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 Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 10:11 pm
Night Sky
Chel's hands drag along the back of his neck until they rest under his ears and cup his jawline that's always too tight and broody. She isn't sure what this means to him now, but she knows that it means more to her than he knows. Jack has started something now- no, it was started back when his rough, drunken voice demanded her to strip, but it was rekindled in his hesitation.
Her hands scratch down to his shoulder and she smiles into his lips. If Jack is a storm, then Chel must at least be the moment a lightning bolt hits the ground. Remarkable for only a few moments, but beautiful and powerful just the same. When she really wanted to, she could cause a fire if that was what it took. At the very least, she must have been a catalyst.
She is quiet for a time, she's not like Jack she can't follow her head (doing so has never brought her anything but trouble). She uses her heart and she doesn't remember at what point she climbed on to Jack's lap, nor the moment she stroked at the skin around his collarbone. She is quiet, and she doesn't think, she listens as she presses her lips against his again.
Air is unfortunately needed for survival, so she pauses and puts her forehead on his, but this time it isn't in hesitation, it is a promise that she intends to follow up on. She see's Jack's mouth agape in the same way hers is and it causes her pause.
There are a thousand questions she wants to ask (where do you see this going? How do I act when I get back to the island? What do you want from me back home?) but she is quiet. I love you Jack Hawthorn is what her eyes say, but from her mouth comes, "I don't know what to say." That in and of itself means a lot, considering Chel is always the one to fill the silences. Her mind is fuzzy and all she can see is a blur of green.
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 11:10 pm
Night Sky
He doesn't meet her eyes for the same reason he couldn't watch the love scene between Aragorn and Arwen. His hands, remarkably passive after the initial tug, slide away and form a loose loop around her waist; if he must slip, then there must be compromises to be sure he doesn't fall, that hands and lips don't wander and ask for more than she should give or he should take. He isn't shutting down or pulling away so much as he is trying to inject a measure of consciousness back into his actions--a sudden awareness of what he's doing to her now that he's indulged himself twice without deciding what that meant. He can't afford to leap forward again without forethought, as contrary as it is to his previous thinking. Yes he can, he argues, because Chel will always let him. One can't impose order or control without consideration, he counters, one cannot restrain without knowing why it must happen, one must always face the facts. And what are they?
That her presence is familiar and warm in his lap. That there's a bomb at her wrist because as a traitor she has and probably will again put the needs of certain students ahead of her job. That he's been calling her Chel since he got there. That she doesn't mind courting danger. That he has her loyalty even without promising the same in kind. That it feels incredible to kiss her in a way he hasn't felt in a long while, that it twists in just the same uncertain way. A hundred other details beyond his current scope of mind.
Jack's head begins to loll against hers, and his eyes close. "I'd say we should talk about this," he says in a tired and low voice, as if they were still in danger of being overheard by the camp, "but we need to sleep first." Everything from his tone to his posture says he doesn't want to move at all and acknowledge that there's space around them to begin with. "That sound good?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 11:25 pm
Night Sky
The oddest fact of all is that Chel has come to an understanding of all of this. She can see the way he can't look up, she feels the loosening of the hands (but still there, she reminds herself) and understands him. He needs time, and his next words come as no surprise to her. Chel could never know what Jack is thinking, but she does understand that he thinks slowly, deliberately, and with great caution. All things she admires.
Haven't I waited long enough? a tiny voice whispers in her head, but she pushes the thought down. The fact that a moment from now he could ask her to forget everything again is a very real consequence, and her insides crunch for a moment.
But she understands, and that is a start.
She kisses him one more time very quickly, only on the cheek and very sloppily. "I want to talk yeah ..." she murmured, but her hands go to his on her back and push them down so she can free herself enough to stand up. There's a reluctance in her motions and it's quite obvious to both of them that they are walking through their actions out of courtesy and confusion. "Mm." With a hefty groan she stood up from his lap and straightened out her various layers before offering him a hand up. "C'mon cinderella, 'fore the clock strikes midnight."
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 11:44 pm
Night Sky
For a moment he's tempted to just curl forward into the space left behind and freeze over. He's starting to understand Chel's temptation by oblivion: it's appealing to not have to worry about consequences of existence for a while. They just approach it differently: he personally likes using alcohol until everything blurs into inconsequential colors and he forgets his name.
