[Instability Portal] Fashion Disaster [Ami + Lex] (FIN)

[chiickadee]

Ami looked unsteadily at Lex as the coat came around her shoulders, trying to take a step back, which unfortunately just made her lean further into the coat, making her look like she actually wanted it. Well it was on, and he expected her to wear it. Might as well.

She looked at the spot next to him shiftily. She didn't trust this. Too friendly. Too comfortable. She sat down next to him, but not nearly as close as he'd gestured, a good foot or so between them.

"I couldn't pin you down again," she muttered, avoiding the subject of Adam altogether. "Your reflexes are better now." It was a perfect answer, devoid of any hindrances of caring about Lex's dad, or talking about Adam. Avoidance at its finest.  

[Carhop Cavalier]

Giving her a very unpleased look, Lex shook his head and ruffled his hair more. How to talk to the voluntarily mute? She was making words, but not saying anything. Lex was great at that; it was his job and his key strategy in his love life. Talk a lot, say nothing, get laid, get out. He could see right through her, like a piece of peanut brittle.

"Yeah yeah, reflexes." He was actually pushing her nonsense aside, trying to jackhammer his way into her core. Maybe he was being too rough? He would find out. "You know who has great reflexes? You. You and your social reflexes." His voice remained level, but held little barbs inside the notes. "As soon as things get deep and personal, your reflexes kick in and you make yourself into a little turtle, not searching and not letting people in."

He looked off to the side, biting his lip. He did that with women all the time for sex. He was basically calling himself on the carpet, and it was the most uncomfortable thing he'd done for a while. "If you keep retreating, you'll never find anything out. Staying in your dark hole isn't going to fix whatever part of you that's broken."  

[chiickadee]

"You seem to know a lot about me for a few chance encounters, Alexei," she said coldly, using his full name. Suddenly the warm coat he'd put around her felt like a trap. She couldn't leave without returning it, and that would be awkward and rude in the middle of a conversation.

Cold logic took its place. "No one informed me I was obligated to let everyone make themselves at home at the Ami manor. I suppose I missed the memo that said I had to be friendly and welcome everyone into my life. I should probably start telling you all my secrets, and we can braid each other's hair, right?" She stared quite blatantly at the ground around her feet. Most people ran off around this point.

It would just be a matter of time for Lex. Something she'd say would sting, and he'd run with his tail between his legs. Perhaps barking on his way back, but still leaving. "It's also incredibly rude to call someone broken." Well it was.  

[Carhop Cavalier]

Lex gave the woman in front of him a long hard look, before he began chuckling. He chuckled more and more, until eventually it was a small giggle. He shook his head and rolled his eyes, very aware that yes, this would indeed piss her off. Let her be mad, he told himself. She needed to get some kind of emotional response going on.

"Oh, Ami, Ami, Ami. This is why I never talk to people on a deep level; I end up saying something brash or harmful, and i just get stung back." That, and he didn't like knowing people on a deep personal level if it didn't lead to sex, or some other pay off. Like tickets to concerts and games, or free waffles at the waffle house. "So don't expect me to run off like a kicked puppy."

He stared at her, leveling his eyes right at where her face should have been. "I don't understand why you're so prickly, but I know some things have had to happen to you. I know it's cliche', but don't let the past ruin your present, okay kid?"

Figuring the conversation over, Lex stood and began to leave towards the island portal. He had reports to file.  

[chiickadee]

He was laughing. Why was he laughing? Did he think her annoyance funny? Was he mocking her? Stern red crossed her face. She didn't expect laughter. She didn't know what to do faced with laughter.

He talked, and continued to talk. Ami didn't respond to it, just waited for it to be over, like a classroom lecture. Like a Marcus lecture. His stare burned in the side of her skull, but she waited it out.

It sort of stung to hear him call her prickly. She knew it and admitted it herself, but people were often so afraid of "hurting" feelings that they wouldn't say it outright to her face. Regardless of how much she faked? Ami still had feelings.

It was easy enough to say "get over it." When things were embedded into your very personality, it was hard to reinvent oneself over again. Yet here she was trying. Attempting. She'd sat down and tried to have a conversation with a stranger. She even took his jacket. Why did it seem to no one that she was trying? Sure it wasn't a valiant effort. It wasn't like she was making leaps and bounds, but she was moving forward at all- why couldn't that be enough for anyone?

She pulled the jacket tighter around her arms. It felt a little colder all of a sudden, that was all.