[Liz, Ch.1] Watching It All Fade Away, tag; Red.

[Elizabeth Sherman]

Liz offered a quiet thank you to the two B.P.R.D. agents as they filed past her into the hallway and on with the remainder of the tasks that they had for the evening, or perhaps home to dinner with the family, or a night out on the town. She imagined some of the agents had to have some sort of life outside of the Bureau; at least, she could hope that it was so. There had to be at least one person in the entirety of the department that had friends, family, loved ones... partners that were accountable, reliable, trustworthy... someone that would remember important dates, perhaps even the occasional birthday or holiday. Someone that would remember plans, be it a dinner date, or a training session. She knew better than to think that Red would remember things like... anniversaries, or birthdays, it wasn't something that occurred to him, and she didn't fault him for it. She didn't care that he didn't remember Valentine's day. She didn't need a card, or chocolates, or a stuffed animal to remind her that he loved her, or that she loved him.

She had known him almost all of her life, as far back as she could remember, or wanted to most of the time. She knew he was rash, and headstrong, and stubborn, and rough around the edges. She had known who he was, what he was like, long before the two of them had been together. She knew it was never going to be the Prince Charming sweeping the fragile Princess out of her tower and carrying her away on his white stallion. She didn't want it to be. She was stubborn in her own right, she was volatile, and she had a whole slew of faults, which varied depending on who was asked, she was sure. But there was one thing that she was good at. And that was being where she was supposed to be. When she was supposed to be there. And that was a trait that Red failed miserably at, at least when it didn't involve smashing something, or beer. Or preferably, she imagined, smashing something while drinking beer.

Some part of her knew that her thoughts were tinged with more cynicism than usual, admittedly, but Liz was simmering beneath the surface, a fact that the agents that had been at the training session had not missed if she was to guess by their quick retreat once the session had ended. It had been one of the monthly sessions, it was not meant to be anything all that detailed or in depth; it was a chance for the new federal agents to get a feel for how Liz, Red, Abe, and the other 'gifted' agents worked together in a given scenario. And she had reminded him every day for the last week, and at least three times yesterday, and once this morning. And still, he hadn't showed. If it wasn't something that Red wanted to do, Red didn't do it.

Collecting her jacket and sliding it on, she pulled it snug around her as she stepped out into the hallway of the bureau that had long been her home, forcing herself to run her mantra through her thoughts over and over again as she cut through the hallways to Red's room. The sounds of the dozen televisions, and the mewling cats met her first, though neither of those surprised her. Instinctively scooping up the first few of the kittens that skittered towards the door when she opened it, she curled them up in her arms, nuzzling into the largest of them for a moment and breathing in the comforting fresh scent of kitten, and milk before her gaze turned up towards the rest of the room. The door thudded shut behind her, and it didnt take her but a moment longer to find the massive and broad form of Hellboy. She almost smiled, reactively, when she caught sight of him, but it didn't take much to remind herself that she was upset with him, and she cast a frown in his direction. "You didn't show, Red." She settled for the blunt approach, not having the werewithal or the patience to try and play the guessing game with him. "You promised you'd be at the training session, and I reminded you this morning, and you didn't show." Liz did her best to keep it from being entirely accusatory, but she really couldn't curb the agitation in her tone. "You can't do that, Red -- you can't say you're going to do something, and then not do it."

ooc notes; I can't decide if I like any of it at all ... >.< Sorry. First posts are always hard for me, and today has been kinda... meh. I promise they'll get better!

This post has been edited by Elizabeth Sherman on Apr 23 2011, 01:26 AM

[Hellboy]

"I'm not here!" Red called as the door flew upon and the curious kittens scrambled toward the newcomer. Red was busy keeping track on his 'story' on the news. A news station from upstate had been waiting for him to come out of this warehouse where he was allegedly holed up for the past three hours, continuously replaying some fuzzy low-quality cell-phone camera 'footage' of a huge guy in a trench-coat sneaking into the abandoned building. Then they had taken calls from the general public. That was Red's favorite part of these shows, callers, they always had such weird things to say. Some of it was insulting, sure, but as long as it wasn't about him directly, he could almost always see the funny side (like that time someone called Abe's 'breathing thing' a toilet seat).

His watch alarm had gone off a couple hours ago and he'd just ignored it, popping the tab on a nice cold beer as he watched the drama unfold. Whoever that guy was, he was gonna be so pissed when the authorities got tired of waiting. "I said 'I'm not here'!" Red called out, somewhat annoyed as he heard footsteps coming toward him as the door slammed shut behind the intruder into his room. Did people not realize that this was his bedroom? That he slept in here? Proper etiquette still involved knocking, the last time he checked. Not that he really adhered to proper etiquette most of the time--but that wasn't really the point!

