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 Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 3:58 am
Nye pulled out a small black spray can and put it into Ivie's waiting palm. She finally realized that he liked to buy stuff, but this was for functional and safety purposes. Of course, the spray can only took up one hand, the other took Ivie's wrist and held it there. Once his right hand was free of the can, he matched up the bruising to his hand once more.
"Just in case whatever happened last night happens again. My question is, what happened last night?" Way to be straightforward. Nye wasn't about to let her evade the question again.
Gale looked about slyly. "You ne'er know~"
Well, yes, we do know. Gale turning into a hormone-fueled typical university boy was less likely than pigs flying. He was dilligent and hard-working, not sleezy and constantly horny.
"The magi'al kind," he answered bluntly. Now she was just asking unanswerable questions!
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Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 4:19 am
Whatever Ivie might have been expecting, it certainly wasn't a can of pepper spray. Her hands closed around the cold can, eyes widening a little in surprise, and she was about to pull away when his free hand closed around her offered wrist, pushing up the sleeve of her jumper to reveal the darkening bruises lacing it like a bracelet. She swallowed, nervous now. He was being rather blunt and straight to the point about the entire thing, unlike the charming and flirtatious Nye she was used to.
The thought that he might be 'reverting' crossed her mind. Her hand tightened around the can. "It was nothing." She said quietly, her pupils shrinking in defence and her hands trembling ever so slightly. "Really, nothing important."
Deny, deny, deny. It was a surprise Ivie wasn't taking law.
Oh please, boys Nye's age are always horny. Whether they seem it or not all depends on how well they hide it. Arvia flicked a braid over her shoulder, rolling her pretty blue eyes. "Oh please, I don't need you slobbering over me. That would be terrible."
"Magical, huh." She snorted, snuggling back into the sofa a little. and glancing outside. The sun had practically set now and just a sliver of colour hovered above the horizon, and the setting sun was making Arvia sleepy. Unfortunately they were about an hour too early for the buffet dinner.
"Anything you wanted to do before food time?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 1:40 am
Huh. Well. If she wasn't going to indulge him in the answer with him asking nicely, he'd have to find other ways to leech information. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to sleep at night, and a sleepless Nye is a cranky Nye. "You're not acting like it's nothing important," he answered casually. "Clearly this isn't the relaxed atmosphere of two, three days ago."
Gale snorted. He was tempted to make a snarky comment on her not really bring worth drooling over, but he decided that would be going a little too far, so the topic would have to be left at that.
The boy settled for daydreaming right out the window, into the warm colors of the sky. He had his hot chocolate to keep him warm, and he was in good company (for now). There wasn't much to do except daydream, and perhaps talk or something.
Most relaxing job, ever.
"No' reallllyyyy," he drawled out slowly. There really wasn't anything on his personal itinerary except to do his job and leave knowing that he did it well. "Yourself?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 1:53 am
She could feel the temperature dropping a little as Nye got angry. Obviously Ivie was panicking since Nye wasn't actually angry, just a little frustrated, but in Ivie's mind his casual tone was deadly and, despite her resolve not to cry anymore, she could feel the hot pin-pricks at her eyes.
A sniff escaped her before she could stop it, and she swallowed dryly as her eyes began to tear up. "It's my problem, it's fine, really." And she tried to pull away. You could almost hear a quiet plea; please don't hurt me.
For anyone else, what Nye'd done the night before would hardly be traumatic, but in Ivie's poor mind that Osi's so abused, if he'd struck her accross the face here and now she really wouldn't have been sruprised
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 2:46 am
Hell, I drool over Arvia and she's my character, so Gale young man, she's deffinatley worth -you- drooling. Of course, Gale's Gale and so he'd never admit that.
And hey, they didn't work Gale too hard at the el'Douay household. A bit of gardening five days a week and they were happy, provided things got done. Gale did more than he had to, really.
"Mm..." Arvia mumbled, tilting her head back and closing her eyes. "Not enough time to go to the spa really...What's your favourite colour?"
Twenty questions. It never failed.
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 3:22 am
Nye opened his mouth to say more, but her sniffle to his ears was similar to nails on a chalkboard- completely awful and upsetting. He pulled himself off the couch quietly and let go of her wrists, letting his arms drop down closer to his sides.
