What's Needed

Who: Eury and Ash
When: dawnish
Where: Stone Eye Antiques

Ash had been driving around for a while on his bike, just trying to get his head straightened out. Or quieted down, or one of those. Finding out that Joey was an Angel of Wrath -- in the middle of getting her undressed, no less -- was really fucking with his mind more than he would've expected. It brought to the forefront all kinds of memories that he'd buried a long time ago. Or tried to. Made him feel alienated from someone he'd thought he had some kind of connection with. Even if it was mostly surface and sexual, so far. It just went to show that not even that was simple. He'd ridden up to Sugarloaf to sit for a while and watched the sun start to come up, then headed back to town. His wandering took him to Eury's shop. He hadn't checked on it in a few days, and hadn't heard from her in even longer, so he didn't know if she was back or what. The doors were still locked, windows intact, all that. He happened to glance up and saw there was a light on in her window. Was she home? Hoping so, he pushed the buzzer at the door and stepped back to wait.

Eury had been up, sort of staring into space more or less. Then she was roused by the buzzer. Standing, she went to peek down on the street, but didn't see much, so she walked down instead. She smiled a touch when she saw who it was, and she opened up the door. "Ash--" she started, immediately throwing her arms around his neck, to give him a big hug. And it was a bit of a clingy one at that, even if she didn't mean for it to be. "It's so good to see you."

There was a greeting on his lips when he was suddenly being hugged, and he went with it wholeheartedly, hugging her right back. "Hey there," he said next to her head, squeezing her and even lifting her off her feet a bit. He probably smelled bad and was still in his torn-and-bloody 'zombie' clothes, but if she didn't mind, he didn't give a flying rat's ass. He pulled back a bit to look at her, stroking one hand over the side of her face. "How are you?"

She looked at him, and gave him a smile that didn't quite manage to get to full standards. "I'm...that's very complicated." she told him. "Do you want to come inside? How are you?" she asked. Then she had to pause as well. "And what the hell are you wearing?"

Okay well that was an awful sign. He answered the easiest one first. "Hell yes I want to come in," he told her with a little smile back. "Ah, there was a costume party last night, I was a zombie mechanic. It looked less horrifying with the makeup. I'm all right. C'mon, let's have some coffee and you can explain it to me." He started to walk in with her. Focusing on someone else's problems for a while would probably do him some good.

She walked upstairs and kind of realized she had no idea what to tell him. He didn't know what she was, and that was rather connected in, now wasn't it? Fuck. Maybe she ought to just tell him. What would be the worst thing to happen? He'd kill her? Yay. At least her problems would be over. Getting inside, she went to the coffee maker to set up a pot to drip. "You didn't answer me when I asked you how you were, honey." she said.

Ash shed his jacket, as his gun was still locked down in the bike, and took a seat at her kitchen table. He rubbed his thumb over one eyebrow. "I said I was all right. I know that's not much of an answer, but it's dealable," he told her with a little chuckle. He watched her for a moment. "I missed you. But you don't look so good."

"I missed you too." she said honestly. She got mugs out, and set them on the table before she leaned back against the counter. She looked down at the floor for a long moment. "I'm not so good." she told him. "And by 'not so good' I mean abysmally terrible in a 'hey my life just got knocked on it's fucking ear and I don't know what to do about it' manner."

He looked at her steadily and nodded, wishing for the umpteenth time that she didn't have to wear the sunglasses. He liked to see people's eyes when they talked. But a condition was a condition. "Can't say I've been exactly there, but ... what happened?" he asked her, tone surprisingly gentle.

She was silent for a long time. "If I tell you something, I need to warn you first." she said. "It's not pretty. And you might want to either walk out that door and never see me again, or find the first weapon you can to take me down with." she continued. "Still want me to continue?"

Ash wasn't expecting to hear that at all, and his eyebrows raised. He'd told her what he was before she left, so that was kind of a heavy warning. And he'd already walked out on someone for their nature today. He really didn't want to do it here. He couldn't fathom ever trying to hurt Eury; it wasn't like he couldn't see what kind of person she was already. He laced his fingers on the table. "I am currently unarmed, gun's locked down in the bike," he told her, so she'd at least know that. "Unless you lay it on me you're a demon and goddamn good at hiding it from me, I won't bring any harm to you. Please do continue."

"I'm not a demon." Eury said first. Of course, at this point, she wasn't even sure she'd try to stop Ash if he did try to hurt her. She was a little too scattered for that. "I'm a gorgon." she continued, and that was difficult for her to say. "The reason I have to wear my sunglasses all the time is if I make eye contact, I turn people to stone."

