xp_logs | Tuesday, Clarice and Terry

Clarice flees to Terry's room after her confrontation with Shiro. Terry tries to be comforting but settles for distracting, telling Clarice about moving to Ireland. Clarice doesn't take it well.

Clarice paced Terry's room, pausing every few laps to fiddle with the curtains. She'd made them back when they'd lived together so she was allowed to fiddle with them. She was livid. If she weren't already purple, she would be now. And her blood pressure! It was a very good thing she did not have a heart condition. "I am going to kill that little twerp," she muttered to herself, annoyed that she had only hit him once. It really wasn't enough right now.

Terry had been out of the mansion for the actual fight--she had a study group that met around that time--but she'd been back in plenty of time to find her room occupied by her best friend. Some part of her upbringing had her making tea which she sipped now as she watched Clarice prowl about like a tiger in a cage. "Sure there's no jury that would convict you," she said sympathetically.

"Or jail that can hold me!" Clarice agreed,. perking up. "And I could so totally hide a body. I mean...yeah," she pointed an accusatory finger at her best friend and her tea, "Do not tempt me, woman!"

"Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies," Terry replied without contrition, echoing a t-shirt she'd once stolen...borrowed from Clarice and had yet to return. "Are you ever going to tell me exactly what it was that he did that deserves death and punishment? Aside from him being a man and your ex, I mean."

"No." Clarice would not budge. The shame was too great. There was obviously something wrong with her. She wasn't understanding enough or good enough in bed. Something. He would not have begun dating a guy if she hadn't turned him off to women. "Just trust me."

"All right." Terry chewed on her lip for a moment then held up her mug, "Tea? Or...I've something to tell you actually. At the very least it'll be a good distraction."

Oh right. Terry had made tea. And her's was probably cold by now. "Fine. Tea," she agreed, placing the mug in the microwave and turning it on to reheat. When the microwave pinged she took her tea and flopping into a chair, only spilling a little of the tea in the process.

Terry moved down the couch closer to where Clarice was sitting. "It'll be okay. Really. You can't let him upset you like this. He's a complete idiot, there's no mistake there but you knew that when you broke up with him for the drugs."

"Well, yeah, duh," that really didn't make it any easier. Just because she knew she had to do it didn't mean she'd wanted to. She'd loved him, in her own kinda odd way. And she didn't want to see him date someone else. She wasn't dating anyone else! Not that anyone was pursuing her either. "So you said you had something to tell me?"

"Aye." Terry fiddled with her mug, not really sure how she was going to explain this, "Do you remember how Bobby and I went to the Keep for Christmas? Sean gave us a wedding present, of a sort. More like a...trust really. Seems he's been asked to do a job and won't be have enough time to do that and take care of the Keep " She studied the grain of the oak coffee table, "So he asked us to take her over."

That made sense. Sipping her tea, Clarice counted to ten in English and then again in Arabic. "Well, it is a good thing I'm a teleporter, then isn't it?" she said, "But I'm keeping the curtains."

Terry pouted, "But I like the curtains." She set her tea down and reached out to Clarice, touching her fingers lightly to her best friend's knee, "I'll still be here quite often. Bobby will be doing most of the work on the Keep and I've still got classes and the team and such. You're always welcome, of course. We're just...we're ready for a home that's ours."

Closing her eyes, Clarice tried not to cry, "The Keep is not a home!" she sniffled, "It is a stone fortress of dank, cold history! Open it for tours and stay here! Then you'll have enough money to keep it up!" It was the perfect solution!

It was a struggle not to take offense, though she knew that Clarice didn't mean it. "The tours are part of what Bobby will be running. Money isn't the problem. Someone with enough time and love is." Terry sighed, because there was no good way to frame this. "Ireland is home for me, it always has been. And Bobby wants to make it that for him too. We both love it here and I'm going to miss you but it's not as though we'll never seen each other."

Clarice was not thinking before she spoke, she was too upset from her encounter with Shiro and now the news from Terry. Wiping her eyes with her wrist and smearing her eyeliner across her cheek, she blinked back tears, "I'm gonna come visit. A lot. And bother you. All the time. That's a promise."

"Good," Terry said forcefully and got up, crossing the short distance between them and giving Clarice a hug. "It won't be so bad. It'll be like with Moira and Paige. They're gone half the time too. And it works out."

"They aren't you, though," Clarice broke down on Terry's shoulder, holding her tightly. She was not dealing at all right now. Not at all. "I mean, visiting you in Ireland isn't the same as coming here. Xavier's is home, not Ireland!"

"I'll be here a lot! I have to finish school still and there's the team. I'll be around." Well, maybe not during summer but bringing that up right now would not be at all productive. "You're away at school too, it's sort of the same."

No it was not the same! She was the long-range teleporter! And she was Clarice! It was different! "Stop using logic on me," Clarice protested weakly. "Fuck, I've smeared my mascara."

"It's not tomorrow at least," Terry said, nudging Clarice to the side, "Budge over, let me sit, you're killing my back. It'll be a bit yet before we're ready to move and Bobby's so busy right now that we can't even begin."

"Oh. Well then. Good," Clarice smiled weakly, moving over. The chair was easily large enough for the two of them, "I need a cat."

"Like Mr. Summers?" Terry asked, snuggling in.

Clarice nodded, "Then I can be a crazy cat lady. And because cat's aren't stupid exboyfriends or best friends who get married and go to Ireland. They don't allow cats in the dorms."

"Your best friend wishes she could take you with her." Terry rested her head on Clarice's shoulder. "I don't know anyone there."

"Do they allow bigamous marriage in Country Cork?" Clarice asked, completely not seriously. Like she would ever marry Bobby? Ew! Yuck! That would be like trying to marry....Jono. Completely gross.

"County Mayo, silly. And no. But you could always take care of the babies." Terry smiled.

Making a face, Clarice hit Terry lightly on the arm, "You are not!" she declared, refusing to believe. "You are not going to have a baby! I did not hear that! Lalalaa"!

"Dozens!" Terry teased, tickling Clarice lightly, "And they'll all call you Auntie!" Not for years yet though. No way.

"Kill me now, kill me now," Clarice moaned. Auntie. Never.