Room 322, Thursday Midday

[living_endless]

Didi had spent some time this morning talking to her fish as she cleaned and rearranged their tank. Either she was a little bored, or they had seen fascinating things during the gremlin invasion. It might have been both.

Once she'd gotten all of the conversation out of Slim and Wandsworth that a girl could expect (and a bit more), she flopped down on her bed and started watching a DVD of the movie from class yesterday. She hadn't seen it all the way through, and Scottish Accent Guy was hot.

The door to her room was open a crack so she could see people in the hall.

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[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

"Sure, sure," he was staring at the fish tank now. Huh, he'd managed to block that out. "I always been upfront with her. It doesn't change anything. She still picked him."

[living_endless]

Didi wrinkled her nose. "I believe in love being stronger than death and all, but for what it's worth? Even I think that's kind of messed up. I guess you can't fight what you want."

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

"Maybe somebody needs to fight what she wants," Jacob blurted out. That'd been going through his head a lot. He just couldn't do it from here.

[living_endless]

"But then he's the victim and you're the bad guy," Didi pointed out. "I don't think that would do you any good."

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

"Maybe I'd rather be the bad guy than have her be a leech?" he threw back.

[living_endless]

"Maybe she has a right to her choices."

Even if they were insanely stupid ones, yes.

"It sucks to be you, I get that, but ... is he forcing her into it in any way?"

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

"You're sounding like my dad now," Jacob grumbled. Which'd be a no.

He still wasn't going to like it. Sullen boy is sullen.

[living_endless]

"Oh, probably," Didi agreed cheerily. She was going to use the trick she always used on Jono when he got deep into sullen and talk about something totally unrelated. "We can't change her mind from here, right? So, did you have classes today?"

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

"People suck," he said and there was a bit of a laugh there. "It's kind of funny, having a teacher who swears more than his students."

[living_endless]

Well, that went well.

... kind of. Because now Didi had to think about a whole different problem, and she just hoped she was connecting the dots wrong.

"Oh, Jono has that," she said casually and a bit slowly. "I don't think he likes it much, though. He got into an argument with somebody last week."

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

Well, that'd do to make his mind get off the Bella topic too.

He could dodge, but he wasn't the dodging type. "Yeah, I know," he said. The fish were very interesting now. "That... got kind of out of hand."

[living_endless]

"What happened?" she asked, in a quiet voice that needed him to tell the truth, one with a steel edge of anger underlying it.

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

He either didn't notice the anger, or he simply accepted it.

"He caught me off guard," Jacob admitted and he'd gone through it enough in his head to make sort of sense of what'd happened. Even if a lot of it was hazy. "And I lashed out. He talked back and that just got us both pissed."

A shrug of his shoulder. "It's... bad if I get mad. If I lose control, so I just said whatever'd get him to go away."

[living_endless]

"... oh," Didi said. The problem with understanding people was that sometimes even when she wanted to be angry, she couldn't be. She'd seen Jake's temper; it wasn't hard to believe what he was saying.

And Jono had a temper, too.

"It's not like he chose it," she pointed out. "He -- every time somebody offers food, he flinches. He already has a rough time."

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

"I didn't know that," he said sheepishly. "It's not exactly something you expect. Having... someone be half on fire. I mean, his scent was off, but..." Another shrug, he figured she'd at least know what he meant. "I should have been more in control. I know."

Another pause. "We fought together on Sunday."

[living_endless]

Didi felt like she had the weirdest boys in her life ever. But that wasn't precisely new. And yes, she knew what he meant.

"Yeah?" she asked. "So, what, you guys are buddies now?"

Just a little bit of sarcasm, there.

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

Jacob snorted. "I doubt it, he doesn't even know it was me."

[living_endless]

"... don't tell me there was a mask and spandex involved."

Look, she lived with a superhero and her boyfriend was another one. A third would be overkill.

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

He hesitated, but she'd told him straight off who she was. It was only fair right? Even if he was watching anything but her.

"Try fangs and a whole lot of fur."

[living_endless]

Didi's eyebrows shot up to her hairline. "Seriously?"

She didn't have a problem it it, she just hadn't expected it. Though it would explain the vampire issues even better.

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

He nodded at the fishes. "It's why I have such a short fuse," he admitted. "I know that's not an excuse;"

[living_endless]

"I don't know about that," Didi said quietly. "How does it work? You get mad and -- you change?"

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

"Partly," he spoke softly now. "I can change whenever I'd like to. It's even easier when I'm calm, but at first it's definitely all about the anger and you don't even know why. You just get angry so easily and if I lost it, I could hurt someone. Badly."

[living_endless]

She studied him for a moment, not saying anything. "Have you ever?" she asked, finally. "Anyone who didn't deserve it?"

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

"No," he shook his head. "There's a few of us, we keep each other in check. Sam was the first to turn, he hurt his girlfriend when he lost it. She's pretty scarred because of it. I don't envy him, having to figure it all out on his own."