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 Posted: Tue May 03, 2011 5:24 pm
After Hairy Pete's death there was nobody left to buy her fireworks.
It hadn't really mattered. Vanessa's friendship with Hairy Pete ran deeper than the illegal provision of very… grown up merchandise to somebody who was decidedly not adult. Hairy Pete was her comrade. A confidante. Her bro.
Rare were the days that went by without any thoughts of him.
Today Vanessa stood alone at the edge of a (mostly) empty parking lot. It was bordered by a hedge of overgrown and neglected shrubs on one end, but she thought that she was far enough away from them to set off fireworks safely.
Fireworks she'd bought herself. In his honour.
The end of her tongue stuck out of the corner of her mouth as she worked, bent over on her hands and knees, and finished lining up the last of those dangerous toys. The only thing left to do was light them.
So she did.
The first of the fireworks proved to be a dud. She watched, golden eyes shining with an almost childlike anticipation, as the flame ate the string, and was at once disappointed when nothing happened. A little miffed, sighing under her breath, Vanessa moved on to the second.
And had much better success. It exploded in a great woosh of heat, before she had a chance to back up, and Vanessa 'oohed' with delight when it sparkled bright green and yellow in the night sky.
Parts of her hair were singed. But she was too enamored of her success to notice, and lifted a match to the third.
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Posted: Tue May 03, 2011 7:05 pm
That mostly empty parking lot was just that - mostly empty. There were only a few cars, closer to the road, that was very true. However, a lone figure was making its way across the broad expanse of asphalt towards the exit. What that person was doing was at the back of a deserted parking lot in the middle of the night was another question entirely, but he was there.
Kam was completely oblivious to the girl setting off fireworks at the edge just beyond some shrubbery. He was just strolling along, minding his own business, when the first of the shot overhead with a loud whine and exploded into a frizzle of colors. His first reaction was to throw his hands over his head and duck - at least until he realized what it was.
He stood up slowly, now embarrassed, and looked around for the culprit. He expected to see a group of delinquent teenage boys, like he had been, laughing and lighting another one to scare him off. He mostly wanted to find them so he could beat a lesson into their greasy faces. Then he saw Vanessa and realized it wasn't a group of teenage boys - just a girl with her hair singed.
"You're doing that wrong," he called out, making a slow and careful path towards her. He didn't want to surprise her and get one right in the chest, so he was taking precautions.
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Posted: Tue May 03, 2011 9:32 pm
There were a handful of simple reasons Vanessa had chosen this particular location for her firework launches.
a) The asphalt was less likely to burst into flame than a patch of dry grass. So long as there were no puddles of oil left behind by poorly maintained vehicles.
b) It was supposedly empty. If she was going to hurt anyone, it would be herself. And that was something that she could deal with.
c) The police did not frequent this area as much as they did others.
She was in a good mood where she knelt, biting her lip when the third of the fireworks squealed into the sky. This explosion was larger than the other. Vanessa was terribly impressed by the purple and blue lights as they twinkled overhead.
It was a moment before she saw Kam, looming out of the darkness, and even longer before she realized that he was speaking to her.
"I'm sorry," Vanessa's ears were still ringing with the loud 'BANG' of her favourite toys, and she used a little more volume than was necessary when she addressed Kam. "I didn't hear what you said."
She pointed at her ear, and then at the little collection of fireworks laid out in front of her by way of explanation.
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Posted: Tue May 03, 2011 10:05 pm
Kam couldn't help it, as the next of the fireworks in line went up, he flinched out of reflex and his head jerked up to follow the smoke trail as it flew overhead. As it exploded into a crackle, the tension went out of his shoulders, and he glanced down just in time for the girl to finally realize he was there.
"I SAID," his voice rose with his words to compensate for the fact that she was temporarily destroying her own hearing, "that you're doing that wrong." He took the pause in between her lighting to walk around her little line of explosive toys and decided to stand behind both her and them instead. At least this time he wouldn't have to worry about her blowing one into him.
"Look at your hair, kid," he pointed with one hand at the bit of hair she'd singed, shaking his head at the sight and sending his own long hair swaying behind him. "You shouldn't sit so damn close to them."
He knew that fireworks were no joke, himself. He'd once nearly set his uncle's back yard on fire when he and his little brother decided to sneak away from a boring new years party and have their own celebration. He still had a faint scar underneath the tattoos on his left arm.
