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 Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 10:21 pm
She was grateful for the disclaimer, but at the same time it made her a bit nervous underneath that pervading calmness. What required them to be in his room to be shown? There was ice cream, the bar, the music, the casino--
She read the name on the bag.
--jewelry.
And Stormy was twice over glad for the disclaimer then because her chest was suddenly tight, and she had an overwhelming urge to stop Gale from showing her what he had gotten. Tiffany's was out of her league. It was a flawless woman on a television screen trying to sell a product. It was cold cuts and carats and pure gold or silver, it was wealth she never understood but thought pretty--a symbol of status, a material meaning of affection or love, crisp and clear and everything she wasn't because at least people could see them and know their worth, people could smile and be proud they had it. These turquoise earrings were carefully set into sterling silver molded to meet their perfection with fluid settings, perfect for that special someone. This ring is made of 18 carat rose gold inset with a platinum band inside flush to the touch; show them you care.
< < Get out. > >
But she was stuck there, frozen in place as her eyes burned the images of the three charms on that bracelet, and Gale's words sounded both far away and far too close. It was the hammer against her heart, drawn and strung up in her throat the more she looked at them and marveled that he cared enough even of their friendship to buy her something at all. And she could only lean against the balcony, ice cream tilted and dripping, barefoot, and be at a loss for words. But he remembered, he remembered--!
< < He is buying your continued loyalty, > > Thane warned her. < < Get. Out. > >
Stormy remembered she had a body and slowly turned it to face him, almost dropping her ice cream in the process. Gale was smiling and it was like the sun was coming out, and it made her small and unsure because what could she have done to deserve that? To deserve this, all of this? "I-I don't . . . know what you mean . . .?" Somehow it came out as an apology and a question at the same time.
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Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 10:30 pm
He knew it might make her nervous, that it might push her too far, because although Stormy held a great deal of strength in her, there was also that fragility that surfaced every so often. And he knew that doing this, giving her something that could be considered extravagant, might make her feel too much - a sensory overload of sensations that could easily overwhelm.
But he was taking the chance anyway, because what did he have to lose?
<< Be careful >>
I know. Believe me, I know.
Gale fidgeted with the cuff of one sleeve for a few moments, Stormy's voice tentative, almost apologetic, and it made him laugh a little, though it was gentle, mostly at himself for putting himself in this sort of situation in the first place.
I never learn, do I? First Eva...now...
<< It will be all right. >>
"What I mean," said Gale, and his throat felt a little dryer than usual, but he was somehow managing to stay calm, to keep himself from being flustered, to hold onto a shred of dignity.
"What I mean is that...I like you," he said quietly, finally, and it was the truth, and he had mostly known it for a while, but saying it aloud was entirely different than pushing it back into the far recesses of your mind because you were too scared to let it surface.
"I like you," Gale said again. "A lot. More than I can say right now. And I would like, if you would allow me, to take you out sometime."
He smiled a little. "I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable. I know I've been so terribly confused and messed up and I've got heaps of old drama just piled on my shoulders, and I have no idea if it would work out, but...I want to take the chance to find out."
He didn't reach for her hand, didn't even move. "But if you say no," Gale said quietly. "I would understand, and no matter the outcome...I will always be there to protect you."
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Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 11:07 pm
She found herself issuing a small laugh of her own with him, a product of nerves and emotion she wasn't sure she was equipped to deal with right now. It was rising, rising, rising up her throat and she had to swallow it down, down, down again and again. They were outside on the balcony and yet Stormy felt that they were in a bubble again, as enclosed as they had been in the infirmary behind the curtains. And the pressure was growing.
Gale wasn't asking her to commit, and yet he absolutely had offered it. And Stormy was trying to wrap her mind around the concept of someone giving her a gift just for being friends, stating there was no strings attached, and then adding that final statement anyway. In her mind, there was barely a divide at the moment: one thing was the other, the same offer, the same question with the same great smile that made her both happy and ache at the same time. It was attention she'd forgotten how to handle, it was wanted, needed even once she recognized it for what it was, to be special . . .
And she couldn't push it away this time, not as easily. It wasn't delirium, or bloodloss, or the de-stress of a mission. It was planned and thought out for her.
Her thoughts scattered to the wind.
