Logs:I L O V E Y O U J U N E

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Content Warning

Way too fucking sappy. Vague mention of past abusive romantic relationships.

Cast

June Desrochers, Teagan

Setting

Outside the Direct Action motley house

Log

When June wakes up this morning, there's a bouquet of flowers sitting next to where she's sleeping, in one of the various vases which someone acquired at some point. They're roses cut from the trellis on the outside of the house, set in water -- old-fashioned, big, pink blossoms that fill the air with sweet summer rose -- but perhaps that is not the most interesting thing.

Perhaps the most interesting thing is a small folded card sitting next to it, with a little map drawn on the inside. The map is a carefully-rendered cartoony layout of the area around the motley house, with a big star hovering over the forest just to the north of Sigrun's forge, and little panda footprints leading toward that star.

June wakes up in one of two ways: instantly ready to go, or slowly and begrudgingly. Today is a grudging day, where she drags herself out of sleep and the pile of cushions like someone who hasn't had their requisite coffee in far too long. In her groggy bumbling she almost knocks the flowers over, but notices them just in time to stop herself, and stares at them for a second with blinking eyes before fully registering.

She starts to wake up more when she picks up the card and opens it to look at the contents, though that takes her a few seconds to process too. When she does her smile brightens and her pace quickens, and a few minutes later she's out of bed, in a sundress, her hair pulled back into a ponytail, and is heading off to the spot labeled on the map.

If it hadn't been left in Downtime she might not have trusted it, because this seems like a good way to get tricked into walking into a Fae ambush or something, but anyone who could breach their hollow wouldn't need for such chicanery. Thus she arrives before too long, peering around in curiosity.

What is here? Trees are here! No people are here! At least, no people that she can see. There may be Light-Shy people here. Who can say?

The woods are green and bright, and there's a big tree just north of the forge with big horizontal branches. One of those branches has a banner hanging from it. A banner? Yeah. Except for instead of 'happy birthday' or 'welcome home' or anything like that, it has been painstakingly carefully painted with:

I L O V E Y O U J U N E

June's smile breaks into a huge grin at the sight of the banner, because she can make a guess as to who wrote it, and what a big deal that might be. She starts skipping closer to it, then her smile takes on a mischievous cast and she starts doing a little fighting kata as she's going, which anyone who might be watching from ambush could recognize the purpose of.

They don't ambush her, because that would be silly when June can just -- do. That. Thing. Right there. Teagan becomes visible laying along that branch, dangling an arm and a leg down, looking like, say, a red panda taking a nap. Sort of like the way June was laying in a tree before she fell out of one in the path of a grumpy Summer who wanted to die, and die well.

"June is J-U-N-E. Desrochers is really fucking long." So declares Teagan, smiling lazily.

June laughs delightedly when Teagan becomes more conspicuous even while she protests, "hey, don't make fun of my style!" She looks up at the banner again and says, "yeah, I have to agree with you, my last name is kind of a lot. This was really sweet, and you did great!" Then she makes a dash for the tree, pushes herself up the side of it with the claws on her bare feet, grabs the branch that Teagan's laying on and swings herself onto it, and balances there with a grin. Showoff.

"I'm not making fun of you, I'm deliberately evoking the way in which we met so as to indicate to you that you are an integral part of me getting to this point," rebuts Teagan rather primly, rolling up to a seated position and about to say something else when June decides she's going to show off. They watch her showing off with slim smile sliding across their face, broken-mirror eyes glittering in the morning light. (Have they been to sleep yet? Probably not.) Their face is tipped up toward her as she balances, and their smile becomes a grin. "I love you, June Desrochers."

June keeps grinning at Teagan but tilts her head. "I know," she says. "About the evocation, not about the love. I mean, I know about the love too, but that's not what I was saying it about." She moves out along the branch and then leans down to smooch Teagan. "I love you too, and I'm glad for the ways in which both of us have made each other better over the years."

They reach one of their scarred hands up to cradle the side of her face when she leans down, ruffling the fur along the side of her cheek. "I know you knew. I'm just being silly." Teagan smiles up at her, that grin just... present. Which would have been completely incomprehensible to the Teagan-That-Was, three years ago. "I am, too. But I think that -- well. I'm -- going to do things for everyone. But I thought you... "

"JuneyJune. I know sometimes you don't like hearing this, or it's weird to say it, but you're a big part of why I'm still alive. And sometimes I want to say that, because I like being alive with you."

After the quick smooch June lowers herself down to sit straddling the branch in front of Teagan and watches them as they're talking. She smiles back all the while. "I mean, I like hearing that you've decided you want to be alive. I like hearing that part. I can deal with knowing that you didn't want to be at one point knowing that's not the case now." She reaches out to cup Teagan's cheek tenderly. "I've grown so much since I met you, too. I've realized so much more about myself than I knew existed, and become more confident in who I am. You make me a better person. You make me want to be a better person."

They turn toward June, sitting straddling the branch like they're a couple of kids playing in their treehouse fort or something like that, and lean their cheek into her touch. "You were the first person who ever loved me without an agenda," Teagan offers with a soft laugh. "I mean. I guess probably my kids didn't have an agenda, really, either, but." But they don't remember their children. And that's not the point, anyway. They weren't part of Teagan's recovery. Their broken-mirror eyes shadow a little, and they turn their face into that cradling hand, kissing the base of her thumb. "I think, to me, sometimes I don't see how much you've changed, because to me, you're just June. And I always thought you were perfect."

June shrugs and says, "a different kind of love. I get what you're saying." She strokes Teagan's cheek with her thumb. "You constantly amaze me, you know. For more than the obvious reasons like how hot your fighting prowess is, too. You're such a caring, kind person who really gets people and understands what they need at their heart."

