Disclaimer: They’re not mine, I don’t own ‘em, just please let me use your characters for a little while and I promise to return them as well as they began this ficlet. Thanks in advance.
Acknowledgement: To Runnik, for not only doing the beta reading (which is essential) but for all the encouragement and support (also essential).
Spoilers: Fractures (and everything up to)
“I don’t know. It feels very strange back here on Moya. And I miss…” Rygel
couldn’t bring himself to finish. He also couldn’t believe how much he was
affected by Aeryn’s and John’s pain. It hurt him to watch them. * I must be
going fahrbot. * He thought.
“Right.” Aeryn shifted her position and tucked something away from Rygel’s
sight.
“Harumph! What is that you have? That belongs to John, doesn’t it?” Rygel
circled around Aeryn in his throne-sled.
Aeryn gave up, and showed John’s notebook to Rygel. Rygel looked at Aeryn,
a great sadness in his eyes, and then left. Aeryn sat for a long time,
staring at nothing.
“Rygel, why are you hovering around me?” Aeryn tried to get a private
moment, but Rygel refused to leave her alone.
“Harvey, you are not being helpful. Go away!” John stared glumly out the portal on the terrace. He had hoped to find Aeryn here and somehow coax her to talk. Instead, he was alone, and his minds-eye manufactured Harvey, a most unwelcome sight.
“Very well, John. But you summoned me remember? I can no longer appear of my own volition. You want my advice….?” John interrupted Harvey before he could finish.
“Your advice? On matters of the heart? Now you’re the one who’s fahrbot! Bwahahaha” John knew he somehow raised Harvey, which he found ludicrous. “Harvey, no offense, but you don’t have the smallest scintilla of an idea of what to do or how to advise. Just go…” John turned around to see Aeryn staring at him, hurt plainly visible in her eyes. “Aeryn wait, please, I need to talk, I need to hear you, and I need to understand.”
Aeryn hesitated and then handed the notebook to John. “Joh- he, he was teaching me …, and I, er, I …”
“Oh baby, I…” John reached out to hold Aeryn, but she practically leapt away from him when he said baby. “What’s wrong? Aeryn, please, I’m still the same person, I still love you. Please talk to me.”
“Too soon, too soon.” Aeryn shook her head and sat down on a bench still hugging the notebook. “Tell me what happened while I was on Talyn.”