|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 5:24 pm
He hadn't expected her to make the first move, Stormy curling against him still wrapped in the blanket, and his heart beat a little faster at the contact, his face tinging a slight pink. But Gale lifted his arm, and, hesitating only a moment, let it rest around her shoulders, propping his feet up on the coffee table.
"You were pretty badass back there," he said, and smiled a little, turning his head so that his nose was pressed into her hair, and he closed his eyes briefly before pulling back to look at her, his expression flickering.
"...bugs remind me of the Sahara," he said, after a long moment. He nudged himself further down into the couch and closer to Stormy, hoping she wasn't going to move away anytime soon because he liked this, he liked being close to her, and he liked that she had wanted to be close to him.
"Before you woke up in Deus, there was...a hunter, she was..." Gale took a small breath. "She was a bit crazy in the head, actually, but she tried. We went to the Sahara on a mission, and we...we didn't know, we couldn't tell until it was too late, but she was consumed by these massive insects that attacked us, and..."
He sighed a little. "Well, at any rate, bugs make me slightly nauseated, and they're definitely on my list of do not wants."
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 5:52 pm
She felt that was an empty compliment, something of a social cue itself that most followed to fill in the gaps of an otherwise spacious conversation, but she wouldn't fight it: not when he welcomed her into a one-armed embrace without a word, not when he had scooted that much closer in response, not when she'd felt him press his face to her hair that sent little shivers down her spine and a small warmth to her cheeks. Gale always said good, kind things about her that she didn't always understand . . . But the more he said them, the more she realized she needed to hear them. Like sunlight and water to a wilted wallflower, they were necessary.
Stormy waited for his answer as patiently as he had waited for hers many times before, wondering if it was too much to ask to listen to his heartbeat for a moment.
The Sahara was mentioned again, and Stormy had to wonder what about that place made it so cursed. What was it about bugs and death and bleach white bones? There used to be a hunter, he said, who was crazy in the head but tried anyway.
Sounds about right. One side of her mouth quirked.
"Wish I'd gotten to meet her," she lamented in a mumble, sinking into the couch and his arm and going a little more limp against Gale. There was something about the closeness that was letting Stormy unwind, if only just a bit.
"You . . . have a curse for losing people, don't you." It was a sober guess from a not-quite-sober mind, a grasp in the dark with a small hand.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 6:17 pm
He could get used to this, he thought - and in fact, he was almost very used to it already. The closeness was something he had not ever had before, not with anyone, not unless you counted Leslie, and even then she was his sister and did not exactly count. But the hugs from Eva, the embraces from Candace - they were not the same, not really. They were not on the same level as this sort of thing, not when this person was curling up against him like she actually wanted to be closer, like she wanted to share in his warmth as well.
And maybe that was what he needed, what he wanted. For someone to want to be as close to him as he wanted to be close to them, because he had spent all this time watching everyone else have that while he had drifted aimlessly.
Maybe this time he would find something to keep him anchored. Or maybe he already had.
Gale felt Stormy shift a bit, and he lifted his arm briefly to accommodate before he settled it back down again, his hand absently and gently brushing over her arm. He gave a small, soft laugh. "Well, she was certainly...a character, she was. But you know, thinking about it...you probably would have liked her."
Her last comment made him stiffen briefly, but then he remembered the truth of it, and Gale sank back into the couch, leaning his head back to stare up at the ceiling.
Julie, even though she was lost by everyone, really.
My parents. Bix, for a bit. Ceres, for a bit.
Ben.
Leslie.
"...yeah," he said finally, and closed his eyes. "I sure do, don't I."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 6:50 pm
"I'm sorry," she said softly and sniffled, unsure of what to do with her own prompt. It was always the same with her: first there was a morbid curiosity to know about things that didn't concern her, second there was an urge to dig up more information, and then always last was the inability to deal with what was found, if anything. Why did she want to know if Gale had lost people?
Belatedly, Stormy realized it was to see if they had other things in common.
She stayed at an indecisive impasse as Gale closed his eyes, reminded of the image of him sleeping at her bedside early that morning. But he wasn't at peace, he wasn't relaxing, and if anything her proximity was probably making him anxious. But she didn't want to leave . . . More than share Gale's warmth, Stormy wanted to consume it.
Slowly but deliberately, she turned herself to face him. First one hand shyly crept out from under the blanket, tugging it along as her arm stretched across to the other side; her other hand did similarly, sliding between Gale and the couch until she had him in a sort of blanketed hug. Stormy turned her head until it was half-buried between the blanket and his shoulder, closer to his face than before but still ducked.
