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 Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 2:11 pm
"Make me," he retorted petulantly, because an early morning Jack without coffee had zero filters on what childish thoughts and cliché answers came to him. Or maybe, just maybe, he'd always wanted the excuse to say it and couldn't help himself. Luckily for them both, she did just that.
---
It was telling that he wanted to go to sleep again, but he fought the notion off as he caught his breath. Lazily he reached up to fix his glasses, remembered he had taken them off, and then let his arm flop back atop Chel. Even now it was still hard to stop the instinctive motion when his vision grew a little blurry.
"I'd say that's a good start," he murmured after a while, sounding dazed. "Happy birthday."
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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 2:17 pm
It was always incredibly fulfilling to feel like she'd defeated Jack in some way. Him speaking in a low voice that sounded somehow lost was definitely a good way to start.
"Do you have the whole day off?" she pondered, fingers twined in his hair and twirling with a focus that made it seem like the most interesting thing in the world.
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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 2:34 pm
He closed his eyes and mentally flipped through a cabinet. "Yeah," he answered, tilting his head into her hand. "Today, I'm all yours if you want."
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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 2:40 pm
"No I don't want," she said with a husky laugh that turned into a small cough. "'Course I wanna spend it with you." She gave him a lopsided grin and her hand fell down to his shoulder with a nice slapping noise. "But you know what I want most of all? Presents." Her smile indicated he didn't need to leave any time soon and the leg clamping down on his thigh emphasized her point.
"And aspirin."
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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 2:52 pm
"What, vitamin D didn't fix it?" he asked with a smug look and the air of projected confidence that was as necessary as blinking and breathing to him. He stretched his leg under hers and flexed his toes. "I've got another dose ready if the first wasn't enough." Of course he wasn't tired and in need of caffeine, of course he wasn't feeling the beginnings of a headache himself.
"How's your leg, by the way?" Jack asked.
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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 3:28 pm
Chel snorted. "Vitamin D- 'as pretty good." Only Chel would find a joke like that funny.
She looked down at her leg owlishly. "Eh? S'okay I guess. M'kinda sore, but no big." Affection broke her nonchalant attitude. "I got a pretty good doctor."
They could have remained like that all day and Chel would have considered her not-birthday to be satisfactory. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath; she was almost mimicking the cat look that Jack so often wore.
"I want my presents," she repeated, not letting him off the hook, "And then I want to take ya somewhere. S'off island so work your lifer magic."
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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 4:13 pm
"Takes one to deal with your s**t all the time," he said with a mock bow, or as best one could lying in bed. He sat up with a grunt and fished for his glasses, but he didn't leave the bed just yet. Jack felt a compulsion to look at that expression, to trace the curve of her lips set in so familiar a fashion, in the manner he often did when he gazed into his mirror. There again was that little blip of nameless satisfaction manifesting in a different way, in whatever the word was defined by seeing oneself in another where there hadn't been before, or that could describe the satisfaction of knowing one's impact on others. Narcissism, he supposed.
His eyes lingered for a second when she opened them again, and then the moment was abruptly broken by a ruffle of her hair.
"Sounds like a plan," Jack said as he slunk out of bed, stretching languidly. "Be right back."
He retrieved his clothes but didn't bother putting his shirt on before walking out the door. Some minutes later he returned with a fresh set of clothes, a towel, and his own toiletries and products underneath in the bag that held it all, as well as a large present in simple pink wrapping paper. He left the latter by the couch and waltzed straight into her bathroom to commandeer it for as long as he pleased.
Inside was a converted Wii system, bundled with a second Wiimote, Wii Sports, and Wii Fit. The lump attached to it was another box that had Super Smash Brothers Brawl and a GameCube controller, which he had been told was compatible with the system despite his looks of disbelief.
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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 6:11 pm
Chel tried to fix her hair when Jack ruffled it, but this inevitably led to it being messier than before. She settled for pulling Jack's hairtie off her wrist and using it to put her hair up.
When Jack left the room was quiet. While she stayed in the bed for a count longer than she should have a compulsion eventually told her to fill the silence. She followed Jack's routine but instead of showering (she showered last night and showering more than once every few days damaged her hair) she performed her own routine of toast on a plate she hadn't washed, downing an inconspicuous number of aspirin (filter it out Tensy, yer good at that yeah?) and getting dressed. She stayed in black cargo shorts but her midriff baring shirt was actually covered by a blackish shawl today. She still looked like she'd walked out of a festival, but it was different, at least.
It was different from waking up in his room. Rather, it was different when neither of them had a schedule shaped around insomnia and general workaholic attitudes.
(Describing Chel as a workaholic required an asterisk and a long explanation).
When he came back with presents she had cracked open her phone and was scrolling through her pictures (habit, habit). She eyed the presents curiously, but waited until he came out, lest there be some caveat she failed to recognize. She went back to her phone but after a time she yelled, "Yo are you makin' out with the mirror or somethin'? ******** man."
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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 6:23 pm
Chel was ignored. No-one interrupted his routine unless he allowed it.
When he left the bathroom, hair towel-tousled and dressed save for his shoes and socks, his face had none of the blemishes she saw up close. It had been a silent fact Chel could have picked up while staying in his room.
Jack raised a brow when he saw she hadn't opened his present yet. "It's not going to explode."
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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 6:29 pm
"Someday I'm gonna give your face the works," she muttered to herself with a gesture that he should join her. Now that he was officially -in the room- Chel reached for the package, claws ripping into it.
"I wanted to wait for ya, 'case it was important." She shrugged, but her facial expression fell somewhat when she saw the logo and packaging of the box within. She may have been dyslexic, but recognizing nintendo's seal of approval had been bred into her practically.
There was a cryptic look on her face that she hadn't used for quite sometime. Neither happy nor upset really, just thinly veiled worry. "How much did this cost?" Her voice was unreadable, and that in itself was unusual for a person so filled to the brim with emotions.
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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 6:39 pm
He paused, his own expression turning neutral for a moment to hide the confusing reactions he almost made. And then it was back to something more casual as he took a seat by her and sat back, arms behind his head.
"Doesn't matter," Jack replied airily, though he snuck glances at her face. "Guy gave me a weird look when I asked for a Nintendo 64 and said this was better, so." One almost, almost could have thought he was waiting to be told he did a good job.
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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 6:43 pm
His response did nothing to help the situation.
"I can't take this dude. I just- I can't dude." She ran a hand through her hair, realizing it needed explanation. "It's- it's too much. Like- give it to someone else. Give me another favor or somethin'." Her hands were shaking and she put the box between them, folding her hands in her lap.
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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 6:51 pm
He didn't think this would have gotten such a strong reaction--or, well, not of this kind. A snorted laugh and a slap to his arm, maybe, Aww Jackles I told ya really wanted a ring ya dumbshit, not this shaky denial, the enforced divide of the box, the timid hands. He found that one of the corners of his mouth was lifting. Now she knew how it felt.
"You got me a poster of my own god damn DNA and a scale from a dragon, among other things," he said, terribly amused. "Fake stars weren't exactly going to cut it, so. Take the damn set."
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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 7:05 pm
She put the box on the ground, as though not being able to see it would somehow make it go away.
"You did the stars?" Her eyes went to the ceiling. Change the subject, change the subject. "Sorry I just- do I have to explain?"
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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2015 7:19 pm
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