mitochondriaaya | Missing pieces

Pierce noticed first. He tended to keep an eye on her, so when she started getting edgy and tense, he pulled her aside to ask what was wrong. Aya didn't know what he was talking about, even after he pointed out the white knuckled grip on her coffee mug. Their cases had been slowing down as the tourists left...there was nothing to be tense over!

Nothing at all.

It was easy to dismiss and ignore the tension in her shoulders by keeping active. The gym, dancing, dinners, and relaxing interludes afterward with a late autumn vacationer named Kern. Surf lessons with Ben, chasing Cat with the camera...

She started falling out of her bed again. She'd been silly enough to actually get a large bed high off the ground. Served her right to wake up under he damn thing one night in seven. One in five. One in two.

Sometimes it took her awhile to get a message, but even she had to admit something must be wrong. Hell if she knew what though. It wasn't until she was working through the list of her home projects that it started to dawn on her. Sitting in front of that damn wall with a sledge hammer made her mind click. Dilan. She hadn't seen Dilan in...weeks?

That wasn't exactly unusual. The boys would get caught up in a slew of lab experiments and forget about the outside world. Their record had been six months. But...but she'd seen Braig. He'd been over a couple of times, just relaxing, not brimming with news of something new. And Dilan hadn't.

The useless half-wall actually did serve some purpose. It was a really good wall to lean against while thinking. And the conclusion she drew as usual, especially when it came to her personal life was: 'I screwed up'. For some reason Dilan was avoiding her.

And she hadn't the faintest clue why. Nothing plausible occurred to her by the time she had made a decent dent in the wall project and had to stop. It was damn hard to fix something when she wasn't sure how she'd broken it. There was nothing for it, she'd have to go ask him herself.

Aya called ahead, to the Mary's specifically, just to make sure she wasn't actually going to interrupt anything by showing up. Then it was just a matter of swinging by Dilan's to pick up Cat, just in case a peace offering was necessary, and driving out to the lab. She knew the way to his office. And even though he wasn't there when they arrived, she was more than content to sit on his desk and read as Cat prowled. Dilan would show up eventually. It was a lot harder to avoid his office than to avoid her.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

sliceitwithwind

She is pointed back to his office, silently.

Dilan is fussing with papers that are already perfectly in order and looking like - he's been sleeping as well as she has.

From:

mitochondriaaya

Aya unclipped Cat from her leash and just leaned in the doorway for a moment. The whole idea of confronting Dilan kind of went out the window in favor of "You look like hell."

From:

sliceitwithwind

He starts like a jumpy bunny and looks guilty as hell for an instant.

From:

mitochondriaaya

She arched an eyebrow at him, then crossed her arms across her chest. "...jumpy hell." she corrected. "When did you last sleep?" that might be the tone she used before arbitrarily kidnapping people.

From:

sliceitwithwind

"I - er - Tuesday?"

From:

mitochondriaaya

"I assume you mean last Tuesday and not today, right?" she wasn't budging from the door, nope, but Cat was probably scoping out his lap? "...alright, change of plans. You're coming with me. Need to wrap anything up here?"

From:

sliceitwithwind

"Aya, you're not my wife! Or a girlfriend or - or - ice and wind, I'm a grown man!"

It. Would probably sound more bitchy if he didn't sound nearly as - wistful - over the words.

From:

mitochondriaaya

She blinked at him a moment, catching details and nuances but not fitting them totally together yet, so..."No, but I get to worry anyway. You really do look bad. Totally not what I expected when I came over here..."

From:

sliceitwithwind

Twitch. Twitch. Shreeeeeeeeeed. Shit, going to have to redo that report for the fourth time.

"Think I'm falling for you."

From:

mitochondriaaya

...ripping reports was a really bad sign. Especially considering what she'd been expecting. The moment she registered the sound she jerked upright in the doorway "Hoyt, I'm sorry! Crap..."

She almost missed his comment.

Almost.

"Huh?"

From:

sliceitwithwind

"I think I'm falling for you, and it's fucking up my world!" he says, quietly but intently. "You're my sister."

From:

mitochondriaaya

She stared at him for several loooong minutes, trying to align that statement with recent actions. And? It hurt. A lot, actually. How the hell did she fix something like this? "...so you've been avoiding me." she concluded, not bothering to make it a question.

"An explanation earlier might have been nice. I've been messed up for weeks trying to figure out why I hadn't seen you. Case solved. Want me to...go?"

From:

sliceitwithwind

"I'm sorry." he says quietly, "I just. I don't know. I thought maybe if I avoided you long enough things would go back to normal. You're too important to me for me to - I'm sorry."

From:

mitochondriaaya

"Normal doesn't include avoiding, Dilan." she pointed out quietly "It never has. I don't care if you sit in the corner of my kitchen and stare at the walls not talking to me, but you're too damn important not to have around." he could take that any way he liked, it was the simple truth.

"Besides..." she tried for a wry grin. Tried and failed. "Avoiding anything makes you think about it more."

From:

sliceitwithwind

"I - I know. I'm sorry, Aya." he sits down, hard, and puts his hands in his head, "It was just completely out of the blue. I'm sorry. I just. You're - you've always been family. And now family is all messed up."

From:

mitochondriaaya

...she wanted to hug him and tell him it'd be okay. if she didn't think he'd crawl out of his skin if she touched she might have given into the temptation. She did, finally, come into the room to lean against the far edge of his desk. "You know, in my head, family's the people you give a damn about, in any capacity." she admitted.

"You still care, I don't have to grovel to get things fixed...I guess I call this a win. Just a...messed up, confused win."

From:

sliceitwithwind

"Yeah. I'm sorry, Aya. I'm so, so sorry."

From:

mitochondriaaya

There was something very, very wrong getting a beaten apology from Dilan. That was far more her thing than his. She really, really couldn't help reaching out to barely lay her fingers atop his head "Hey, don't say that." cause...she'd survive the stress of the past few weeks. She had a cause now. She could handle it...

As for the rest? She could handle it a lot better than Dilan? "Can I talk you into getting some food an rest? Please?"

From:

sliceitwithwind

He tenses, then relaxes, and nods his head. "Yeah. I'll try."

From:

mitochondriaaya

"Soon?" she pushed slightly, mainly because there really wasn't anyway she was going to get to drag him home and make him.

From:

sliceitwithwind

"Yeah." he smiles at her, sweetly and a little sadly, "Yeah, soon."

From:

mitochondriaaya

"Alright" she sighed a bit reluctantly, then stood up from her comfortable lean. "There'll be dire consequences if you don't..." she mock threatened, laying Cat's leash on his desk.

From:

sliceitwithwind

He picks up his cat and breathes in the clean smell of her. "I promise. And I'll get back to normal as soon as I can."

From:

mitochondriaaya

"Normal's somewhat relative with us, Dilan." she pointed out wryly. "Just...come home sometime soon. The tourists are clearing out now, so there'll be a few weeks of idiot free surfing." She was really good at appearing relaxed, when she needed too. She looked calm and relaxed now as she headed for the door.

"And give me a call if you want to surf but still need space alright?"

From:

sliceitwithwind

"Yeah. Yeah, alright." he sighs and cuddles Cat, who puts up with it and purrs. "Love you, Aya. I'm sorry thigns got weird."

From:

mitochondriaaya

"Love you too Dilan. I'm...sorry I didn't get up here sooner. I'm slow sometimes." she sighed. That said she was clear of his door. She'd call the Mary's again later to check if Dilan had slept...