Their face leans into her touch, and they nod just a little bit. "Yeah. You just loved me, and you weren't asking me to cut off parts of myself to be lovable." Teagan's face silvers a little when she goes on, and they hunch their shoulders a bit, mirror-dark skin going even more silver. "Everyone talks to the mirror, JuneyJune. People see in me the things that they need to see in themselves. But... I have to admit that... maybe if I had met our motley sooner, I might have ended up moving over to Spring. I thought about it for a while. I'd make a damn good Joyeux. But."

"I'm. Not. Spring." They clear their throat. "You're just -- good. June. You're probably the most honest person I've ever met. And the most open."

"Of course I wasn't. If I wanted you to cut off parts of yourself, then it wouldn't be you that I loved," June says like she genuinely can't understand why people feel that way. "I could see you as Spring, but I agree that you're Summer. I'll never disagree with you about that." Then she laughs. "I'm not sure if I'm more honest than Sigrun is, but both of us hate lying."

"I know. But other people were, and had been, for my whole life. I know it seems obvious to you, and that's part of why I love you, but... it wasn't until you were just... there... and wanting me the way I was, even when I was actively trying to commit suicide via Hedge and smoking packs of cigarettes a day and drinking my face off that I wanted to ... maybe not... do those things? It's hard to see how you might actually deserve not being treated like someone's accessory or owned object if that's all you've ever been." Teagan clears their throat, and leans to kiss her on the nose. "You and Sigrun are probably equally honest, it's true."

June grins at the kiss to her nose and leans in to pull Teagan into an embrace. She's tiny, so frequently she's the one getting held, but sometimes it's important to do the holding. "I'm glad you have people in your life who treat you the way that a person should be treated by the people they love. People who accept you for who you are, even if sometimes we make each other want to scream and pull our hair out because of the little things we do to annoy each other. You're not an accessory or an object, you're a person. A good, loving, important person."

They lean into her, balanced here all those many feet above the ground, heedless of that, and lay their head on her shoulder, their arms wrapping loosely around her waist. "And this is what I mean. Here I am attempting to appreciate you, and you just gotta counter-appreciate, like some sort of emotional judo. 'No, YOU are good!'" Teagan laughs softly, nuzzling their face into the side of her neck. "I am those things. But I didn't know... that. Until you, really. I didn't know I deserved that."

"We can both be good," June replies with a laugh. "That's a thing that's allowed to happen. I'm glad that you love me. I love you too." She kisses the top of Teagan's head and gives them a gentle squeeze. "You know, you're the first person I had a relationship with that treated me well, too."

"We can both be good." They stay leaned on June, their boot-clad foot hanging down lazily against the banner that they carefully painted, batting at the U in Y O U absently. "I do love you. Very much. And because you loved me, I am able to better love the rest of our ... big, sprawling, ridiculous motleycule." There's deep and abiding affection in their words, and then they pick up their head and squint at her. "Wait, what?"

"I only really had one relationship before you," June admits with a small little shrug. "A boyfriend, in high school. In retrospect he wasn't really interested in me, didn't care who I was, he just wanted someone to say was his, and someone he could have sex with. It only mattered that I was a cute girl, and nothing else about me was important to him. Then I got taken, so..."(edited)

The Mirrorskin listens, and frowns a little bit for the first time since June came out from the house, taking in a deep breath and letting it out again. "Yeah, I -- have a pretty good idea why you didn't tell me anything about him three years ago," Teagan drolls. "I would have, at minimum, had a Very Serious Talk with him, since we were, you know, in the neighborhood at the time." They sit up a bit, mime looking at their watch. "It's not a far drive to Vermont... "

"I mean," June laughs. "I don't even know where he lives any more. We could probably find him, but I never saw him around town when we were back in Vermont, so he might not be there." She gives Teagan a gentle squeeze. "I'd rather just leave the past in the past."

"Relentless. Pursuit," mutters Teagan under their breath, and they're probably only kind of kidding. When she says she'd rather just leave the past in the past, though, they lean forward and kiss her on the nose again. "It was probably smart of you not to tell me about it at the time, but I kind of wish you had."

"I don't think about him most of the time," June admits with another little shrug. "Pretty much only when other people talk about their exes and their shitty behavior. The rest of the time it's just one of those silly things that happened in high school, in the time before I was taken, but barely reflect on my life now."(edited)

A soft huff of breath. "I'm allowed to think about kicking your stupid ex in the ass," Teagan replies. "Sigrun fantasizes about skewering my ex enough. The one that I didn't skewer myself." They lean to kiss her nose again. "It's permissible. But. I get you. And I appreciate that about you, that you don't get stuck on things like I do."

June laughs. "If I saw him again I might kick his ass myself, but I'm not going to go looking for him, that's all." She grins, gives another squeeze, and then suggests. "I know it's probably your bed time, isn't it? I haven't had coffee yet. Should we head back inside?"

Grumble grumble grumble. This is the grumbling of the protective Teagan, even though June is, without a doubt, the single deadliest member of Direct Action as measured in 'agg damage done per second.' "It's way past my bedtime," Teagan admits with a sigh. "You should get some coffee and come drink it and let me snuggle you until I fall asleep, that's what should happen." And then they swing down off the branch, hanging by their hands and dropping down to the ground below.

"Okie doke," June says as she lets Teagan go and drops down after them, pretty much the same way, with a roll when she hits the ground before she hops back to her feet. "I have a bunch of fire science books to read anyway," she admits. "I can snuggle with you, drink my coffee, and do some studying."