Tearing his yellow eyes away from the screen to address this intrusion--it clearly wasn't Manning, even though the 'boss' was in the habit of entering without so much as a 'Howdeedoo!', because Manning never came down here unless he wanted to shout...and the shouting thing happened pretty much immediately--Red grinned when he saw his favorite girl in the world: Liz.

"Hey Liz, you're just in time! I think they're gonna--" He trailed off, his eyes, which had been darting back and forth excitedly from the TV to his girl, suddenly got their priorities straight and fixated questioningly upon the obviously upset woman. "Ah crap, what did I do now?" he muttered, knowing that she was about to fill him in.

"You didn't show, Red. You promised you'd be at the training session, and I reminded you this morning, and you didn't show."

So that had been what the alarm was all about! Red put a big hand to his temples for a moment and sighed. He'd missed a training session then, huh? Training for what? Just the whole 'let's parade around and scare the new recruits with a whoop-ass can of ugly' thing like every month? That he could stand to miss...even if it did mean that Liz was now upset with him. Well fine, damnit, it's not like he was going to apologize for missing yet another opportunity for Manning to turn them into a three-ring circus.

"Why do you care about that thing, Liz? It's pointless. Stupid, even. We do it every month and those new little princesses Manning lines up are always the same 'Ooh a scary red man!'," here Red adopted a falsetto drive his point home. "'Ooh no, a guy with a toilet seat strapped to his head! Someone save me!'" He rolled his yellow eyes and groaned, settling back in his chair as he grabbed an unopened can of beer and held it out to Liz. "You know you want some," Red said, smiling encouragingly, hoping his little bit of humour would break through her anger.

'You can't do that, Red -- you can't say you're going to do something, and then not do it.' That last sentence of hers floated back through his mind right then and he frowned. What brought that on? Liz had known him for years. She had to know by now that he was unreliable at the best of times...and easily distracted. Not to mention the fact that he almost instantly forgot anything that had to do with the rules and regulations of the B.P.R.D. which included, but was not limited to, those training sessions she was now lecturing him over. "C'mon, Liz, lighten up, wouldja? It's not like I bailed on anything that was actually important, right?"

[Elizabeth Sherman]

“I’m not mad about the training session, Red.” Liz replied, with a frown as she pushed the offered beer away. The thought of beer at the moment was enough to make her stomach clench with a bout of tense nausea that thankfully lasted only a moment but the sour residue that it left in the back of her throat stung, an uncomfortable sensation in and of itself, and she swallowed several times to try and wash it away. “The session isn’t the point,” She reiterated after the moment’s pause, having lost her momentum, but she picked it up quickly enough. “It’s the point of it that you told me you would be there, and you weren’t. It’s a matter of trust, and knowing that when you say you’ll do something, you’ll do it.” A hand rose, to gesture towards the room around them, even as she crouched to drop the kittens to the floor. “How many times have you told me in the last week that you would clean this place up – that you would get rid of some of this stuff – and you haven’t?” She questioned, her exasperation ringing through in her tone, even as her hands came to cross over her ribcage once more, her jaw setting stubbornly as she tilted her head up to meet his gaze.

“How long have we been doing this?” Liz questioned, after another pause, her shoulders curling up in a tight shrug as she tried to keep her tone from rising too many degrees higher in volume or pitch than was already slipping away from her. “Come on, Red. You know that I love you, and I know that you love me, but you have got to grow up. You have got to take some responsibility here.” He was such a kid at heart, in so many ways… and it was true enough that that was part of the reason that she loved him as much as she did. How he managed to stay in some ways so naïve, and so gentle, amidst all of the horror of the world that they had encountered, and that they had seen, she didn’t know… and she didn’t want him to lose that part of him, that streak of innocence that made him who he was – but there came a time in everyone’s life that they had to take that step from adolescent indulgence, to adulthood. And she was fairly certain that sixty-odd years was a good time frame, even for him. “It is not too much to ask for you to do what you say you will – you want me here, you have to make some exceptions, you have to make some room, and you have got to clean up!” She said, and not for the first time, and as best as she could remember not even the first time today.

She could feel the agitation in her pulse, the increased heart rate, the rise of the temperature of her blood, the pressure that built in her temple and in her palms, as the anger spurred the heat of the fire. She let out a slow breath, her fingers tight against her arms, as she concentrated on the words that had become her mantra, that had become her rock, the phrases that had allowed her to eventually, and finally, regain control of her power. The fire is not my enemy. It is in me. It is a part of me. It is mine. “Even if you don’t want to admit it, Red, you’re all grown up now. You should really start trying to act like it sometimes,” Liz said, with a sigh, opening her eyes as the heat receded to the core of her again, at least for the moment. No fire yet, though the cats had slunk off to wrap around Red’s feet or stare at her from under the bed. She cast them a slightly disgruntled look. Traitors…

ooc note; A little short, but… I wanted to get something up. Hope it’s all right!

This post has been edited by Elizabeth Sherman on Apr 24 2011, 04:36 AM