He finally got it. Something inside his brain clicked, and he realized that maybe it was too soon for any sort of intensive prodding. She was still getting over Butch, obviously, the marks were still highly visible on her neck, and his recent outburst had completely damaged her.
Smooth job.
"Whoa, whoa, Ivie," he cooed softly. "It's not fine if you're reacting like this. Listen, it's alright. I just wanna know if bruising is the extent of whatever happened, and ... that I didn't hurt you to some awful extreme. I... wasn't ... myself, to say the least, and, well..."
He sighed, for the lack of things to say.
"Here, sit down, I'll make you some tea and run you a bath. Maybe you can relax that way."
Well, if Gale was the drooling type, he sure would drool.
"Huh?" he asked, rather intelligently. Oh, Gale. It took him a moment to register the well-known time waster, but when he did, one of his brows went up curiously. He bent down to sip the remainder of his cocoa before answering simply, "Browns an' reds. Wha's your fav'rite pastime?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 3:46 am
Aha, he figured it out. It hadn't even been the roughing up the night before that was really what set Ivie off today; it was more the cruel words Anti!Nye had thrown at her. It hadn't dawned on her really that, here alone with Nye, she really was completely at his mercy should he have decided to turn against her.
The bruises on her wrists were testimony to that. The ones on her neck were testimony to her normal treatment from men. It wasn't a large leap.
She didn't sit down, more sunk into the sofa as if her legs had finally given out on her. Her shaking was subtle but most certainly there, and her green eyes had closed. "Just the bruises." She murmered, rubbing one of her wrists quietly. "Just the bruises, that's all, it's okay, I'm fine, you wouldn't go through with it, you're not like that." It was barely audible but should Nye be able to catch it, but Ivie was rambling. She nodded though. Perhaps a bath would help.
Poor Nye, dealing with all these mental breakdowns all the time.
Stretching her arms above her head, Arvia flopped down and smiled. Reds, huh. Compeltely the opposite to her.
"Well, I do like to read. And dance. Not the vertical representation of the horizontal desire sort of dancing, I mean proper, official dancing. I do like a good salsa."
She paused, thinking. "What do you plan to do after Uni?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 3:58 am
Nye was far too frantic at this point to notice her rambling. He was in and out of the kitchen in seconds, carrying a teacup filled with what was left of the tea blend Allison made and newly re-heated water. He set it down in front of Ivie, and then scrambled to the bathroom to run the hot water and find some nice-smelling bubble bath soap.
Between the two, he had stood and reached over to give Ivie a pat on the back, but paused in his movements. Did she really need physical contact right now? He decided, ultimately, not to risk it, and went on with his business.
What a dilemma.
Hm. That one took some thinking for Gale, as well. He didn't quite have specific plans for his future, but he did have a few dreams. Really, it was surprising that they weren't elaborate. He had a lot of time on his hands, usually.
"Eh, thought I'd ... maybe consi'er openin' up a nursery somewh'e in town. Wife, kids, th' who'e shebang. Wha' about you?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 4:09 am
She hadn't meant to make Nye panic, she really hadn't. However she hadn't really noticed he was panicking either, and just sat on the couch as if in a daze. She did, however, reach out and clasp the tea-mug between both hands if only out of reflex. Throughout the next five, ten minutes she didn't move, simply robotically sipping her tea, her sleeves rolled up and looking very, very pale against the dark colours of Nye's loungeroom.
Well that sounded just peachy, really. Arvia had to smile at Gale's simple plans for a blissful lifestyle; trust him to chose something so wholesome. Wholesome country boy, that was Gale through and through.
"Nothing so set, I have to admit." She said with a bit of a shrug. "I suppose I'll finish law and go into a job down that stream. Probably not in the courts or anything...maybe family law. I don't mind kids, after all."
Nothing about marriage or kids of her own. Arvia didn't tend to think about that sort of thing.
"So if Michelle isn't your type..." A wicked smirk crept onto Arvia's face. "What is?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 4:21 am
Nye scuttled back into the room about ten minutes later, never wanting to smell-test bubble solutions ever again. He had settled on a lovely strawberry-cinnamon mix he had gotten from Denise for Christmas, and the warm bubble bath was ready and waiting for Ivie. He felt rather accomplished, to be honest.
"The bath's ready," he stated plainly. "I set some fresh towels in there and stuff, so... just... go ahead and relax.
He rather liked being a wholesome country boy, thank you. He wasn't limited by material possessions to be perfectly happy with his life, and he had grown to be extremely easy to please.