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Posted: Tue May 03, 2011 10:37 pm
If Vanessa were not herself, she might have been a little apprehensive about this wildly tattooed young man and his awesome looking dreadlocks. But she was comfortable in his company, even though he was very much a stranger, and bent over again to light another set of fireworks once he was out of harm's way.
And then paused.
"What do you mean I'm doing it wrong?" Vanessa turned a curious look on Kam, and then checked her hair with the palm of her hand. She blushed a little when she discovered that the things he said were true. There was a little patch of curly hair burned much shorter than the rest.
What was she going to tell Mr. Rae had happened this time?
"Fine," she sighed, and grumbled something inaudible under her breath when she had to concede that Kam was, in fact, right. Vanessa offered him the match, and gestured at the last little collection of fireworks. "Show me how it's done, then."
"You better be careful, though, 'cause your hair is longer than mi-
Hisssssssss.
Vanessa, clueless as ever, blinked up at Kam. "Do you hear tha-
BANG.
There was no time at all to jump out of the way, or to duck. Somehow, Vanessa guessed that the source of this new crackling sound was the supposed dud that she'd lit, and lifted her hands to shield the side of her face when it backfired. Glowing red hot with flame, it soared over the asphalt and into a nearby (and very small) piece of hedge.
The leaves caught fire.
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 12:03 am
Kam was always pleased when people saw things his way, so when she offered the match up to him so that he could show her how to properly light and back away from fireworks, he reached down to grab it without a second thought.
Of course, once he was halfway to taking the matches from her hand, he heard the ominous hiss. His eyes were darting to the fireworks already as she spoke, but he knew any word of warning would be lost before it exploded. Instead he just jerked away, almost in unison as the 'dud' exploded.
When he looked back and down at her, he at first thought there were no repercussions. The girl would just get a good lesson not to let duds sit around like that. Then he saw a flickering orange gleam from the corner of his eye and knew, before he even looked, that being reckless with fire never had a good ******** ********, girl," he ran past her and, halfway to the burning bush, he was pulling his shirt over his head. Once he was there he began to beat the flaming sprigs of the shrub, either simply putting it out or ripping the leaves off with the action so they fell to the ground and petered to an ash. When it looked like the tiny fire was finally dead, Kam turned back to her with a chest heaving from panic. A well defined, muscled chest covered in tattoos and a tiny glaze of sweat.
"I told you that you were doing it wrong."
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 8:58 am
It wasn't in Vanessa to just sit back and watch while somebody else dealt with a problem. Hers had always been a proactive heart and so, in the spirit of being useful, Vanessa followed Kam's lead. She shrugged frantically out of her own t-shirt and used it to help extinguish the flames.
Her heart thundered in her chest. Adrenaline raced through her veins.
It felt good.
Once the fire was efficiently put out Vanessa turned, smiling, to Kam and wiped her brow with her forearm. The ends of her fingers and the palms of her hands were tinged black with soot and smoke. In some places they glowed a tender pink where her skin had been exposed to too much heat. Vanessa had been burned before, but it was a feeling that was impossible to get used to, and she struggled to hide the wince that curled at the ends of her lips.
"Yeah, well," Vanessa retorted intelligently, looked him up and down in an obvious sort of way, and pretended not to notice his… shirtlessness. She was, however, suddenly aware of her own, and swiftly tugged the damaged cloth back over her head. Skin and underclothes were effectively hidden once more. "How was I supposed to know that was going to happen?"
Besides, everything was fine. The fire was dead. They had stopped it.
… He hadn't needed to help her. He could just as easily have ran, and left her to deal with the flame on her own.
Vanessa was sure that she could have handled it. But still.
"Thank you," her smile was friendly and, for some mysterious reason, a tad shy, "You're not hurt, are you?"
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 1:37 pm
Kam was clearly oblivious to just about everything that was going on around him. Sure, he'd noticed that she'd taken her shirt off and followed his lead, but that was just the kind of inspiration he instilled in other people. He was awesome so why shouldn't she want to do everything he did?
He flipped his partially burnt shirt up and let it drape over one shoulder carelessly. No, Kam didn't really think shirts were necessary. Even when Vanessa scrambled to finally put hers back on, he didn't think anything about it. Nor did he really understand why she was putting hers back on so quickly.
"Nope, I'm just peachy." It was a cheesy line, but he only said it half-heartedly to begin with. He was already looking at her hands with a deep frown. Normally he would have just written it off as a fool's lesson learned, but this new need to help mankind and all of that bullshit was a little hard to ignore.
