[ maybe in the literal sense, but not necessarily meaning that he wants to or even realizes this could be creepy if and when rose wakes up— which could be at any time now, he’s heard the nurses talking about her when she’s awake. in other words: she’s a toughie.
in a quiet, single bed recovery room, rose can wake up to the occasional beeps of machinery or the shift in her iv fluids being removed, only leaving the catheter in. a familiar face does it with care, too focused to see her eyes move and too dead set on doing this as stealthily as possible. he didn’t want to wake her.
but even when he’s done, he sits by her bedside and rests his arms on his legs. contemplating october’s many events and having the growing desire to speak with rose directly. as himself for once, even. he wonders what happened to her, but then again—
this whole month has been a disaster, him included in the cause. when rose wakes, or decides to open her eyes to speak with her, eren is there: in scrubs, a name tag, writing down some vitals on a clipboard and wearing a ridiculous decoration for halloween that his mother chimed him into wearing: wolf ears. it’s supposed to bring festive spirits to patients. at least, his manbun is still safe from clover’s wrath, and lina or violet aren’t the ones seeing him use it.
like, at least he’s not wearing the whole thing. just the ears. and the big halloween pin. they didn’t let him wear his gipsy danger helmet. ]
[Rose has spent as much time as she possibly can asleep, even after spending so much time in a coma. Not that she even really knows how much time that was. The nurses told her, or maybe it was a doctor, but she hardly even listened. More time awake means having more time to think about what happened, to think about what she's seen, to think about what she is.
And frankly, she doesn't want any of that.
But try as she might, she can't force herself to keep sleeping. Rose cracks her eye open to see who's here, and she blinks when she sees Eren. He worked here, didn't he? She's probably heard something like that before, so she closes her eye again and hopes he's only here for his job. She'd rather just be alone. She's starting to think she'd rather be dead. Neither of those seem possible at the moment, and when she realizes Eren's settled in to stay, she sighs.]
So you're the furry, huh? [AND OF COURSE THAT'S WHAT SHE FOCUSES ON FIRST..........]
[ after infecting his own mother, he sort of. owes her one. wearing animal ears for the kids is nothing!! nothing. even for recovering patients, it’s the least he could do for infecting nearly half the city by polluting the water reservoirs. so, eren looks up from his clip board to the sound of her voice and
considers
he could either be sour about this, or he can take it with stride. considering their own encounter? eren is not an asshole. ]
Oh. [She was. Kind of expecting the sour answer. As if she wasn't at a loss for how to go about this already.] Should I be expecting deer antlers come December then?
[Clover would get a kick out of that, she thinks. Her sister usually enjoys the holiday season. Except last year's probably, given that's when Rose told her about her eye. God, it's been almost a year since she's had this then, isn't it? A year since this flower stole her eye, and now it's given her back her life when she should've died, except apparently it's out to kill the world and—
There's a soft sigh as Rose closes her eye, counts to ten in her head. She needs a distraction. Or if not that, to go back to sleep.]
eren keeps his eye on the flower— and while a question bubbles up about it in his throat, it quickly changes direction. it might not be the best of directions, but. ]
[This is the exact opposite of a distraction. Logically she can't really blame him for wanting to know, but she's never been that logical, least of all now. Her eye snaps open into a glare.]
[ girl, you need to put your salt somewhere. and this is a bolder attempt at rising the ranks as someone he could regularly talk to. ]
You can’t die unless it’s by a dragon, can you?
[ he’s had talks with clover, and he’s heard things about lina. jasmine, he didn’t get a chance to talk to about this yet, she’s been up and down the past few months that it’s been hard (and he hopes to change that tonight, even if he had to wait by her doorstep). some of these conversations involved blood pacts.
if he’s going to adopt one, he needs to adopt all of them, basically. like, how dare you show me pictures of clover’s sisters? that should be illegal. i want them all now. ]
[It probably shouldn't surprise her that he might know something given how close he is with Clover, but it does. In her mind, the only people who would know are her family. This is a family problem, and Eren isn't family. He's an outsider trying to pry.
But she's being hyper-defensive, and she knows it. She can recognize when she's being salty. Good luck, Eren, she might be the hardest sister to get...........]
... That was Zero. And now me too, I guess.
[She's had her suspicions for a while now, the way cuts and bruises always fixed themselves practically instantly. If Zero needed a dragon to kill the flower in her eye, it only made sense that she did, too.]