"I-I'm sorry."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 7:15 pm
He knew he'd lost a lot of people, most specifically Ben and Leslie, and sometimes it still hurt, like a fresh wound. He might have made peace with Ben's death, but with Leslie it was an entirely different story. His sister would not ever wake up; she'd be in those pods, perpetually and forever young, until the day that those pods no longer existed and neither did he.
The thought was both terrifying and sobering, and Gale took a small breath, trying to keep himself calm. But Stormy's warmth, her presence, the way she curled herself into his side all made him feel better.
Her existence had become necessary for him.
He felt her move before he saw her, and then it was like sunshine and warmth and happiness and everything all blended into one because she was hugging him, her arms around his waist and her face was against his shoulder and he could feel his stomach twisting, jumping, exploding with butterflies.
One of his hands lifted, Gale pressing it against the side of Stormy's face, his fingers gentle. "...thanks," he said quietly, and ducked his own head, and he kissed the top of her head, closing his eyes a little because maybe this would be as close as he would get and maybe that would be enough, but at least for right now, in this moment, she was the one who had made the first move.
"But I have other people in my life now, and that's a good thing," said Gale, his face still against Stormy's head. "I have Bix, and I have Candace. I've got Marcus."
"...and I've got you."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 7:48 pm
Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry, it'll just make your head hurt, it'll make your nose completely stuffed, it'll just help the congestion--
Her eyes stung anyway.
A soft noise left her at the kiss, somewhere between a hum and a strangled sound, between happy and torn. Her nose was getting clogged, so she had to suffer the embarrassment of sucking in shaky audible breaths through her mouth, ruining the smooth layer she'd felt coating their conversation. "You said you liked warmth, s-so . . . I-I was just trying to help." That was all she ever thought to do: help others, not herself. Why would she?
Don't cry.
Stormy bit her lip and shut her eyes, willing herself to calm back down, but God help her emotions weren't things she could fight. There was fear and anxiety and happiness and surprise and warmth, and she didn't know what do with any of it except to squeeze Gale tighter in response and to try to hold it in. It was times like these she wondered how either Candace or Gale could call her strong, because she rarely felt like it--she felt more like glass in a paperbag, protected against clinking into other things but not at all immune to cracking and breaking.
She wasn't quite sure what she was wanting to cry about anymore. There seemed to be a list of things.
"M'always t-tearing up on you," she croaked, glad that her hair hid her face. "M'a-always just . . . crybaby . . . B-But I'm not, y'know m'not, but being a-around you . . ." Her breath hitched and she sealed her lips, which was useless as she had to breathe through her mouth at this point. Everything hurt, everything hurt, and all she could do was cling to Gale and slowly deteriorate into a mess again.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 8:01 pm
He heard her sob, and the sound made his stomach twist, but he held her close anyway, his hand moving to hold the back of her head gently, his fingers in her hair like he didn't ever want to let go - and really he didn't, because he could think about things as much as he did, but the simple fact remained that he didn't want to let her go.
"I like warmth," Gale mumbled. "And I like you. The two things are mutually connected."
He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back, his face in his hair, and his stomach was doing knots, flips, cartwheels, and he was nervous, more nervous than he had ever been with Eva because this was different, this was more than what he had ever expected he would have in this lifetime.
"I don't mind it if you cry on me," Gale said. "It hurts me when you're upset, but maybe I can do something to make you feel better. Maybe I can give you my warmth when you need it, like you're doing for me right now."
His grip on her tightened, just a little.
"I told you I would always be there for you, and I meant it."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 8:31 pm
Are we connected, though?
She didn't like this feeling of being ready to implode, this inner pressure that made her tremble.
It hurt him when she was upset. Why?
He would always be there for her. Why?
He liked her. Why?
Over and over, why and why and why, why were his fingers in her hair and why did that feel nice, why was his face so close and why did she want him closer still, why was she able to hold it together unless she said the wrong things to him, why was her heart starting to thud in her ears, why couldn't she just let it go?
The ache in her heart somehow stilled her would-be sobs, but there were tears running down her face regardless. Stormy didn't want to move in case it dislodged Gale somehow. She couldn't breathe through her nose at all and sounded terribly congested as she gave a few watery coughs; it was almost like drowning again.
"J-Just hold me, please," she answered in a strained, soft voice. "That's all I need." Someone to hold and be held by. "But I don't understand . . ."
