The Second Best Solution For All Kinds Of Troubles
Posted on Sat Jun 5th, 2021 @ 6:50pm by Alden Loxley & Alison Bliss
Edited on on Sun Jun 6th, 2021 @ 10:50am
Mission:
Back in Black
Location: Bridge
Timeline: Day 31 - Few hours after Kindra and Alden big letter revelation
Alison glanced through the small window inside the cockpit. Alden was still sitting in there. She noticed earlier the locked cockpit, which was unusual, and she saw Alden inside. She'd known him for many months and it was long enough to see when he was suffering and in a need of a friend. So here she was, coming back armed with the second best solution for all kinds of troubles in her right hand.
She looked around making sure no one was nearby, before she made a step back, removed a piece of panel that seemingly should not be possible to remove, and reached inside with her free hand. Being skinny and tall, she had a good reach. It was just enough to find the loosened lock and push the bolt to the side. She quickly fit the panel back on, so no one would notice anything and went back to the door. Knowing exactly where, she gave it a sold kick with her heavy boot, just at the precise spot. With it, the bolt came off completely and unlocked the door.
Before Alden could react and lock it again, Alison opened the door and entered the bridge. She had daisy dukes, light gray, sleeveless knot crop top, and dark combat boots. As usual, she was natural with showing off so much skin. She turned around, shut the door and locked them up again, all with one hand, because in the other she had a three quarter full, half-gallon bottle.
“Original Londinium made, sixteen years old.” Alison held the bottle in front in offering. “Nothing works magic on all kinds of troubles like this. One of my precious possessions. You seem to need that.”
"How the Xuèxīng dì dìyù did you do that?!" The man slumped in the pilot's seat of the old Firefly threw back. Alden wore a pair of sweatpants and his oldest, most favourite shirt, the threadbare one he never wore outside of the ship, while his bare feet were resting on the console.
She'd scared the ever-loving shit out of him with that move, and Alden didn't hide it well. Eyes wide, the sign of past tears still present, he then denied everything and attempted to recover. "I'm fine," he lied, knowing even as he spoke those words that Ali wouldn't buy them. She'd seen him pretty much every which way over the last year or two and yet Alden occasionally still pretended he could fool her.
"Looking great, Ali," he noted, trying to divert attention from himself and knowing it was pointless. "Been working out?"
"Yes, I have. Thanks, nice you've noticed." Alison approached and uncorked the bottle. Taking a swig, she savored it briefly before swallowing and passing the bottle to Alden. "Now that you finished admiring me and would still not do anything about it... tell me what is wrong. Juh Shi Suh Mo Go Dohng Shee?" She motioned for him to drink. "Feh Feh Pi Goh, you are fine. But take few swings of this finest whiskey, and you'll be fine. I guarantee that." She gave Alden a toothy smile. "So... what is it? Which one of the girls brought you to tears now?"
Her voice was playful, her pose was playful, but in her eyes was genuine care and concern. They knew each other well and in recent months relied on each other so much, that even if Alison was upset with Alden and refused to be the XO... officially, she was still his friend.
Alden closed his eyes and exhaled softly at his friend's chastisement. ... and would still not do anything about it... There were reasons - plural - some of which Ali knew and some she likely guessed. Either way and through them all, he cared about her and her feelings, yet had no desire to go round this old argument. He was more, Alden told himself privately, than one more conquest. And Alison's words seemed to confirm her agreement on that matter too.
"I'm not cry..." Yeah, he couldn't finish that sentence. He was - well had been - and they both knew it. It was only a matter of time before Alison found out. There were only so many people on the ship to ask. Alden steeled himself, took the offered drink and handed the bottle back to the leggy blonde. She was gorgeous, and he'd had those dreams that he suspected every man who'd met Ali had enjoyed, but... yeah... he was only delaying the inevitable with this train of thought. "Damn fine whiskey that," Alden noted, his dark blue gaze seeking and holding hers. "I don't wanna talk about it," he said, though he wasn't sure he meant that either.
Alison took the bottle and corked it.
"Fahn Pi, right... don't want to talk about is my ass." She sighed and walked over to the co-pilot seat. She sat down and put slowly and sensually her legs on the console. Someone might consider that a sexual flexing but for Alison it was just a second nature, something coded in her subconsciously. "Fine. But whenever you want to talk about it..." She waved with the bottle. “I’ll let you have more of that.”
