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Eleanor sat with her hands in her lap. Her legs dangled off the top of the mall. She looked out to greater Höllvania with a strong ennui. The night city air was doing wonders for her, despite how the techrot smelled. Höllvania slept at night, so her thoughts could finally be clear. No rage, sadness, or disgust could hit her synapses. Just the winds blowing across her face and-
“May I join you?” Marty spoke from behind her. Of course she knew that Marty was on their way up.
“ By all means. Come, and be welcome, ” Eleanor smiled and patted the roof next to her. “ What brings you here? ”
Marty looked towards the sky, squinting. A turbulent thought was echoing through their mind. “Just needed to clear my head.” I miss the stars.
“ No better place to do it, ” Eleanor transmitted. She looked at the city once more. “ My mother always told me that a city never sleeps. Alas, Höllvania must rest at some time. ”
A memory of an open air market surfaced in Marty’s mind. Adults and children near a dock with stands littered about. “I get why she would say that. In my time, Earth has a village called Cetus. Always someone buying, always someone selling.”
“ Do you miss it? ”
“Sometimes, too many people for my liking,” they said aloud. That’s more Ejabi’s speed nowadays. I don’t really fit in there. “What about you?”
“ I miss primary school, ” Eleanor started. “ That’s the first bit of schooling children would do. The world seemed so big and so slow back then. ”
“And now?”
“ Far too fast for my liking and even more vast than I could have imagined, ” a small chuckle left her lungs. “ That’s your fault by the way. ”
Marty chortled at that, and a small smirk rose on the corner of their mouth. “I don’t envy the night shift, though. As nice as it is up here, you are still on guard.”
“ And yet, despite having the night off, you’re here, ” Eleanor wasn’t accusatory. More observational.
Amir. Marty’s thought struck Eleanor. Since moving to night watch, she had been sleeping during the more active hours. “Amir had a nightmare tonight. About his last mission.”
“ And you’ve been keeping an eye on him. ”
“More told him to come find me if he did have one. I think he’s too freaked out to leave the mall, right now,” They frowned. “Arthur’s trying to be patient but he’s not…”
He’s not listening to Amir.
“ I will speak with Arthur, he may be cleared physically but I have caught his thoughts recently, ” Eleanor started thinking of how she could bring things up to her brother. He could be a right fool sometimes.
“I hate to pry about this but do you think Amir will ever be okay with what happened?” Marty asked, arms wrapped around themself.
“ I think eventually, yes, he will be, ” Eleanor reassured. Marty let out a heavy sigh.
“That’s good enough for now, thank you,” they smiled softly. Can I hug you? They asked mentally. With no prompting Eleanor opened her arms and took Marty in. “Thanks.”
“ Of course, ” Eleanor eventually released Marty from the embrace. She stared at them with a somewhat curious expression.
“What’s up?” They asked at her raised brow. You’re always welcome to ask.
“ Which one of us is the psychic again? ” She joked with a smile. “ Why did you go through the effort of getting me my ring, if you never ask me to use it? ”
Marty seemed taken aback for a moment. Ask her? Why would she expect me to ask her to wear it? “It’s your choice whether to wear it or not. It would be cruel to expect you to wear it all the time.”
“ Yes but your thoughts are meant to be private. ”
“You can’t control what you hear, Eleanor. It’s not exactly your choice as to what you do or don’t listen to. The ring is a great option, but you can’t exactly talk with it,” they countered. Who in their right mind-
“ Lettie asked me to, more often, ” Eleanor couldn’t keep eye contact with Marty. “ Arthur I know wants me to. ”
“They don’t get to make that call, that’s not fair to you.”
“ Lettie thinks I’m less of a monster when I can’t hear her, ” Eleanor let her fist ball up in frustration.
“Fuck,” Marty breathed out, and reached an arm back around Eleanor. “Did she say that out loud or…?”
“ No, but she knows I heard her. Every day I hear her running through every possible scenario in which I go too far. Where I finally turn on everyone. Like with… ”
The reactor on New Years. Marty’s mind supplied. Eleanor nodded against their shoulder. She knew from the moment she awoke on January 1st, 1999… again… that Marty had seen everything. Seen her murder Letticia “Lettie” Garcia with her bare hands.
“ I sometimes wish she killed me, ” Eleanor continued. “ I relive that memory every night, the way I killed her. The way it matched her every suspicion. I know she remembers it too. ”
“She does,” Marty confirmed. Pineapple pineapple pineapple pineapple pineapple . Echoed throughout Marty’s mind for a moment.
“ What in the world is going on in that head of yours? ” Eleanor asked, surprised by the sudden gibberish, but she couldn’t help but chuckle softly.
“Intentionally redirecting my thoughts,” Marty explained as the pineapple assault resumed. “Something Lettie told me a while back, I can’t tell you everything but I can tell you this part.”
Eleanor pulled away temporarily, and slipped her germanium ring onto her ring finger. It was just the slightest bit too loose but that was probably better for her. Once it was secured, and the world ceased to move for her, she waved a hand to Marty in invitation to continue. They nodded.
“She told me she regretted not keeping her promise. She hated herself because… something stopped her from pulling the trigger. She says she can’t trust you, but I think it’s more she can’t trust herself,” Marty’s expression was difficult to read, it reflected pain, and something else. “Don’t tell her I told you this, but she wants to apologize, but doesn’t necessarily know how.”
Eleanor pretended to zip her lips shut. Marty raised an eyebrow in confusion. She pointed at the ring with a brow raised to ask to remove it. Marty nodded.
“ It means my lips are sealed, meaning I won’t tell her, ” Eleanor explained. “ Thank you for telling me what you did. ”
“Of course,” Marty stood as they spoke. “I know we don’t necessarily see eye to eye on this, but you’re not a monster. Not to me.”
Marty didn’t wait for a response. They simply walked back to the roof access they used to get up to the roof. Thoughts only on getting back to sleep, and all the minor and major things Eleanor had done for them since arriving. Things that, to Marty, showed her effect on the loved ones around her. But most importantly that they cared about her.
Maybe she was an idiot for not noticing how much they cared. The idiotic psychic would’ve made a great headline.