#x. r. | the sound of your voice {flynn && rainer} | ☾

[miidnighters]

@fangmother | liked for a starter

"Do you see the little crab? There? Isn't he cute?"

[miidnighters]

Ah - so it is like seals then. Rainer didn't have two at once, so didn't have to worry about picking a favourite. This is something he understands - and in fact, he's so busy thinking about this that he doesn't pick up on her odd phrasing. Though, odd phrasing is not something that worries him anyway. Humans say all sorts of incredibly odd things that he doesn't always keep up with.

"Wait, you did?" This instantly puts Rainer amongst the coolest people he's ever met (it's not a long list, and she was already close). "That's so cool." Ludwig must be Rainer's son, and he tucks the name away in case he ever needs it in the future. "Aren't they the ones that spit?" Flynn squints unseeing eyes, trying to think. He remembers having felt Elara's alpaca wool scarf, and if patting the real thing was anything like that (sans spitting), he thinks it would be nice too, turning his head to say as much.

"Mm, not really. I was very young when my son came into my life, and he was mostly-grown by the time my daughter did," the phrasing there is strange, but she doesn't want to lie to him on purpose. Just through omission. "And she's grown now, too. I think I've ended up with empty nest syndrome, and it's made me a bit.... overly sympathetic toward defenseless creatures."

She laughs a little bit into her fist, and replies, "I used to have one, actually. His name was Regnet, he was a wonderful little pack animal, and he was very gentle and patient with Ludwig and not really so with anyone else." She didn't keep animals around that didn't get along with the kid, but luckily it seemed like every stray animal in the northern hemisphere enjoyed his company. Or unluckily, for her, since he wanted to keep all of them. "I've never pet an alpaca, I think they'd be nice to pet."

[miidnighters]

@fangmother sent

A rat has scrambled across her boot, and without missing a beat in her sentence she reaches down and grabs it around the body and tosses it whimsically into the bushes a few feet away. It squeaks dramatically. She's still talking about safe bike lanes.

They're walking side by side, Flynn's largely useless (especially at this time of night) cane swinging in front of him, clacking against the pavement. He doesn't see the rat's initial run (maybe he's too invested in what Rainer's saying? More likely he's simply swept up in the cadence of her accent) but he definitely sees her toss the rat aside without missing a beat. It squeaks, and Flynn gapes.

"Wait, what the fuck. Did you just throw a rat? Rainer!"

[miidnighters]

@fangmother | continued from h e r e

Flynn is absolutely firetruck red.

"I - no, it's not rude, per say, it's just-"

He doesn't actually know what it's just, too busy feeling mortified that they were talking about this at all. Sure he couldn't see Rainer but she could see him, and there was nothing worse than talking about something embarrassing with someone you wanted to impress.

[miidnighters]

@fangmother | u didn't think i forgot did u! referencing t h i s

Now, Flynn is not the sneakiest boy around. Hard to be, when you're reliant on everyone else. So where Rainer was able to spring a surprise on him, he instead has to call her to meet at a cafe. He's already ordered - and paid for - both coffees, and now waits for her to sit down, trying very hard to play it cool.

It's only when she's settled that he pulls the gift out of his backpack - shoddily wrapped, but acceptable. Inside, is a Kafka book he hopes she hasn't read yet (in any case, it has a pretty cloth cover that he hopes she'll like) and a CD in a plain case with For Rainer written on it in a handwriting that's clearly not his. One of his own songs, that he's had help to burn, made just for her.

"Payback," Flynn says smugly. "For the Christmas gift."

[miidnighters]

Rainer leaves Flynn a basket of little loaves of bread-- blueberry lemon, cinnamon apple, babka, cranberry orange, the list goes on. She calls him and leaves him a voicemail:

"Happy Valentine's day, baby," her voice sounds grainier on the phone. "I left you a gift on your table, I hope you don't mind. The loaves freeze well, if you don't feel like sharing. And thank you. Okay, good luck out there. Goodbye!"

