Something Familiar~
"Are you seriously out here in the rain, again?" Carol sighed, approaching with an umbrella in one hand.
"You er... caught me?"
Carol laughed softly, idiot.
She joined her colleague by the railings, looking out to the city beyond, illuminated by the late night hustle & bustle of commuters on their way home, or caught in rush hour traffic while trying to get those last minute erans for the day done.
"Well, Mr Macbeth!" She announced, smirk already pursing her lips, "What are you doing out here other than trying to catch a cold?"
"Just thinking."
Carol snorted, to which, Macbeth rolled his eyes & elbowed her hard in the side.
"How's Sven?" He asked, eyes lingering on her.
"Sleeping."
He nodded.
"Thank you for this, um, by the way. I don't remember if I ever thanked you for agreeing to this. It's um, it's been good for Sven. He looks much happier than when I was takin' care of him alone."
Carol shrugged, brushing his thanks off, "It probably helps that you've been a lot happier in the last year than you ever were before." She shrugged, "Who knew all you needed was a brush with dead and 4 years without that, dumb train of yours~"
Macbeth's turned his face away, cheeks burning, "Shut up."
Carol laughed. "Alright then, tell me, how's being 'Head' of a Division going for you? I imagine being in charge of the Oceania Division is a lot different that transportation with cargo and trains, and you know... no people~"
"Less people," Macbeth corrected. "And er, it's going alright. Help's having Hōkū around when I need a nudge in the right direction."
"How's he doing? Any better?"
Macbeth was quiet.
"He's... struggling. Might be another year or two before he'll be up to managing his division on his own again. Which, is again, why I wanted to thank you. I know you didn't agree to help me with Sven for this long."
"Well, Sven's an adult next month, so technically, my end of the agreement is over," Carol said, watching Macbeth expression sour. "He's more than old enough to take care of himself, and somehow... I get the feeling Reginald is going to pitch being his mentee to him. I know he doesn't want to replace Right, but even he knows that Clan needs a second in command."
"Copperbottom mentioned the idea to me briefly." Macbeth looked back out to the city beyond, "I told him it's the kid's decision and the other Elites'll support him when he's ready to move on."
Carol nodded.
For a while, the pair stood there, in comfortable silence, listening to the rain patter against the umbrella. Distant car horns, moving lights in the distance. The wiff of smoke, quickly mixing into the wind and being carried off to other places in the city.
"You never told me what you were thinking about."
"Hmmm?" Macbeth raised a brow. "Ah, well, now I'm thinking about how this is just like how we met. Except I ain't the one offering you the umbrella, or scaring you. LITERALLY. I've STILL got that hole in the back of my head from you!"
"HEY! Don't give me a cop-out answer!" Carol fumed, "I used past tense! I said 'WERE' not 'ARE'!"
Macbeth sighed dramatically. "Did you? Guess I missed that part."
"Ha, Ha, funny man." Carol deadpanned, "Out with it!"
"... I'm just..."
He pulled his eyes away from the city, to Carol's eye, his shinning with something she couldn't place.
"... Gonna miss this. You, know. Meeting with you every couple of months to swap Sven over. Our late nights like this, doing paper work or just talking over the shit coffee you make-"
"HEY"
"IT IS THO!" Macbeth defended. "What? You want me to lie? I seem to recall you telling me you can't stand liers. Especially to your face!"
Carol was about to yell more, but bit her tongue, huffing instead. She couldn't be too angry with him; he didn't lie to her face...
"You know... we could keep doing this. Meeting every month or so, if you'd like." Carol suggested, feeling a little silly all of a sudden. "I know our Division's don't do much trade, but... it's nice seeing you outside of Elite meetings. Outside of work. Like this."
"..." Macbeth... he blinked at her. An answer that told her literally nothing.
"AND what is that suppose to mean?!"
"Er- um..." He rubbed his neck, looking away, face flushed. "If it's not a hassle or nothin'."
Carol shook her head, unsure if he was as oblivious as a brick wall, or genuinely asking. "Would I even suggest it if it was?"
Macbeth took a deep breath in, then said, "... No."
Carol wanted to smack him. "God, you are just..." Macbeth peeped at her from the corner of his eye, and she laughed, feeling a familiar warmth she'd grown to love rise in her chest. "You're lucky, you're cute when you get flustered."
Macbeth laughed softly too, "Ha, um, yeah. I suppose."
"So um..." Macbeth asked, once they'd both stopped laughing. "It's not too late, would you er... like to go get some food, or a drink?"
"You know, that almost sounds like you're asking me on a date~"
"Well, um-" Carol tried not to snort, watching his face heat up again. "If um... you want to think of it like that, I um... I wouldn't say no."
"Tch! And you say I'M BAD at giving apologies?! You're TERRIBLE at asking girls out! You are SO lucky I like your dumb ass."
Macbeth laughed, albeit a bit nervous, "So um... meet you at 8pm?"
Carol took Macbeth hand in hers and pulled him off the railing. "Only if you agree to STOP thinking out in the rain without an umbrella." She said.
Macbeth smiled at her hand, then met her eyes. "Ha. That sounds like a fair deal to me."
[SPEEDPAINT] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Short little peice to go with the writing. Some post-Toppat Clan Rising ideas that have been floating around in my head. Also, I think romance? I tried ^^;
At the very least: These two are cute. (Especially when the circumstances set them up for sucess. This is the only one of my three universes (?) where I see these two able to naturally get in a relationship. You can see where Lost Children is going, and honestly? Macbeth, or 'Double Shot' is a HUGE peice of shit in XYZ. He can't even hold a relationship together with Sven, so you know...)
Anyway, I'm off to bed now. Enjoy :)
Also, I saw a few people requesting McCross art, so yay. MY CULT GROWS! And also um... here's my 2 cence cause I was inspired to do my own art. Haven't had a chance to do much since I've been working through the chaos of the rocket launch in the story.