[ eren’s all about breaking down walls do u get me
and perhaps it does seem like he’s prying into a matter that didn’t concern him— but, it did. it didn’t matter. eren wasn’t completely selfish— but he wasn’t completely selfless either. he knows more about himself now than he ever did, and he’s learning. ]
You can leave starting today, if you want. [ but, ] But you can rest here for more time, if you need it.
[ eren’s got her vitals, notes on her— he can ask for her dispatch as he can get her to stay, despite healing. ]
I’m sorry I couldn’t have done more then. I was with your sisters— and I think I made it worse.
[ he knew it wasn’t his fault, and he wasn’t really apologizing either, just upset that it couldn’t be different, but, what else did he have to offer? he was too impatient for action. ]
[It's better than being told she has to stay, honestly. She's not sure yet if she wants to get the hell out of here already or go home and have nice, long stare at her dragon-bone, intoner-killing sword, but. Options are better than no options.]
You don't need to apologize for that. It's not like any of you were in control. [Which she's starting to feel sums up the entirety of her life after getting the app.]
[ he’s . . . grieving, in fact, but he’s not here to be the one asking for support. if anything, eren just needs to put it out there. and put some dirt over it to finalize before he can just move away from everything. ]
There’s no place else but forward, now. [ so that’s the last of human wallowing you’ll see from him. ] Do you know if they’re all well?
You'd probably know better than me. I haven't seen much of them aside from Violet.
[And isn't that a bitter pill to swallow? It's not like it really surprises her. Rose knows her sisters, enough to know that they're more than likely ashamed over what happened even when it wasn't really in any of their control to begin with. Upset with themselves, upset with what happened—maybe even a little afraid of what they'd seen. It'd make sense if they were. She's afraid of herself, too.
But it doesn't make it any easier, waking up to an empty hospital room after dying to a nightmare.]
[ he wishes it were so easy, and— eren’s sharp. he does taste bitterness. ]
I can’t find Jasmine.
[ probably the one he needed to see the most right now— everything’s settled with lina and clover, they didn’t even do anything to each other beyond enabling horrid behavior on both sides. jasmine was probably the only encounter that . . .
he showed terror to her, and part of it wasn’t even his own, brought about by the memory of another man in a similar situation. ]
[They weren't themselves. She put herself in their line of fire to begin with. The fatal blow Jasmine meant for Clover landed on her instead because she wanted it to. As far as she's concerned, it doesn't really matter that Jasmine would've killed her.
[ they haven’t come to visit here, from what the records say. even if eren completely disagrees with the approach. clover did it, jasmine was doing it now. even if he would’ve done the same thing months ago— maybe that’s why he doesn’t completely ridicule it. ]
It would. [That doesn't surprise her.] But it shouldn't, honestly.
[Should she be a little more concerned over how they got her killed? Probably. That's just not how it is to her. She's always had faith in her sisters for better or worse, and she's positive that in their right minds, they never would've done something like that.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
watches you while you sleep
in a quiet, single bed recovery room, rose can wake up to the occasional beeps of machinery or the shift in her iv fluids being removed, only leaving the catheter in. a familiar face does it with care, too focused to see her eyes move and too dead set on doing this as stealthily as possible. he didn’t want to wake her.
but even when he’s done, he sits by her bedside and rests his arms on his legs. contemplating october’s many events and having the growing desire to speak with rose directly. as himself for once, even. he wonders what happened to her, but then again—
this whole month has been a disaster, him included in the cause. when rose wakes, or decides to open her eyes to speak with her, eren is there: in scrubs, a name tag, writing down some vitals on a clipboard and wearing a ridiculous decoration for halloween that his mother chimed him into wearing: wolf ears. it’s supposed to bring festive spirits to patients. at least, his manbun is still safe from clover’s wrath, and lina or violet aren’t the ones seeing him use it.
like, at least he’s not wearing the whole thing. just the ears. and the big halloween pin. they didn’t let him wear his gipsy danger helmet. ]
eren is as charming as ever
And frankly, she doesn't want any of that.
But try as she might, she can't force herself to keep sleeping. Rose cracks her eye open to see who's here, and she blinks when she sees Eren. He worked here, didn't he? She's probably heard something like that before, so she closes her eye again and hopes he's only here for his job. She'd rather just be alone. She's starting to think she'd rather be dead. Neither of those seem possible at the moment, and when she realizes Eren's settled in to stay, she sighs.]
