The Sentinels come on, make it easy, say i never mattered.

This was a fun one. Yes, please, Fennec. Explain why it upset you so bad that he didn't seem to care about leaving things like this.

Really it wasn't even entirely that. She didn't like the idea of spending the next year alone, with no one to talk to outside of her brother. She loved her brother but come on, he was her brother. And she really didn't like the idea of potentially just never seeing him again.

He, on the other hand, seemed to be perfectly fucking cool with it. And that there was why she wasn't saying a god damn word.

Maybe they did. Like I said, Penn. Have a nice life.

To her credit, that actually was an answer. It was vague as fuck and not very helpful, but if he managed to somehow decode the fifty levels of bullshit Fennec's brain always managed to encode everything in, that was the problem.

Either way, he was going to have to follow her if he wanted to keep talking because that joke was definitely not enough to keep her from continuing to try and bounce.

Penn didn't want her to go, but something seemed right somehow in their conversation ending with her storming away. He smiled wistfully as he watched her go, though it was pained. What if he really never did see her again? What if this truly was the last time?

He somehow didn't think so. Her irritation with him had brightened his mood enough to make him feel more hopeful. Their paths had crossed so many times by accident. He felt sure that they would again. Besides, it was always better for Fennec to be mad at him than indifferent towards him. It was their love language.

"Love you too," Penn said, mostly to himself. The words drew a shift in his attitude, bringing his attention back to what had just happened, what was happening, and what he needed to do next. He breathed deep and shut his eyes before he too turned to go. Much as he wanted to go after her, he had things to do first.


He'd go after her later.

If there was one positive about her being tilted at Penn, at least it distracted her from the rest of everything.  She wanted him to follow and tell her he didn't want her to go, but of course he wouldn't.  If he wanted her to come he'd have already said it.  It really had been stupid of her to dig for it.  Like Penn would ever be smart enough to catch a fucking hint.

It really was better this way.  She tried to convince herself of that, but as she walked away from another lifeline, she felt her breath begin to catch.  She was far enough away for Penn not to hear or see her, which was all she needed.  She stopped and pressed the top of her head against the rough bark of a tree, breathing in and out slowly.

This was so fucked.

There was no one she could depend on when shit went sideways except for Figment.  She needed to learn to be okay with that but, for some reason, she kept running to the same places and expecting different outcomes.  And why?

She knew the answer.  She just didn't want to acknowledge it.

She took a few moments to collect herself before she moved on to find where her brother was scouting.  She wouldn't tell him she ran into Penn.  There was no real reason to, after all.