"Let me see your hands," he held out one of his own expectantly as he said so, making it clear that it wasn't a request. Kam knew first hand how nasty burns could be, especially untreated and left to fester.
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 2:13 pm
"Oh, they'll be okay," Vanessa shook her head, but offered her hands up to Kam for inspection anyways. They were not badly burnt. Senshi magic would heal them in good time. Vanessa knew these things. And yet, there was a part of her that couldn't resist slipping her fingers into his outstretched palm.
The same part of her that liked the way he'd slung his shirt over his shoulder instead of putting it back on.
"It doesn't hurt too bad."
That golden gaze wandered to his impressively tattooed chest. Vanessa's cheeks felt very warm. She cleared her throat, and looked him in the eye.
"My name's Vanessa."
Ah, what a fantastic start to a potentially exhilarating conversation. Poor Vanessa had never been more aware of her lack of brilliance than she was now. She bit her lip, and wracked her brain for something intelligent to say.
"...You have a lot of tattoos."
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 2:31 pm
Kam heard her vague protest but ignored it. He held her hands gingerly in his palm (which was saying something, because he was usually a bull in a china shop) and turned them this way and that to inspect the injuries. She was right in that they would heal by themselves without much problem, but soot in a wound was never good.
Before he could give her his diagnoses, though, she pointed out his most prized possessions - his tattoos. He let go of her hands and looked down at his chest and left arm like he was seeing them for the first time. Then he brought up the other hand to trace some empty spots on his forearm. "Yeah, I need to fill in these spots though, and I'm thinking about starting my other sleeve." He flexed a little as he looked down at his tattoo-free right bicep.
Then he realized that he was getting a little (a lot) self absorbed and glanced up at her with a crooked grin. It was his way of apologizing for being so distractible, though she'd never actually hear him outright say that.
"My name is Kamboja, but uh.. just call me Kam." He glanced past her to the few unlit fireworks that remained, then turned to look behind himself and out at the road beyond the parking lot. "I think we should go find a bathroom and get your hands cleaned up though - I think there's a convenience store just down the street."
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 2:53 pm
Vanessa was quiet and cooperative while he examined her hands, and grateful for the tender way that he handled them. There was something terribly exciting about Kam. He was a confident stranger-- a young man who'd come to her rescue.
Sort of. Vanessa remained firm in the idea that she could have put out the fire on her own, but that wasn't the point. The only thing that really mattered was how nice Kam was being, even though she was responsible for the damaged state of his shirt. Even though she'd started a fire.
He'd scolded her, but only a little, and Vanessa's heart did a weak little flip-flop when he flexed.
"I've always wanted a tattoo," she gushed at him, "but dad says…"
Vanessa lowered her voice, and did her best to mimic Mr. Rae's deep timbre. "No tattoos while you live under my roof."
"I don't know if I could ever decide what to get, though," Vanessa's voice had returned to its usual pitch. She offered Kam a sweet smile and, certain that he'd meant he would be coming along, collected what remained of her fireworks and put them in her backpack so they could make their way towards the convenience store.
"Yours are so cool! How long did they take? Did it hurt very much?"
She stared at him. A trifle ominously.
"Was there blood?"
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 3:11 pm
Kam couldn't help but laugh slightly when she imitated her father, partly because that had always been the way his father had felt about them too - and his uncle, aunt, grandparents, cousin. Just about everyone in his family thought tattoos were a giant taboo, especially ones that weren't done in a traditionally Indian style.
He had listened very well, obviously.
"Well, the loophole in that rule is that he says 'while you live under my roof'. I imagine that won't be forever, right?" He had moved out almost as soon as he turned eighteen and spent the next few years being a rebel, wild child. He'd also gotten every tattoo in that short period of time.
When she gathered up all her stuff and started to walk back towards him, he fell into a slow step that picked up as soon as she was at his side. He listened with amused patience at all of her questions and couldn't help the smug smirk on his lips. Of course they were cool.
"I guess they hurt, yeah," he was sure they had to, but he could barely remember getting most of them due to.. certain circumstances, "but you've just got to take the pain if you want awesome s**t, right?" That's right, he would play down the pain and play up his bravery all at once. That seemed like a pretty Kam-like response if there ever was one.
