Long Overdue (closed at first)

[Wraith]

Wraith should've talked to Kennedy by now about whatever was going on with them. She knew she should've, but it had all been so new and amazing, and they'd always seemed to have just one activity in mind. Besides, she had been kind of distracted in between "reading sessions" by her little murder plot. Well, Goblin's little murder plot, dreamed up for her sake. And now?

Now she was finally coming to see Kennedy, and she looked terrible. Limp hair, eyes ringed from lack of sleep and red from crying, clothes that had been slept in more than once. Ericson was dead, Ershey and Mush and Tristan had probably forgotten that their co-conspirators existed, and Goblin...Goblin was gone.

Wiping yet another stray tear from her cheek, she knocked on the door and only hoped Nevada wouldn't answer.

[Kennedy]

Kennedy was full as life as usual. She didn't expect Wraith when she opened the door, but she was so pleased to see her -- it'd been a few days. But that was okay! It just gave Kennedy more time to visit her gran.

The bounce and vibration was gone from her body as she took Wraith's appearance in.

"You look like hell," she said flatly.

[Wraith]

"I know," Wraith said in a small voice. She leaned back against the doorframe and sighed. Maybe she shouldn't have come. She'd rather leave Kennedy bouncy and happy and untouched by her angst, but she had literally nowhere else to go. "Anyone else home?" she asked anxiously.

[Kennedy]

"No, family time at the park, I suspect," Kennedy said, taking a step to the side to allow Wraith in. She wrapped her fingers gently around her wrist and lead her inside.

[Wraith]

"Thanks." Wraith offered a small smile and sank onto the couch, quickly drawing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. "So...how've you been?" she asked, trying to delay the inevitable gut-spilling. She wasn't used to spilling her guts and didn't really know how it would go.

[Kennedy]

"Babysitting. Visiting my gran. You know, the usual," Kennedy shrugged happily. She wandered into the kitchen and got a clean cloth. She soaked it under the cold faucet for a second before wringing it out.

She walked back over to Wraith and sat beside her on the couch. She delicately wiped away at her face. "Does that feel a little good?" she asked hopefully.

[Wraith]

Wraith closed her eyes and leaned against Kennedy, feeling the first flicker of relief she'd experienced in days. "It feels wonderful."

She paused for a while just to bask in the soothing touch, then remembered that some kind of explanation was in order here, and opened her eyes. "So, uh...a lot happened this week. But I don't really know if you wanna hear about it. 'Cause, uh...I don't really know if we're..." Great, now she was blushing. "...what we are. Are we...I mean...do we talk about stuff?" Other than that one time, when we were drunk and practically strangers.

[Kennedy]

Kennedy looked perplexed by this.

"...I suppose I'll talk and listen about whatever you'd want, Wraith."

[Wraith]

Good enough. Wraith sat up and looked at her, looking small and lost and totally innocent, and launched into her tale. It was a lot shorter than the last one she told.

"So I shot a cop, but I got my brother involved, and he was there, but he never made it back to the lodging house, and I've been all over the city, but I can't find him, and I don't know what to do." She buried her head in the couch cushions. What the hell did she think Kennedy could do, anyway? Kennedy's solution to most problems was cuddling or cake.

[Kennedy]

((Mmm... Cake.))

Kennedy was reasonably stunned for a full minute, trying to gather her thoughts. She had so many questions but focused on what was obviously troubling Wraith most...

"When did you last see Goblin? Gimme a blow-by-blow."

[Wraith]

((THERE IS NOTHING BETTER THAN CAKE.))

Wraith took a deep, ragged breath and raised her face from the cushions. That was a much more practical response than she'd expected, and it allowed her to pull herself together a little. "He was...it was three days ago, and we were all crowded around this alley. Me and him and the...the other kids who helped out," she said, catching herself before she started blurting out names. She trusted Kennedy not to betray them deliberately, but accidentally was another matter. "His job was to scare off one of Ericson's thugs. So he..." She frowned. "He threw something at the guy. Whatever it was, the guy caught it and looked at him and then ran off. I don't know what that was about. He never tells me things!" she wailed a bit hysterically.

"Then I went into the alley and I...shot Ericson. 'Cause he was the last of the cops who...you know." Thank God she'd already gotten that story out of the way. "And then more thugs were headed for us, and I...I ran. We all ran. I don't remember seeing Goblin after that." Her voice trembled dangerously. "I got home and he wasn't there." She thought of those thugs and looked Kennedy right in the eye. "He's not dead. He's not."

It was more likely than anything else, and she knew it.

[Kennedy]

Kennedy pressed her lips together, thinking, trying to be as helpful as she could.

"Do you think he has a hiding place?" she asked, wanting to be optimistic.

[Wraith]

She laughed a little at that, in a half-crazed sort of way. "I have hiding places. Goblin's got sneaky plans, and when they fall through, he's got nothing." More tears, of course. She swiped them away impatiently. "But he's smart. If he got caught, he'd try to talk his way out of it. But how do you negotiate when someone's trying to kill you?" she wondered, wishing for the millionth time that her brain worked like Sebastian's.

[Kennedy]

Kennedy took Wraith's hands, heart beating hard in her chest.

"I wish I knew how to help," she apologized.

[Wraith]

Wraith squeezed her hands gratefully. "Listening helps. I mean...me and Goblin...no one really knows us, or cares about us, or helps us out unless they'll get something out of it. I just needed to tell someone, y'know?" She smiled shakily. "I mean, if you hear anything...I know you tend to hear things."