She was aware first that her eyes stung, and she cursed repeatedly that she had to be a crybaby about this and tried to blink them back, feeling stupid that she couldn't get a grip over jewelry. She was then aware that the cone had grown soggy and was now leaking out of the bottom, through the napkin and into her hands. And then she was aware of what was left behind when logical thought fled: her fears, her personal hang ups, and her own particular drama.
The frog in her throat turned into a giant toad, and she croaked as one.
"I wanted to kill someone."
It was the clearest thing on her mind for some reason, a fixation she couldn't shake ever since she had healed.
"On Jake's mission, I . . . I wanted to kill him after you left. Caelius ordered me to do his execution, and I-I just . . ." Her jaw was trembling. "I was so tired've being just the trainee tagalong, the girl everyone has to watch for because trouble a-always happens to her. A-And I got so angry, because he wasn't a leader, he left us out there and we almost died because we didn't know what to do, and I was useless, and I just . . . I just swung at him, Gale." For once her gaze wasn't shifting but instead remained on his, her eyes shining with tears close to being shed. "I only had one arm, but I swung, I hit him without the shield and then I pierced his foot and if I hadn't been injured, I would've done more. I-It was . . . I felt good. I wanted to make him scream and feel more pain, a-and then I wanted him to die, and Sherry watched me. Sh-She watched . . ."
Her breath hitched, but she was trembling with the effort to be as still as possible.
"What I-I'm trying to say is . . . I don't have real control over myself," she continued after a moment. "Not my thoughts or my emotions or--or anything; maybe I look like I do, b-but I really don't. And you're just . . . Gale, you're amazing and sweet and thoughtful, a-and I don't want to ruin that . . . I don't want someone better to come along, someone that's more sane, I don't want them to say it's a shame, it's a terrible shame he has to deal with her, because he used to be so kind but that g-girl's crazy, driving him crazy with her rambling and her non-existent self confidence, the negativity, the deflecting and reflecting a-and . . .
"I'm afraid of bringing more trouble," Stormy said in a shaky, quiet voice, "when you deserve nothing but happiness."
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Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 11:24 pm
He knew it would take her a while to answer him, to sort through the mess of complicated thoughts in her mind, as it had taken him. But he waited patiently for her to figure out what it was that she wanted to do, what it was that she felt she could do, and Gale did not push her for answers, for her to answer fast.
If he pushed too hard he was afraid she would break.
When he looked up at her again, Stormy's eyes were wet with tears, and it startled him, concerned him, made him suddenly worry that he had pushed too far after all, but then she started to speak and he could feel the weight in his stomach grow, twist, settle deep into his gut.
...what?
He had been furious when Mark had dragged them through the portal, Gale screaming hoarsely at the bloody techs that refused to let him back, that carted him off to the Infirmary before he could find out what had happened, why they had been pulled back. And he'd just assumed that what had happened was that they had been yelled at by Caelius and then brought back.
But once again, he'd underestimated their leader. And the anger rose, not at Stormy, but at Caelius and his sadistic tendencies, for pushing them all to the breaking point and then more, just to satisfy his own personal vendetta against all of mankind.
And Stormy had...
Gale took a deep breath, closing his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again, there was a tired look on his face - tired, but the determined glint in his eyes was still there. He took a step forward and reached out, taking the now entirely melted ice cream cone from her sticky hand. And without any regard for his suit at all, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug.
"I don't know...what happened out there," he said quietly, and one hand rested on the back of Stormy's head, resting in her hair. "I don't know why you did what you did. But Stormy, you have never driven me crazy - except crazy like, because I can't remember the last time anyone made me feel as good as you make me feel."
His grip tightened, just a little. "What other people say doesn't matter. Let them think what they want to think, and I'll believe what I want to believe."
Gale pulled back, and his hands rested on either side of Stormy's face, gentle and light.
"Stormy," he said. "I'm here. I'm here, Stormy, right beside you, and I will make sure that what happened out there doesn't control you. Listen to me, okay?"
His fingers trembled slightly against her cheeks. "I can't pretend that I know what happened, or that I'm not scared it won't happen again, because I am. I don't - I don't want to see you like that, because it's not you."
He closed his eyes again, his chest feeling tight, and laid his forehead against hers.
"I didn't call you Lightning because it was a cute weather name. I called you that because even then I was starting to realize that you light up my world as even when you think you don't."
He gave a small laugh, a small, slight sob escaping his throat.
"Bring me whatever trouble you have, and I will take it. I am still here, and I'm not going anywhere, whether it's by your side one way or another way."
