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So Steve made these little radios, you see.

And Gabriel went off somewhere at some point and he, um, well, he hasn't been answering his.

And Steve is worried. (If Sylar has done something untoward, then Steve swears to any Shattered gods that he will kick the man's psychopathic ass.)

Fortunately, he knows of at least two people on the farm who might be able to reassure him as to his boyfriend's continued safety, and both of them are fairly easy to pick out of a crowd.

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cf. Inty, being rainbowed and distraught over by the kraken pond.

...wait.

Distraught?

Steve, who is trying very hard not to seem worried in the hope that he will convince himself, makes himself stop at a respectful distance. He's always felt the need to be cautious around the Intuitions, partly because they're just so freakin' otherworldly, and partly because, as the other half of a Gabriel, he feels like he's ranked with them somehow and like he doesn't always live up to it.

"...Are you all right?"

"I only just noticed," she says, picking a conversation out of thin air as the Intuitions are wont to do. "He was just elsewhere, and he thought he'd be back soon, and then he was-- and I couldn't tell, until half a minute ago."

Beat.

"No."

Half a beat.

"I'm sorry. Your Gabriel's gone and I don't know how to be human right now."

Oh shit.

"--"

She can't possibly mean what it sounds like she means.

Oh shit.

"Gone?"

She must mean something else. She has to be specific. This world is dangerous -- but she can't mean that.

Oh shit.

"Gone. Yes. Gone."

Inty shakes her head, wrapping her arms around her stomach in the classic guilt pose.

"I'm sorry. I should have been paying attention-- I thought everything was all right, and then-- I couldn't tell."

It doesn't quite appear to hit at first.

"Oh."

Then a subtle change in posture is apparent, a slight but growing tightness, like the last desperate cling to a safe ledge before fingers give way and the body falls.

"Fuck."

Because didn't you have plans? And didn't you have hopes? And weren't you just used to seeing his face, and used to the knowledge that he had been with you since you came here and would be be with you for as long as you stayed?

"Oh fuck."

She bites her lip, steps forward, and puts a hand very awkwardly on his shoulder.

A human gesture from an inhuman girl. The dissonance couldn't be more obvious.

It's not even just "a human being has died", which would be bad enough. It's "Gabriel has died". It's "the man you love is dead".

He doesn't even ask what happened yet. That would just make it worse.

He should've finished the resurrection technology, buggy and flawed in conception and execution as it was. He should've stopped him from ever leaving the farm.

Steve makes an abrupt, cut-off movement to put his arms around--

You know what? Fuck it. He needs a hug. The movement again, now carried to its conclusion.

Inty hugs back, with her arms around his waist and her head leaning on his shoulder and her eyes full of ridiculous helpless biological tears. She liked Gabriel. He was-- he was a Gabriel, and now he's

And now

And now Steve needs her and she can't fall to pieces just yet, no matter what else she's failed to see today.

That makes two of them crying, then.

If you asked him to right now, Steve couldn't describe what he's thinking. He just feels like his brain has shut down, trapping him inside this one specific fact that Gabriel is dead.

Some facts are so big that when they come into your mind there stops being room for anything else.

Intuition is currently holding two.

Steve would ask, but grief is selfish and he isn't psychic.

He thinks that she's only crying for his Gabriel.

She might as well be. After all, her Gabriel isn't dead. He might even be home.

(The knowledge doesn't help much.)

Considering his home? He probably wouldn't be having a whale of a time, no.

Apologies to your sensibilities, Inty, but Steve has started swearing again in between sobs. It isn't helping one bit. It's hardly even conscious; more like a leg jerking when a hammer strikes the knee.

All things considered, Inty's sensibilities can take the hit.

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