[ Krouse can't tell if she believes him. There's no reason she should, and nothing he could say that would convince her if she doesn't. He's not sure he even believes himself, as much as he means it in the moment. He's let them both down too many times for that.
But she's giving him the benefit of the doubt one more time. Just one more time. Krouse blinks back a fresh surge of disbelieving tears, squeezed out by the clench of the raw pulp of what might be what's left of his heart, after all. ]
I don't know. [ He shakes his head slightly, forehead rocking against hers. ] Not enough.
[ It never made any sense. The Undersiders had the best deal of all of them. Coil was a bastard, but they were the bastard's favourites, no matter how hard the rest of them tried to measure up. He's run it back over and over, and he still can't make it add up. Villains are always double crossing each other, but why then? Why had Skitter been so determined to fuck everything up right when things were starting to work?
There'd been that girl, but it couldn't have just been that. Skitter didn't act out of the goodness of her heart, if she even had one. Just another excuse for doing whatever she wanted to do in the first place, a cascade of dominos that happened to put her on top every time.
If Noelle asks what happened with Skitter after, he'll tell her. He hopes she doesn't ask. He wants to tell her almost anything else. ]
You showed them, though. [ There's an almost-dreaminess in how he says it, wounded admiration cloaked in the trailing shroud of grief. ] You made them all have to face it, how screwed up it all was. They couldn't cover it up.
[ He still didn't know all the details, but he knew bullshit when he heard it, and he could read between the lines of what they asked him. It wasn't just the so-called heroes she'd taken down that had them pissed off. It was bigger than that, more important. ]
no subject
But she's giving him the benefit of the doubt one more time. Just one more time. Krouse blinks back a fresh surge of disbelieving tears, squeezed out by the clench of the raw pulp of what might be what's left of his heart, after all. ]
I don't know. [ He shakes his head slightly, forehead rocking against hers. ] Not enough.
[ It never made any sense. The Undersiders had the best deal of all of them. Coil was a bastard, but they were the bastard's favourites, no matter how hard the rest of them tried to measure up. He's run it back over and over, and he still can't make it add up. Villains are always double crossing each other, but why then? Why had Skitter been so determined to fuck everything up right when things were starting to work?
There'd been that girl, but it couldn't have just been that. Skitter didn't act out of the goodness of her heart, if she even had one. Just another excuse for doing whatever she wanted to do in the first place, a cascade of dominos that happened to put her on top every time.
If Noelle asks what happened with Skitter after, he'll tell her. He hopes she doesn't ask. He wants to tell her almost anything else. ]
You showed them, though. [ There's an almost-dreaminess in how he says it, wounded admiration cloaked in the trailing shroud of grief. ] You made them all have to face it, how screwed up it all was. They couldn't cover it up.
[ He still didn't know all the details, but he knew bullshit when he heard it, and he could read between the lines of what they asked him. It wasn't just the so-called heroes she'd taken down that had them pissed off. It was bigger than that, more important. ]