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 Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 9:53 am
A small wave of relief washed over him, as Stormy stepped forward, and Gale slid his arms around her waist and held her gently against his chest. They were nearly the same height, with Stormy being maybe an inch shorter, so it was easy to fit together, easy to turn his face so that he could press a light kiss against her temple.
"I know," he said softly, and one hand pressed against Stormy's back, fingers curling loosely in her shirt. "It's...I don't even know how to describe it, it's like a mix of all these bloody feelings together that confuse and worry me."
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Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 10:18 am
"It's not fair," Stormy whimpered. "It's just not...Him dying was bad enough. Doing it twice 'cause he's alive?" Her grip tightened on his shirt. She felt an urge to cry but no tears were forthcoming. The kettle started to grow shrill, and with a deep sigh she extricated herself from Gale and turned the stove off. "I just...I'm sorry. This is my fault," Stormy said with a stricken look. "I shouldn't have made any deal with that horseman, I-I should've been brave enough to go in and find them..."
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Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 11:27 am
He had turned his face against the side of hers, his eyes closing momentarily. "It's completely screwed up," Gale said with a sigh. "First he's far away. Then he comes here. Then he dies. Then he comes back. And now...it's just..."
He trailed off with an equally deep sigh, reluctantly letting Stormy go so that she could turn the stove off. Gale absently twisted Jinhai's ring, fiddling with the totem. "It's not your fault," he told her sternly, fixing her with what he hoped was a reassuring look. "It's not. What you did, you did because it was necessary to survive. You can't think that way, it's not your fault, Stormy."
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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 11:15 am
Carefully she picked the kettle up and poured their cups. Even when catching Gale's reassuring look, she appeared not entirely convinced. "If it's not my fault, why's it feel like it is?" Stormy asked as she watched their tea filter in. "Maybe it wasn't necessary to survive. I'm a hunter, I could've found a different way if I really tried..." As if not being a trainee guaranteed success. "He shouldn't've been on that mission anyway. He's still a trainee. The only reason he was was 'cause apparently Benson, the leader, had some sort of reputation of being a slave driver or something; nobody she knew wanted to join in, so she had to grab a random assignment. Guess it didn't matter to her so long as we had the numbers." Stormy out the kettle aside and turned to him. "We didn't even know it was basically a death sentence until we were almost there," she said quietly. "They just called it nest clearing. They didn't say how many people had tried before us. We weren't expected to do much except maybe make a dent if we were lucky. He actually got captured once before that whole mess." She made a self-deprecating sound. "I helped save him then. I could've done it again, a-and instead I just..." But Gale knew the how and why already. Revisiting it was just making her feel awful, but she couldn't stop herself; guilt was a familiar companion for her actions.
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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 6:42 pm
Gale made a small sound of frustration in the back of his throat at their situation; though a small part of him wished that Stormy's guilt would assuage, that she would one day be able to live without drowning in the guilt that still stemmed from Nevada's death and had spread outwards like a plague, eating her from the inside out. He wished he could help ease it, but he knew all too well his own guilt for things he'd done.
Like Ben's death. Like Leslie's forever slumber. Like Clarice's last moments, which he'd had nothing to do with, and hadn't even known about until it was too late; but that he'd wished he could have seen her one last time, at the very least.
Gale leaned back against the counter, folding his arms over his chest and staring up at the ceiling of their room, his chest tight. Sometimes it felt hard to breathe if he thought about things too much - which he always did.
He lowered his head, his expression a mixture of pain and a gentleness that was only ever directed at Stormy.
"I know," he said quietly. "I know. And I'm sorry. It's not like you could have known about what the mission really entailed until they told you."
He closed his eyes, and shook his head, just once, as though ridding himself of a bad thought.
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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 8:26 pm
Stormy nodded and ran a hand through her hair again, all helpless motions. She wasn't expecting Gale to have a magical solution for her after listening--hearing her out was all she really needed--but in this case she wished there was a right answer instead of multiple options. Giving her choices was always preferable to no choice at all, but she doubted her decision making skills now: the artifact mission for Nevada, sending Evan out to hurt Lex, ignoring Jack and then trying to reach out at the wrong time, the bargain with the horseman...Every other attempt she made, it seemed, made things worse than before.
She exhaled softly. "You didn't have to help him when he was hurt," Stormy said, looking to Gale with the beginnings of a fond look beneath her uncertainty. Straightening from her lean against the counter, she stepped forward, touched his cheek, and lightly kissed him. "That was really noble of you, Gale. Maybe he'll remember it moving forward." She could always hope against hope.
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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 9:15 pm
It seemed like everything was happening at once, tumbling one right after the other; first Jack was dead, then he wasn't dead. Stormy's mission, them moving in together, it was all a whirlwind of emotions and feelings. A roller coaster ride that Gale sincerely hoped kept going towards the happy emotions rather than the sad or angry ones.
He opened his eyes again as he felt her hand against his cheek, and then her lips against his mouth. A sigh escaped his throat, and he reached out, brushing his fingers lightly over Stormy's cheek.
"I was serious when I told him I was tired of fighting," said Gale quietly. "I don't want to fight him anymore. It's exhausting. I was hoping that we could just...let each other go our own way and that would be that. That we could just live our lives without having to be concerned about the other, but..."
He shook his head again, lapsing into an unhappy silence.
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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 9:55 pm
"Then don't fight him. Maybe we won't have to worry for a while."
After he shook his head, Stormy's other hand came up to cradle it between both. "I dunno what the right answer is," she said gently, "so I guess the only thing we can do is just decide what to do if something happens. If we worry about it way ahead've time, we'll just get stuck." Just like him, she almost added.
She leaned in and kissed his brow this time, stroking some of Gale's hair back. "For now, let's just enjoy our tea. Maybe read some more together." As her hands slid away, she patted the one he had at her cheek, smiled a little more encouragingly, and then turned to take the tea bags out. The smell of earl gray permeated throughout the kitchenette.
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Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 10:09 pm
He wanted to believe that it was true; that Jack would be too preoccupied with whatever else was in his life to focus on Stormy, and by extension, Gale. Whether or not that was true remained to be seen, but for now, Gale was just going to do exactly what Stormy was telling him they should do - take things one day at a time and learn as they went.
"You're right," he said with a small sigh, his lashes fluttering a little as she kissed his brow, her fingers warm on either side of his face. "I don't know the right answer either, but we'll just...take things with a grain of salt right now and do what we always do and just live like we have."
He pressed a fleeting kiss to her fingertips before she drew away her hand, and the smell of tea was immensely familiar and reassuring. Gale inhaled a deep breath of it before pushing himself away from the counter, taking a moment to gather himself.
"I'm glad I'm here," Gale said, after a beat had passed. "I mean...not just with you - well, with you, of course, but I mean...here, as in this room."
His cheeks were a little pink as he corrected himself. "Our room."
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