So you're the furry, huh? [AND OF COURSE THAT'S WHAT SHE FOCUSES ON FIRST..........]
no rose is
considers
he could either be sour about this, or he can take it with stride. considering their own encounter? eren is not an asshole. ]
Only for today. [ t here. ] Mom’s festive.
no subject
[Clover would get a kick out of that, she thinks. Her sister usually enjoys the holiday season. Except last year's probably, given that's when Rose told her about her eye. God, it's been almost a year since she's had this then, isn't it? A year since this flower stole her eye, and now it's given her back her life when she should've died, except apparently it's out to kill the world and—
There's a soft sigh as Rose closes her eye, counts to ten in her head. She needs a distraction. Or if not that, to go back to sleep.]
no subject
[ spoilers: it’s going to be deer antlers.
eren keeps his eye on the flower— and while a question bubbles up about it in his throat, it quickly changes direction. it might not be the best of directions, but. ]
What happened to you?
no subject
I died. Or I should've, probably.
no subject
You can’t die unless it’s by a dragon, can you?
[ he’s had talks with clover, and he’s heard things about lina. jasmine, he didn’t get a chance to talk to about this yet, she’s been up and down the past few months that it’s been hard (and he hopes to change that tonight, even if he had to wait by her doorstep). some of these conversations involved blood pacts.
if he’s going to adopt one, he needs to adopt all of them, basically. like, how dare you show me pictures of clover’s sisters? that should be illegal. i want them all now. ]
no subject
But she's being hyper-defensive, and she knows it. She can recognize when she's being salty. Good luck, Eren, she might be the hardest sister to get...........]
... That was Zero. And now me too, I guess.
[She's had her suspicions for a while now, the way cuts and bruises always fixed themselves practically instantly. If Zero needed a dragon to kill the flower in her eye, it only made sense that she did, too.]
no subject
and perhaps it does seem like he’s prying into a matter that didn’t concern him— but, it did. it didn’t matter. eren wasn’t completely selfish— but he wasn’t completely selfless either. he knows more about himself now than he ever did, and he’s learning. ]
You can leave starting today, if you want. [ but, ] But you can rest here for more time, if you need it.
[ eren’s got her vitals, notes on her— he can ask for her dispatch as he can get her to stay, despite healing. ]
I’m sorry I couldn’t have done more then. I was with your sisters— and I think I made it worse.
[ he knew it wasn’t his fault, and he wasn’t really apologizing either, just upset that it couldn’t be different, but, what else did he have to offer? he was too impatient for action. ]
no subject
[It's better than being told she has to stay, honestly. She's not sure yet if she wants to get the hell out of here already or go home and have nice, long stare at her dragon-bone, intoner-killing sword, but. Options are better than no options.]
You don't need to apologize for that. It's not like any of you were in control. [Which she's starting to feel sums up the entirety of her life after getting the app.]
no subject
[ he’s . . . grieving, in fact, but he’s not here to be the one asking for support. if anything, eren just needs to put it out there. and put some dirt over it to finalize before he can just move away from everything. ]
There’s no place else but forward, now. [ so that’s the last of human wallowing you’ll see from him. ] Do you know if they’re all well?
no subject
[And isn't that a bitter pill to swallow? It's not like it really surprises her. Rose knows her sisters, enough to know that they're more than likely ashamed over what happened even when it wasn't really in any of their control to begin with. Upset with themselves, upset with what happened—maybe even a little afraid of what they'd seen. It'd make sense if they were. She's afraid of herself, too.
But it doesn't make it any easier, waking up to an empty hospital room after dying to a nightmare.]
no subject
I can’t find Jasmine.
[ probably the one he needed to see the most right now— everything’s settled with lina and clover, they didn’t even do anything to each other beyond enabling horrid behavior on both sides. jasmine was probably the only encounter that . . .
he showed terror to her, and part of it wasn’t even his own, brought about by the memory of another man in a similar situation. ]
Did they do this to you?
no subject
[They weren't themselves. She put herself in their line of fire to begin with. The fatal blow Jasmine meant for Clover landed on her instead because she wanted it to. As far as she's concerned, it doesn't really matter that Jasmine would've killed her.
Better her than Clover, right?]
no subject
[ they haven’t come to visit here, from what the records say. even if eren completely disagrees with the approach. clover did it, jasmine was doing it now. even if he would’ve done the same thing months ago— maybe that’s why he doesn’t completely ridicule it. ]
no subject
[Should she be a little more concerned over how they got her killed? Probably. That's just not how it is to her. She's always had faith in her sisters for better or worse, and she's positive that in their right minds, they never would've done something like that.]