#astrea & laurent: 001

[bvlodless]

@heavenllys (For Astrea) Location: The ruined docks

He stands, trying to perhaps not look as helpless as he suddenly feels. Laurent is careful with his expression, keeping it placid and as neutral as the hard pucker of his eyebrows and purse of his lips will allow.

He's staring at the hull of the Widow's wake, half turned over on her port side. There's a hole in her belly and she's bleeding water like a stuck pig.

Laurent frowns so heavily that he feels his skin stretch like leather.

"This is not ideal." he says out loud, careful to keep what could be the bubbling of hysteria out of his voice. It sits on his shoulders through, like noose made of chains and it chokes him to the point of cotton mouth.

He glances to his left, to where a small blonde woman idles just like he's doing. He stares because for a brief, heart stopping moment, she reminds him of his sister. They look the same, the same colouring, the same wide eyed stare. He almost reaches out, before something close to sick grief shackles his hands to his sides. Laurent opens his mouth instead, closes it, opens it again and hates the fact that he's hesitating so much.

"You look lost." he settles on something neutral and forces himself to keep looking at her, because she wasn't his sister and maybe that would help prove it.

[bvlodless]

Laurent watches her intensely and something deep inside him aches. Like a vile longing. A homesick twisting of his gut that had him suddenly, bizarrely, threatening to upheave his breakfast. She's small like her too, Laurent thinks and then wonders why the thought came to him at all. He looks away, frowning down at the sharp point of his boots. He stays like that for a while.

Her question catches him of guard though he doesn't know why. Laurent glances up and tries to subtly square his shoulders under the stretch of his cream shirt. Perhaps if he looks bigger, he might feel bigger.

"What?- Oh, yes." Laurent follows her gaze and grimaces again when the Widow comes into view. He sighs heavily before he can stop himself, folding his arms tightly across his chest. "-We'll have to fix that hole before we right her, or she'll just keep turning. Or worse." Laurent tacks on grimly. He doesn't know why he's being so open and honest with this girl. This small blonde creature that reminds him of a life long dead.

It feels ok though. Like he has divine permission to be vulnerable for a moment. She'll not remember me anyways, he thinks, and that helps with some of the shame of it all.

"-who has asked you to help?" Laurent glances at her out of the corner of his eye. "-or is all this penance self imposed."

she stares at the fractured docks, heart pounding in her chest. astrea stands still as if she's dreaming, and the moment she makes a move, she'd wake up to find that this was reality. wisps of hair fly in the breeze as she surveys her surroundings.

her first thought is about incoming ships- tortuga was a relatively self-sustaining island, but they relied on supplies from overseas. she sucks in her lip, before letting out a tired sigh.

she's brought out of her thoughts by the sound of another. astrea glances at the other and shrugs. "suppose i am," she begins to tie up her hair with a ribbon. there was work to do, and it was always best to keep her hair out of her face. "i'm used to ships bein' up right in the water." astrea hops down from her perch, a mixture of mud and sand coating her boots. "it that your ship out there?" she nods towards the widow's wake.