A gorgon. Well hell, that was a new one on him, and new ones didn't come around very often anymore. He sat back, eyeing her, though there wasn't any malice in it. No matter what she was, her karma was still shiny and good-feeling to him. "Huh," he said musingly, letting that sink in. "That's gotta be ... difficult. How old are you, then? I know the myth doesn't necessarily mean anything, but ... shit, really?"

"Old." she said. "Over a century. I generally..." she drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "This isn't easy for me." she told him. "I don't tell people. But anyways...I don't know. There was this legend. Or, I thought it was one. That there was someone out there. Someone who could withstand my gaze. A true love thing." she said, and there was a clear, bitter tint to her words.

The connection was made quicker than he would've liked, but he was a cynical bastard sometimes. She'd probably tried. To see if at least one person she loved was that legend embodied. Ash stood up and moved over to her, making sure to keep the brief walk non-threatening. He put a hand lightly on her arm. "Come on and sit down," he said quietly. "If we're gonna be talking about this, I can cover the coffee."

She was a bit surprised. She didn't know what she'd expected. Or possibly what she'd wanted. Had she told Ash on the outside hope that he might decide she needed to no longer be a threat to humanity? She couldn't tell. But she hadn't expected the light touch or telling her that. She nodded, and pushed off of the counter, dropping heavily into the kitchen chair he hadn't been sitting in. "When I left town, my mom called. With...her statues were crying. All of them, as far as we can figure. I went to visit my uncle, in L.A. he's the one who told me about the legend. He always took care of me. Or, that's what I thought. He would always get my statues when I created them on accident and ship them to himself, and he always swore he got rid of them." She fell silent for a long time. "When I went there, to see how things were on his end, I saw...he apparently has been selling them. For years. They're his hottest line. He's been...I couldn't...We fought. I burned the place to the ground." she said, knowing there were probably missing bits in there, but she was having trouble.

It wasn't Ash's bag to protect humanity. Not like that, anyway. Sure, he fought demons because he hated them and was hoping some day one of them would be good enough to kill him. But as far as duty went, he was more the cosmic slap in the back of the head when they fucked up too much. And Eury hadn't. Whatever she'd done wrong, she'd been balancing it out fairly decently. He took up her position as she'd taken his, crossing his arms over his chest and listening, looking at her with a little line between his eyebrows. He was still getting his head around what she was, but it definitely didn't discount her as a friend that he'd missed and now had a problem. A rather horrifying problem. "Did you kill him?" he asked quietly, watching her face. Just to get some perspective.

"I wish." Eury said immediately, shaking her head and she looked at the floor, trying to shove back a wave of emotion. "We fought. I got nicks in, he did. He ran before I could do more. Then I torched the place, and came home." Or here. She wasn't sure it was necessarily 'home'. "I talked to Mr. Complicated already. He's...well he's a hunter. And he said he'd help me with it. But...I don't know where he's gone. I don't know how well he can hide. It's a big planet, and he's an old gorgon."

Part of his brain took very careful note that Mr. Complicated was a hunter. For some reason, that squicked him more than hearing Eury was a gorgon. He generally didn't like hunters, most of the ones he'd met -- and sometimes fought with -- had no principles. They were just after a payday. True, he obviously hadn't hunted Eury, still. But all that was beside the point, he'd just have to remember it. "It is a big planet," he agreed. Bigger to him now that he couldn't fly like he used to. "I'm not great at the pursuit, you'd think almost two hundred years would give me some resources, but it hasn't or they've died off. Not really my business to hunt. But if he comes here ... you'll be safe from him." The coffee was done, so he turned to pour them a couple of mugs. "What do you take in it?"

"Lots of sugar." she said. She looked up at him though, and just...stared for a few long, long minutes. Watching him make the coffee. "You would want to help me?" she asked. It was kind of what he'd said. That she'd be safe. But she didn't quite know what that would fully entail.

Ash made up her cup and just took his black today, bringing both over and setting her's in front of her before he sat down. Then he looked up to meet her eyes. Er, sunglasses. "You're my friend, you've got trouble. Of course I want to help you," he told her matter-of-factly. There were other factors, sure. That he didn't have much else to do at the moment to satisfy that fighting itch, and whether he made it or not wasn't really a priority, but she was his main motivation, and didn't need to know the rest.

Eury looked at him again for a long moment, then reached up and slid her fingertips under the lenses of her sunglasses, pressing them into her eyes. She drew in a shakey breath, and again attempted to fight off being overly emotional, but the truth was, she was a wreck right now. She truly felt like her life had been pulled out from under her. Everything she'd believed, everything she'd lived for, it was all gone. She'd lost her true north, and what was worse, apparently she'd never found it to begin with. "Thank you." she said with a shakey tone.

