, I kinda cramped her style back then. Dead weight." Back then, she'd idolized Lilly. Much as she loved her still, there were things she'd had to learn about Lilly Kane the hard way, things she didn't always like.

[plantfood]

"Were you horribly uncool?" Mathias asks, his grin turning up further at the corners, teasing her gently. "I suppose some of us just can't help that, can we?" He was never considered unpopular back home and he'd always had friends, but he couldn't deny that people had always thought there was something strange enough him.

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

"Oh, like you weren't one of the cool kids," Veronica teased. She didn't know if it worked the same in German schools as in American ones, but she was pretty sure kids were kids everywhere. "I was popular, but only by default and only until the default setting got broken."

[plantfood]

"I was popular by default, too," Mathias admits, although his default setting had never been broken. Until coming to the island, he's always been rich and, in high school, that had been enough. "But people thought I was strange, too. I was too quiet, especially when they found out who my brother was. He was one of the cool kids."

And, surprisingly, it had never made Henrich difficult to be around.

"How did your default setting break?" he asks.

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

It had been the same way with Lilly, Veronica thought, but then, she imagined Lilly and Henrich might have gotten along. Lips crooking up into a mirthless smile, she shrugged. "My boyfriend dumped me, my best friend was murdered and my dad lost his job," she said. "It was a busy week."

[plantfood]

"Busy feels like something of an understatement for such a week," Mathias observes, then runs his knuckles against Veronica's arm lightly. He's never been one for empty platitudes and he doubts she needs them now, after so long, but the touch is meant to be a comfort anyway.

"When I went to university, it seemed to matter less somehow," he says. "The money, I mean. We were all there to learn finally."

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

"Tall and well-to-do," Veronica deadpanned. "So I do have a type." In point of fact, it was a relief, the lack of reassurance or pretense at sympathy; she'd dealt with it all a long time ago, and if it lingered still, that didn't mean she wanted false comfort for someone who couldn't possibly know what it was like. Too many of her boyfriends had known the situation firsthand, and a little distance helped. "I wanted to go to Stanford, but... I wound up here. And the Ghosts of Christmas Future told me I went up somewhere else anyway."

[plantfood]

Mathias laughs a little at her first remark, trying not to think of his own type. Veronica doesn't entirely fit it, but he thinks maybe that is why he likes her so much.

"Where did you end up going?" he asks, then pauses to rephrase what he's said. "Where did the you who is not here end up going?"

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

"Hearst." Veronica shook her head, shrugging. "It was the university in town, so I guess I never actually leave Neptune." That idea alone made being stuck on the island, unable to travel, easier. It turned out she'd've been stuck even at home. "And now I attend the island school. A very fine establishment."

[plantfood]

"Very fine, indeed," he agrees, then takes her hand, leading her back toward the waterfall. If they spend too much time under here, he suspects her father might eventually come track him down and although he's an adult, there's still a part of Mathias that is afraid of dealing with fathers.

"I didn't finish my schooling," he admits. "I started later, while I was in the army."

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

Allowing herself to be led along, Veronica watched him as she walked, the shifting angles of his profile. There was clear curiosity in her own expression. "Can I ask why the army?" Not that that wasn't, in itself, sort of just asking right out, but it seemed a better alternative.

[plantfood]

"The German Army still employs a draft," Mathias answers, pausing near the mouth of the cave again. He has to raise his voice a little to be heard over the pounding water, his hand still hold Veronica's. "I didn't know what I wanted to do, so rather than wait to be drafted, I joined voluntarily. It's almost an expectation of all young men and most young women in Germany now. I never saw any fighting, I spent most of my time in school."

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

"Works out pretty well that way," Veronica observed. She tipped her head to the side, considering, then drew her hand from his. Darting a smile his way, that was all she gave before heading off through the water to the other side. He was bound to follow one way or another, but all the same, there was a hint of a challenge to it. It was like starting a chase somehow.

[plantfood]

With a soft laugh, Mathias follows her through the water, swimming under the pounding waves and surfacing on the other side. As he pushes wet hair out of his eyes, he looks for Veronica, half-expecting to be pounced on or pushed under, considering the smile she's just given him. Not that he minds all that much. He's had far worse dates than this and not many that can rank as much fun.

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

Slipping up from behind him, Veronica pounced, arms sliding over his shoulders. "Gotcha," she crowed, laughing a little, pretty sure she was expected. It didn't matter one way or another. The whole afternoon had contrived to put her in a better mood than she'd been in for ages.

[plantfood]

"I give up," Mathias answers, raising both his hands as high as he can, considering Veronica's arms are around him. He turns around in the water, although he only succeeds in spinning them both in a circle. "I surrender. I don't want to die on this date," he begs, though it's impossible not to grin and he's sure his smile can be heard in his voice.

[neptune-sleuth.livejournal.com]

Veronica laughed, closing her eyes as they turned. Sliding free, she waded in front of him. "I guess I could be persuaded to spare you," she sighed, shaking her head. "I'm sure you have uses."