speakscanadian | [truth plot] Asher

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[truth plot] Asher

In all his time on the island, this was the first that Ray had stood within the orchard overlooking the garden. He'd needed a quiet place to think, where he wouldn't risk questions coming at him left, right and centre. After badgering Danica for twenty minutes in the morning, he'd made the nasty discovery that he too was a pawn in the island's antics today. The trees provided the kind of cover he needed.

Not that he was hiding. He wasn't the one that had been hiding anything.

Groaning when he realised he was still thinking about it, Ray tipped his head back and took a deep breath. Overhanging leaves filled his vision, all fresh and bursting with color. It was pretty depressing, considering how he was feeling inside.

Asher had bitten Stephen and he'd shot a bear. The words had come out of his own mouth. And still he'd lied about Rorshach, despite those confessions. Granted, Ray and he hadn't been on the best of terms back then, but he had had every opportunity to come clean since.

Maybe he shouldn't have been surprised. Maybe deep down he'd known all along and had decided it wasn't a big enough deal to stop him getting closer to Asher. If that was the case, then it was all on Ray.

Dropping his head, he walked aimlessly amongst the trees towards the pathway. He'd spent most of his life relying on his hunches but it had only taken one man, this man, to stop him doing what he did best. Instinct was key to avoiding mistakes but Ray had stopped listening to his. He'd thought he'd been following it when he'd brushed aside his uncertainties and let himself fall for Asher but perhaps he'd hadn't. Maybe he'd been wrong. Maybe.

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"Oh, the little truth thing? Yeah. Found out while I was talking to Danica this morning. It wasn't the only thing I discovered."

Ray shook his head down at the ground and pinched the end of his nose between a thumb and finger. He could hardly believe Asher sometimes.

"Don't you dare have a go at me about hiding something from you."

"I didn't owe you a damn thing then, so get over it. Not only did the guy walk away from it," - walk, limp, same thing - "but he's not even here anymore. Hasn't been for a while. So stop beating a dead horse."

"I don't care about him," Ray retorted, an incredulous look on his face. "I care about us. I admit," he continued, lifting a hand and returning to Asher, "that I'm a suspicious guy. I know that's hard to live with. But if you had just..."

There was one good thing about only being able to tell the truth. It meant Ray couldn't lie to himself either. He'd known all along what Asher had done, even without the evidence. It really was all on his own conscience. He couldn't pretend that lashing out at Asher would change that.

"You have no idea how badly I want to ask you whether there is anything else you've kept from me." Ray was suddenly pretty sure that that would be the most damaging question of all. Even he knew that a relationship didn't work without some degree of trust, and testing that trust when the other person couldn't lie would be fatal. "But I'm not going to."

"If I had just what? You would've pinned me for breathing wrong back then if you could have." And he didn't even think that was an exaggeration. "Why the fuck would I have told you anything? He was long gone by the time anything happened between us, so why bring it up?"

"No reason. I wouldn't have either." Snapping his eyes shut as soon as he'd answered, Ray held up his palms. "That's not what I meant to say. Except it was. That was a lie. No, that was a lie. No-fuck--" His hands clenched into balls. "I don't trust easily, okay? I have problems with it and you have been one of my biggest. But that's only because I have feelings for you."

"Well, then, I frankly don't care what your problems are, not when you just admitted you would've done the same as me." It meant the core of the argument didn't actually exist, and if Ray kept pushing it, that just made him a hypocrite.

"And you should probably consider not talking anymore."

"How do I always end up being the bad guy?!" Ray asked in a fit of frustration, the balled fists crashing straight down to his sides. "I hate it when you do that, when you tell me to stop talking, like what I got to say isn't worthy of your ears. I'll talk if I want to."

"I'm not making you out to be the bad guy, but you're not gonna make me feel like one because I was looking out for my sister and didn't parade myself down to the IPD office after I did it." Luckily, he hadn't been affected by any forced honesty mojo at the time.

"And I'm not telling you to stop talking for my benefit, I'm telling you to do it for yours. Obviously everything you're saying isn't coming out because you want it to."

"Some of it is coming out willingly just fine." Ray thought there was a difference between looking out for his sister and seeking vengeance, but he felt no compulsion to point that out right now. "I'd like to forget that I asked."

"So don't ask questions you don't really want the answer to." It seemed like a simple enough solution to him. "Or don't be a pussy when you get answers you don't like."

"I think you should be quiet now," Ray replied sullenly, folding his arms and dropping his gaze back down to the ground. The entire conversation would have been a lot easier had he really just been looking for a contact.

"Pussy," Asher said, mimicking Ray's stance and crossing his arms over his chest. "Exactly how long do you plan on staying mad about this? If it's going to be a while then I may as well go shoot someone else, that way I'm actually being persecuted for something."

"I don't plan on staying mad, but I was thinking about pretending to be so that I don't seem like such a pushover," Ray answered, pressing his thumb and fingers into his eyes halfway through his reply. It looked like a padlock on his tongue would be the only way to stop the truth coming out.

"Great." For him, not so much for Ray, but that worked out just fine by Asher. "Save myself the bullet."

A crease formed between Ray's eyes. "I hope you're joking." Otherwise his opinion of Asher only using the gun when provoked was completely wrong.

"I hope you're joking." Unlike Ray, Asher didn't seemed compelled to just start spouting the truth randomly, and he wasn't going to dignify that with a proper answer unless forced to. Ray could believe what he wanted until then.

Kicking his foot in the dirt, Ray mumbled something unintelligible even to himself. The grumbling made him feel a little better though.

"Which one d'you...have the issue with," he began slowly, deciding to let it go. "The daylight, the public place or the sand?"

"Sand," Asher answered automatically. The public place and broad daylight thing were probably what other people were more likely to take issue with. "Smooth transition."

"Ahh..." Ray nodded to himself and wandered between the trees, looking back and waiting for Asher to follow. "You can still use sarcasm. That's interesting." And more than Ray could do.

"Is it just questions you can't avoid answering?"

"Yes...," Asher replied through gritted teeth. He'd been through this once before, but that didn't mean he liked it any better this time around.

He followed, but kept a few paces behind Ray to make getting away that much easier if it came to that.

"Whoo..." Ray whistled as if in sympathy, then pumped the air with a fist. "I have the powah."

Like all great superheroes, he would put that power to efficient use.

"Quick, what's your favorite color?"

"Blue. Stop it." Maybe he'd wind up having to use that bullet after all.

Ray turned and gave Asher a look. If he thought that was enough to stop him, he didn't know Ray very well. "But the power..."

His expression turned curious again and he walked backwards, slower.

"What did you think of me when we first met?"

"I thought you were an ass. A well-dressed one, but still." And abusing the current situation the way he was only served to prove the fact.

"Hey..." Ray didn't know anyone else that could offend and compliment at the same time so successfully. "Don't make me up the ante and ask the tough questions." That probably wouldn't be fun for either of them.

"You can ask me something if you want. I'm an open b--an open b--...I'm relatively honest. My favorite color's green."

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