Gale almost choked on the last sip of his hot chocolate when Arvia hit him with one of the most awkward questions of his life. He never really thought about it, but if he really had to come up with an answer...
Beet red and a little flustered, he managed to come up with something. "Iduno, bu' no' someun who's in a relationshi' just for th' 'horizon'al desire' par' o' it."
Good question, though.
"Wha' about you?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 4:39 am
It was probably Gale's lack of material wants that intrigued Arvia. He was content to just be, whereas a life without mobile phones, pretty clothes and lovely cars was just plain strange to her.
And she had a good giggle at Gale's red face. "D'aww, did you get that out of a 'looking for' ad?" She teased, smiling. That smile dropped almost immidiately when Gale turned the question right back on her, and she tried to sink back into the sofa. No way of avoiding it. "Someone I can talk to, someone who has a good head on his shoulders, and someone who's not going to ******** me over." She muttered, slightly dark in tone. Before he could ask, she pressed onwards.
"Favourite food?" There, that was nice and safe.
Ivie had been sipping at an empty mug, she realised as Nye began speaking to her again, and she put it down feeling somewhat stupid because of it. She stood, slowly, and placed the mug back down on the sofa. Not trusting her voice, she nodded subtly to Nye.
"Thank you." Was her only reply as she walked past him, looking rather lost and confused. The bathroom door clicked shut behind her and, after a moment, she reached over and flicked the lock.
Her clothes came off and, as she dipped her toes into the rather deep pool, she realised that she'd only bathed a few hours ago. Still, the bath was run and looking awfully inviting, so she slid in, a soft sigh escaped her lips. It was, in a word, lovely.
It was after ten minutes that thoughts from earlier came back. Gods she was pathetic; one negative word from Nye and she was a dribbling wreck. He was a man, of course he could do anything to her. What was she thinking. It was no wonder she got beat around so much; she just couldn't take what life threw at her. Useless.
It was on that note that Ivie let herself slip under the water, eyes shut, and felt the air escape in bubbles from her nose. She'd wedged her leg under the faucet to hold herself down but, being the wuss she was, she could still back out it she panicked. Fifteen minutes into her bath, Ivie's world was beginning to spin.
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 12:00 pm
Between the clatter of mugs being dumped into the sink, running the water, and scrubbing the remnants of cake and tea off of his table set, he didn't really hear the lock. In fact, he didn't really hear much of anything, and he wasn't quite sure if that was a good thing or not. Washing dishes with an injured hand proved itself slightly difficult and quite painful if he had to hold a plate for too long, or if his scrubbing hand bent the injury funny.
Nye checked the clock frequently, a little panicked about everything, really. Once the dishes were set in the drying rack (a little hard to do it carefully if your hands are shaking), he decided to be safe for once and take his pills a little earlier than normal. He kept his throbbing wrist to his chest and went through the standard procedures: glass of filtered water, two prescription pills and an aspirin. At least now he would be safe for the night.
For the first time since morning, his muscles relaxed slightly, and he smiled at the thought of being perfectly normal and keeping Ivie safe and relaxed, trying to see if she could ever learn to trust him again. It would be difficult, but he could definitely put an honest effort into it.
Speaking of, it was still rather quiet in the bathroom. Nye looked up at the clock. He had started washing dishes about fifteen minutes ago, and not heard a noise since. Worrying a little more than was probably healthy, Nye made his way to the bathroom and gave it a quiet knock. "Hey, is everything alright in there?"
When no answer came, Nye's lips pulled down into a frown. He could feel his heart start to speed up, his breathing get a little faster. Yes, she was awfully quiet, and yes, she was scared, but he didn't even hear a sliver of noise. Moving his ear to the slight crack between the door and its wooden frame, he tried again. "Ivie? You okay?"
Gale grinned at her response. He might as well have found that in some ad, since, you know, he hadn't thought about a girl in that way since his more hormone-fueled teenage years. Now that his body had settled down, he set his priorities straight, and his priority was to get a good job and settle into the world comfortably. Not to find a female partner, not yet.
He wasn't about to ask, but was he curious? Yes. Thinking of it, he had rarely, if ever seen Arvia with another man, romantically involved. He wondered if there was an incident, but was he about to prod her about it? Not necessarily. Besides, she seemed eager to move onto the next question. His answer was almost immediate.