@fangmother

Flynn listens to the voicemail as he's making his way home - to be met at first with a very confused Elara, wondering who the hell broke in and why they only left a basket of bread.

Subsequent insistences of "that's just my friend Rainer," do not clear things up, so Flynn plays Elara the voicemail, hoping it will ease her mind long enough that he can skirt around her and snag one of the loaves to munch on.

This too backfires once Rainer's crackly voice comes through, and Elara lets out a delighted "She called you baby!"

The following conversation goes something like this:

"She calls everyone baby!" "Maybe, but she made you bread. That's not store bought." "Maybe she made everyone bread! Rainer's doing a religious thing right now, I don't know how much bread it involves."

Things devolve into a discussion of Lent, but when Elara's husband Ned returns home that night, she cordially invites him to try some of the bread that Flynnie's girlfriend made.

[miidnighters]

@fangmother said “   What even are daddy issues? Just traumatize your father back. ”

"Where I'm from, dads don't like. Stick around that long. They mate and then the mum takes care of the kids and then they come back the next year and do it all over again." Flynn's fingers tap idly as he considers this. Harbour seals were more monogamous than most, but that still wasn't monogamous like humans were. "I wouldn't call that like. Traumatic though."

And that was without the layer that before all of this had happened, he himself was of mating age and might have a pup out there. Bad fathers all the way down.

[miidnighters]

@fangmother | continued from ☾

Flynn is flushed and fidgeting and wringing his hands, because of all the things he had meant to come out of his mouth just then, that was not it. Not that he regrets saying it - he does think Rainer's beautiful. The way she sounds and the way she thinks and the few times he's been able to actually see her.

"Um. You're welcome." Because you're sweet is kind of a thankyou, right? "And no, no favours. Though I'm hoping you like me enough that I wouldn't need to butter you up." this is fine. He's smoothing back out from his initial embarrassment, as long as it all gets swept under the rug.

"I was going to ask though. Or offer. However, this sentence should work grammatically." A pause (it's not that big of a deal if he mixes that up. Not here). "My college is having a showcase in a couple of weeks and some of my work is being featured. I wondered if you'd like to come."

[miidnighters]

@fangmother | birthday !

A postcard arrives in Berlin. It depicts the rocky shore of Maine, with several seals sleeping on the shore. On the other side, in the same distinctly not-Flynn handwriting is written:

Dear Rainer, Happy birthday! Hope you're not working too hard and your kids are spoiling you. Hope to see you when you're back this way again. x Flynn

[miidnighters]

@fangmother | starter

Flynn's not sad. He's not. He's not disappointed, or any of that.

(It's a lie, of course. If you asked Elara, she might have called him positively despondent).

Rainer hadn't had any obligations to come to his showcase, of course, even though she'd said she'd clear her schedule for it. Flynn understood that things came up, though it hadn't stopped him from keeping his ears open all night for her distinctive voice since there had been no message or anything to indicate he shouldn't.

However, it had, in a bout of pettiness (or childishness, maybe), disguised as leaving her be and letting her do whatever was so important, meant that he hasn't reached out to her since. Not that they texted often, but often enough that he'd get a heads up when he was going to be in town next and they could meet up for a chat.

Not that he was hard to track down, if Rainer were of a mind to.

[miidnighters]

@fangmother | valentine's day !

Flynn is very serious when he goes to the florist and asks for something you'd send to someone you really admire but in like a this person's so cool, they've lived so much life, I enjoy hearing everything they have to say kind of way and less in a I want to take them on a date kind of way (which isn't to say he's not aware of his little crush. He's just also realistic).

The florist at least has the grace to save her laugh until after he's left, wrapping up the bouquet to send on with a small note:

Rainer, Thanks for being my friend. Flynn

[miidnighters]

@fangmother | continued from ☾

The lingering dark is just enough that he can see some bits and pieces. Like the dark colouring on her throat that's not shadows. He catalogues the weariness on her face, a frown tinging his own.

