Bad News (Coprolalia Part Three)

Chapter Fifteen

Picture credit: writeitforthefandom

Celeste stood in front of the mirror, her hands white around the sides of the sink.

She'd already taken off the makeup and declawed herself. She'd even managed to use some angel mojo to erase the tattoo.

They'd had to leave the bunker six hours ago. Cel had gone back with Claire and Ben to their apartment. She had nowhere else to go. They were sleeping.

She'd had time to think, because her head had been relatively quiet... but she honestly would rather have had Carter and Lucy chattering away than the persistent thoughts of 'Julien said that he still loves me' and 'Julien doesn't see me'.

So Cel was doing something she promised herself she'd never do.

She'd be seeing Julien tomorrow, and honestly... more than anything she just wanted to be able to talk to him again without feeling like a piece of her was dying.

If he couldn't see that she was still in there, that she was just smaller than he remembered, then she'd make it easier. She'd taken all the makeup off, she'd declawed, she'd replaced the ripped jeans and ripped black tank top with a Bastille T-shirt, regular dark jeans, and a black leather jacket, and she'd washed the curls back into her hair. Now she just had to get that damn red out of her hair.

Celeste closed her eyes and concentrated, hard.

When she opened them, it was like staring at a ghost.

The girl staring back at her was thinner and harder and way less soft than the old one, but Cel liked it better than the punk rock princess. It felt good to see herself with no makeup, with no darkness. She was the same blue eyed, curly brown haired girl from England that she'd been four years ago.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Julien sighed as he sat back in the bench in the park.

"Why are we here, exactly?" He hissed to Jesse, who was standing next to him.

"You and Celeste need to work out your issues in a public place so that you're sort of alone, but you can't murder each other." Jesse shrugged. They were in a new park that had been built around the area where the nuclear fallout from New York City ended.

"She cut my face." Julien replied. "And I'm pretty sure she hates me."

"Oh, you two love each other. You both just have crippling issues with abandonment and trust." Jesse shrugged. "Claire and I will be staying in the general area to make sure neither of you kill the other."

There was a faint rustling sound that he could only hear because nearly no one was in the park. Julien glanced over towards the sound and his breath caught in his throat.

Claire and Celeste were standing about a dozen feet away. Claire looked exactly the same as yesterday, it didn't even look like she'd changed clothes. But Celeste definitely had. She wasn't wearing the clothes she used to, but it was better than what she'd worn before, she wasn't showing half of her skin through tears. She wasn't wearing makeup and the claws were gone. And her hair wasn't straight or red or visibly jagged, it was long and pink-brown and curly.

The two girls walked over, Celeste hanging back and holding one of her arms in the other.

"Do I have to sit?" He heard Celeste whisper to Claire.

Claire nodded. "Sit down, Celeste."

Silently, Cel sat down next to her, folding her hands in her lap.