May 4

[notfaking_it]

When their roles are posted, Lily smiles knowingly at Nina across the small crowd of mostly disappointed dancers, then crosses over to her and tells her they're going to have a party to celebrate. She tells Nina to invite whoever she wants, says she'll host it, it'll happen this weekend, then she disappears to make plans. She leaves Nina without time to protest on purpose.

On the night of the party, she has drinks and food set out in her kitchen. She's invited most of the people she knows and even a few she doesn't -- dancers, mostly, because she doesn't want to leave them out -- and there's already music playing even before anyone has arrived. The intention is to be casual, relaxed, but there are pills in Lily's pocket, for anyone who knows her well enough to ask, for anyone she thinks might need to relax a little.

Nina's doing better now, but Lily has no problem helping her come out of her shell if it comes to that. And she has no problem helping anyone else either.

Comments

[itwas_perfect]

"I'm Nina," she said, peering up at him, her cheeks flushed with more than just the alcohol and pills.

"You're... a friend of Lily's?"

In Nina's experience, most of the men around Lily were more than friends. At least, that was what she believed.

[fatherslove]

He nodded. The truth was he wasn't sure what he was, but friend probably worked as well as anything else. "I'm Delta. She told me about you. She said I should say hello."

[itwas_perfect]

"Really? Oh, yeah. It's... it's really great to meet you," she said, offering him her hand.

"I don't think I've ever heard the name Delta, before. Where are you from?"

It seemed a little odd, knowing so little about him, but it was always possible that Lily had mentioned, only to have those conversations forgotten, like all the other fractured moments of Nina's life that were lost.

[fatherslove]

He took her hand, shook it briefly. There was still something familiar about her, about her face, the shape of her nose and the line of her jaw. It was driving him crazy.

Then he got it.

"I'm... A place called Rapture," he said, stuttering just a bit. Suddenly it was harder to speak than it had been. He shook his head. "I'm sorry, you look like someone I knew."

[itwas_perfect]

That startled her, enough to cut through a little of the drug-haze, her brow furrowing with confusion.

"Who?" she asked, though it wasn't the first time she'd heard it. In Eduardo's world, she was an actress, and in another, a brilliant physicist. It shouldn't have shocked her, now, but in the moment, everything was a little difficult to process.

[fatherslove]

"An old friend of mine. She taught me how to speak." He paused, his gaze still moving over her face. It really wasn't the same. There wasn't the same tension, the same wariness, as if expecting the world to lash out at any minute and bite her.

"But she's gone now." He hesitated. "I'm sorry if I disturbed you, I didn't mean..."

[itwas_perfect]

"Oh, I'm... no, I'm sorry. I didn't--" she babbled, wincing as she tried to sort through her thoughts.

"She taught you how to speak?"

[fatherslove]

"When I arrived here, I didn't know how. She... helped me." He wasn't sure how to describe it, what it had meant, what it had been like. Recovering that part of himself, being guided toward it.