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CHARACTERS: Ellis and Anne Cunningham
LOCATION: Anne's house and beyond
WARNINGS: Most likely profanity
SUMMARY: Just hangin' out
NOTES: Ellis considers everyone his best friend no matter what wtf

Ellis's new room with Firo is unbelievably close to Anne's. In fact, they're only two rooms away. That said, the walk over to Anne's room is a short one. When he gets there, he knocks on the door loud enough for her to hear if she's in the other room. They don't have plans to hang out today, but it's been too long as far as Ellis is concerned, and it's not like she'll be busy. Adjusting his hat, he waits for her to answer the door.

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When Anne answers the door, she looks like she's just woken up. She'd been planning on just a little nap before after work to keep herself fresh, and she'd ended up sleeping until Ellis knocked. So much for being productive today.

Despite how tired and grumpy she feels, it's still good to see Ellis. A smile breaks over her face despite her tired eyes.

"Hey," is the only thing she says, because with Ellis, it's usually best to let him do most of the talking.

"Mornin', Anne." He smiles at her, noticing how tired she looks. "Hope I'm not interruptin' anything." Yeah, he definitely woke her up. "I was just thinkin' it's been a while since I last saw you, an' I thought I might as well see if ya wanted to hang out or somethin'." He explains, smiling at his tired friend.

Still tired, Anne continues to smile. There is a very limited amount of people in the world who could wake her up and not end up getting screamed at, but Ellis is at the top of that list and so all she does is motion him to enter the room with her.

"That sounds good. You're right; it's been a while. Let me just grab my shoes."

He follows her into the room she shares with her husband, glancing around at the familiar place. Not only does it look nearly identical to he and Firo's room, but he's been here so many times he has it memorized.

"Where's Murphy?" He asks, filling the silence as she hunts for her shoes.

A small smile when he asks that, and Anne pulls on her shoes and fiddles tiredly with the laces, cursing a little under her breath. If anything has changed in the past three years, her colorful vocabulary is definitely not on that list.

"Probably off doing some stocking work. I remember him mentioning something about it this morning." Shoes on now, she straightens up. "So. What did you have in mind?"

Ellis shrugs, never the best at planning ahead. "Hadn't really thought about it. I thought you might have some preferences."

He gives her a slightly inquisitive look. Does she?

"Do I ever have preferences?" Anne asks, raising an eyebrow at him even as she smiles. She glances around the room briefly, feeling a bit of frustration at the inevitable realization that they've done pretty much everything there is to do on the Tranquility.

"We could always go to the Holodecks," she says after a while. "Spend some time 'at the beach' or something like that."

Ellis nods, having the same realization. "Damn, there ain't much else to do 'round here, is there?" It's a pretty big deal, considering they can't exactly leave and go somewhere with more to do. "That sounds good to me."

At Ellis' confirmation, Anne moves to leave the room, grabbing her jacket as a last minute precaution. "Do you ever think we'll get back home?" she asks, a rather deep thought for such a simple jaunt out with a friend. "And do you think things will ever change? I mean, look at us. We've been here for years, and nothing changes. At least not for the better, anyway. I feel like no matter what happens, things get shittier and then go back to normal, but nothing happens that's...you know. Good."

Ellis gives his full attention to her concerns, nodding slightly as she speaks. Honestly, he has no idea if they'll ever get out of here or if things will ever get better. Judging by the pattern of things so far, anyone would assume that no, things probably won't get better. But there has to be a point when they can't get any worse, doesn't there? And what happens from there? It has to get better.

"There's always somethin' good to be said for everything bad. Sometimes ya gotta go through hell an' high water to find it but, hell, nothin's ever just pure bad." He thinks for a moment on his own words. "Back home, there was all that apocalypse shit, ya know. But I met some great people at the evac station. Some o' the greatest ones I ever knew. Same goes for this place. Ya get to meet people you'd never o' known otherwise. That's the good that happens. An' sometimes that's what counts."

Edited 2015-02-25 03:12 (UTC)

As they start down the hall, Anne listens to Ellis talk. She'd taken on a rather grim expression as she talked and focused on her frustration with the ship, but as she listens to Ellis, gradually her smile comes back. This is what Ellis has always done, what drew her to him and made her accept his friendship in the first place. He's so damn positive, in a way she can't imagine anyone else being on this ship. His optimism is infectious, if the fact that now she's grinning far wider than she could have imagined a moment ago.

"You're right," she says finally, giving him a slight nudge with her elbow. When she first came here, Anne was an angry, negative, harsh person who hated pretty much everyone around her, and Ellis has had quite a hand in changing that. If she were much for sentimentality, she would probably tell him. But being who she is, she figures just spending time with him is enough. "Thanks." It's a simple reply, but she's smiling now and that speaks plenty.

"Think we should bring some booze with us to the holodecks?" she asks after a moment of silent walking. "Make it a party?"

Ellis's smile grows at the suggestion. "Hell, I'll never say no to a party." He agrees. There's a much more positive air about Anne now that their conversation had taken a turn for the brighter. "Let's do this shit." His tone is vibrant.

Ellis is always vibrant, and Anne figures it's the kind of thing that keeps everyone around him from going insane at the worst of times. She's sure she herself would have lost it long ago if it weren't for having him for a friend. Something about the way he balances out her tendency to be a negative Nancy makes her feel like it's alright to relax.

"I can't even remember the last time where was something even remotely close to a party here," she replies to that, changing course for the bar. "Besides weddings, anyway."

"Ah, weddings are a blast though." He comments, easily keeping the pace with her. She seems to be in a much better mood now and Ellis can't help but smile at that. Maybe his little speech had en effect on her.

"How do you always do that?" Anne asks eventually, after letting things trail off into silence for a while as they walk leisurely down the halls that aren't exactly a prime place for leisure. "You always cheer me up, even when it should be impossible."

Ellis smiles, thinking about it for a moment before answering. "Hmm. Maybe 'cause there's always somethin' to be happy about if ya look hard enough."

It's not exactly a straight answer, but it's getting there. Ellis isn't really doing anything to make her happy, he's just reminding her of the things that she could be happy about.

"I wish I could look at life like you," Anne admits, a small shake of her head even as she keeps smiling. "I guess my brain works completely different from yours. Not in a good way, either. Sometimes I feel like I do the opposite, and I spend more time bitching about the bad than looking for the good. I'm glad I have someone like you to stop me from doing that."

Ellis's smile turns into a downright grin. "Well, I'm happy to help, Anne. That's what friends're for."

Anne has certainly become a lot less negative since they first met, but she's still far from happy go lucky. But that's just in her nature, not something that can be helped.

Her smile twitches a little, like she wants to laugh, but she doesn't. "I guess you're right. I just wish I brought something more positive to this friendship than always being the downer who has to be reminded life isn't all just crap," she admits, still looking rather cheerful.

Ellis shrugs in an 'ain't no big deal' kind of way. "Well maybe remindin' people o' the good things in life is what I'm best at." He offers, hoping to make her feel better about always making him do that.

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