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“That must be all the time.” Hel returned with a cackle, and then laughed. “Bully you?” She echoed. “Nuh huh. I do not bully you. You are so full of it.” She grinned a bit. “Aww…I think I am reading between the lines, Mac…and I think what I am hearing is that you love the sound of my voice.” Hel teased, before she listened to his reply.

Hrm…Her stomach rolled uncomfortably with what she had in mind next…but eh…it needed to be said. Once again. The ghoul laid there for a moment longer, and released a sigh. One…two…

She leapt up from her seat and snapped a hand out for Mac’s closest wrist, and tugged. A leg also swept out to knock Mac off of his feet, and with some fancy foot work in such a small space, the poor b*****d would find himself on his knees, bent over one of the benches, with his arm twisted behind his back. Hel, of course, was keeping his arm pinned, and she had his arm in the type of hold with the slightest pressure would send him into a world of hurt.

“I shall get to that…” She announced from above him, smiling a bit. “…Well…I would say sorry, guy, but I would not really mean it…you see, I am about to slap the elephant in the room…and I know if I did not do this, you should have either told me ‘no’ or thrown me off the boat…or a combination of both.”

“I AM A MESS!” Hel yelled back, though her voice was rather cheerful. She leaned a bit, brushing her lips against his ear. “Aw, Mac! Were you embarrassed earlier?” She let the subject go though, and got down to it. After all, the longer she had Mac pinned...well, it just wasn’t a good thing.

“Well, to start off, I think you have to give me some credit!” She informed him, smiling. “It has been nearly four Octobers since we last poked at the elephant in the room, so I believe I am entitled to slap it!” Slap it she was about to. “I was actually planning on waiting for quite some time before I left Amity…” She started. “I was gonna wait on you, actually…I dunno, the thought of you not having anyone to look after your back if I left tugged at my heart strings…so I was going to stay until you graduated, but then came the thought too…maybe you would be mad if I was doing that? Maybe it would be hovering? I know you are a big boil and you can handle yourself, but…ah…well…I worry.” She grinned sheepishly at that…maybe he could see. Maybe he couldn’t.

“I am not certain about all of that, honestly.” Hel admitted. “I feel like I am finally starting to truly enjoy my time here…” She trailed off, and shook her head. Okay, next subject. She thought back to the long and in depth conversation she had with Salbei in the woods after her return, and that was where a lot of this was coming from. “…Well…I am not a mind reader, and you are not a mind reader…even if you do predict what I am going to do or say more than half the time…” She chuckled. “So…once again, I just want you to know where my mind is at.” Her free hand moved while she was talking to run through his hair, petting his head as she spoke. “No matter what I do…if I stay for…some reason or if I do go soon…I just want you to know, Mac, that you have my support and my time. Jack knows I am not a patient soul but…I suppose this is all a really good lesson for me.” She laughed. “But I want to…wait for you.” This was a different kind of waiting now, not the graduating kind, either. “I truly do. So no matter what happens, I want to wait…so…I will! Call me stupid…oh wait, you do…heh, but no one gets me like you do, and I think you are worth waiting for so…ya. That is what I am going to do.”

Hel nodded to herself, and took a deep breath. “I also want you to know…that if at some point, for whatever reason…none of this is working for you…then to please let me know.” Her voice grew a bit soft, but sincere. “So that I can work on letting you go…because first and foremost, Mac, you are my best friend, and I want you to be happy.” Even if it wasn’t with her. This was probably the most mature thing Hel was ever going to say. It needed to go down in the record books. Her fingers continued to thread through his hair, and she smiled, leaning down over him again.

“I knooow you are going to be very pissed at me for all of this, but I am doing it all because I love you.” Yup. She laughed a bit then, and that was all she had wanted to get off her chest. The ghoul released his arm…but that didn’t mean she released him. Instead, after letting his arm go…Hel koala-clung to him, tightly.

“Now…” She started, resting her chin on his shoulder. “I know what you are thinking! You are probably sorely tempted to throw me off this boat…but…I must try to persuade you otherwise! You see, it is my birthday in a few days!” Would that work? “…I also offer you another anything to call on at anytime of your choosing…as long as it does not involve me going over this boat.”

Hel waited…and truth be told…she was a little anxious.

Oooh…he was really mad. Eh…heh…eh… Oh Sally. Hel was quick to release him though…because really, anything to ease that anger in the slightest was what she was aiming for. The ghoul immediately shot away from him, though really it wasn’t very far, considering they were on a small boat.

Still, she backed to the furthest end she could go to put a small amount of space in between then, and held out her hands, threatening to latch again if he tried to grab her. “Yanno, that is a rather stupid question.” She replied. “Why can I not do things like a normal person? Because simple, I am not! You are not either…and do not give me that bull s**t about not needing to restrain you! Do not deny it, Mac, you would have thrown me off the boat before I even got three sentences out, or you would have told me no and would not have listened!” She pointed an accusing finger at him. "How am I supposed to talk to you if you do not give me a chance!?"

The shift in the atmosphere was awesome. Hel lowered her hands, felt more relaxed, her posture slackening. “Because I am at the mercy of you in your environment.” She replied, luckily not accusingly this time, and then stared at Mac as he…as he…

Wait…

Was he…pouting?

