The Junkyard, Monday Morning

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

Today was the day. Kerrigan eyed the dropship with some apprehension. Today.

Running a hand through her hair, she reshouldered the bag on her shoulder for the umpteenth time upon approach. It was ready. It was fixed up. She had her armor, and her rifle, and she'd seen River off to graduation...

It didn't make this any easier. But-- she was needed. Yeah.

It would be an hour or so before she finally made the engines run, the sparks would pass from cable to cable and the ship would lift off, shuttling a fast wind across the junkyard as it forced itself into the sky.

For now, though, Kerrigan was here.

[ open, for anyone who wants to say goodbye to Kerrigan, or who has any business in the junkyard, yay ]

Comments

[doubleohblonde]

It was pure co-incidence that found Bond at the junkyard that morning. Really.

"Morning."

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

Kerrigan glanced away from the ship, but she knew long before he'd even spoken-- "Morning, Bond."

[doubleohblonde]

"Nice day for it." Not he was entirely sure what 'it' was.

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"Not for this 'it'," Kerrigan snorted, "But I've been lagging behind already."

[doubleohblonde]

"Well, there's nothing wrong with arriving fashionably late."

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"There is when there's a war on," Kerrigan said, frankly, and leaned back against the bulkhead.

[doubleohblonde]

"That does change things somewhat," Bond conceded, dragging his knuckles along a random, rusting hulk.

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"I'm taking you'll be hanging around for the summer, then?" she asked, tilting a little. Letting him speak seemed like the least of courtesies.

And kept her mind off her own situation. Fun times.

[doubleohblonde]

"Ah, yes, I will," Bond replied with a slight wince. "I received my own instructions on that front. Apparently it keeps me out of trouble this way."

[moonbrain-tam.livejournal.com]

River approached quietly, not announcing her presence. It wasn't necessary after all.

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

There was a quiet tiiing and a scrape of Kerrigan's boots against the metal floor of the dropship, but that was more than River needed, too. "Hey," she said, softly.

[moonbrain-tam.livejournal.com]

"Hello." River smiled at her. Everything ready?

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"Just about," she replied, clapping her hands together to get rid of some of the dirt. "Just have to finish up a couple things with this rustbucket and I'm good to go."

[moonbrain-tam.livejournal.com]

Goodbyes were never easy, and especially not this one. Words turned empty, unprecise. So River said nothing, just leaned against the dropship and looked up at the sky.

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"River?"

She turned to look aside, her body coming to a full-on stop. "Hey. C'mere."

[moonbrain-tam.livejournal.com]

She turned her head towards Kerrigan, then walked up to her, slowly.

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"I'm not real good at the goodbye stuff, either," Kerrigan said, wryly-- "But I'm willing to give this a shot, at least."

Carefully, tentatively, she moved forwards, one arm coming up to wrap around River's shoulders.

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

Roy had a bottle of whiskey, even if they wouldn't drink it together. He eyed the ship somewhat warily, for a moment letting himself remember how they'd stolen it.

"All geared up?"

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

Time for the second-hardest...

Kerrigan stilled her work on the ship. She looked up from where she sat on the ground, wires still in hand. "Yep," she drawled, slowly.

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

He momentarily touched the hull of the ship with a gloved hand before he glanced down at Kerrigan. He wouldn't ask her if she was sure, he knew which call she was answering. This was all just part of a soldier's path.

"Think you've got room for this?" he asked, holding up the bottle.

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

Her eyebrows came together a little; her gaze went from the bottle to Roy and back to the bottle. "Didn't I tell you I don't drink on the job?" she asked, a little amused.

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"You did," he said easily and he shrugged a shoulder. "Drink it when you're not on the job."

He didn't mean now or in a month when she was a day in between battle. Something further, less concrete, that maybe she didn't quite believe in but he was going to. Besides, since when had he listened to her?

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

The smile on her face became less resigned amusement; it softened a little, even as she eyed him with a wryness that had been there for most of the-- past few months, if she was going to be honest about it. "Well, at least you beat Bond in the idealism department," she snarked, letting go of the wires to reach up for the bottle.

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

He let out a breath and let her take the bottle and he didn't fight the memory that her words brought, just let it flow to the forefront of his mind for Kerrigan to pick up. That one conversation with Hughes shortly after the end of the Ishbal war where his friend had called him an idealist for his dream to change the country, to make it better.

He smiled a little. "I could have let go of my ideals a long time ago," he said quietly. "But then nothing would have ever changed and humankind would go nowhere without those naive ideas."

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

She nodded at him, the one time, and the wryness dissipated. "To naive ideas, huh, Mustang?" Kerrigan lifted her bottle. "Even if some of us are better at following them than they are at making them."