If Alden was a woman, she might be more pressing wanting him to open up, but Alden was a man. They were operating so differently and she knew that sometimes offering to just sit with him in silence might be enough and might be what he needed. She was confident that he would open up when he would be ready.
He flinched visibly as that cork went back in the bottle, literally and figuratively. Stubbornly though, Alden kept his silence a while longer, his gaze fixed on Ali's legs and the black beyond them both watching them with solemn darkness and the whole Verse outside that window.
Eventually, about half an hour later, Alden spoke one word. "Kindra," he said, on a soft exhale and he reached across the space between him and Alison, asking without words for another turn with the bottle.
Alison uncorked the bottle again and leaned over to hand it to Alden. "Kindra, huh? I would expect Karen maybe... maybe Daiyu..." She thought aloud in a playfully mocking attempt to cheer Alden up. As Alden took the bottle, she leaned back and fidgeted on the seat until she found the most comfortable position. In her mind she was running all the scenarios of what could have happen. Was it to do with what happened between two of them before. That seemed like the best guess. "So, what did she do?" She asked quietly.
An eyebrow raised in a tanned face and a pair of dark blue eyes focused entirely on Alison's own as Alden accepted the second offer of that old bottle. "What did you think Karen or Daiyu would have done to make me cry?" The Echo's captain asked outright, his tone caught somewhere between confusion and intrigue. A crooked smile caught the edge of his mouth despite Alden's solemn mood, but he wrapped that about the opened neck of the bottle and took a mouthful of amber liquid.
Alison shook her head slightly. "Oh no." He should know better than trying such cheap ways to change the subject. She playfully wiggled at him with her index finger. "I am not kissing and telling and besides, all will come out eventually. And you... captain, are trying to change the subject." She said playfully. Then she let the silence last for a moment, so it would naturally turn them back to the main subject. Kindra. Alison had suspicions what had happened but was in no way to give hints she might know something more. She wanted to hear Alden's side of the story. "Why do you cry over a companion?" She asked quietly.
Busted! And Alden didn't bother to deny this either. He did steal another mouthful of booze though, and let that alcohol linger long enough to warm up before swallowing it down. That gave him time to regroup those wayward emotions and settle the words in his mind's eyes at least.
"I wasn't crying over her," he said, a little defensively. "But she brought up a whole mess of history. Some of mine, some mutual. And she shared a letter I hadn't ever seen before." Alden paused, screwed up his face and clung to the bottle. "I ain't sharing that... It did kinda shed a wildly different light on a certain past sit'u'ation though." He rolled his eyes and with a direct glare dared Ali to push him on this one. Alison knew they'd had some history, but Alden had never shared the details. Kindra's name had never been mentioned before either.
Alison didn't demand the bottle to be returned. She could see that current situation was an emergency as she hadn't seen Alden in such state. For her, if the content of the bottle was helping him, she was all for it. It had helped her in the moment of need. "All right, all right, all right. You don't have to share it. But..." She paused briefly. "...tell me if that letter changes anything today? Not the past, not your feelings over whatever was or didn't happen. Does it changes how you feel about Kindra now and does it affect the way you are going to treat her now?"
There was some quiet time here, a good long few moments of silent thought between friends who had shared situations that probably should have got at least one of them killed. Alden said nothing, but moseyed through a series of gradual and slow facial expressions that gave Ali some insight into the myriad of memories and wandering pain lurking just behind that barrier.
While Alden was using the alcohol as a liquid crutch, the slow and steady result of that whiskey application was to make his resolve a tad more pliable. That fourth shot of warm amber wonderfulness, slick and deeply flavoured and steeped in all sixteen of those years it had luxuriated in a dark cask, it hit the spot. Hit that magical slip-slide of emotional protection and wandered into sharing territory. Alden lazily followed it with a fifth and offered up a soporific smile combined with dark blue eyes that hinted at, but refused to break into, tears.
"It changes everything," he said, finally. "But I can't wrap my head around all the things. And I can't... I can't process this, I don't." A soft, heartfelt sigh. "I don't know what to feel."
"That is understandable." Alison said softly and paused, feeling that there was no need to expand this vague statement further. Until Alden wasn't going to share every detail, she couldn't do much more than that. It was obvious that whatever happened, it struck him deep. Deeper than most of things she saw affecting Alden. Looking outside at the space, she put boots on the cockpit's console in front of her, and settled in the comfortable position. It looked they might be here a while. "What do you want to feel?"
