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 Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 4:21 am
"Don't call her that," She snapped impulsively, the name an irritation that grated on her nerves, a memory she wished to forget, a jealousy she wished she could suppress, "You're so high and mighty over yourself and your brother that you forget your place. It has always been about her. It will always be about her. And protecting her won't be what gets me killed."
She could have ended it there. She should have ended it there. But his words had stung too deeply that it was time to throw a few verbal punches of her own.
"The only thing capable of that would be your bullshit excuse for battle tactics. You don't think, you just do it. That will get us all killed one day, so how dare you imply that me not liking your precious brother will be our downfall."
Arms folded themselves across her chest, hiding the innocent smiling panda that had been staring at the other teenager with adoring eyes the entire time. Her fingers were gripping against her own skin - she wasn't going to let him bait her. She wanted to hit him, to show him just how hard the Captain of the Parallel Senshi could punch... but that's exactly what he wanted her to do. She would not give in.
"Grow up, Hector. Ares is out of control, so of course she'd listen to the likes of you. That's one thing I'll give your brother credit for - he wouldn't be egging me on to hit him. If you want to get your rocks off with a fight, why don't you go find the woman responsible for bringing us to this Earth in the first place?"
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Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 4:42 am
They were now on a train that had no brakes. "Yeah, and maybe I'll bond with her after taking her out on a nice date, how about that." (That seemed more Jesse than Hector.) "Can you stop being a shitbag for more than ten seconds? Did my ears just hear you badmouth one of your senshi to me? Je-sus."
When one of them did one thing, the other unconsciously mimicked it. Now Jesse stood with his arms crossed tightly over his chest. Their heads were so close together that they could smell each other's sweat and the remnants of each other's toothpaste, shampoo and soap and outrage, feel each other's breath. "Know what's going to get you killed? Your disloyalty." Ow. "To me. To her. To him. I'd rather die with a knife in my throat than one in my back."
That was something about him, wasn't it? What his ideas of loyalty were. He'd followed Nehelenia, sometimes bitterly, but he'd followed her with the singleminded brand of devotion that was his trademark. He'd always spoken about her senshi with genuine warmth. Well. There was an exception. One of his hands flew up and he squeezed his fingers down about a quarter-inch apart, a whisper away from her face. "I'm this close to being done with you," he was saying. "This. Close. Look at it. This close."
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Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 5:05 am
"And you call me disloyal, when you stand there ready and willing to toss your partner to the side? I wonder what brother dear would have to say about that."
A grim smirk broke out across her somber face and she adjusted her stance as she stared at his fingers.
"If she asked me to die for him, I would. Her happiness is my priority and it always has been. And it just so happens that he makes her happy." She shifted her footing once more, the conversation obviously growing more uncomfortable for her the longer she spoke, "While I continue to fail to see why he does, he is what makes her happy and I will respect that. I will protect that. I would not give my life so willingly to protect Alexandros for his benefit as I would for her happiness. I'm not disloyal."
Her tone was bitter, her voice still quiet as they snapped back and forth at one another. "As for Ares - it's no secret that she would rather see herself as Captain than follow my lead. But I would die for her, I would die for any of my girls. They're my responsibility and I would never even suggest abandoning one of them just because they angered me. Not like you're so readily prepared to drop me just because we're fighting. Stare in the goddamn mirror, why don't you, before talking to me about disloyalty."
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Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 5:21 am
His hand dropped. "I'm not through because we're fighting," he snapped. "I'm through because you wouldn't piss on me if I were on fire. Because you don't respect him, you don't respect me. It makes me sick how much respect he gives you on your own merits and you only do it out of sufferance when he's a good man, he's better than most of us in anything you could name -- kindness. Wisdom. Grace. And a good warrior on top of that, a good leader, if you weren't too ******** blind to see it."
The other Captain had straightened up. "Give me a reason I should bond with you again," he said. "Your merits are looking pretty dubious. Make me a promise. Just one. You say I've got to earn my keep? Tell me why I shouldn't just drop you, take Maddy -- who's my girl still -- and ditch the whole mess of you and me."
The whole mess of you and me.
It was an apt, if acid, way to summarise their entire past history leading up to their current situation. It glossed over a very long period of suffering, but where did you start with apart from 'mess'? "You want me to swear the oath? It's full of promises I always kept. Give me something or I'm out, swear to God."
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Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 5:47 am
"You're not Alexandros, you're Hector and I will treat both of you separately - you're not the same person, you've never been the same person and you never will be the same person."
Mess. It stung. She wouldn't deny that it stung, being forced to recollect their past, their issues, their regrets. They were a mess, there was no other way to describe it. Disastrous.
"If my actions in the past aren't enough to prove my worth to you, I don't know what could. I never let you down before and I wouldn't let you down again. My feelings for Alexandros have nothing to do with you and I. We've pledged our allegiance to our leaders but bonding is entirely different - we'd be pledging to one another. It's sacred. I may be a shitbag, I may be blind, I may be whatever else you might draw out of your vocabulary to call me but I can respect and uphold such an agreement."
It was then that her face softened for one brief moment, short-lived yet long enough for him to catch before it hardened and disappeared. "You've never let me down before, Hector, as far as duties are concerned."
As far as duties are concerned.
"I imagine you would be just as faithful now to your partner as you were then. Knowing that, I swear on my own life to be equally as faithful, for the bond and for our leaders."
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Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 6:00 am
I imagine you would be just as faithful now to your partner as you were then.
Now his face was as impassive as hers, not that it was an expression that suited them often. For a moment it seemed like he'd spit no, I'm done, you take Laocoon, for every single unhappy layer involved in 'faithfulness'. Fidelity had its lenses. They both knew that every oath he swore to her was trumped to oaths he'd sworn to Alexandros, and equal fidelity was a double-edged sword.
Jesse wanted to hotly contest it, make her swear to never touch Dylan's name again. Hector said tiredly, "Callista."
They swore their vows behind a McDonald's dumpster. It was as good a place as any to swear your vows by, even if they were done tersely and quietly without Cora or Dylan bearing witness. He kissed her cheeks and mouth in businesslike chastity, and didn't wipe his mouth afterwards like a six-year-old would in assertion of her cooties -- just kissed her, with dry-mouthed impetuousness.
"Honour's satisfied," he said afterwards. Jesse Alvarez looked weary and impatient. "You slap like a kindergartener. We done?"
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Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 6:29 am
"I could kick you in the nuts, if you'd prefer," she huffed back indignantly, moving to step away from the other teenager as Ronnie's personality returned with full force, "I bet you'd like a slap instead of that."
She was too frazzled to think up anything wittier for a comeback, the feel of his lips against her cheek still lingering like the after-tingle of freshly ripped off band-aid. It was her first kiss.
Her first kiss had come from a boy who had only minutes before implied her hips showed signs of her having OD'ed on Baby Ruths. From a boy who was best friends with Dylan Rasmussen and had gotten her kicked out of McDonald's.
This totally wasn't going to count for a First Kiss.
"Yeah. We're done."
Ending the conversation on that note, Ronnie whipped out her cell phone and proceeded to walk away without another word. Instead, fingers mashed against the number keys as she shot her best friend a quick text explaining as to why exactly she was unable to return into the restaurant and fetch her from the clutches of the blonde Hillworth delinquent. Kicked out of McDonald's and now bonded for life with Jesse Alvarez.
Today definitely was a lousy Saturday, after all.
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