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[allthelifethereis]

Bill can't shake the feeling that he's being followed. After class let out, he'd decided to walk home by a more circuitous route so that he could get a coffee and maybe something for dessert. And somehow, he'd picked up a tail.

For about the third time, he stops, shifting the strap of his bag against his chest and glancing over his shoulder, an amused smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"Hi," he says, finally. "Can I help with with something?"

Comments

[ratherbebrave]

Hilde doesn't mean to be following Bill — at least, not at first. As usual, what she's chasing is a story, only it turns out to be a dead end, leaving her bored and sort of frustrated, and in that frustrated boredom, she winds up, well, following along after Bill. If he were a stranger, she wouldn't, or she'd just be more inconspicuous about it, but she doesn't think it's really going to bother him, either.

The way he smiles when he stops and turns seems to prove her right in that regard, and she smiles back at him. "You probably wouldn't believe me if I said I just happened to be walking this way, would you?"

[allthelifethereis]

Bill likes Hilde a lot. They don't know each other that well, but he knows her enough to be charmed and, when she tries that line on him, he smirks, shaking his head.

"Sorry," he says, shaking his head. "No dice."

[ratherbebrave]

"Didn't think so," Hilde replies with an exaggerated sigh. It isn't, of course, as if it really matters, or as if she has anything to hide. Were she currently investigating something, she would probably have a cover story ready on hand, but right now, she doesn't need it. Bill is really nice, and someone who's never seemed to dismiss her based on her age.

"I was on a story, but it didn't go anywhere, and then I was bored." She doesn't add that she then started following him, but she trusts that part to speak for itself.

[allthelifethereis]

"I don't think following me is going to do much for being bored," he says, tiltng his head and raising an eyebrow as he looks down at her. "I was just going to get a coffee and do some writing. Nothing particularly interesting."

[ratherbebrave]

"What are you writing?" Hilde asks, happy to grasp at that particular thread whether Bill thinks it's interesting or not. As a writer, and the daughter of a writer, there are few topics she finds more appealing. "That is, if it's not some big secret. I totally get it if it is."

[allthelifethereis]

"It's a horror novel," says Bill. "Definitely not a secret. It'll be my first one published here, although you can find a few of the ones I wrote back home, sometimes. Mostly in second hand stores, which..." He grins. "Not great for my ego, honestly." He glances down the street. "You want a milkshake, Hilde?"

[ratherbebrave]

"I would love a milkshake, Bill," Hilde replies, giving him a bright smile. She's hardly about to turn down an offer like that, especially when what got her in this whole predicament is being bored. "And maybe you can tell me a little about that horror novel? I tend to stick to nonfiction, but still, pretty interesting."

[allthelifethereis]

"Then let's make it happen," he says, pointing towards the place he'd been heading to, anyway. "I could probably go for a milkshake instead of a coffee, actually. Plus, that place does really good tray bakes, so..." He turns, falling into step with her. "I'll tell you as much about it as you like."

[ratherbebrave]

"Awesome," Hilde says with a grin, following along beside him. Even if horror isn't a genre she's overly familiar with, she's also not averse to it, not someone who gets freaked out too easily. It's real things that tend to unsettle her more, anyway. She still sometimes has nightmares about Richie Fife, even now that she knows his story had a happy ending. "The only thing better than talking about writing is talking about writing with baked goods."

[allthelifethereis]

"This is why we're friends, Hilde," says Bill, flashing her a little smile as they fall into step. He's got this down to a fine art, actually -- judging friendship with people who are much younger than him. He might not have grown up with Hilde, but it's basically the same process. "You're a woman after my own heart."

[ratherbebrave]

"What can I say?" Hilde replies, grinning up at him in turn, broad and almost teasing. "We both have really good taste." Her dad would like Bill, too, she thinks. It's a kind of strange thought, and one she doesn't want to dwell on too much for the sake of not getting too homesick, but she feels certain of it all the same. It's just a vibe, maybe, but a good one.

[allthelifethereis]

The shop he has in mind isn't far, and Hilde's pretty much always roaming the city on her own so he doesn't feel like he's abducting her or anything. Things are different in a place like Darrow, he figures. He pulls out his phone and shoots Neil a text, explains where he is, what he's doing, why he'll be a little later than he meant to be.