Okay that was a little heartbreaking, and made his little rollercoaster dip from that morning look pathetic. He was really glad he'd come over, and felt an irrational stab of hatred for Mr. Complicated, who could help with the killing but wasn't here. "Aw, babe," he murmured, and scooted his chair around the table-corner so he was right next to her. He put both arms around her and pulled her into a hug. "I ain't gonna tell you everything's gonna be okay. But I've got faith you'll survive it, Eury," he murmured, and pressed a kiss to her dreds. "Don't keep it in. ... sorry I stink."

She gave a shakey little half laugh, then did as he said. She didn't keep trying to hold it back and she did in fact, burst into tears. She held onto him and did so tightly, and cried her little eyes out. She didn't know what to do, she didn't know what happened next, she felt like a lost little girl and she never felt like that. Usually she was the source of wisdom and sage advice and right now she had none of it for herself. In fact, she couldn't even think of herself as anything but stupid, a blind, insane little lamb who didn't even have the sense to know she was lost til now.

He didn't try to shush her, or talk over her, or get her to hurry through it. Pain took time, and he didn't have to know all the details to know that her foundation had taken a very hard hit. So Ash just sat there with his cheek on her head, slowly rubbing her back while she cried. This wasn't something he did for just anyone -- and it actually hadn't happened in a coon's age -- but he cared about her and she needed it, so ... there it was.

She slowly tapered off, until she was left with shakey breaths, and she realized that her shades were all full of tears and so was his shirt. "'msorry..." she mumbled. "But thank you." her tone was subdued. "I've never felt like this before. I've always been...sure of things. That it would work out, or that one day...y'know? But..."

"It hurts to let go of," he said quietly. He wasn't letting go of her until she moved, and even then it was kind of questionable. He'd have to see. "Or, more accurately in your case, have it ripped from you. But ... you'll pull yourself up. And find another way to be sure of things." He kissed her head again. He was still sort of looking for that himself, but she didn't need to know that. "You're strong. And when you don't feel it, I've got extra to share."

She drew in a breath and let it out slowly, resting her head on his shoulder. "You sure you've got enough of it? I feel like everything's shattered. Like I look around and I had one goal--kill the son of a bitch--and I don't even know where to start for that. So I talked to Aiden. And that's good, and he'll help, but...now what?" she asked. "I just...have no concept." she said. "You know what my mom did? My father was human. He saw her true form and...well, flipped the fuck out. She'd already made herself harmless though. She ripped her own eyes out."

That sounded ... not so great. Pretty fucking awful, in fact. Ash hadn't the first clue what to say to it, so he didn't, just reaching up to thumb away some moisture from her cheek. "There's really only two choices," he said at length, and quietly. "You stop, or you keep going. Or you stop and then keep going. Or some combination in there. People make it complicated, but it's really that simple. I know right now you prob'ly feel like stoppin' altogether. And that's okay. You got a lot to grieve now. Everybody does it at their own speed, I've been there. Wish I had a way to make it easier, but I don't. I'm here, though, for what it's worth." He paused. "When's the last time you slept?"

She thought about that. "I don't know. Every time I try I only sleep for a short bit then wake up again. I keep having horrible dreams." she admitted. She paused for a little bit. "You've been there?" she asked.

He'd been about to suggest that she try again, maybe with a little extra help -- he was sure there was a bottle of something somewhere -- because rest really did wonders for everything, but then she asked a question, so he held of on it. He took a moment before answering. "Yeah. Of course not with your exact situation, but ... for a long time, if my end was coming, I wasn't gonna fight it. I've wanted to stop." He toyed idly with a few of her dreadlocks and wondered in the back of his mind about the snake thing.

She listened and heard two different stories in his words. "...you weren't going to fight it is past tense." she said. "I've wanted to stop is present." She pulled back enough to look up at him, even if she had to view him through tear-spotted lenses. "Are both true?" she asked.

Ash hadn't realized that he'd said that in a way that could be caught, and he looked down at her with a bit of surprise. But he wasn't much for lying. " ... yeah, I'd say both are true," he answered. Then kissed her forehead because it was there and convenient and kissable and everything. "So I hear you." But he didn't want to talk about him, that wasn't what he was here for anymore.

She didn't say anything for a few long moments. "Ash, are you alright?" she asked. She didn't know if she was the best person to talk to at current. In fact, she could pretty much guarantee that she wasn't. But...she needed to ask. She couldn't not. It would have been against her nature.

"I'm making it, darlin'," he said and gave her a little squeeze. He appreciated it, but now really wasn't at all the time. "Been doin' it a long time. And doing better than I was, so. What can I do for you right now? Anything? I can get you some whiskey'll knock you right out, but I'm not sure if that's what you need."