"Mum's vege'able rolls. Fav'rite type o' musi'?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 2:54 pm
It had burned at first, Ivie noted dimly as she opened her eyes under the water to watch the lights. It was fine now, everything had gone numb, but at first is had burned. Her fingers were beginning to prune and her knee, the one holding her down, was starting to ache from the faucent jamming into it, but otherwise...she was feeling awfully light. The fact that she was even able to keep herself down here without panicking was a testimony to just how far gone mentally she was right now; sensible Ivie Callaghan, able to drown herself without a second thought. One really had to think about just how lonely this girl really was.
Overall, she thought as she let her eyes shut once again and felt the last of her airbubbles escape her, she thought she preferred the pills. Just to go to sleep. Nye's voice was barely audible through the door and water and by this stage, Ivie couldn't have pulled herself out if she wanted to.
I'm sorry, Nye. I'm making an awful mess of your bathroom. Hopefully he knew how to clean the bathtub...
And he let it slide seemlessly. For now that was an awfully good thing, Arvia really, really didn't want to talk about her failure of a love-life, but in future it might have gotten really annoying. After all, girls do say 'I'm fine' when they're really not, and expect people to ask again.
Boys never quite got that.
"Nothing set." She thought after a few minutes of actually wondering about the question. "No rap or anything like that, it's all rather crass. I don't mind a little techno...though mostly I like accoustic and instrumentals, a bit of classical. Easy things to listen to when I'm studying."
She chuckled. "Not much of an answer there, but I'm going to throw the question right back at you."
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 3:07 pm
Nye knocked one more time before he got really nervous. He didn't even hear water moving or audible breathing or anything. "I'm coming in," he warned, no matter how pointless it may have been. A grab of the handle and the lack of a turning motion lead him to one conclusion: the door had been locked.
Well, no choice than to break it down, then.
Of course, the smart one tried to ram the door with his shoulder first, and guess how well that ended up? He ended up crushing his wrist to his chest and yowling in pain rather than making any progress with the door. There was nothing sturdy enough to be a battering tam, either...
Nye took a step back and started kicking at the door. An audible crack in the wood did after the second kick brought him a little more hope for getting into that room, and a few kicks later the door swung open with a mighty crash, the door handle and lock still stuck in the doorframe.
He stumbled into the bathroom and looked to the tub, seeing nothing but a kneed jammed under the faucet. He wasn't even sure of his words, but they were all highly risky and dangerous to young ears. Trying his best to disregard Ivie's naked body, he reached into the water, grabbed her shoulders and pulled her right up from her almost-grave.
"Ivie," he said quickly as he patted her cheek, "Ivie, Ivie, Ivie, are you okay? Breathe, Ivie, come on now!"
Gale nodded approvingly, he wasn't much for rap himself. Most of it was rather disrespectful and the lyrics were too crude sounding for his tastes. "'M not one for musi', bu'... nothin' too loud or too fas'. Rap's go'a be m' leas' fav'rite. How much sham'oo d'you go through in a month?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 3:28 pm
Nye's yowling was probably the only reason Ivie was even remotely concious when the door went flying back on its hinges. She should have been guilty, she should have been worried about being naked, but by this stage of the game Ivie Callaghan really couldn't have done anything if she tried. Nor, really, was she thinking about it.
She was distracted by that wonderful floating sensation and the lights. Not just one, she wasn't quite that far gone yet, but they were so...pretty...
Back in the real world, the only struggle Ivie's limp body made was that of, well, a limp body. She offered absolutely no help in retriving herself from the bathtub, leaving Nye to support all of her weight. Which wasn't much, but that's not the point right now. Her head simply flopped forward as he patted her cheek, pale and absolutely still, not even choking on the water.
Poor Nye. Don't worry, she might have stopped breathing by her heart's still going.
"You don't like music?" Arvia asked in disbelief. Well that was something she'd never, ever heard from someone their age before. "How perculiar. And only one, it's the conditioner that's the problem."
It was true. Arvia's scalp was the same size as everyone else's but the length? Oh boy. She only really got two washes out of each conditioner bottle, and her mother claimed that the stores gave her a discount for buying it in bulk.
"And that's twelve a month. I don't wash it every day." With hair like that, can you blame her?
"Do you work out at all?" Only Arvia would manage to say that without it sounding sleezy.
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