Comfort Food

Aubrienne regretted somewhat the necessity of leaving her car behind in going to visit Dorien, having lugged a basket of food from the tram stop several blocks away. Still, he'd apparently had a rough night last night, and she figured he could use some friendly company. It was a bit early, being noon, but she didn't think it would be too much of an imposition. Certainly running into his ex hadn't laid him too low...

Climbing the the stairs to the second floor, she dutifully crossed to Dorien and Argent's doorway and knocked jauntily.

Dorien groaned and rolled over, looking around blearily and wondering for a moment how he had gotten on the floor. A few moments later the events of the previous evening came back to him and he sighed, noting that Gen was no longer there and the blanket had been draped over him instead.

"Fuck..." he muttered, standing up and rubbing his lower back. It ached miserably from a combination of helping to haul Gen back to his apartment and then spending the night on the barely-carpeted floor of his room.

Suddenly there was a spirited knock at the door, and he surmised that it was probably what had awoken him at this ungodly hour of the afternoon. with a sigh he brushed off his clothes, which were now irredeemably wrinkled and headed out to the main room to see who it was.

"Bree?" he said when he cracked the door open, squinting into the harsh light of day, "Hey..."

He had definitely had more articulate moments in his life.

"Oh," Aubrienne replied equally eloquently. "Sweetie, you look awful. How much did you have to drink last night?"

Dorien sighed.

"Just the one."

He opened the door further and stood aside for the sorceress to enter.

"C'mon in. Sorry the place is kind of a mess. You're a bit early for your weekly stuff, aren't you?"

Aubrienne gave him a quizzical look as she stepped inside.

"I know you can hold it better than that. And, actually, I come here to give rather than receive. I take it you haven't eaten yet?"

"No..." Dorien paused in thought for a moment, "Not since... I guess yesterday afternoon. I was gonna grab something from a street cart last night but... things came up."

"Yeah, I heard," Aubrienne responded, frowning. "How are you doing?"

"And never fear on the food front. I come bearing homemade goodies."

"Rest assured, they were not made by me," she added quickly as she set the basket down.

"You heard? Man, word travels fast." Dorien said with a sigh, "But yeah, I've been better. Thanks for the thought. Keep bringing me lunch and I might start thinking you're sweet on me or something."

"Aww, you got emotionally punched in the gut and apparently somehow hurt your head," Aubrienne teased. "You just can't catch a break."

She started unpacking various jars and wrapped packages.

"Now sit down and get some grub."

Dorien rubbed his face with both hands, trying to wake himself up a bit. His face was stubbly and he his hair unkempt and he realized he must look a mess. Well, there wasn't much help for that right now.  

He looked down at the spread that Aubrienne was unpacking and couldn't help but laugh a little at how domestic she looked spreading out the contents of a picnic basket on his coffee table.

"Does Jed know you're using his legendary cooking skills to butter up your drug dealer?" he asked with a half grin as he sat down on the couch.

"It's not even that much," Aubrienne replied in a tone that said, no, Jed did not know where the results of his culinary efforts had gone. "Just some koreneny chicken, jaje bread, krompir, sjekati, grah, some jam, some slast..."

She paused a moment, considering the spread.

"Okay, maybe I went a little overboard."

She shrugged and pulled out a couple of bottles of soda.

"Well, no sense in letting it go to waste."

Dorien accepted a bottle of soda gratefully and picked up a piece of the bread, piling some chicken and sjekati on top of it in a crude sandwich.

"So how much did you hear?" he asked before taking a bite.

Aubrienne grabbed a slice of bread for herself and started spreading jam on it.

"A bit," she replied. "Neva said you almost got into a fight with some guy, who was apparently on a date with 'an old friend' of yours."

She had her suspicions, but Aubrienne decided to let it stand there and allow Dorien to elaborate.

Dorien nodded. For a minute he had been worried that she'd somehow found out about what happened with Gen as well. That would have been harder to explain. Not that the earlier incident was easy.

"Yeah," he said, "that's one way of putting it, I guess. Another would be that I saw my old fiance out on a date with some piker and kind of lost it a little. At least I managed to leave before I did anything really dumb."

"Oh, sweetie," Aubrienne replied, frowning. "Well, that's certainly understandable. Maybe you should have clocked him one."

She sighed.

"Okay, not really, but, ugh, that must've been awful. Did she say anything?"

"No, not really. And honestly, that kind of made it worse."

He shrugged.

"I guess I wanted her to defend herself. Tell me off. Anything. I felt like she didn't even really care. I think that's what hurt the most, you know?"

Aubrienne hesitated for just a moment before dropping her bread to her plate, then rising to engulf Dorien in a hopefully reassuring hug.

"I'm sure she cared, Dorien. She probably just didn't know what to say."

Dorien leaned into the hug, resting his head on Aubrienne's shoulder.

"Maybe..." he said, "I guess it doesn't matter. I'll probably never see her again now. I fucked up pretty spectacularly, as usual. I just hope Tits isn't too pissed. If you know what happened then I'm sure she must by now."

Aubrienne held the hug for a few moments, finally giving a last squeeze before drawing back, her arm still on Dorien's shoulder.

"Do you want to see her again?"

"I don't know..." he said, shaking his head, "I want... I guess maybe I want things to be like they were before..."

He looked around at the run down apartment and sprawled alchemy equipment.

"...all of this. But that's not going to happen. So i don't know what I want."

"Well, right now I can offer chicken and bread," Aubrienne said with an attempt at cheer. "As to the rest...you're right. You can't go back. You have to go forward to go back, if that makes any sense."

She sat back down, a concerned look on her face.

"You have to go on with your life if you're ever going to get back to whatever you consider normal."

Dorien managed a smirk.

"Chicken and bread always helps. And so does listening. Thanks."

"Hey, I do what I can," Aubrienne said with a smile. "Even if I have Jed do half of it, without his knowledge.

"How are you doing lately?" Dorien asked, obviously trying to shift the subject from his situation, "What sort of mischief have you been getting into?"

"Oh, this and that," Aubrienne replied, her smile turning mischievous. "I went out with Cassie and Briza last night; I left Briza with this adorably clueless Castalia student. She seemed happy enough."