[attr="class","milaatop"]

[attr="class","milaa"]

"You find anything yet?" Mila asked, turning to her Alolan Ninetales, who was snipping along the ground.

[break][break] Some things in life were like riding a bicycle. You never really forgot them, no matter how much you wanted to. They haunted your every waking breath, creeping upon you when you least expected them to. For Mila, this was Rocket. She'd spent how many years trying to avoid them and yet - there they were - creeping up on her, when she least wanted them to.

[break][break] But at the same time, the training that she had endured in her childhood would have never left her bones. It had been years, and she'd always laid low enough to be forgotten, but Mila knew enough basic training. Enough to allow her to slide past League security and into the chasm, searching for clues that she couldn't find elsewhere.

[break][break] Gunner Graves wouldn't tell her what he did. So she'd find out for herself.

[break][break] Luckily, this weird chasm didn't seem all that dangerous. Or maybe Mila was just sleuthey enough to avoid it. Sprawling greenery and flowers greeted her, waterfalls that echoed in the distance. The area was almost beautiful enough to have a picnic.

[break][break] That was when she came across the Research Station though, freezing when she heard the crunch of footsteps behind her.

[break][break] Shit.

[break][break]

yfJHzNyu

[attr="class","ooc"] june sleigh [break]
GC RESEARCH STATION

☉

[attr="class","mila2"] Knowing and seeing that he was alive and well — or at least, well enough to speak — settled her heart a considerable amount, however, her fingers still tangled in his blankets. As if she was still afraid that if she blinked, or stepped back an inch, he would just be a dream that disappeared from sight.

[break][break] "A-a pokemon attack?" she balked.

[break][break] Mila knew that Gunner's job was dangerous. He wouldn't have been assigned to her case all those years ago if he wasn't involved in that sort of thing. It still sent her stomach twisting at the thought of it — there was a reason that Mila herself was deathly afraid of those kinds of events, and why she did all she could do avoid them.

[break][break] But she couldn't stop him. She didn't have any right to stop him, so she didn't say anything as he continued.

[break][break] Mila bit her bottom lip as he tried to reassure her, mentally cataloguing away the fact that he would be at Gideon's. I can still see him, she told herself. Tried to calm herself down. It wasn't like he was going away. It wasn't like he had left.

[break][break] "I want his address," she said instead, stubbornly, instead of voicing her fears outloud.

[break][break] However, as he reached forward to brush back her bangs, she softened.

[break][break] Mila let out a sigh, wiping her face again to remove the remaining tears.

[break][break] 'And I can't stand seeing you hurt.'

[break][break] "Then don't make me," she huffed. Then more quietly, she said, "I was worried. I thought..." She bit her lip again. "I thought you left."

[break][break] In hindsight, she knew it was ridiculous. Especially considering their last encounter, which was at the party, had ended on good terms. Well more than good terms.

[break][break] But Mila had never been accused of being rational.

[attr="class","ooc"] Gunner Graves [break]
POST-TSDT

☉

[attr="class","mila2"] Mila didn't like hospitals. She hated them.

[break][break] In fact, in many cases, she did all she could to avoid them.

[break][break] It was luckily that her current career and choices in the last several years had never warranted a need for her to enter them, aside from the occasional stomach pumping. There was just something about the cold, sterile walls, the sound of beeping machines and sight of endless wires that brought her back to that moment. That brought her back to lykaios athanasia —

[break][break] "Ow! Easy, Mila! That hurts!"

[break][break] His shout brought her back to her senses and Mila blinked, pulling back slightly. A palm rubbed her tear-stained cheeks but she still stayed close, content with his arms around her, and more importantly, the sound of his heartbeat beating inside his chest.

[break][break] Alive.

[break][break] "You're stupid," she said, sniffling. "I hate you."

[break][break] However, when she pulled away, it was obvious that her eyes were glimmering with tears that were made of something that was very much not hate.

[break][break] "Why are you here? What the hell happened, Gunner?"

[attr="class","ooc"] Gunner Graves [break]
POST-TSDT

☉

[attr="class","mila2"] They could've roped her up and strapped her down and still, nothing would have stopped her from trying to wrestle her way into Gunner Graves's hospital room, short of being actually arrested.

[break][break] Maybe it was because of her screaming. Maybe it was because of her causing a ruckus.

[break][break] Maybe it was because GIDEON GRAVES wasn't as exasperated as he seemed on the phone.

[break][break] Or maybe it was because of the same reason that things always seemed to come down to, at the end of the day.

[break][break] Gunner Graves.

[break][break] Mila ripped the door open to his room as soon as she was given the okay, her tear-stained cheeks flushed with color as she looked wildly about the room. Her eyes swerved frantically about until they locked onto his.

[break][break] "Gunner," she breathed.

[break][break] Then she was stumbling forth, hands grasping at his blankets, burrowing her face into his neck.