Hel squinted at him.

…He was, wasn’t he? Mac was pouting. Hel started to giggled, and immediately slapped a hand over her mouth, and turned her head to look away from Mac, lest she start giggling more. He was pouting, and it was adorable. She giggled some more despite her best efforts to not, though it was muffled behind her hand. Then she realized he might get defensive, and was quick to try and fix it.

“AH! No, NO!” She cried, waving her hands around now. “I am not making fun of you!” She wailed. “It is just…ah…” Well, telling him he looked adorable because he was sulking seemed not the brightest idea. Hel fell into an awkward silence, and decided to change the topic.

“You are right.” She could give him that at least, and she grinned. “Thank you for listening.” Also, she was still dry, and that said it all right there. “…I guess I am somewhat apologetic for pinning you down.”

QQ Pout more, Mac. Hel thought it was the cutest thing ever. “I am not!” She cried back, and could nothing to hide that wide and amused grin on her face. “I am not laughing at you…I am laughing…uh…” Well, realizing she couldn’t fix that statement, Hel immediately sobered up and informed him. “I find it very adorable that you are sulking.” She maintained that straight face for a few moments longer before she was back to grinning, and then sat down on a seat again.

“…Oh!” She cried, as if something just hit her. “OH!” One hand cupped her cheek, and the other was pointing and gesturing at him excitedly. “I figured it out! I figured it out!” She cried. “It just hit me!” Really Hel, you weren’t helping yourself, but she never did have a shut off switch. “I know why you tell me to shut up all the time! It is because you know I will keep talking~! You love to listen to me speak~!” She wiggled in her seat.

Coming to this realization, she was agreeable to the demands. “Okay. Okay~! I am all apologetic, now do not throw me overboard, because I do not want my Scarentines to get wet!” The ones she had tucked in her bosom always. “Now also, answer me this.” She rocked on her seat. “…As to what I said earlier…is that okay…? Yay or nay…but if you tell me nay, you have to give me a reason a why.” She wagged a finger at him now.

Luckily, once he gave nothing more to feed her, she let the topic go, and was instead focused on the answer to her question. Hel stilled in her rocking, and just stared at the reaper thoughtfully. Okay. Okay. She was dissecting…or attempting to dissect. Reading in between the lines was never Hel’s thing…but she was learning.

Don’t go far, he said.

…AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

The start of that stupid happy smile started, and Hel looked down, purposely picking some fluff off of her tunic until she managed to get it under control. “I suppose I will not go too far…only because I can not harass anyone else like I can you.” She glanced up at him as he narrowed his eyes at her, and asked his question, and she looked back down again, picking off some more fluff. It was true. Mot said it too. Mac was a big boil who could take care of himself…he’d be fine if she was gone but…

But there was that big part of her that just wanted to hear something genuine without the convoluted words hidden under a false pretense of not really caring. She wanted to be missed. She wanted acknowledgement that dynamics would change once she graduated. Would he miss this? She was going to. Not that she’d stop spending time with him after, but it would be different. She wasn’t going to be able to see him every day and banter with him…at least until he graduated too…

And as much as she was planning to try to get Mac to move in with her after he graduated… there was always a possibility that might not happen.

Hel released a long and loud wistful breath, and she leaned her weight on her hands, turning her head away from her tunic to look out over the water. She was too high strung up about this, and she could only be amused at how stupid she was.

“It will be different when I graduate because I am going to miss you something awful.”

How soft his voice was, to her, was louder than him yelling, and Hel’s head turned back around to look at him. It made her feel better, and she smiled, and as soon as he held his arms out, she was quick to hop off her seat. The thought of getting thrown off was quick and fleeting, and abandoned just for the sake of his contact. Though she wasn’t going anywhere right this moment, she couldn’t help but throw her arms around him tightly, crushing him to her, and pressing her face against the front of his coat and scarf.

Part of her just wanted to spill her guts with her worries. The same ones she expressed to Gramps. What about the elephant? What about us? Was there still sorta an us? Would there still be a sorta us after? It was on the tip of her tongue, but asking it here and now, it wouldn’t have gotten her any closer to any answers she would have wanted, so she channeled her worries into something else instead, her voice muffled against him.

“You will come and visit me like all the time, ya? You can even come by boat, yanno? Explore all the new water ways…the cottage will not be built for a bit, so I imagine I will just be camping on the ground…oh, oh, but when it is, I will need your help gardening—“ Which read as, ‘Mac, you’ll be my gardener because I can’t garden to save my life’ – “Because you know I will just have a horribly bright and vibrant green garden otherwise!”

Okay…she felt a bit better. A bit less worried and she smiled. “Ha…Ya…I know, but you should go to class too so that you can hurry and graduate as well…” With her future garden in safe and capable hands, Hel was looking to just busy herself now…anything to stop from talking…talking…and she knew how. Hel released the boil, though she didn’t move, and instead her hands shot up to grab the collar of his jacket, and she pulled him down to her. She managed a grin now.

“So…you. Me. So far out we can see nothing but the stars…” She hadn’t forgotten what she asked of him one day, and she most certainly hadn’t forgotten how the jerk had been resisting her earlier. That being said, she pulled him down even further and kissed him heatedly. Plus…this would stop the whole talking thing too.