timey_wimey | [RL - Lockon, Nena, Tieria, CB as a whole - Damage Control is my middle name!]

[To say that the past few days had been... interesting... would have been an understatement even by the Doctor's standards. Dealing with unstable and unsavoury people was part of his everyday life, but when said person was someone you saw as a son, under the effects of a virus, it was rather different. Especially when said person was also intent on apparently wrecking all his relationships.

Including the one that he was already wrecking by sheer virtue of his own obliviousness.

Still! Damage control was in order, and since he wasn't in the mood to have any part of the might of Celestial Being brought down against him - and since he was also pretty sick of the obliviousness and moping of certain people who he would not name - he was now busily piloting the TARDIS towards Lagrange point 3, circa 2309.

If truth be told, he'd known this would probably be coming for a while, he thought glumly. Even if this visit was temporary, he knew it was only a matter of time now before Lockon also left the TARDIS for good to go back to the organisation. He hadn't thought it would be quite like this, but... he still wasn't relishing the thought of him leaving, whatever way it happened.

No point in thinking about that though, not when there was going to be some sort of 'throwdown' once they got there. He busily piloted the TARDIS, throwing a final lever so that it materialised right on the Lagrange base.]

Well, here we are.

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[Now that the darkness can't hide him, Tieria covers his face with his hands. He doesn't know what to do, or even if Lockon's really there - after all, this wouldn't be the first time he's hallucinated his presence. In an oddly detached way, Tieria thinks about how easy it would be for that to be the case. He's sleep deprived, emotional, highly stressed...

He pushes his fingers into his hair, gripping at the strands in handfuls.]

[It's with a heavy, guilty heart and a small, concerned frown that Lockon slides a slightly hesitant arm around Tieria's shoulders. He doesn't know if Tieria wants it there - wants him here at all - but he can't not offer some kind of comfort to a friend in this state, whether the arm's shrugged off or not.]

[Softly:] Come on, Tieria. You know better than to take some stupid thing said under a virus seriously.

[As far as Tieria knows, hallucinations aren't supposed to be able to touch you. Which means this is really Lockon. Tieria's tired of feeling so unstable that this is the only way he can verify Lockon's presence, he's tired of the way it's so easy for Lockon to make him cry, he's tired of being tired. It's the slightest of movements that allows him to lean against Lockon, and he remains silent.

He has nothing to say to that. He should know better, he really should. But what Lockon said, that he blamed Tieria for what happened... it was too easy to believe. Because Tieria still blamed himself for what happened.]

[When Tieria leans against him, however small the movement, the tacit acceptance is enough. Lockon's one-armed hug tightens a little, drawing the other man closer, and his thumb strokes Tieria's shoulder in an attempt at soothing comfort.

Tieria's quietness isn't positive, but it's not entirely unexpected, either. Lockon might be an idiot when it comes to others' feelings about him a lot of the time, but even he could pick on on Tieria's guilt - even without how explicit about it his post had been. And Lockon knows guilt, knows how easy it is to blame yourself, convince yourself of something so negative, and it's not like he doesn't know Tieria well enough to realise he does the same thing. But here, in this situation, the other man should have nothing to feel guilty about - to know that he, even outside his control, spread the thoughts deeper...

He doesn't think that's all that's going on with Tieria right now. But it's the most pressing issue, and it's the one that's the most his fault. Hopefully, it's one he's got a chance of fixing.

His voice is still soft, but firm.] You know me better than that, don't you? If I really thought that about you, you'd know.

You're my friend, Tieria. I don't blame you. I never have, and I never will.

[Allowing Lockon to pull him closer, Tieria leans against Lockon a little more, head resting on his shoulder, body turned slightly more towards him.

It would be so easy to believe him. To listen to those soothing words and let himself forget the lead chain around his neck. But Tieria can't. Finally hearing what he'd expected to all along had hit him too hard. It had felt too right. Tieria knew all about keeping things hidden, how aggravating it was to let them slip, how easy it was to deny them afterwards. It would take more than that to convince him that Lockon hadn't been spilling a sick truth held deep in his heart.

And to top it all off, it was a stupid word like friend that pushed the tears over the edge and let them fall.]

[As soon as he realises Tieria's crying, he tilts his body more towards the other Meister and wraps his other arm around him as well, turning it into a true hug.]

Listen, I just crawled through the ventilation shafts between here and the cargo bay to get to you as fast as possible. Give me one reason why I'd do that if I actually cared so little about you. [Despite the hint of humour playing around his words, he's totally serious.]

[This embrace lets the first few sobs escape, lets Tieria choke them into Lockon's shirt as he brings his hands up to grab fistfuls of the fabric.]

I. I d-don't know! [It comes out as a high-pitched, stuttered mess, but it's the truth. Tieria doesn't know what to think anymore. He wants to believe Lockon, knows he shouldn't, and finds himself starting to do so anyway. He's being weak again, but he doesn't know how to stop.]

[Lockon doesn't say anything in reply for a while. Just holds the embrace, rubbing Tieria's back gently in an attempt at soothing. There only so much he can say to that, after all. In the end, it's up to Tieria whether to believe him.]

I don't make a habit of hanging around with people who aren't worth my time, Tieria. Even less people who I don't like. I don't have anything to gain by lying to you about this, do I?

[RL - Lockon, Nena, Tieria, CB as a whole - Damage Control is my middle name!]

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