"They probably took hours and hours all together but I got them a piece at a time, while I was traveling around in South America." They were at the exit of the long parking lot by then, and turning onto the main road. "Those old-styled tattooing techniques bleed a lot more than fancy schmancy needles you have around here." He even managed to look pompous when he said it, like he had lived through the ultimate tattoo experience.
He shoved his hands into his pockets as he walked, then turned to look down at her. "Why were you shooting off fireworks all by yourself?" She didn't really look like some kind of juvenile delinquent, but it was hard to say when she was covered in burns and singed hair.
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 3:33 pm
Oh man. Oh man.
Tattoos and pain. Bravery and blood.
Kam just kept getting more and more awesome by the second.
"Nope!" she beamed at him, golden eyes shining with an adoration that Vanessa had no idea how to conceal, "I'm graduating this year, and then… well, actually, I don't really know where I'm going to go."
Vanessa didn't really like to think about the future. She wasn't sure that her father or John Jr would be able to survive without her to look after them. They were her whole world. She focused, instead, on the bits of their conversation that didn't inspire feelings of melancholy.
"Hours and hours? Really?" she gasped appreciatively, and stepped closer, so that she could get a better look at the markings that twisted up and down his skin. "In South America?"
She had never met anyone who'd been there before!
"Is that where you're from? What were you doing there?"
If she were not already so enamoured of Kam and his spectacular lifestyle, Vanessa might have been a little put off by the pompous air that wafted off of him. As they were, however, it only made him more exciting. She hung off of his every word, and it was a long moment before she realized that he'd asked her a question.
"Oh, me?" Vanessa grinned, and was glad of an opportunity to show him how cool she was. Sort of. "I like fireworks. They're loud. But beautiful too."
And dangerous. Vanessa had always liked a little bit of danger.
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 5:39 pm
To say Kam was not relishing the attention was a lie. Every little compliment and awed look was one more stroke for his ego, but he didn't think a lot about why she was doing it. He was pretty ******** bad a**, so why shouldn't she recognize that? Any underlying motive behind her admiration was completely lost on him. Why should he think this was any different from all the other people that complimented him?
"No, I grew up here." When people mistook his ethnicity, it was annoying, and his smile did fade a little at the question. However, it seemed like a perfectly innocent query on her part and he couldn't blame her since he had brought it up first. "My family is from India, though, and I spent the last few years backpacking around South America." He was pretty alright telling the girl his life story, especially if she kept acting so awed.
"Oh, I guess I didn't do a whole lot while I was gone. I just backpacked around, spent some time with the native cultures, learned about their world." He shrugged then, as if he were simply playing down the fact that he had lived in the wild for years. "It was no big deal, really. I'm sure anyone could do it if they had enough will power." That was just a nice way of saying he thought he was better than everyone else, really.
When she explained what she was doing with the fireworks, he made a little 'hm' noise, as if he understood it perfectly. He didn't really - he didn't care if they were beautiful, he'd only ever used them to make noise and piss people off. But they were approaching the store by that point and he slowed down to stop in front of the door.
"If you go in the back and wash them off, I can see if they have any kind of minor burn cream and some bandages." He really didn't want it to get infected, plus he remembered how tender fresh skin could be - she wouldn't want that rubbing on everything.
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 7:27 pm
It was an innocent query. Vanessa had made no assumptions about his ethnicity and was, simply, impressed. Kam seemed to have lived a life full of adventure. If she were not so caught up in his tattoos and the fact that he'd been somewhere as far away as South America, Vanessa might have calmed down enough to remember that she was a super hero.
Life in Destiny City was hardly boring.
But Kam was fascinating in a different way. He wasn't magical or monstrous. He was a boy-- a young man, in point of fact, and Vanessa rather thought that she'd like it if he asked her out to a movie.
"Dude," she sighed, and turned a pair of wistful eyes on the night's sky, "I'm so jealous of you. I'd love to travel someday. Maybe to South America! Or Egypt. Or the Rocky Mountains!"
Maybe to the North Pole. Really. Vanessa wasn't picky.
She disappeared into the back when he dismissed her, and bothered less with her hands in the sink than she did with her appearance in the mirror. There was a bit of soot on her cheeks, and the burned parts of her fantastically curly hair made Vanessa look more like a chimney sweep than a lady.
She fussed with herself, used the water to clean up the best that she could, and returned to the front of the store with a thoughtful smile on her face.
"Kam," she said once she found him. Her voice was soft, "why did you come back here?"
South America sounded sort of wonderful.
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