[Wahya] Since the day after the first full moon, the day after the moot, the Uktena has slipped away. The presence is cold and absent in the little apartment that Maija calls home. There are no signs of his comings or goings.
It is like the Uktena never really existed and Maija may have just dreamed him up.
But that is not the case, he returns from whatever and wherever he has been. On the other side of the world, walking through Dante’s inferno into the darkest pits of Hades without a tour guide… he is frantic. Wahya popping into existence through the bathroom mirror and flopping onto the tile floors unceremoniously. He shoves himself to his hands and feet, thrusting his short form to standing.
“MAIJA…” her name croaks out in the gravelly-pitch bass of the Uktena, it is shouted again with more emotion as he stalks out the bathroom door.
[Maija] He’s slipped away, be gone. He had said it might happen, he’d said he couldn’t “keep” her, and shortly thereafter Marcus told her about the moot. It would be a lie to say she wasn’t hurt, however. She was, and as a result, has been even more withdrawn than before – though none would have thought it possible. Her days are work, store, home, sleep, wake and do it again. Her only ‘happy face’ is that which she fakes for her customers.
It’s been forever since she’s head that pop n flop, let alone her name. It’s been forever since she’s heard her name with ANY emotion behind it at all. She emerges from the bedroom, pulling a tank top over her head and into place, quickly hitching up her boxers as well. Her hair iss til damp from a shower, dripping down her back.
“Wahya? m’here…”
[Wahya] Wahya is frantic. He nearly attacks her the moment he hears her voice, moving up beside the kin has his hands reach out to grab some part of Maija. He begins to spin her, turning her around to the left and then to the right, until the world grows dizzy and he is satisfied. His hands grope and feel through her clothing, pushing it up her back to look for any signs of open cuts and wounds.
“Maija is alive!” he says in surprise. His hands dropping to his sides as he steps back to stare at her incredulously.
[Maija] He comes for her, frantic, and she yelps in surprise as he grabs and spins and gropes her. he slides his hands under her clothing – what little she wears – and finds naught but smooth skin marred only by old scars. She protests a bit, without words, and with barely a sound until he’s satisfied, and incredulous. She’s alive.
“Ain’t I supposed t’be?! looks like ya are too, though ya left without a word an ain’t even been back for so much as a ‘hi, Maija, who i once liked, i’m still alive, jus’ ain’t like ya no more’ yerself!”
She crosses her arms over thin chest and just watches him. Then… curiosity gets the better of her. “Why ya think I was dead?”
[Wahya] “Yes!” he barks at her.
Wahya takes steps back until his back hits the wall opposite the kin, his shoulders sag as the Uktena deflates. He brings his hand up to run them through the wild matted mane shoving them back off his shoulders with a growl of frustration.
“Saw Maija hanging, flayed alive… in Malfeas.”
[Maija] She tips her head, slightly, and watches him. He stumbles back, and.. she sighs, and comes forward, reaching out to brush wild matted hair back from his face, back over his shoulders.
“Maija’s alive. Ain’t been hung or nuthin…” pause… “Malfeas? What’s that?”
[Wahya] Wahya doesn’t shy away from her. He tilts his head to the side, casting his brown eyes up at the girl to stare into her face.
“Place of bad things. Home of Wyrm, the Dreamer that has been haunting the kin—the Garou of Maelstrom, is called Master. She is a little girl… have you seen such in your dreams?”
[Maija] Her brow furrows slightly, as she shakes her head. “plenty a dreamin, but ain’t none if it different than before. No little girls. This was a dream then? That ya saw me hurt?”
He doesn’t shy away, and she does as she always has with him – continues to play with his hair, touch his shoulder, his neck – reconnect. Remind herself that he’s alive too.
[Wahya] It was all a dream. It had to be… but to the wolf-born’s mind it was real, more real than he liked to admit. To think that he had pretended to play cool, to tell the spirit that he didn’t care about what happened to the human they were torturing.
His head snaps up, Wahya looks at her, narrowing his eyes slightly, “I need… something. I need to find someone that will help me…”
He tilts his head at her, “Will you help me, Maija?”
[Maija] He needs something – and actually feels he has to ask if she’d help him. After everything – he has to ask. There’s a slight smirk that appears briefly as she nudges his shoulder with her fist, lightly, and then crosses her arms over thin chest again.
“Yeah, alright. What do ya need me t’do?”
[Wahya] “Hide.”
The adam’s apple in his throat bobs up and down as he swallows hard. He shakes his head, dropping his face down as he doesn’t meet her eyes.
“Need to hide… watch how sleep and if dreams, do everything to wake up.”
[Maija] She tips her head, ducking to meet his eyes, her fingers lifting under his chin so that she can lift his gaze to hers again. “Yeh know damn well I’d do anythin’ ya need me too.”
She tugs on a lock of his hair, gently. “Yeh need t’hide, yeh kin hide here. Yeh need me t’watch yeh sleep, I kin do that, too. I’ll make sure yeh wake up.”
[Wahya] “Wahya must go again. Cannot stay here and endanger Maija.”
He meets her gaze briefly, the corners of his mouth peeling back into a small grin. His left hand comes up to rest on top of her head, mussing up her hair as he pulls it down into her eyes. He pushes himself up from the wall, stretching out to his full height which never towered over hers.
[Maija] She shakes her head with a slight grin as he musses her hair. “S’borin without yeh here, ya know. Ya ain’t gotta go.”
But she knows he will. Just as she knew he would before, too. People that befriend her always leave, it’s just a matter of time. She doesn’t argue farther though, just nods and lifts a hand to brush her hair back from her eyes.. “BBQ in the fridge if’n yeh want t’take some.”
[Wahya] There was bbq in the fridge, part of him wants to take her up on the offer, but Wahya knows he can’t. There were more grievous matters to attend to, battles to plot and evil to overcome in the face of all things.
His stomach protests with the decision to not take the food, he shakes his head. Stepping towards Maija, Wahya throws his arm around her bony shoulders, hauling the kin up against his chest and hugs her to him.
“Is not good-bye, remember this.”
He releases her, stepping away to head for the bathroom, he casts a quick glance over his shoulder at Maija and then disappears in a blink of motion the moment he sees his own reflection mirrored back at him.
[Maija] She doesn’t stiffen or hold back as he hugs her close and suddenly, she just tuck her head under his chin, against his neck, and slides her arms around him and hugs tight. She doesn’t resist when he lets her go, either, just nods, slightly, at his words.
She watches him to the he Mirror, look back, and than disappear in the blink of an eye. Only then does she answer – words he knew were coming. It is her standard reply, after all.
“Yeah, alright.”
Even if she doesn’t quite believe it…