She thought for a few long moments, really actually trying to come up with some semblance of a game plan. "I'm not sure." she said honestly. "I feel really..." she made a vague gesture. "You know when you just don't even know what to do with yourself anymore? I'm there. Been there, really. I don't know what to do. I know I have to go on with my life but it seems like when I get to that point where I look at that, everything just stops for me and I stare around wondering how I even do that."

Ash shook his head a little bit. "Only advice I can give you there is take it slow, don't push yourself. You can only live a day at a time. Which I know is like ... cereal box psychology advice, but you can't expect to flip a switch in yourself and go back to whatever normal was." He knew that didn't help a lot, but really he didn't think that she would feel much better with the issue of her uncle still unresolved. He knew that he wouldn't. "But you've got support, honey, anything you need I'm only a phonecall away."

"Thank you." Eury said, meaning that. "I...can't promise I'm going to be very good company for a while. Or what I'll be doing. But thank you. I really appreciate knowing that you're going to be here for me." She gave him a light little half smile. "Even if I'm probably going to become the most inconsistent person on the---okay I can't even say that and think that I'd top Complications Man, but still."

He chuckled and tugged lightly on one of her dreds. "Don't think you need any more complications on you right now," he said, but that was going to be all he said about Complications Man. Because that was his own sort of twitch, and he was probably biased and she was an adult who could do whatever she wanted. "But I think the first order of business is that you need some sleep. Or some food, depending on whether or not you've eaten today?" he said, giving her his best motherly Look.

She smiled again, then moved, and gave him a proper, good hug. "I haven't eaten, but I'm more tired than I am hungry. Will you stick around for a while? You don't have to. I just...you're being very calming right now, and I feel better with you here." she admitted. Because right now, she was fine with admitting weaknesses of that nature. She was a mess, and he was helping.

Ash hugged her in return, and rubbed her back a bit. "Of course I will, cutie," he said with a faint smile. Calming. That wasn't an adjective that got stuck onto him very often. He hesitated, and then went ahead and put it out there. "Mind if I lay down with you? I kinda had a shit night myself -- not comparable, but still not great -- and I haven't slept in ... a while. Totally cool if not, I can just hang until you sleep."

"God, no, please do." Eury said, sounding like she thought that was the best idea she'd ever heard. "Stay the night, if you want to. I have a comfy bed." she assured him. Plus, she liked to cuddle, and right now she could use it. And he'd just said he had a shit night, so he could too. She got up and took his hands, starting to pull him back towards her bedroom.

He was a wee bit surprised at the eagerness of her acceptance, but Ash wasn't going to complain. Passing out in bed with her did sound like the best idea ever. So he got up and went with her with a chuckle. Sleeping cuddled up to her all fucking day and straight into the night sounded great to him. "I'll leave clothes on," he offered, just to do it.

Eury smiled at that. "You don't have to. I don't actually have a dress code in my bedroom." she told him. Then she paused. "I trust you." she added. Because she did. Though, she didn't even mean that she trusted him not to do anything. What she trusted him with was her. That he wouldn't do anything that would hurt her, regardless of what that was. He was a good guy. He'd be fine.

Ash just looked at her for a second, then smiled. And leaned in to smooch her cheek again. Yeah, that meant a lot. It really did. And despite his being all worked up a few hours ago, trying anything was kind of distant in his mind. Not to mention he was in dried-bloody clothes and knew from experience that they weren't comfortable to sleep in. So with the all-clear, he stripped down to his boxers and helped himself to half of her bed. "Oh Jesus," he exhaled with relief. "You weren't lyin'."

She smiled and changed, pulling her clothes off and putting a nightgown on. She didn't really care if he saw her. So she did that then dropped down on the bed with him, after flicking the light off. "See? Comfy bed. Life is having a comfy bed. it's the little things." she said, tugging the covers up over both of them. She set her sunglasses on the nightstand, and hoped he didn't get uncomfortable. She also had her eyes shut. Then she curled up with him, hoping he didn't mind.

Exhausted aside, he was still terribly attracted to her, and since she didn't seem to mind, he did indeed watch the changing and that was nice. But that was all, because they both seemed to need each other in completely nonsexual capacities today. He noted that she took the sunglasses off, but it didn't bother him. He knew she'd be careful. And if he never woke up ... well the only really bad part about that would be her having to deal with it. So he closed his own eyes and kept them shut. He rolled to put an arm over her, and kind of felt around with his lips until he kissed one of her eyelids. "It definitely is," he murmured. "'Night Eury."

She giggled the faintest bit when he was doing the feeling around thing, and she snuggled in comfortably. "Night, Ash." she told him, drawing in a deep breath and letting it out slowly, relaxing. This...this was nice. She'd needed this. She appreciated it on a ton of different levels. And while it didn't magically make everything better--it was a start.