how you wish it could be the way it used to be

[perform_admirably]

Spock stopped by the edge of a sidewalk bazaar to look at stacks of books, neatly bound and smelling lightly of the acidic treated paper. Jim was more a fan of paper books than he was, charmed, Spock thinks, by their material presence, the way they could be experienced with senses, rather than just read on a screen. He doesn't completely understand, or agree, but he does know that not everything is available here as an electronic document. And that a book would make a decent standard gift for Jim, although there is no particular occasion for a gift.

He knows the other man would simply feel gratified that he'd been on Spock's mind.

Absorbed as he is in his task of looking for an appropriate one, he doesn't immediately notice when a young man in a wool cap slips close to snatch his satchel off of his shoulder. He's stolen Spock's belongings.

The idea is so absurd to someone born and raised on Vulcan that it is nearly fifteen seconds before Spock is able to respond at all, feeling caught up in the surreal feel of it all.

He starts off after the man an impulse later, knowing that he can't afford to lose his things. The one truly valuable item that came with him from his reality is in there, his PADD. He can hardly imagine the worst that might result in its theft.

Comments

[perform_admirably]

Taking it back, he gives a quick look to assure himself that his PADD is still intact before tucking the bag over his shoulder and against his side carefully. He really is exceedingly thankful to Katniss, and he relaxes, to a given degree, now that it is simply the two of them in conversation.

"The assistance is more than appreciated. You had no obligation. If there is any way that I can return the effort, please feel free to make a request at any time. Are you and Prim well?" he asks, immediately intersted in any details he might learn. Although he may not be the type to feel it at times, and certainly not to admit it, he remembers the two of them from days before the city was crowded, and certainly in Prim's case, is inordimately fond.

[vocalfuel]

"I'll let you know," I say, nodding once. I'd shrug it off, tell him that won't be necessary, because it's the truth, except I know better than that. Were our positions reversed, were he the one who'd done something for me, I would insist on making it up to him, not wanting to owe anyone anything, not even a friend. Still, I don't dwell on it, smiling just slightly after a moment. "But she's alright, yeah. We both are."

I'm more grateful for that now than ever, though I'd never know how to tell anyone. It's not my business to anyway, even if what happened to her, what she told me about, is my fault. "You should come out for dinner sometime or something. She'd like that. We both would."

[perform_admirably]

"An invitation that I won't forget," Spock tells her, dhifting his bag over his shoulder and clutching it tightly to his hip. He hasn't been made paranoid by the theft, but he's certainly remembered where he is fully, and how important it is to be always situationally aware. He gives a small nod of his head.

"Livig out there suits the two of you well, then?" he asks. He is not sure he would feel the same. Being so far away from the city's resources would make for certain

[vocalfuel]

"Better than being here would," I say with a nod. I'm not sure being in Darrow at all will ever suit us all that well, but then, I have more reason to be grateful for that than usual lately, and I don't mind it when I'm out in the country. I just don't trust it. That would be the case wherever I was, though, so I guess it doesn't make that much difference. "We're just not city people. And this way, she can have her animals."

[perform_admirably]

"The emu and the others," Spock recalls, thinking back on the rather strange animal, which Prim had made a companion of hers very early in her time in Darrow, before the rest of the city's population had arrived out of nowhere. "She has a variety of interesting hobbies. And even more interesting goals. But I've never heard much about either, from you."

He gives her a curious, but not pressing, look. He actually appreciates, in a way, that Katniss seems not as hasty with her words as some.

[vocalfuel]

"I don't really have hobbies," I say, shrugging with more ease than I would around most other people. I can't even feel self-conscious about admitting as much. Back home, there wasn't any time for things like that. It would just have been a waste of energy. "I hunt some. Not as much as I did back home, but I take my bow and arrows out into the woods. I think that's as close as I get."