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Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 11:58 pm
There was an irony in hearing Gale declare what wasn't her personality, because what stood before her hadn't been the original either: just the fragments put together to fit a particular role someone else in a rather similar position to him wanted. Thane reminded her in a way that made her wince as Gale hugged her, tempted to just keep them like this and hide her face for a while. It was more than nice, it felt safe. That determination in his eyes, the confidence he declared with . . . She was envious and craved that rooted nature, that ability to choose to defy what one might say is the truth.
But she was Stormy: she didn't dictate what happened but followed its course, didn't enforce her will but fed it in bits and pieces. She didn't lock up in Gale's arms but moved languidly, accommodating his gestures even as they made her heart rate rise. He cared, he cared, he cared, why was that so hard to understand? If she was Lightning, why did she feel so dim when praised, less like a force of nature and more like a dusty forgotten lightbulb, the concept of an idea but not the shining icon so often used to depict inspiration?
She closed her eyes as well as their foreheads touched and gave a soft, shaky sigh, almost ready to relax until she heard that strange, almost watery sound leave Gale. Her phone buzzed with authority to get them to dinner, but she ignored it for now, instead placing her hands atop his, feeling them tremble and wishing she could help. But if she could barely help herself, how could she . . . ?
". . . This is nice," Stormy found herself murmuring. "It's nice to shrug off a backpack of burden and pass it on for someone to look at. Examine the contents, judge whether it's as heavy as it looks, take out the clutter and dust and unnecessary weights. I told you before, symbolism, emotions, the intangible--those things reign supreme in my mind. I think . . . I can wear that bracelet like a crown." She had a small, quivering smile as her cold hands leeched the warmth from his.
"D'you wanna cry too, or is that just me?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2013 12:06 am
She didn't push him away, which was good, and she didn't stiffen as he hugged her which, while not a first, was a bigger step than Gale could have hoped for, under the circumstances.
He could hear his phone vibrating in his pocket, but he didn't move from where he stood, his hands still on either side of Stormy's face. She lifted her own, and he felt her fingers against his, cold and small and thin, and his eyes flickered, his expression changing slightly.
"It can be, yeah," he said, and laughed a little, his thumb brushing against her cheek, which felt warm beneath his skin, her face flushed. "I'll look at your troubles and I'll carry them for you."
And there was that smile again, if not smaller and more tremulous than it had been previously. Gale shifted a little, taking a half step closer.
"A little," he admitted, and it was true, his own eyes feeling slightly more damp than they normally were. "Though not from sadness, I don't think. But..."
He drew back a little, and there was a serious look on his face now.
"...but I would also very much like to kiss you again, if you'd let me."
He knew almost from the moment he said it that she would most likely say no, that she was not even sure of her own feelings just yet, that the chaos reigning around them was still at the forefront of her mind. It was too much for her to handle all at once. But it would be okay, Gale reminded himself, closing his eyes again. It will be okay.
Don't push. Don't break.
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Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2013 12:32 am
Gale could probably tell by the brief quirk of her mouth that it was a push, though for once it wasn't a sad smile answering him--just an understanding one. A patient one that spoke before she did. "Not yet. There's . . . I'm afraid've crying on you," Stormy explained with a self-depreciating sort of chuckle. "And the memories I make with you need to be better than that. You've given me a lot to think on . . ."
More thinking, more delaying, more time to have that obsessive-compulsive need to have things be perfect. To be perfect.
"But I did promise you I would talk, so . . . Did you maybe want to go to dinner with me?" she asked hopefully. "I'll feel better knowing you're around, especially since it's a mission and all. And I shouldn't be keeping you all to myself like this," she added as a weak joke. "And if we don't get to talk more, then after the mission. We can meet some place, wherever you want, and I'll just . . . Ramble and ramble like I always do, and you can nod your head even if you don't understand, and I'll feel better and cuddle you or something."
She aligned her fingers to slide between his shyly. "I don't want to distract us from the mission just because my head's not so cluttered with that last mission anymore and I can actually think about this. There's already one dead passenger . . . We need to keep a sharp eye out for the responsible party and the artifact." And if she messed up on another mission, she didn't know how she could handle it.
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Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2013 12:42 am
Somehow, he was not upset by her denial. If anything, it made him smile, Gale laughing a little along with her. "All right," he told her, and leaned away, reaching a hand up to gently push her hair away from her face. "Not yet. You can think, and I will wait for you."
