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 Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 3:58 am
Hayes blinked when their eyes met and his lips parted slightly, as if he'd been caught off guard. "Yeah," he echoed, and leaned forward to focus on the show. His mouth settled into a solemn curve of concentration.
For something aimed at the seven-to-ten set the show was tightly plotted. It began with a meeting at the heroic robots' base, where the most senior member that remained explained the crisis. Hayes' brow furrowed slightly; he'd been invested in the plot before, but watching the robots try and regroup without their leader gave him an odd feeling he couldn't quite identify. It was like something hit him deep in his gut, striking a place normally undisturbed and all the more disturbing for it.
The scene shifted to the enemy base, where the confused but compliant captive was introduced and indoctrinated.
"Oh, yeah.." Hayes said quietly, trying to key into the knowledge he'd held before, "he lost his memory."
He glanced again; yes, she was there.
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Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 4:11 am
She blinked, but managed to glance toward the TV when she show started, folding her arms over her knees, ducking the lower half of her face into her arms.
"Yeah, He lost the Matrix." she confirmed with a nod.
Her hands had grown tight around her elbows while the story of the episode got deeper.
She honestly couldn't help but feel that the timing of these episodes... watching them with Hayes, couldn't hit any closer to home.
Her thoughts drifted every now and then during the show.
They had fought so hard... SO hard to find the team. She had worked, endless nights, little to no sleep, failed attempt after failed attempt and gotten to the point where they risked dismantling their most prized piece of Galactic machinery.
When the higher ups had looked for a mission team, her and the others had not wasted a second in volunteering, with no thought, no regard for what might happen, what could go wrong.
Faleen had done it for the team, for the Boss, but always in the fore front of her mind, she had done it for Hayes, for her Tech lead, for her friend (if she dare say that).
The pay off... she was sitting here next to him after a month, watching the Autobots fighting just as hard to save one of their own.
Her expression became slightly glazed, turned to the TV, though she wasn't exactly looking at it anymore.
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Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 1:28 am
'The name was meant to demonize us. Instead, we wear it as a badge of honor. For if speaking the truth is deception, then we are gladly guilty.'
Deception, dogma, doublethink and a thinly veiled hint of menace..
Hayes wasn't used to the show making him feel unsettled, but right now the scenes on the enemy warship were hitting too close to home. He shifted, the furrow in his brow not entirely due to concentration, and took refuge in analysis.
"They've never done this before."
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Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 1:32 am
The noise from the TV was broken when a human voice come from next to her.
She lifted her head out of her arms turning it in his direction.
"What do you mean?" She asked not entirely certain what he meant.
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Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 1:50 am
"The writers." Hayes turned his head against his arm to look at Faleen askance while the humans had a conversation onscreen. "They've never done this with Optimus." The unpleasant feeling in his midsection quieted as he settled into the comfortable realm of esoterica.
"Sometimes the factions team up to defeat Unicron, and sometimes he's lost or dies or passes the Matrix on.. but he's always himself. You always know what side he's on. He's never been.." He settled for the word he didn't want to use. "-taken."
The corner of his mouth quirked in a rueful way. "Kind of freaks you out."
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Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 2:15 am
"I didn't know that." came her soft reply, still watching Hayes, the subtle movements in his expression, illuminated only by the light from the TV.
The knot in her chest only tightened.
What terrible timing for these episodes to happen, everything about them just seemed to make both of them relive the struggles... whatever horrors Hayes and the others had gone through.
"They'll get him back." she added, in a feeble attempt at some form of reassurance.
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 8:20 pm
"Heh." Hayes' tired expression didn't make it clear whether he considered that a truth or a platitude, but after a moment he gave Faleen an undeniably fond smile. "Yeah," he agreed. "They're not gonna let him go."
"I mean, look at her." He nodded at the star of the current scene - a slim blue creature with a female chassis, taking down one generic robot trooper after another in an aggressive, desperate search through the enemy warship. "She's giving it everything she's got."
The blond folded his arms over his upright knee, careful not to let his burnt forearms make contact, and rested his chin on his elbow. Animated images flickered across his lenses.
"I heard you took apart the jet," he said after a while. "That was a pretty big step."
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 8:51 pm
"No, they're not." She agreed with Hayes, with a passive determination. "There is too much to-"
He smiled at her like that, and her throat lost the ability to speak.
Her blush was thankfully mostly hidden by the darkness of the room.
She looked back at him, until the attention was returned to the TV,
He kept talking, and she listened to every word.
Arcee was making her frantic run, he comment on it and she nodded in agreement.
