Covent Garden Flowers, Tuesday

[shiroi_tiger]

So, this was it. Today was Nathan's last day on the island. Tomorrow, he'd be taking his chances with Portalocity in the hopes that it would be able to get him home. Not that he didn't enjoy the island, of course, when it wasn't trying to kill him, but he had a family back in Japan. He missed Higen and Magojiro and most of all Taka, and his inability to be certain that his letters were getting through was all but driving him mad.

So, tomorrow. And today he would spend his time filling orders and writing a letter to Peter explaining that he wouldn't be back. He wished him all the best, especially with another holiday on the horizon, but his time here was through.

Now he just had to get that ivy to stop trying to wrap around him and keep him in place. He wasn't convinced that it was going to miss him that much.

[Open! It's his time.]

Comments

[okteiviakom]

Octavia understood. She didn't like it, but she understood.

(Lincoln.)

There was something a little stony about her expression. But what else was new? "And they just found this solution for you now? At random?"

[shiroi_tiger]

"Apparently so," Nathan sighed. "If they knew, they sat on that information until Sunday."

Nathan hadn't even been aware they had customer service representatives available on Sunday.

"I'm taking it all with a grain of salt, but if they can get me home again, I have to try."

[okteiviakom]

"Yeah," Octavia said, because she couldn't think of anything else.

Well, no, she could. After a second - and squaring her shoulders, trying not to be obvious about it - she found some that were actually acceptable to say. "I hope they're right. I hope you get home."

Since that was a concept that actually had meaning for him, the way it didn't for her.

[shiroi_tiger]

It was funny. 'Home' was something that hadn't had meaning for him for so damn long, wanting to return to it now was still a fairly novel experience for Nathan. He offered her a small smile and a nod of appreciation.

"Thank you," he replied. "And... it's been a pleasure working with you."

He would offer to write, but that seemed almost... trite, somehow.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia had never been very familiar with the concept of letters, anyway. Her impression of the world was that most of the time when people left, they were just gone.

She nodded, then stayed quiet for a moment.

Then, after some hesitation, she said, "Mebi oso na hit choda op nodotaim."

[shiroi_tiger]

Nathan was silent for a moment of his own, mulling over those words. Nothing familiar to him, but they seemed to be rich with meaning. He looked at Octavia curiosly.

"What does it mean?"

[okteiviakom]

"'May we meet again'," Octavia said, evenly. "In the language of my people." But the phrasing of her other people.

Allegiances were as complicated as 'home' was.

[shiroi_tiger]

Such things often were. Nathan bowed his head slightly. Smiled, just the faintest bit.

"Mata yoroshiku onegai shimasu."

'I look forward to the next time.'

[okteiviakom]

Octavia didn't ask what it meant. The context was enough. She didn't smile, either.

But she opted for honesty. Tried for a neutral tone, but didn't quite hit it, not fully. There was a note of something a little more fragile, at the end.

"I wish you weren't going."

[shiroi_tiger]

Nathan bowed his head a little.

"I wish I could have it both ways," he admitted. "And I can't make any promises about returning. But I will miss this place, and the people here."

Yes, he would miss her.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia would miss him, too. But she figured she'd made that obvious enough. Anyway, she was bad at goodbyes. Either she'd endured too many or not enough of them, so far.

(She'd lost a lot of people. She hadn't had the chance to actually say goodbye to way too many of them.)

She was quiet again, for much too long. "I should go." She didn't know how to do this.

[shiroi_tiger]

For what it was worth, Nathan wasn't terribly good at it, either.

"I shouldn't keep you, then."

[okteiviakom]

Another second of hesitation, and Octavia bowed her head. Just a little. Like he had.

And then, she turned to go.

She hated this.