Her offer startled him a little, Gale blinking down at her with some surprise - but then he relaxed as she went on, her expression and tone of voice saying more than what her words were. He nodded his head.
"I don't mind being kept by you," he said mildly. "And I do like the cuddling part...that seems rather nice. And so does the rambling part," he added, giving Stormy a discrete smile.
He offered her a real smile, however, and gently squeezed her fingers, which felt comfortable linked with his own; comfortable and warm. But she was right, even if he didn't want to leave anytime soon. They were on a mission; it was time to focus.
"We'll all keep any eye on each other, all right?" Gale said, leading her towards the door. He reached out and slipped his coat from the chair, letting go of Stormy's hand only long enough to put his shoes back on and let her do the same, draping his coat over his free arm. Then he took her hand again, sliding his fingers together with hers. "And..."
He paused, wondering if he should say it or not, floundered a bit, and then said, "With everything going on, I would feel better if I knew...you were safe. Perhaps it might be best if you stayed with me tonight?"
The offer was honest; another not-ill intended gesture. "I'll sleep on the couch, and you can have the bed if you want. But if you want to stay in your room, I'd understand."
He smiled gently. "I don't want to make you uncomfortable."
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Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2013 1:14 am
With only the tiniest of sniffles, Stormy wiped at her eyes and pu ton a stronger face. "Right. Watson and Holmes, Will Turner and Jack Sparrow, partners in crime!" It was surprising even to her how quickly she was bouncing back to her regular self, which could only mean good things as far as she was concerned.
In the brief time he took to put his coat back on, Stormy opened the little blue box and slipped it on her right wrist, watching with childish glee as the little charms twinkled in the light. There weren't words to describe her relief that he didn't look disappointed. There weren't words in English or Spanish or any other language known or unknown or made up. But those smiles, the feel of his hand, the offer to stay the night, the unspoken assurance of protection--those were things she could hold onto as firmly as she held onto Gale's hand once she had her shoes on and they were ready to go. If they didn't have a mission, if for once they could have a day off and enjoy themselves, then she surely would have just melted . . .
"That sounds like a lovely idea," she said with a bob of her head and a bright look, her cheeks flushed a little not from feeling awkward but from being in the spotlight for most of the conversation. "My room's probably small and cramped in comparison. We can cuddle as compensation!" Then Stormy paused, did make a small "oh!", and lightly slapped her face when she remembered something. "Nevada wanted me to ask if you'd mind both of us staying over," she told him, turning a bit apologetic. "We've been roomies for a bit, and we're sorta . . . reluctant on going our separate ways just yet. But if you just want me, I'd understand and so would she." And she passed Gale a look that said Nevada would really understand in that way trust her okay.
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Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2013 12:45 pm
That she was actually wearing the bracelet - and looking pleased about wearing it - filled Gale with more happiness than he thought was possible, and he reminded himself that a) she hadn't exactly said yes, she would date him, and b) they were on a mission.
Focus.
He blinked curiously at her, and then smiled a little. "If it'll make you feel better, then of course Nevada can stay here as well," Gale said, and tilted his head to see her better, trying to hide the small bit of amusement in his voice. "I don't want you to feel like you're on your own here, and I can understand wanting to keep yourself close to those you care about."
He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, resisting the urge to lean in and kiss her cheek because it would be too much, and then slanted his gaze towards the doorway, gesturing for her to follow.
"Then, to dinner?"
And please let nothing else awful have happened.ol-j-man akjsdfnsdf TO THE DINNER ORP, RIGHT?
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Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2013 1:04 pm
One extra bit of tightness left her at his answer and came out with a soft sigh. "Thank you...Nevada and I'll be very careful with the room, promise. And I hope you two like each other, which you should because she's pretty easy going and likes napping like I do and is a great cuddler." It was an important step, Stormy had read countless times, for the best friend to approve of any potential date.
She looked up at Gale with a grateful expression, stopping just before they got to the door. "Really, thank you," she repeated a little softly. "For doing all of this, for being patient...and for the lovely gift." And she paused, considered a moment, and lifted his hand to give a light kiss to his knuckles.
And just as quick as it happened, it was done. Stormy was smiling again, pulling him through the door with a soft girlish noise. "To dinner~"
kurotomato YURP lemme go post there right quick
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