[break][break] "You stupid. You idiot. You stupid-fucking-idiot!"

[break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Gunner Graves [break]
POST-TSDT

☉

[attr="class","mila2"] They were good. [break][break]

He had said that he would never leave, not again, not after what he'd put her through last time. He'd apologized. She'd believed him, even though everything in her said that she shouldn't have.

[break][break] But then he did it again. He left. He stopped answering her calls, her texts, her everything. But this time, Mila refused to run away too. She was going to bother him until he did answer but when she got a response, it wasn't the one that she was expecting. Not the voice that she was expecting.

[break][break] A voice that was deeper, calmer than the one that she was used to.

[break][break] "You can stop calling and texting, Mila. Gunner is... fine. He's in the hospital receiving treatment and doesn't need anyone distracting him from his recovery. I know you mean well, but he should be with his family right now. I'm sure you understand that."

[break][break] It was GIDEON GRAVES on the other line, Gunner's brother. He was explaining where exactly Gunner had been, why he wasn't answering her texts, ghosting her calls.... and in Gideon's defense, he could have said anything. He could have given a full dissertation on why she ought to have given up, and it wouldn't have mattered.

[break][break] All she heard was one thing:

[break][break] He's in the hospital.

[break][break] The rest of the world whited out after that, as she dropped the drink she was holding and immediately hailed a cab.

[break][break]
[break][break]

She couldn't breathe. Not until she saw him again.

[break][break]
[break][break]

"You can't stop me from seeing him!"

[break][break] The hospital doors slid open with a bang as mila alexopoulos walked in to the ward, ignoring all the cries from the medical staff asking if she was family and telling her that she wasn't allowed back there. Mila didn't care. Vincenzo growled at all the staff that grabbed at Mila as she bickered loudly with one of the nurses.

[break][break] 'Ma'am! You're not allowed back there if you're not family. We're going to have to call security - '

[break][break] "Well then call fucking security! I don't care! You're not going to stop me from seeing him!"

[break][break] "I have to - I have to know if he's - "

[break][break] "Just let me back there!'"

[attr="class","ooc"] Gunner Graves [break]
POST-TSDT

☉

[attr="class","milaatop"]

[attr="class","milaa"]

Having no care for Remiel Calcifet's desire for discretion, Mila kisses him with all the passion that he is asking for. All the memories of their past flood into that single kiss, until they both pull away.

[break][break] Mila's smug when she looks at him, like a cat licking a bowl of cream.

[break][break] "If you're offering. Why not?"

[break][break] The designer than flounces away from the table, not so much caring about leaving a tip. Remiel Calcifet can take care of that.

[break][break] Her head tilts towards him.

[break][break] "Lead the way, prince."

[break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Remiel Calcifet

☉

[attr="class","milaatop"]

[attr="class","milaa"]

Her brow arched.

[break][break] Into roleplay, was he?

[break][break] "If that's what you want then," she murmured, allowing their fingers to grasp her own and trace circles upon it's surface.

[break][break] Pulling away, staring into his eyes, Mila found a sudden sense of impulsivity grasp her.

[break][break] She grasped the collar of his shirt and easily closed his mouth over his.

[break][break] Remiel Calcifet may have wanted to lay-low.

[break][break] Unfortunately for him, mila alexopoulos had no problem creating a scene.

[attr="class","ooc"] Remiel Calcifet

☉

[attr="class","mila2"]

continuation from league party

[break] 'You're not fucked up.'

[break][break] It was the words that she had wanted to hear all these years. It was the very thing that she had always, always ached to hear — not just from him, but from anyone. It was something that she had felt deep inside, unable to voice it outloud until now, and so hearing him say that brought a relief so sharp in her chest that it nearly made her break into another sob again.

[break][break] 'But he doesn't know,' a voice inside of her head whispered, insidious. He said she wasn't fucked up, but he didn't know. Not about everything, and certainly not about @sidney.

[break][break] But Mila wasn't ready to talk about that — maybe not ever.

[break][break] He pulled away and she breathed in, trying to steady yourself. A hand wiped against her face.

[break][break] "Okay," she agreed, letting out a sigh and then forcing herself into a smile. "I won't be a bitch either."

[break][break] She offered him her hand, palm splayed outward and winked.

[break][break] "Let's go back. And I'll test your moves on the dance floor, Graves."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Gunner Graves [break]
FESTIVE FLIRTS

☉

[attr="class","milaatop"]

[attr="class","milaa"]

"Yours?"

[break][break] The laugh that she releases is loud and a tad too bright. As if a warning that the crown prince is traveling to waters perhaps slightly too treacherous.

[break][break] "Have you already forgotten, Remy?" Her eyes gleamed like a luminescent star, beautiful and yet always out of reach. She leaned forward, finger tips trailing along his hand, as she whispered in his ear.

[break][break] "I don't belong to anyone."

[attr="class","ooc"] Remiel Calcifet

☉