On an awful night after long hours thinking their brother might die, and the smell of hospital seeped into their clothing, and now in need of comfort, a well-adjusted person probably would've offered a reassuring hug. Or even just his arm around her shoulders. Or just sitting there together, in companionable silence, staving off the darkness a little longer. Or, at least when leaving, perhaps delivering a friendly kiss to the top of her head before drawing away.
But the Academy hadn't been trained that way.
So Luther finishes off his whiskey — one glass, even neat, isn't enough to make a dent in him — and slowly rises to his feet again.
(Maybe someday, he'll linger; he'll stay just for the sake of staying, for the low murmur of conversation, for being near each other. But he's been awake too long and there's that exhaustion buzzing in his wrong shape, so recently disoriented, and this house is alien and unfamiliar too — not decked in their childhood posters and magazines, all the old comforting touchstones gone, and the only thing that's right is Allison, here, in front of him.
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On an awful night after long hours thinking their brother might die, and the smell of hospital seeped into their clothing, and now in need of comfort, a well-adjusted person probably would've offered a reassuring hug. Or even just his arm around her shoulders. Or just sitting there together, in companionable silence, staving off the darkness a little longer. Or, at least when leaving, perhaps delivering a friendly kiss to the top of her head before drawing away.
But the Academy hadn't been trained that way.
So Luther finishes off his whiskey — one glass, even neat, isn't enough to make a dent in him — and slowly rises to his feet again.
(Maybe someday, he'll linger; he'll stay just for the sake of staying, for the low murmur of conversation, for being near each other. But he's been awake too long and there's that exhaustion buzzing in his wrong shape, so recently disoriented, and this house is alien and unfamiliar too — not decked in their childhood posters and magazines, all the old comforting touchstones gone, and the only thing that's right is Allison, here, in front of him.
Which means he should stay.
But he doesn't know how to.)
"I should let you get some rest," he says.