Wiping her faced against the blanket with little success, Stormy turned her head slowly so she could look at Gale proper, red-nosed, pink-eyed, confused and guarded and needy all at once. "I-I haven't given you any answer, so . . . so why're you being so nice t'me?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 8:44 pm
He didn't want to push it, didn't want to force it, but his feelings felt as though they were going to burst right out of his chest, pressing against his stomach and his heart and his mind, threatening to swallow him whole and keep him submerged in the midst of everything because this girl, because she was so imperfect and messy and vague and confusing and perfect.
Gale could hear her voice, small and timid and hoarse, and the way she sniffled, and Gale leaned back, Stormy's eyes as they met his red and watery. Her question was understandable, but at the same time messy - at the same time - he already knew the answer to it.
He slid his arms from around her waist and pressed them gently against either side of Stormy's face, his thumbs against her cheeks.
"Because I can. Because it's you, because there is no other explanation other than what I've already told you."
His own eyes were slightly misty, oddly bright. He gave a little laugh, and his smile was quiet, gentle.
"Because you expanded my world when I thought there was nothing left for me, because you make me feel as though I matter, because you are so bright in everything that you do, because your smile blinds me, because you are the only person who has ever made me feel the way that I do, because you a conundrum wrapped in a paradox, covered by an enigma."
He leaned forward, and his lips found her forehead, Gale pressing a very light, very brief kiss before he leaned back again, his thumbs gently smoothing over her tear stained face.
"Because I like you."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 9:25 pm
A lot more than I can say, she finished, remembering what he had said on the ship balcony. Stormy watched him unblinkingly, her eyes flicking from one half of his face to the other like she was trying to read him: trying to decipher the words, trying to read between the lines, trying to cheat on the test because this was a test, wasn't it? He was just a personal trick question lying in wait, waiting to trip her up somehow. Because how else did he continually know the right things to say and do when she was in doubt?
"The world's always been this big, Gale," she disagreed with a trembling little smile, because she couldn't not return his little ray of sunshine even if it was only at a fraction of the power. "I just helped you see it differently."
He liked her because it was complicated and hard to grasp, and he liked her because it was also very simple to.
It was a juxtaposition Stormy knew all too well because it was her somehow. Distant yet clingy, simplistic after breaking down complex ideas, levelheaded and yet when approached with a topic that drew upon those bottled feelings she turned into an absolute mess. A conundrum wrapped in a paradox covered by an enigma.
It was so very much like her that an odd, soft warble of a laugh left Stormy. And then another one came, and another, until the noises meshed into half-laughter, half-sobbing mix, until cheeks smoothed over by his thumbs once again ran with tears, until her head fell forward and touched foreheads with him, her face curtained by her hair and the touch of his lips on her forehead sealed. She never rose above a certain level of noise, and the fit passed her not too long after it started, but she kept her head lolling there because God help her but her face was pink and she was unpresentable and her head felt more congested than ever, but that it didn't matter because there was a wonderful feeling blooming in her chest.
"D-Did you know, there's a term for when there's rain falling while the sun's out? D'you know what it is?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 9:33 pm
Maybe things would be different this time.
Things are never different.
Maybe I'll be able to get what I want this time.
You don't ever get what you want.
Maybe -
No.
It was a familiar thought process, one that he had had over and over again in his lifetime, from when he was younger and had tried to ignore the shadows, to when he was older, watching Eva smile radiantly at Otto, a smile that would not be the same when directed at him. And though Gale had long since grown used to this sort of thing, it didn't make it any more bearable.
He didn't have the same thought process with Stormy.
In spite of the fact that her answer still remained uncertain, there was at least a glimmer of hope, far more than there had been with Eva, and the black, churning seeds of doubt had disappeared. Gale's thoughts were abnormally calm.
He felt her forehead against his and smiled, both of them just sitting there together, trying to figure things out. He brushed his thumb beneath her eye and wiped away a few of her tears, and after a moment he slid his hands down to her shoulders and then down her arms, his fingers curling loosely around her wrists, giving her the chance to move away if she wanted.
"I don't," said Gale honestly, and there was a smile in his voice. "What is it?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 10:07 pm
Even with her eyes closed, she could follow the movements of his hands as vividly in her mind's eye as with her real ones, and their passing left her warmer than even the blanket had managed. Stormy didn't know when her arms had loosened around him, only that his fingers were wrapped about her wrists and so terribly close to her own; Gale's bracelet pressed into her skin gently and she heard the charms clink against each other.
"Liquid sunshine," she revealed, and felt another weak laugh bubble up and end as a cough. But she couldn't stop smiling for some reason, because the wonderful feeling in her chest was growing and it felt right to, because for once she didn't feel like an idiot crying over nothing. More than that, she felt wanted. Was that what was welling up in her chest?
