Perhaps We'll Meet Another Day

Days Gone By

Having gotten no sleep throughout the few hours he'd gone back to bed in the guest trailer, Law spent the time staring up at the ceiling once more, willing himself to get some sort of rest before the coming morning. It left him wondering when his body stopped listening to him. The occasional thumps of footsteps above him were the only noise marking any sort of passage of time, and the hours felt like days, really. He tossed and turned in an effort to get comfy. Nothing changed. Despite feeling exhausted, his mind would not rest.

The constant mulling over his and Margaret's conversation just previously before wasn't helping him. Law couldn't get himself to rid the picture of her crying, shaking form from his mind. How broken and defeated she'd seemed, quite different from the public image she worked so hard to maintain. It was understandable, though. No one wanted to follow a leader who couldn't even keep themselves together. Yet, the vulnerable fear in her eyes had surprised him. He'd expected nothing at all, no emotion he could detect, a sign of her deception. But the sheer volume of emotion she'd portrayed was something he couldn't ignore, or chalk up to simple drunkenness.

There was more to Margaret than he'd first believed. Whether that unforeseen side was good or not had yet to be determined, but there was definitely something to her. And the strange longing glances he'd seen her send his way more than once the day before were a bit unnerving. Not quite as alarming as the first time, but a part of him couldn't help but wonder what exactly it was she wanted from him. A relationship? Just sex? The latter would be more preferable of the two options. If it was even what was going on. Perhaps he was entirely overthinking the situation.

He wouldn't lie. She was certainly an attractive person, physically appealing by social standards and had they been different circumstances and the right conditions, Law wouldn't have disregarded the idea. But he felt no emotional connection to her whatsoever, nor did he see himself doing so in the near future, but as Penguin had once stated so blatantly and without shame, a man has needs, no matter how long he tries to suppress them. Hmm. He supposed a woman did too, and as far as he knew, it'd been two years since anyone had had anything close to sex. He'd just have to see where the circumstances took her.

Needless to say, the next morning did not magically go back to normal. This was no surprise. He hadn't expected it to, what with all the pent-up frustrations his friends had displayed. Well, Penguin more so than Shachi, admittedly. A spark of hope remained, that maybe there was a chance they could fix things, to return to the way they were before. If Shachi wasn't too angry with him, maybe he was the connection.

When the sky began to lighten, and he started to hear the opening of trailer doors outside, he knew that he'd have to face his two friends sooner rather than later. He was hopeful of a good outcome, but too much of a realist to expect anything remotely close to his hopes. Closing his eyes in dread, he tried to envision how that confrontation would go. Maybe Penguin would find a few more things to yell at him for, to blame him for, whether he deserved it or not. Mostly he deserved it though. How many other things did his friends have pent up in there, ready to lash out for? How long had he himself been clueless to their opinions? Too long, obviously.

From his position on the bed, he could hear the creak and shift of the trailer as one of his companions began to awaken. Lifting his head up a few inches to see over his feet, Law watched as Shachi groaned, rubbing at his head sleepily. Mouth wide open in a yawn, he cracked open an eye as he sat up at the edge of the bed.

Law resorted to sitting up instead of remaining lying down on the bed, elbows resting casually on his knees with crossed legs. If they were going to have this discussion now, hell, if Shachi would even want to speak to him, he would do so properly. From his seat on the bed, he watched as Shachi paused, having spotted Law in the other bedroom. Confusion, then relief, then apprehension flashed through his eyes, fearful of something Law couldn't quite understand. "Law?"