"I- are you okay?" He's gesturing at his own throat, less concerned about remembering he's not supposed to be able to see it than he is about the state of her. "Like, I always like spending time with you but if you need to put something on that?" Ice? Is that what it was? No - what did they do in the movies? Giant slabs of meat? "We can go another time."

[miidnighters]

His head tilts towards her when she sighs, because that's definitely how he feels too.

"A couple of hours?" It's a guess more than anything. It felt like forever, and certainly had been a while before he'd been allowed to text her. Or rather, unsupervised long enough. He takes the offered items, tucking his cane between his knees so that he can crack open the water. "She's going to kill me." His aunt, he means - but first they're probably going to have to pull her off the other guy.

She curls a lip distastefully at one of the officers lingering around, and he wisely decides that fiddling with the paperwork on his desk wasn't worth it. He slips away, and she snags his chair and pulls it close to sit next to Flynn with a soft sigh.

"We'll get you out, and I'll take you home if you like," she reaches into her bag and pulls out a bottle of water and a meal bar, both of which she presses into his hands. "Here, that'll even you out a bit. How long have you been here?"

[miidnighters]

He does appreciate her self-restraint, but that appreciation wavers when she coos at him (it feels like an outright thing, to his ears).

"She only laughs like that when I go past. Not like how she laughs with her friends." His shoulders are a little hunched around his ears - Flynn's aware of how much this is revealing about how much attention he pays to this girl. "I tripped once," Not a flat on his face thing, luckily, but definitely a stumble. "and she must have seen because she lets out this little laugh every time since." It's just unfortunate that he thinks she has a pretty laugh, even if it might be at his expense.

"They absolutely are," she replies. The only reason she sounds so grave is because she's trying very hard not to laugh at him. She's very kind and thoughtful, and he should appreciate her self-restraint.

Now, on the subject of living laughing and loving, she can't help the delighted sigh that escapes her. "Aw, baby," she manages not to outright coo, but it's a near thing. She feels like cupid suddenly, helping young people in love. Or, well. In crush. "What makes you think she's laughing at you?"

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It's her dry tone that tells him that maybe he's said something awkward, so he ducks his head a little. "Sorry." It's sheepish - but Rainer doesn't stop talking, so Flynn figures it's okay. "Is there a big age difference between them, then?"

Ah - at that, his grin becomes more mischievous again. "I already liked him, but I wasn't going to pass up the treats. Elara never let me have that many sweets." At first, it was because she wasn't sure if the sugar was good for him, being part seal, and then it was because clearly his system wasn't used to the amount of sugar he wanted to put into it. "Does Ludwig's" He's very careful to pronounce the name right. "husband not come to Berlin with him? That must be hard for them, separated like that."

She lifts a brow, but she supposes as far as comments about a woman's age go, that one may be one of the most innocuous. "Yeah, I'm forty eight," she informs him dryly, "I had my son when I was... I don't know, seventeen? My daughter is adopted, though. She'll be quick to tell you that."

Settling her chin on her fist, she smiles a little bit. "Yeah, pure bribery. Did it work?" A laugh. "Ludwig and I hang out a lot, he lives in Berlin half the year and in Canada with his husband the other half. Alisson travels a lot too, sometimes I'll meet her weird places on accident."

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On the phone to Rainer was probably both the best and worst time for this to happen. It takes another moment for him to answer, tangled up in his headphone cords and assessing the places that hurt (he's definitely skinned a knee - typical- and maybe twisted something?) and figuring out which way was up after he'd gone ass over tit. "I'm good, this happens all the time." Which, as far as being a thing to say that wouldn't make her worry, was not it. He's lying., anyway. "Uh. I was aiming for the park, the one near the cafe we go to? I just passed the cross street."

@miidnighters says: we're fine. we fell in a hole. (flynn)

Rainer nearly drops her phone, because honestly that was the last answer she'd expected when she heard the commotion over the other end of the line. "What? What the fuck? Are you alright?" She asks him, already breaking into a jog though she doesn't know exactly where the fuck she's going. "Like, far? Do you know where you're at?"