"I-I was going to name myself Sunny at one point," Stormy stated in a steadier voice, trying to sniffle and finding both nostrils still completely blocked. "But it didn't feel right, you know? And 'cause I'm not always sunny, not always bright like you said . . .But."
She curled her hands inward to try and coax Gale's into hers.
"If I can light up just one person's world, then . . . I'm glad it's yours, Gale." And she lifted her head with a cough and a swallow and a still somewhat tear-streaked face that was lit up with a warm smile. "Because I meant it when I said you deserved nothing but happiness." Her smile dimmed a bit with uncertainty. "I just don't know if I can give you need . . . I'm afraid've trying and failing and seeing you hurt again."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 10:20 pm
Liquid sunshine. It had a nice ring to it, Gale decided, one that was very Stormy, and one that was an apt description of what it might be that he was feeling - or maybe that was just him projecting, since he wasn't entirely certain that what he was feeling was actually describable.
"Nah," said Gale, and smiled. "I like Stormy. It's unpredictable and besides, storms are beautiful things. They create chaos and magic at the same time."
He felt her hands shift and slid his down to cover hers, cautiously sliding his fingers together, his palms flat against hers, and then she was looking at him and she was smiling, and even though they were both probably sick from the ocean, it was still the most beautiful thing he had seen.
"I'd rather try and fail than not try at all," said Gale quietly, he smiled a little, lifting their hands slightly. "And for the record, you're not the only one who's scared - I'm scared too, y'know. I don't want to hurt you, and I don't want to give you anything but happiness."
His smile widened, a gentle expression on his face.
"So we can be scared together, and whatever happens happens. But we won't know until we actually try, and even if we try, and it fails, I'll still be here beside you."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 11:03 pm
"Magic?" she echoed curiously, wondering if now he was just charming her or actually meant it--until she realized either way it didn't matter, because the golden feeling in her chest was building and building the more Gale spoke, and she found herself smiling like a fool, in a way she hadn't for a long while.
She also felt like crying some more.
God.
Stormy sucked in a breath and squeezed his hands, nodding a little. She had words, she knew she did. A mountain of them, an ocean of them some other large amount she couldn't think of at the moment because her heart was coated with something sugary and beating fast, but wouldn't it be nice to christian this moment with an affectionate rant of some sort? Yet she found herself at a loss for words, for once not because she was too sad to pick through them but because she was far too hopeful to bother.
< < There was another woman, > > came Thane's pointed reminder at the peak of that growing emotion.
She coughed into her elbow and swallowed again, groaning softly at how awful she was starting to feel.
"Um . . . Let me ask just one more question," Stormy said, putting a cap on her eagerness as she sat up straighter and turned one level of serious, eyeing Gale levelly and keeping their fingers entwined. "So . . . you're asking me because it's me, right? And not for any other reason? Because Nevada went through an ordeal from one mistake she did just because she was lonely and thought doing something could fix it . . ." She left the twin part out because Gale looked so sweet with that smile, and it was bad enough she was still asking for assurances like this despite how clear he had been. And also the sex part.
"Scared" was an understatement.
That was also all one question of course.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 11:10 pm
"Magic," Gale affirmed, with a small nod, and a smile, as though he were sharing a secret with her. And maybe he was, but it was a secret not ready yet to be explained.
The smile flickered a little, Gale tilting his head as he tried to decipher the meaning behind Stormy's words. He wasn't entirely certain what she was asking, and his mind worked furiously to figure it out, to push through the muddled confusion of his brain, sort through each and every little detail as he tried to understand her.
It was Jinhai who finally figured it out.
<< Eva. >>
A light bulb blinked on in Gale's head, and suddenly he was aghast with the knowledge that he might have seemed to be leading her on, that he might have made her feel as though she weren't the one that he wanted because he was still hung up on someone else.
"I'm asking you because it's you."
Gale's fingers tightened a little on Stormy's hands and he leaned closer, almost close enough to kiss her, except he didn't, just wanting to share her space for a brief moment before he leaned back and gave her the courtesy of the same seriousness she had given him.
"You're not a second choice," he said softly. "You're a first choice, and my only choice - my only decision. I'm not doing this because I feel like I need to fill an empty void, I'm doing this - I'm asking you to be with me because I want you."
Gale separated one hand from Stormy's, reaching out to tenderly brush his fingers down the side of her face, just briefly, before they dropped again.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