"There," he says, putting his phone away. "Told my date that I'm cancelling on him."

[ratherbebrave]

"Bill, I'm flattered," Hilde says, somehow managing to sound both wry and sincere. She is, after all, appreciative of his taking time away from anything else he could be doing to hang out with her, something many adults aren't too interested in doing. She just wouldn't sincerely say so outright or make a big thing of it. "And, hey, not bored anymore."

[allthelifethereis]

"Guess we can chalk it up as a win, then," says Bill. They get to the cafe and he steps ahead of her so that he can open the door and hold it. "Make sure you message home and let them know where you are, okay?"

[ratherbebrave]

"Always do," Hilde says, already taking her phone out of her pocket to do so. "The staff at the Home get on my case all the time about making sure they know where I am." They probably wouldn't do so if she weren't constantly running off or missing curfew, but she wouldn't have to do that if she were home with her family. All this oversight just drives her crazy. "It's pretty excessive."

[allthelifethereis]

"I bet," says Bill. "I actually sprung two of my buddies from there a while ago. Didn't feel right to let them stay there when I was old enough to act in loco parentis, you know?" Hilde is such a little adult; he can only imagine how much being accountable must get on her nerves.

[ratherbebrave]

"That's really cool of you," Hilde replies, utterly earnest. Although there's a part of her that feels a little guilty for it, when first and foremost she misses her family, she can't help hoping someone will do the same for her eventually. She'd sort of thought Roy might, after letting her use his spare bedroom as a makeshift office, but he disappeared before anything could come of it. "I can't believe I've lived there as long as I have now."

[allthelifethereis]

"It's kind of weird," he says. "Because home, we're the same age but here, I'm like...a grown-up, so, yeah." He shrugs. A little pang of sympathy throbs in his chest. "How long's it been?"

[ratherbebrave]

"It's been..." Trailing off, Hilde purses her lips thoughtfully, brow furrowed as she tries to come up with the right figure. "Just under two years. It'll be two on Halloween." On one hand, two years is a staggering figure, a whole sixth of her life. On the other, though, it often feels like so much longer than it actually has been. It used to be that she couldn't wait to grow up. The years stretching out in front of her now are more than a little daunting.

[allthelifethereis]

That's such a long time. His mouth tightens, for a minute. He's not going to say anything to her now, but he might need to be having a conversation with Neil. They could find space, surely. They could make it.

"I'm sorry," he says. "That's...Yeah." He knows better than to treat her like a kid and try to minimise what she must be feeling.

[ratherbebrave]

"A long time? Yeah," Hilde finishes for him, nodding. It might not sound like all that much, but it feels like an eternity. She imagines that would be the case for plenty of adults, too; that two years is a pretty significant portion of her life so far only adds to it.

"You've been here even longer, right? You were here when I got here."

[allthelifethereis]

Bill nods at that.

"Yeah. I've been here..." He pauses, thinking about it. "Just over three years. Jesus. I met Neil like...a month after I got here." Impulsively, he reaches out and squeezes Hilde's shoulder.

[ratherbebrave]

"That soon, huh?" Hilde asks, her smile a teasing one. She would much rather think about that than about how long she's been away from her family. Granted, she won't assume that Bill doesn't have people he misses too, but at least he's gotten something good from being here.

It's not a bad place, she thinks, just a difficult one.

"Sounds like that worked out well, at least."

[allthelifethereis]

She's got the weirdest way of talking to him, sometimes, like he's a peer, not an adult -- like they're a similar age. He smiles though, nodding his head.

"Yeah," he says, "It's worked out pretty well."

[ratherbebrave]

"Good," Hilde says, warm and approving. That whole relationship thing might be one subject she doesn't understand firsthand yet — anything like that is, for her, a long way off, if it ever comes at all — but that doesn't mean she can't be truly, earnestly happy for people who do find it, especially with as unlikely as it seems in a place like this.

"That's pretty cool. Show up in a weird alternate dimension, find someone you just click with."