A Shoulder To Cry On (Augusta)

[Piper Wren]

Piper was expecting Augusta to drop by her room at some point this evening, his relationship with Kristopher had once again become strained...and he seemed to be in need of a shoulder to cry on. Supporting her friend was never a problem for Piper and it brought welcome respite to her own problems, it was always easier to deal with the cracks in someone elses soul than your own. While she waited for Augusta to arrive, Piper stood infront of the cracked mirror on the wall, examining her bruised face, the darker purple mark ringing her eye fading out to pale brown where the healing had begun. She wished it would fade faster but there was little she could do other than cover it at the moment. She let her hall fall back across the right side of her face to make her look relatively normal...Piper did the last of the buttons on her shirt all the way to her throat with her good hand to cover the other marks on her body, her skin resembling a patchwork quilt in some places.

Glad to have it all covered in the too large shirt with swathed her figure in fabric, the cuff covering her left hand so her strapped fingers wouldn't be visible. She was as ready as she could be to have company at this point, only Elric knew about her little incident and she hoped to keep the details to herself. With a sigh she seated herself on her bed, waiting for Augusta to turn up. Piper hadn't seen much of her friend lately due to everything that had been happening so it would be nice to spend the time with him...even if he wasn't in the best of places at the moment.

'I hope things will be alright with Kris and Augusta, they're probably one of the only things which give this place some vague normalcy.'

[Augusta Davingoun]

Augusta hand been through a heck of a lot with Kris lately. Kris lost his eye, Augusta suddenly got very sick without warning, Jouhnin snapped and beat Augusta to death, Kristopher saw Augy die (even if it was only for a minute or so), and then Augusta found out Kristopher was smoking and drinking to cope with the stress. Then they had a fight, and Augy was pissed and depressed and had so many feelings mixed up that he couldn't stand it anymore. He was about to snap in half at this rate. Plus, the new-made scar over his eye wasn't helping either. It just seemed to be a sore reminded of why he was the leader of the rebellion, and why he was going to kill every Boogie who got in his way.

But right Augusta didn't look anything like the rebel leader. He was pale, deathly pale, and he coughed constantly, he walked around slowly, and was made to do simple chores because he didn't have the strength or the energy to do manual labor anymore. He decided he needed to go see his good friend Dr. Wren. Piper should have been his sister anyway, they looked and acted so much alike that they could be related. It was no doubt that rumors had gone around sometime that suggested they were siblings, but both he and Piper knew their similarity was just a coincidence.

Augusta walked silently into room 1, being careful not to draw any attention to himself on the way there. He walked silently to Piper's door and just stared at her with a pathetic look on his face. There was a bit of blood on his cheek, were he had obviously tried to wipe some of it away. He was coughing so hard he bled sometimes. He looked like shit really, almost as bad as Piper did. He didn't hesitate though, he quickly walked over to her and practically fell into her arms bawling. He wrapped his big arms around her waist and used her shoulder as a sponge and just let loose. Apparently, instead of smoking like Kris, Augy was just going to assault people with tears to relieve his stress.

[Piper Wren]

When Piper finally caught sight of Augusta there was a lump in her throat, he was in a worse state than she was...there was almost a childlike expression on his face, someone who just wanted comfort. She didn't really get much of a chance to say anything before her friend came over and wrapped his arms around her waist, burying his head in her shoulder and sobbing. Piper gritted her teeth and held back a gasp at the pain the initial contact between them caused her, Augusta wasn't to know what she was hiding beneath her shirt but that didn't mean it didn't hurt...She tensed until the pain began to subside, trying not to let the contact between them send her back into the panic she used to regularly experience when she first came to Wonderland. That had started cropping up again ever since her last encounter with Iugo and his threat to rape her, Piper was starting to feel like a target for sexual abuse. Was she born with a sign over her head which said 'I'm here for you to use.'

Anyway for now that wasn't important, she pushed those thoughts out of her head and focused on Augusta. Once the sharp pain had subsided she hugged him gently back, stroking his hair like you would do to a child. Things must be especially bad for him this time, normally he was just as skeptical as her about physical contact but to fall into her arms like that, something really had to be wrong.

"Hush, it's ok..."

[Augusta Davingoun]

Augusta must have been crying into Piper's shoulder for five minutes or so before his bawling turned to soft sobs. He sniffed and shook and shivered and was having a huge mental breakdown. He felt her arms around him and her saying it was okay. He wanted to think that but he knew it wasn't true. After another couple minutes he slowly started to stop crying, he pulled away from Piper and wiped the tears off his face. He sniffled two or three times before fixing his glasses and running his hands through his hair.

"I'm sorry Piper... I...I'm just really stressed right now!" he said and felt tears swell up again. He wiped them away furiously and sighed softly. " everything is so...so...so... messed up right now... I don't know what to do! Everything is falling apart!!" he said and then felt the water run down his face again. He tried desperately to wipe away the tears and stop crying. He felt stupid crying in front of Piper

" Kris is smoking and drinking and I'm really sick and we had a fight and now he's probably with Kyle and Kyle HATES me and I know Kyle is gonna try to take him away from me and Jou is so angry lately and I don't know why and I died, Piper I died for like four minutes and Kris was really upset and I broke a plate last week and I can't go outside cause I get sick if I stay outside in the sun for too long and Piper!!! I have a scar now Piper!!" he was really having a breakdown. He was panting from speaking without a single breath and he was crying and he clenching his fists. He hung is head and his body shook with each sob and gasp of air he took.

[Piper Wren]

I'm sorry Piper... I...I'm just really stressed right now! Everything is so...so...so... messed up right now... I don't know what to do! Everything is falling apart!! Kris is smoking and drinking and I'm really sick and we had a fight and now he's probably with Kyle and Kyle HATES me and I know Kyle is gonna try to take him away from me and Jou is so angry lately and I don't know why and I died, Piper I died for like four minutes and Kris was really upset and I broke a plate last week and I can't go outside cause I get sick if I stay outside in the sun for too long and Piper!!! I have a scar now Piper!!"

Once Augusta had pulled away from her, Piper couldn't get a word in edgewise, Augusta seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack. When he finally stopped for a breath, Piper took him gently by the wrist with her good hand and sat him down on her bed. Wiping his tears away with the cuff of her open cuff with a sisterly care, careful to keep her bad hand behind her back all the while. Luckily her black eye was securely covered by her curtain of black hair, no bruises had a chance of falling out...Piper gently touched Augusta's cheek with her fingertips, feeling her own distress over his obvious pain.

"You need to breathe slower or going to hyperventilate...I know, I know things have gone to shit and I'm so sorry that I wasn't there for you when some of it happened. After dying even for just four minutes you're not going to be in peak condition right away, and carrying on fighting won't help. Kristopher is just scared that he might lose you if it carries on."

Piper removed her hand from Augusta's face and gently squeezed his clenched fist...she never lost her head even under all of this. She offered comfort but spoke sense at the same time, it wasn't really any wonder why some of her friends jokingly referred to her as Dr Wren...

"Kris has his own ways of dealing with stress, his are more hazardous to his health, yes but you can't force him to stop. He has to stop it of his own accord, once things calm down I'm sure he'll start coming off it, you two will be fine...having a relatively stable couple shows a human relationship can work even here, it's one of the only senses of normalcy we have here...but right now if you need to vent, go right ahead....I'm listening."