Topaz and Hope || Home Again

[xp_topaz]

Hope stops by to see Topaz after her other worldly adventures. Topaz is... not okay? It's hard to tell.



Topaz had no idea where her cat was.

It was a small detail. Of course someone had taken Midnight. She had been gone. They didn't know when she was coming back. Of course someone had taken the cat to make sure she was looked after while her owner was missing. Topaz probably should have looked for her, but right at the moment, all she could think was finish wine and go to bed. It had been a long few days, but she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep until she was pleasantly buzzed enough that maybe the dreams wouldn't bother her. Her head was still killing her from... whatever had happened with the Mindless Ones, and she didn't dare mix anything stronger than aspirin with the wine she was drinking. She'd have to deal with it.

Therefore it was tempting - so tempting - to ignore the knock at her door. She had a headache, she was tired, and while she was sure whoever was on the other side had been worried about her and wanted to check on her, their energies really were better suited elsewhere. Like any of the injured people in the med lab, or Clea. Topaz let her shields drop for a brief moment, and smiled - a very faint twitch of the lips - at the familiar emotions.

"Come in, Hope."

With her elbow, Hope pushed down the door handle and a quick swing of her hips had the door opening. "Good to see you are back. I thought I would drop of a friend of yours." She nodded to the black cat in her arms.

Midnight meowed loudly, and Topaz had to laugh. "I was just wondering about her. Thanks." She went to relieve Hope of the burden of a suddenly squirming fluff ball. Midnight allowed herself to be held by her human for about two seconds before immediately jumping down and running into the suite to reclaim her territory. "She missed me so much, clearly."

"Maybe she just missed her home. She has been sitting staring at the door of my suite for the most of the time." Hope shook her head. "Stubborn little thing she is... How did everything go?"

"Oh, you know, it was all very average." Topaz went to get her wine, taking a long sip. "Sucked into another dimension, found out one of my kids isn't quite human, we were attacked and nearly killed by a.... I'm not entirely sure what it was actually, but basically all par for the course around here. Want a drink?"

"Of course." Hope accepted her glass, toed of her heels and curled up on the couch a bit. "What in the world do you mean with not quite human? You mean one is alike an alien?" She frowned a little, trying to wrap her head around the concept.

"I don't even know what I mean." Topaz sighed, sitting down beside Hope. "The last few days have been kind of confusing."

"Start from the beginning?" Hope raised an eyebrow as she took in her friend's countenance. "Or would you prefer to be distracted with some inane chatter?"

Topaz sipped her wine for longer than necessary before saying, "Chatter might be good." She'd already had to tell the story once that night, she was probably going to have to write some report or something about it eventually, and she really wasn't in the mood to talk about it right then. "What'd I miss around here? Someone burn down the library while I was gone?"

"I think they locked it up." Hope commented with a purposly flat voice. "I think they were afraid of what you'd do when you came back and there was a hair out of place. Apparently you put the fear of Topaz in some people..." She added playfully.

"That'll be my legacy," Topaz deadpanned. "Years from now after I've died stupidly, people will still be afraid to go in the library."

"Well, you have truly claimed it as your domain." Hope giggled as she took another sip from her wine. "On that note, three boxes of books did arrive for you while you were away. I am not sure of it are general library books, your own personal collection or the 'Clint company' collection."

"Probably a mix of all three," Topaz said thoughtfully, throwing back the last of her wine. She had long ago given up on pretending to sip wine. The faster it was in her, the better. She was staring straight ahead, eyes fixed on the wall. "You wouldn't believe how many books I order in a week."

"What is your record?" Hope reached over so she could grab the bottle to refill their glasses, though she poured a little less in Topaz' her glass. "And I am getting curious to what the craziest title is that you have ordered."

Topaz didn't answer, nor did she move to take a sip of the wine Hope had poured her. Get out, he's coming, get out get out get out get out...

She blew out a long breath, closing her eyes. And, in a surprising move that she could - and would, if asked - blame on the wine, she leaned over and rested her head silently on Hope's shoulder.

Hope quickly suppressed her surprise at the move, not wanting Topaz to feel uncomfortable. "I am starting to think I should have poured you into bed instead of pouring you more wine." She commented quietly, setting down her own glass and doing the same with Topaz' her glass.

"Not tired," Topaz murmured, though she made no move to open her eyes or lift her head. "Just want..." She waved her hand vaguely. She hadn't realized, until the others had shown up, how damn empty and isolated her head had felt. Clea had been the only other person there actively feeling anything. That had been a shock after years of constantly feeling the hum and buzz of emotions.

Hesitantly Hope moved to put an arm around Topaz, her fingers rubbing circles on her arm. Her friend usually was not the most comfortable with touching of being touched, though that was something she had noticed in common with many psi's. "Anything else I can do to help though? Or should I find some more innocent chatter?"

"I don't know," Topaz admitted quietly. Everything was starting to crash down, here in this quiet moment. She wasn't sure what to do anymore. "Just... just keep doing this."

"Alright." If that was what Topaz needed, Hope was perfectly fine with quietly sitting on the couch with her friend leaning against her. She kept up the soothing motion of her fingers.

It was an odd, quiet moment. Topaz felt slightly out of her body - like she wasn't quite connected to anything that was going on. It wasn't pleasant, and she wasn't sure she could blame it on the wine - she'd definitely had more than this before.

She could absolutely blame what she did next on the wine, however. In a moment of not-quite-thinking, she raised her head and pressed her lips to Hope's.

Hope's eyes widened as she felt the touch on her lips and automatically pulled back little, startled. "Uhm... Topaz?"

Topaz was honestly just as startled. She could pretend all she wanted, but she had a high tolerance and had only had a few glasses of wine. She was pleasantly buzzed at best. Her cheeks heated up a bit as she ducked her head. "I..." Hope was the only person in the world who would ever get the level of honesty Topaz was about to show. "It was so quiet there," she finally murmured. "I've always got people in my head, buzzing around, even if I ignore it. But there was... there was no one there. It was just me and Clea. This big, empty world with no people, and no feelings, and you'd think I'd like that, right?" A slight shudder ran through her. "But it was awful. I couldn't feel anything, and it was awful. It was lonely. I'm so used to being connected to everyone, even if I'm not paying attention or even if I don't want it. Not having that connection was.... frightening."

It was beginning to make sense to Hope where Topaz' her sudden move had come from. "And now that you're back... you're still not feeling that connection?" She asked quietly.

She shook her head slowly. The buzz was there again, at least, but Topaz felt disconnected still. On the outside looking in.

And now her friend was 'searching' for a physical connection instead... And probably looking for comfort. Hope quietly considered it for a long long moment. Then, without a word, she tipped up Topaz' head and put a gentle kiss halfway on her lips. She would let her friend take the lead though on how far she wanted to go.

Topaz had never been a physical person, and wouldn't certainly never pretend to be. Hell, she had barely wanted to hug Amanda when the woman had dragged her in for a hug. This had come out of nowhere, and no matter how much Topaz understood the reasoning behind it, that didn't mean she had any idea what to do with it. She settled for starting slow and pressing into the kiss, letting Hope know she was more than okay with this.

Hope shifted just a little to give easier access, then carefully deepened the kiss a little, running her tongue past her friends lips, twinning one of her in Topaz' hair.

That was surprising, but fine, absolutely. Topaz was happy to part her lips enough to allow Hope access. She was fine with wherever this ended up going. As long as she didn't have to be alone.