Faleen would never consider herself as impressive as Arcee was, but it made her chest hurt just how much she related to that robot in those moments.
Hayes spoke again, and again she listened, only this time it was a direct question.
It was our best chance, we had too.
She wanted to say, but instead she just gripped her arms more tightly, looking at the ground for a few seconds, before she made the mistake of turning to him again, her eyebrows tensed close together, with a look of concern.
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:24 pm
The moment before Hayes turned to the screen, a tiny crease formed in his brow.
She'd blushed. He'd barely seen it, but he didn't need to; it was, for someone so professional and .. (unreachable, his mind offered; he replaced it) reserved, surprisingly easy to bring color to her face. It only meant she was flustered, or embarassed, or-
uncomfortable
s**t.
He'd taken a risk by inviting her in; now he'd said more than he ought to - or dared - and she'd curled up on the edge of the sofa, trying to make herself as small as she could. It was pretty obvious he'd overstepped his bounds, and if he didn't get back inside them he stood to lose more than he could afford.
Hayes ran a hand through his hair; it wanted to fidget.
"Sorry," he muttered, and looked away.
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:38 pm
She couldn't breathe, not from where she was sitting, feeling like if she didn't move she would suffocate.
She wasn't sure what her body was telling her, what her heart was telling her. Her brain couldn't seem to translate these signals into a language she understood.
All she knew, was that she couldn't breathe as long as she was looking at him, feeling both incredibly relived, and terrified.
She didn't know why she did what she did next, but somewhere in the jumble of emotions and words, it got through to her mind that the only way she could take a breath again, was to be close to him, it would help, it would make his presence real. You can breath if you know he's real.
Her hands let go of her arms, allowing her to free her legs.
her feet were placed down onto the ground for only a second, giving her enough movement to slide herself over into the seat next to Hayes, where she reached out in the same movement and wrapped her arms around his neck in an embrace.
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 10:39 pm
He wasn't watching her. Wasn't watching the screen either, though the fugitive character from the first season made his reappearance and came face to face with the mind-wiped hero in a cliffhanger that would leave any fan wanting to continue. It was drowned out by the sound of her unwinding, moving, possibly leaving..
A tilt to the cushions; was she close? Slim arms slid into his vision before he felt skin on skin and her warmth and the barely there weight of hair on his sleeve.
He stared at her like a fairy who'd stepped onto his lawn.
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 10:54 pm
The episode ended, and the file stopped playing, allowing a silence to hang in the room, and fall over the occupants within.
Faleen didn't say anything, her arms just pulled into Hayes tighter.
So close, close enough to hear his breath, along with her own pounding heartbeat.
She had never touched Hayes before, save for accidental brushing of their hands, and the time she had yanked him out of the way of danger during a mission.
But she could tell he had lost weight, too much.
Her hug on him tightened, only pulling her closer as she practically clung to him, her face ducked into his shoulder.
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 11:48 pm
Hayes' heart beat through his ribs, fast and hard. Air caught in his throat, became a shuddering breath, and then she pulled herself into him and he had no breath at all.
Slowly, slowly, he unfolded his arm and brought it around. Fingertips set themselves on the blade of her shoulder, then his palm, molding itself to the curve as he shifted his weight and turned into her, drawing his other arm free to lay over her back, shift the first, and bring her close in a wholehearted embrace.
He inhaled shakily and tucked his head over her shoulder, flexed his fingers in the folds of her shirt.
"Faleen," he whispered.
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 12:33 am
It had never occurred to Faleen before, how perfectly two bodies seemed to fit into one another, never so much as when she felt Hayes move, felt his arms move so gently around her. She simply slipped perfectly into place against him.
Faleen was a strong willed women, ever so mindful of the way she presented herself, and maintained a careful, safe distance from people at all times.
Its who she was, its how she was.
But in this moment, she had set aside the things she clung so desperately for a means of self preservation. Became scared, felt weak, as if it took all of her power just to hold onto him, onto the man she had been searching for for a month.
Taking in his uneven breath's, sure she could feel his heat beating through his shirt, the way he smelled, it was the same, and then his voice in her ear.
He was real.
"Your back." She managed to chock out from his shoulder.
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 12:57 am
The idle thoughts that normally danced in his head like lightning were gone, overwhelmed by sheer sensation. Her weight. Her hold. Her heartbeat, maybe his. Her scent and her form and her textures and voice.
Air from his lungs found its way blocked by emotion tangling with words. It came out with both, the sound rough on the edge of tears.
"I missed you."
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