shatterverse | (no subject)

Gabriel's freakouts are not, it must be said, terribly subtle.

Shortly: "I'm not him."

"No, you've never harmed a soul. My mistake."

They're more subtle than his occasional experiments with sarcasm!

He shrugs, smiles, and spreads his hands: a you-got-me-there gesture.

"You know how much trouble you've caused for me?" Gabriel angrily demands.

People hated him and he didn't know why! HE GOT MIND-CONTROLLED! IT WASN'T FUN!

"Not a hundredth of the trouble I caused for myself."

Gray shrugs easily.

"Still, I'm sorry."

"The first person we met here attacked me!"

It's certainly true from his point of view.

"Yes."

If Gabriel wants to look up what happened to Gray, he is ever welcome to do so.

He's not really in the mood right now. Maybe later. Then he can hate himself some more!

"And there was a ghost in the kitchen, and he killed it, and it thought I was him."

That was sort of the catalyst for this rant, really. The straw that broke the camel's back, at least. WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE THE D:.

"None of which," Gray says mildly, "is my fault."

Eden was right, he thinks. Talking to his younger self... not, perhaps, so much a recipe for good things.

Ah, well.

He pulls a small velvet-wrapped bundle out of his pocket and holds it out.

The trip to Metropolis was not just for contemplation and a change of scenery, after all.

There was more rant coming, actually, but the arrival of the bundle is cause for incredulity. "What's that?"

Gray just smiles quietly, and gestures for Gabriel to open it.

Suspicious look. You're not getting off the hook that easily, you future otherself, you!

Unwrap unwrap.

Small smile.

"I'm glad you like them," he says, still in those soft, reserved tones.

Gabriel looks at the rather wonderfully made pair of horologists' glasses, because they aren't Gray's face, and wonders whether he can make the floor swallow him through sheer force of will.

Alas, that power is unavailable to him.

Instead, he gets Gray's hand resting on his shoulder.

"It's all right."

""

Why the hell does he never think?

"No, it is. I understand you; I used to be you, remember? Of course I forgive you."

Gabriel's shoulder gets a squeeze. Somehow Gray suspects a hug wouldn't actually help.

"...Yeah."

(That means 'no'.)

"...I should probably..."

(And that means 'commence tactical retreat'.)

Gray nods, a little sadly, and lets him go. "Of course."