But he takes her hand and pulls himself up, and he braces for the walk by pulling himself together again. The cold is sobering and quick to sharpen his senses, though a haze waits atop his eyelids. "M'not a princess," he mutters as he hooks their arms together, "I'm a goddamn queen."
Jack considers the path they have to take and is a little glad he's in this state of drowsiness: it makes it a little easier to navigate his fear of heights. Even though he's more likely to trip over something he failed to spot. (Probably shouldn't think like that.) God, his skin was probably a mess at this point; his lips were already getting pretty chapped in spite of his best efforts too. Maybe he could still find some time in the morning to fix himself up. (Much better.)
"Hey, Chel? 'Fore I forget." It isn't important at all, but in the spirit of understanding her more (or trying to), he seems to have taken on some of her qualities: namely chattering. "Dr. Jackles n' Miss Heidi: that was really clever, huh?" A little bit of the lazy smile returned. "I thought so."
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 11:50 pm
Wait One Second
He loops their arms and she says, "Wait, wait!"
She pulls out her phone and takes a picture of the sky before she forgets. The photo is a messy black blur (a hunter phone camera was absolutely useless), but she treasures the photo nonetheless. She turns the camera around to take a picture of Jack too, but it's too dark. "Rats."
It's cold and she returns to Jack's warmth, tightening her scarf to keep in what heat she can.
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 11:52 pm
Steep Path Home
Chel tilts her head for a moment, considering it, then looks up at him with owlish eyes.
"I don't get it."
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Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 8:03 am
Steep Path Home
"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Guy with a split personality and a drinking problem?" He sighed, but he should have figured. "God damn it, Chel. Just praise me for my genius. My kind, not the fairy kind."
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Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 8:12 am
Steep Path Home
Chel thought about her fingers sliding down to hold his hand, but no, she couldn't. That was somehow too intimate. Instead she put his arm around her shoulder lacing her fingers between his to keep the arm in place.
"Mmm, but who's miss Heidi? Like Heidi back on the island?" she asked, feeling the distinct need to take this apart. "Dang you got three ladies in your life? Homeboy stuntin' damn."
But her smile was still there and she purred, "'Course you're a genius."
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Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 8:20 am
Steep Path Home
Face the facts. Fine. Then he's grateful for interlocked fingers because it's just slightly warmer than trying to hide his hand in his pocket.
"What?" Jack gave her an incredulous look. "No. That was me, Chel, that was all me. I just replaced Lina with a fake woman to make it work."
Funnily enough, he could say just about the same to describe why he said yes to Hanna.
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Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 8:34 am
Steep Path Home
"Oh Stormy I forgot about her. s**t that makes four- oh and Finn makes five." She turned to Jack with fake awestruck horror. "Yer a monster."
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Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 8:44 am
Steep Path Home
Cue eye roll. "******** you. I could get infected with the homo virus and Finn could be the last person on earth and he'd still never get some. V makes five," Jack corrected her. Then he snickered at the accidental pun. Genius once again.
"But I am a monster, remember?" He glanced at her with a little smirk. "Haven't I given you enough evidence of that?" Drowsiness, jokes, these are safe places to skirt around the topic.
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Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 9:00 am
Steep Path Home
"Still mad you never sent me pics of her," Chel groused, still bitter about the lack of boobs in her life. Was it really so much to ask?
"Naw, you ain't a monster. Yer a giant." She gave him a cheeky grin, feeling very strange that they were so casual after having one of the confusing make outs of the century. Chel looked away for a moment, eyes scanning the ground. "You miss them at all?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 9:11 am
Steep Path Home
"Sorry my phone got destroyed by horsemen?" He shrugged. "And according to Owain, giants are in the monster category." Always an excuse, always a reason.
He faced forward again and considered her question. "Miss who?" Jack asked after a moment. "V? No." He couldn't remember anything beyond the obvious: woman, Death, way too laid back, noisy in bed, crossbow weapon, dead just like he should have been. Why would he miss a stranger?
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Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 9:13 am
Steep Path Home
She looked up at Jack, neither judgment nor much of anything on her face really. "I dunno, any of 'em. S'okay if you don't. M'just wonderin'."
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Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 9:18 am
Steep Path Home
He kept his eyes forward. "...A few of them, yeah," he replied evasively. "Some people you just don't forget."
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