Joshua's room in Milliways: June 2013 Bartime

[damncompass]

After making sure his sister is tucked up into bed, Joshua stumbles back into his room, (leaving the connecting door unlocked and ajar just slightly) and flops into bed. Rrrrgh. Maybe he did drink just a bit too much.

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[timelessinventor]

Helena, meanwhile, has procured pajamas somewhere along the line, and changed into them while Joshua was seeing to Claudia; she's already in bed. "Everything all right, darling?"

[damncompass]

"Yeah. She's all snuggled up in bed now." Joshua nods. "She'll be fine." He's relaxing a bit, and actually sounding slightly less drunk.

[timelessinventor]

"I'm sure she will. She's quite resilient; I gather Pete likened her to bamboo once." Though she never did get the whole story there.

[damncompass]

"Hopefully not that horribly invasive kind." Joshua sits up and tosses off his shirt and jeans. "She's fine, though. Can't be worse than pulling me out of that damn space." Siiiiiiiiigh.

[timelessinventor]

"She just needs some time to get her head round the idea, that's all. I can't blame her for wanting a stiff drink." Helena sighs herself, though not at anything in particular (not yet, at least, but she can feel the alcohol starting to take effect).

[damncompass]

"Well, yeah. I know that. I was talkin' about her being drunk 'n sickish." He shrugs, pulling the blankets up. "Guess 'm not makin' sense tonight." He's back to being cdrunker.

[timelessinventor]

"Quite all right, darling." Now that he's settled in, Helena snuggles up to him.

Might as well enjoy it while she still can, her brain says, and she draws a rather shaky breath.

[damncompass]

"Are you ok?" Joshua turns, noticing the shaky breath. "You're still feelin' ok, right?"

[timelessinventor]

"I'm not going to be sick," she says (dodging the question for a moment longer, at least). "It's just... you're bound to come to your senses in the morning and realise I'm a waste of your time."

Sometimes she hates her tendency to say everything on her mind when she's drunk.

[damncompass]

"Th'hell're you talking about?" Joshua actually sits up and stares at her. "What do you mean come to my senses?" He's honestly confused.

[timelessinventor]

"I ruin everything I touch, Joshua. You're bound to decide you deserve better than me." Ladies and gentlemen: Helena Wells, maudlin drunk (she's lucky she held it in this long).

[damncompass]

"Oh, for fuck's sake." Joshua lies back down and wraps his arms around her. "You don't ruin everything you touch. The Warehouse is doing just fine. 'sides, if I was going to be ruined, it would be that shiny gold nonsense that did it."

[timelessinventor]

"The state of the Warehouse is no thanks to me, at the moment." Helena sighs. "I'm too broken to be worth your time." But she doesn't try to extract herself from the hug (even if she currently believes it's doomed, she rather needs the human contact).

[damncompass]

"There's no such thing 's too broken, Helena." Joshua shakes his head, then winces a bit, still holding her tightly. "Stoppit. You're worth it. Hell, I don't know why you're wasting time on me."

[timelessinventor]

At that, she looks at him, deadly serious. "I do not waste my time, Joshua." Honestly, she's already done a century of that.

[damncompass]

"Still. You should have someone better than me." Joshua buries his face in her shoulder. "You're worth it, Helena. You're worth everything, no matter whether or not you believe it."

[timelessinventor]

"As are you. I don't know why you have such a hard time believing it." When did this turn into them comforting each other?

[damncompass]

"I'm not remarkable. I'm still just a guy with strange scientific ideas that I try to make work." He shrugs. Hey, at least if he's being all uncertain about himself, she's not being maudlin. That's a win.

[timelessinventor]

Helena smiles, just a little. "No one as intimately connected with the Warehouse as we are is just anything, darling."

[damncompass]

"There's a smile." Joshua smiles as well and kisses her cheek. "You're so beautiful when you smile."

[timelessinventor]

"You're quite handsome yourself, you know." (Actually, she rather doubts he knows. But that's all the more reason to say so.)

[damncompass]

"I guess." Joshua shrugs. "I'm just me. Not that remarkable."

[timelessinventor]

"Really, now. You're quite unlike anyone I've ever met." And that covers quite a range of people.

[damncompass]

Joshua just stares at her for a while. "You've met a lot of people." He sighs. "Why me? Why are you bothering with me? You can go, you know."

[timelessinventor]

"But I don't want to go. I love you."

...she just said that aloud, didn't she.

[damncompass]

Joshua actually lets go and pulls back a bit. "You what?" It's all he can get out right now.

[timelessinventor]

Helena sighs (and now, or so the drink would have her believe, she's definitely ruined it). "When I'm drunk, I say what I mean."

[damncompass]

"I... I love you too. I think I was falling for you the first day." He's still rather staring at her. "I mean... people'd probably say that you can't fall in love in a week, and well, I'd probably say the same thing, but I can't tell you why, but I just know. I do love you, Helena, and to some extent, I don't even know what to do with it. You're one of my childhood heroes and even more amazing once I've gotten to know you, and I know there's even more to find out about you, and that's enticing and amazing."

[timelessinventor]

She would have said the same thing herself, once upon a time, but then... well, then this past week happened. But for now, all she can do is look at him. "Really?"

[damncompass]

"Really truly." Joshua reaches over and takes her hand. "I... I don't even know what to do with it, but I know that I want you in my life."

[timelessinventor]

And Helena grins, and wraps her arms around him again. "As do I, darling. As do I."

[damncompass]

Joshua beams at her, holding her and leaning over to kiss her. It starts gently, but deepens the longer he keeps going.

[timelessinventor]

She snogs him right back (snogging being an enjoyable pursuit and all; doubly so when you truly care for the person you're snogging).

[damncompass]

Eventually Joshua pulls back, a bit breathless. "We... shouldn't do this while we're drunk." Because if he goes any further, it might get into things he refuses to put Helena through.

[timelessinventor]

"No. No, we rather shouldn't. Not the first time, anyway." She doesn't pull away from him, though. "We'll be better off getting some sleep."

[damncompass]

"Yeah. Sleep's probably good." He curls up, his arms still wrapped around her. "Love you, Helena."

[timelessinventor]

"I love you too." And whether she still has a job or not after the upcoming meeting (but that's a topic for another time), she suspects he'll be there for her.

That will do for tonight.