[PRP] Malignant (Ami/Lex)

[Carhop Cavalier]

Lex rolled his eyes heavily, giving Ami the courtesy of turning to look at her when he responded. He couldn't lie to Ami - hell, he even failed at lying to Claude. His girlfriend, however, had the unique privilege of breaking his stubborn streak.

"Because I owe her a few favors." Lex admitted, standing from the chair and moving towards her, in front of her. "I'm sure you're fully aware of when we were all bimbos for a day - I said some things to her over the phone, and we ended up chatting all night in her room. When I became... less of a bimbo than usual, I asked her to not tell anyone anything I said that night."

Relief was what he felt, oddly enough. Lex hadn't realized the tax he was paying to keep the whole Maebe situation a secret.  

[chiickadee]

"I heard nothing of the sort."

For once, Ami was telling the truth. It was her subtle way of saying go on.  

[Carhop Cavalier]

"Of course you didn't. I may not be able lie to you, but I am very capable of omitting." He smiled softly, slipping a hand into hers if she'd allow it.

"In fact, I didn't even tall you about any of the time I've spent with Ms. Grace. How did you find out?"  

[chiickadee]

Ami's hand slipped away, back to her book. Small subtle signals that no, a charming smile and a gentle hand weren't going to whisk the problem away. She didn't let him solve things like that anymore.

"Omission leads to incongruent behavior dear," she chided, as though she was taking toys from a child.

She avoided naming her sources. Ami was hardly a snitch.  

[Carhop Cavalier]

The smile stayed, warmed even, when she retreated. Of course he wouldn't be able to solve his problems by being charming - it'd been too long since he was that man.

"Don't go calling the kettle black, Ms. Potts." He responded with a clucked tongue, but continued anyway. Talking circles around each other got boring quickly, and he'd much rather just end the charade.

"In return for not blabbing, I provide Maebe with an Orange Mocha Frappuccino - he said the words with only the barest hints of disgust - "Every Tuesday afternoon. We chat for a while, sometimes we spar. Only once have those spars become -

His eyes glanced to the reading nook, and he sighed. She knew. "There was no actual flirting or anything beyond that, dearest, I assure you."  

[chiickadee]

Ami raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to reassure me?" She actually laughed. "Why would I care less if you prefer to rot your mind on her drivel?"

It was a rather haughty statement; Ami thought less of Maebe than she thought of dirt. Hardly a person, just a placeholder for a feeling.

"I'm merely curious of the consequences," she balked, eyes back on the pages.  

[Carhop Cavalier]

"Don't you start lying, Amalie Raine." Lex whispered, running a hand through her long hair, toying with it some. "If you didn't give a s**t, you wouldn't have confronted me in the first place."

His hand dropped, and he actually pulled the book from her hands - a dangerous move by any rubric. "You do care - I'm even beginning to think you're a tad jealous."

chiickadee

 

[chiickadee]

She rolled her eyes with a grandiose gesture. Once again, Lex was not getting it. "Think what you'd like Alexei Jamil-"

When the book was pulled from her hands, she made no movement, merely folded her hands in her lap and looked at him. Hell had no fury like Ami making full eye contact, but it was contained somehow. Quieter.

"If you wished to leave me for her I wouldn't stop you. It has always been that way," she explained. "But do not mistake my concern for jealousy." It was a strangely mixed feeling. Being so empty that even love seemed a hard emotion to pull from her chest these days, while simultaneously attempting in a pseudo-caring fashion to persuade herself that she was trying. Apathy had begun to win, after so long. Monotony was Ami's every action, her very character.

Monotony kept her safe.

"You are changing."

carhop cavalier

@ username

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

It was at that point that Lex knelt down to her level, keeping eye contact. "You know I wouldn't -- couldn't. No one else fits me the way you do." No charming smile, no toying with a part of her body, Brutal and honest sincerity.

He stayed like that for a while, face a safe distance from hers but keeping his grey eyes leveled to her red tinged brown, not blinking or looking away. Her gaze was less a bonfire these days, more just smoldering coals. He couldn't blame her - apathy was a powerfully constructed shield.

"And why does my change concern you?"  

[chiickadee]

"Lex," she said with something akin to hurt in her eyes. She dragged a single finger down his worn face, tracing invisible lines that ran between scars, freckles and hair.

A long suffering sigh came from between her lips. "When I met you, you were fiery, capricious even. You had aspirations, you wanted to help people- to this day I still don't know why, but nevermind that. You were so sharp I thought to excise my rust with your blade because it seemed the only solution fitting for someone like me." Ami often got lost in her own tangents. She shook her head. "Needing consolation from a common whore?" Sorry Maebe. "Presenting extreme, childish fantasies to the entirety of our division- labeling yourself as a laughing stock?"

The hand dropped and she leaned on it, elbow on the armchair. There was something rather iconic about Ami, ankles folded, on a large chair and Lex kneeling beside her. The imagery was not lost. "For god's sake, did you not even think to run your proposal by me?" Her voice had gotten somewhat shrill (never extreme or startling, Ami's voice was always one-toned at best), so she quieted herself, choosing her words carefully. "These machinations are not ... not who are you. They are of some depraved, feral man who is slowly devouring the man I-" She caught herself. Always careful. "The man I care for deeply."  

[Carhop Cavalier]

He wanted to crumple when she said his name, but instead took her hand and held it to his cheek, and listened. It was odd, the way he counted getting a flash of anything from her eyes as both victory and loss. Lex's lips pursed, brows furrowed as she spoke.

Small parts of him wanted to protest - Maebe wasn't a whore, his ideas were just good thank you very much, and he had always been the laughing stock of the division. The pretty boy lady's man who was more interested in a sex than science. Yet he listened, and waited.

"I--" Nothing, he had nothing for her. She was right, completely and absolutely right. And again he became a supplicant, head bowed to the point where his bangs brushed her thighs.

"I want to be the man you love."  

[chiickadee]

"As long as you understand," she said airily, eyes misty and searching elsewhere to the left of him. It felt so clinical, so mechanical the things she said.

She couldn't shake the nagging feeling that he didn't. That he wouldn't, no matter how much she tried to drag his raft back to shore.

She prodded his chin up with two of her fingers. "Your actions, no matter how thoughtless or innocent, have consequence."  

[Carhop Cavalier]

He hated feeling like a child, loathed the feeling of being small. Yet she always did it to him, and for some God forsaken reason, he allowed it. Lex didn't look at her, gaze averted to the floorboards. "I'm becoming more and more aware." He blustered, straightening his back and turning back to look at her ever so briefly, shame flickering throughout every motion.

"I can't just stumble along anymore, hoping to fall into a pit of opportunity. I need to carve a path with my own two hands." He smiled weakly, running a finger along her back, tracing her scars from memory. "But I need to plot my course carefully, consider the consequences of my actions."

He rested his head on the armrest, letting slip any pretense or composition he'd held. "Just be there to prod me along, keep me aware. I'll run things by you next time."  

[chiickadee]

"Excellent," she said wholeheartedly, pleased with the language he was using. Carve and consider, so many forward moving words.

Her hands cupped his chin and she worked up a smile for him. It looked odd on her face, like a crack on a porcelain plate. "I believe you've endured enough third degree today." She tugged his face lightly, gesturing that he should get up. "Dinner, maybe?"  

[Carhop Cavalier]

"Definitely." He agreed to both accounts, groaning as he got up. The man was not built to be on knees for that long. "French Onion?"

He clasped her hand, urging her to join him in the kitchen. "Do you think there's a way my proposal could have worked? Something is definitely wrong with the human population being fed condensed FEAR."