fandomtownies | Covent Garden Flowers, Thursday

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Covent Garden Flowers, Thursday

Octavia should've been doing better by now.

For the most part, she even was. If only because she'd learned over the years to repress the hell out of things. Hide crap away even from herself because there were more pressing concerns to deal with. Of course, that was harder here. On the Ark, it had been a question of living in cramped quarters and not wanting to upset her mom and Bellamy. On the ground, it had been about focusing on survival.

And here...

Here, she was free to roam, food was bountiful, and the environment wasn't actively trying to kill her. It meant it was much harder to focus on things outside herself, to keep from spending too much time mulling over her feelings. But she was trying.

You know. Like nice, stable people did.

Covent Garden Flowers was open, and Octavia was working on another completely ridiculous flower arrangement.

[ooc: Open!]

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"Hey, that looks neat," Magnus said, nodding at the flowers as he swanned in with Starbucks. "They're not murderous, right? Just checking."

So guess who'd heard from Liam that people from the school could've taken people from town with them on the trip to Greece? The same person who'd also heard from radio it had turned into a trip to ancient Greece halfway through.

And the same person who'd expression soured extra when Magnus came in through the door.

"No," she said, tone clipped. Of course, with her, it was a little hard to tell whether that was because she was mad or because she was just... her.

He was going with 'in need of a PSL' as he pushed a latte at her silently.

Well, at least she accepted that. Although it didn't diminish her grumpiness any.

She held the drink in her left hand, while she yanked a flower out of the arrangement with her right. Guess she didn't like it there.

"You okaaaay?" he asked slowly.

Octavia did not look up. Instead, she kept staring at the arrangement, and took a slow sip from her cup.

"Hope you had a nice trip."

"N-no? Yes? No. No?" Look, he was gauging her reaction for his answer.

Okay, she did look up at him for that one.

She looked very unimpressed. If a person could sip coffee unimpressedly, that was what she was doing.

"Did you wanna go too?" HE ROLLED HIGH ON PERCEPTION.

Octavia was about to be incredibly unfair. And no, she wasn't in the right frame of mind to realize it.

It was one of those 'go with your gut feeling now, regret later' type of deals.

"You should've taken me."

Magnus' face went through a series of expressions over that: confusion, contemplation, more confusion, all the onto vague acceptance.

"Well now I know for next time."

Magnus, you really were too nice for your own good.

"Too late!" Octavia snapped. "I should've been off this rock now!"

While the hurt was fresh.

"Heeeey," Magnus said, frowning at her now. "You wanna talk about it?"

Or he could go with his method of dealing with a surly Taako and hug her better.

"No, I don't want to talk about it!"

No, clearly she just wanted to yell about it instead. She'd also crushed the flower in her hand by squeezing it too hard. Now, she let it fall on the counter.

"There's nothing to talk about." Sure. "What good does it do?"

(And somehow she'd been amazed at her brother's stubbornness in meeting their mother.)

"We can go on an adventure this weekend if you want," he offered. They could stab a hydra or whatever.

"No. Fuck off, you had your chance."

Such a rational thing to say.

Especially for someone who liked the sound of that.

Now he had to give her a kicked puppy look. Which worked way to well for a guy who looked like him. "So, if I show up this weekend with two tickets to punch a minotaur, you won't come?"

You know, it was pretty hard to yell at a face like that.

Which was probably why she looked down instead. Deflated a little, somehow.

Tried to keep a certain hint of sadness from creeping into her voice. She was only moderately successful. "You went to Greece," she said, like that was an answer.

"Is that an important thing?" Honestly he wpuld have pegged her as a Rome person.

Being named after a Roman emperor's sister probably didn't help with that impression, huh? Anyway, she probably wouldn't have reacted any better to Rome. They were equally bad.

There was a long silence before she said anything.

"My mother used to read stories to me when I was little, she said finally, staring stonily at the half-finished floral arrangement. "Myths, about the gods and the heroes of ancient Greece."

It's cool. He totally had a Dinotopia phase growing up. Maybe.

"Oh," Magnus said in a voice that conveyed possibly more emotion thsn a comedy podcast warranted.

"And she was here, weekend before last."

Octavia had a faraway look about her. Staring at the flowers, but not really looking at them at all. Her voice sounded a little distant all of a sudden, too.

"She's dead because of me, you know."

... So much for Aurora's efforts in alleviating the guilt both her children felt, then.

Well now Magnus was just forced to shuffle around the counter for a hug. It was hug o'clock all up in this bitch.

"Don't," Octavia said, but he probably wouldn't be amiss to ignore it. It was a small sound, a last-ditch effort to pretend she was fine.

Or at least angry, instead of just sad.

"You can punch me in the kidney if you want," Magnus soothed, giving her that hug. It wasn't as good as a Klaarg hug, but it was up there.

Octavia did not reply.

But she did slowly hide her face against his chest. So, that was something, right?

It was something!

"It's alright," he said quietly. "I got ya, buddy."

"They floated her because of me."

She hadn't actually said out loud to anyone, before. Even now, her voice was mumbled and barely audible.

Please ignore sound of the tears in it.

"Because I was born."

Great. Now Magnus had to beat up some people in space.

Actually, that was pretty great. Space fights.

"That's their fault. Not yours."

Most of the people involved were already dead themselves. Or down on the ground.

He was free to fight the ground ones.

"But they were the ones with the power."

He'd still get his stab on. Maybe use that Flaming, Raging Poisoning Sword of Doom that was actually a king?? Turned into a sword???

"Then it's, like, double their fault."

"But my mom is still dead!"

Okay, that was a little forceful.

Also ended on a sob, which might've explained why she wasn't pulling away.

"I know," he said, voice softening again with that sort of understanding that only comes from loss. "I know."

Because no amount of 'I'm sorry' or 'it'll be okay' ever helped.

Yeah. They really didn't. Hadn't even helped from her mother this past weekend, but at least Octavia had put on a brave face for her.

Not so much here.

She was... definitely crying against his chest, right now. Trying not to, really trying to keep her shoulders from quaking and the tears from coming. But not doing a very good job of it.

"I got you," Magnus promised, not about to let go until she'd cried it out.

This was still Octavia, though. The time she could allow herself to be out of control was limited. There was only a moment for the emotions to aggressively push themselves through before the shields started snapping back into place.

And she started pulling away. Physically, emotionally.

"Did you say something about... punching a minotaur?"

Anything to pull away focus from her tear-soaked face that she was now wiping the back of her hand across.

"Yep! I can try checking Craig's List for some duneoneering," he said cheerfully, well used to Taako's method of repression and then emotional meltdown, right on back to repression.

"I think that would be... okay."

Yeah that was about as honest and open she could manage to be after the last little moment.

"We can punch some Minotaur and make everyone at Homecoming super jealous," he promised.

Octavia was not going to ask what Homecoming was, because right now she couldn't muster up the energy to care. It was just another thing she didn't know and couldn't relate to, it was fine.

"Okay."

Magnus beamed at her. "And then I'll take you out for victory milkshakes!"

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Covent Garden Flowers, Thursday

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