"Love," Alden admitted a little more honestly than he'd expected to. He let his gaze meet Alison's now and didn't break eye contact as he continued to speak. "I want to feel love. Real love, with trust and all that good stuff, y'know? I wanna know that the woman I love is not gonna disappear in the middle of the night. I want to be able to relax and feel and just really love." He rolled his eyes, looked at the nearly empty bottle and grinned. "What is it with you devil women? Y'all take lessons and go outta your way to rip our poor hearts to pieces?"
Alison raised her hands and pointed at herself with a face of utter innocence. "Who... me? Did I break your heart?"
He blew out a breath, handed over the bottle of diminishing whiskey and offered up a demonstrative shrug. "Nah," Alden admitted. There was a hint of a wry smile. "Not mine, no. Have a suspicion there's a good amount of damaged egoes in your wake though."
"Do you see me giving a damn about it?" Alison asked. "What about Kindra, how does she feel about it? Was it only one way street here too? With you getting involved and not her?" She continued asking pointing to the obvious direction. "Putting aside everything, the only question here is, can she fill in your want to feel love." She sighed. "If yes, then everything else is at least worth to try to fix. I am not saying it will happen. You need more than just love to make things work, but the love is a solid start."
"I don't," confirmed Alden. "See you giving a damn. But you never seem to get invested." He reached for the bottle back, on the wrong side of tipsy now and seeking happy oblivion. "She loved - loves - loved... me, yeah," he was still processing that letter, those pleasantly heavy words from the companion. "I didn't know. She jus' up'n'left. You ever get your heart broke?"
Alison winced, for a moment on her face appearing genuine sadness as she handed the bottle back to Alden. "Many times. Often on purpose as part of the companion training, so I would be able to master my emotions, making sure they would never get in the way... Too many times. Kindra seemed to fail that part of the training." She smiled sourly, and there was envying tone in the last sentence. "I guess a period of my life I focused on gold digging might be also fueled by some darker and deeper rage on my training that I was taking out on all my husbands. You know as sort of therapy." She raised her hands as if she was giving up. "No one is perfect right?"
It flipped focus from his heart to hers without him really noticing when or why or how, but the whiskey dulled those keen senses that sometimes followed other people's emotional rollercoasters and the whiskey made his words into bulldozers. Words that unintentionally hit where it hurt. Alden frowned, unhappy at Ali's sadness. He reached out to grab and hold her free hand with his left, even as he took the bottle back in his right.
"Sorry," he mumbled. "You don't really talk 'bout it much."
Alden screwed up his face and squeezed his friend's hand tightly. "Duh," he mocked himself. "Guess I can understand why.... Did you want to master those emotions?" Emphasis on the want. "Or did you want to fail, like Kindra?"
“I didn’t have the luxury that Kindra apparently had, to keep that part of myself. I mastered those emotions pretty well broken many many times. So later, it took me a few years to soften up on that…” She looked Alden straight into his eyes and winked at him. This was as far as she was willing to go to say she had feelings for him at this point. Why else would she be around him despite everything that happened. She wouldn’t call it love anymore though, not in the sense Kindra and it seemed all other women around were falling for. She sighed. “I didn’t fail here...” She squeezed his hand. “I am more family oriented I guess. So flattening my hometown and the community that raised me… well, that triggered me.” She grinned impishly. “And I am cold vengeful Jien Huo.”
"Sorta Companion emotional water-boarding?" Alden asked, words slurred just a little. Then she winked at him and he beamed a big dumb grin. His friend. Beautiful, despicable lady. Cute gesture. Goooood. "Vengeful," he nodded in agreement. "Formidably lethal. And..." He kissed the back of Alison's hand. "Definitely dangerous." There was a short pause and a deeper frown as he tried to think straight. "We family?" Alden asked.
Alison didn't answer immediately, looking at Alden in silence and finally slowly her lips broke in a playful smile. "Of course we are." She leaned slightly and freed her hand to brush Alden's hair before she sat back in her chair more comfortably. She was tempted to come back to the original problem that was hanging in the air, but seeing that the whiskey was doing its magic, there was no need to go back there. Alden needed to sleep over that, he needed time, and they had plenty of that. "You should get some sleep. After such nice dose of Londinium you'll have only good dreams." She winked at Alden.
He wondered what those were like, but offered up a small smile instead. Finely aged whiskey was fair payment for good dreams. Right?
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