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 Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 6:47 pm
Gale scowled, but it wasn't a real one, and he couldn't help but turn it into a smile as she settled next to him. He shifted positions so that he was actually on the towel instead of beside it and sat the box of snacks in his lap.
"Well, there's not much here, I'm afraid," he said. "I've got, ah...some gummy snacks, and some little sandwiches I made (they're just peanut butter and jelly) and a few juice boxes that I think Bix gave me, so they might be a little old..."
He turned his head to look at Stormy, his expression softening.
"Thank you," he said quietly, after a long moment. "For, er...putting up with me while...while my memories are like this, I mean. I know it's probably hard for you, what with everything going on and all, but...thank you."
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 7:03 pm
Humming in thought, she snatched one of the sandwiches with a grateful look (you couldn't go wrong with peanut butter after all). "These are just fine, thank you~ If only this was just peanut butter . . . I could go feed it to Puck the fish!" Stormy mused with a smile before nibbling on it.
Glancing at Gale, she caught the expression and took a breath to relax herself. "It's not putting up with--it's hanging out," she corrected him gently. "Or a date, whatever you wanna call it. We were friends first before we got to this point, right? A few missing memories won't mess that up." Although friends didn't quite kiss like that . . . Stormy realized she hadn't exactly divulged that she had remembered him asking her out, either, so it probably wasn't helping . . . Hrmmm. The memory still didn't sit well with her, and she was a little nervous as to how he would react--he'd probably still be as confused afterwards, as he couldn't recall their first meeting even after she had described it.
Then she noticed she was overthinking and took a breath again. She could ease into that.
"So!" Digging into her messenger bag, she pulled out a somewhat cold water bottle and offered it to Gale. "What does Galedilocks feel like talking about~?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 9:03 pm
Gale picked up a sandwich for himself, carefully and deliberately pulling the crust off and stuffing it back into the plastic bag before taking a small bite. He turned his face to look at Stormy, feeling slightly self conscious, but she was talking normally, her voice gentle, and somehow this soothed him, even though he couldn't quite get rid of the feeling of uncertainty.
Hesitantly he reached a hand out and took the water bottle from her, grasping her hand for a moment and bringing it to his lips to kiss her fingertips. Cheeks slightly flushed, he gave her a tentative smile and let go, taking another bite of his sandwich.
"You tell me," he said in a matter of fact tone of voice. "Tell me more about yourself - more that I don't know."
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 9:44 pm
Stormy blinked as he peeled the crust off, a sense of deja vu coming over her. It was sort of like . . . nonono. She shook her head a little as if to tell herself off. It was quickly overridden by the gentleman's kiss to her fingers, at least, and she found herself softly giggling as her fingers curled in against her leg. "Heh. You want me to spill just like that?" she asked with a sly smile. "C'mon, Gale, take some initiative, be more specific! There's a lot of me after all, even in this little body!"
Tearing off a piece of the sandwich's edge, she popped it into her mouth and chewed happily away. "Give me a direction, captain~ What waters should we tread first? You run the risk of whirlpools and rip tides and shallow sand beds and crabs, but what's a game without a little risk, huh~?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 10:04 pm
Gale gave a small laugh. "Well, okay, there is the nice aspect of being able to take my time to get to know you, so I suppose I do want to keep some things quiet for now."
He gave her a sideways smile, reaching for the bottle of water and taking a long swallow.
"All right then," he said, trying to think. "What about...tell me about something you've wanted to do for a really long time, but just haven't gotten a chance to yet."
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 10:44 pm
"Hmm!"
She nibbled her leftover sandwich thoughtfully, propping herself up with her other arm. "You already know about going to a Disney Park, so I'll think of something else . . ." Her face furrowed into a thoughtful frown for a while. They were hanging out, yes, and this was pretty much a date, yes, but she wanted to take these questions quite seriously--after all, she'd been holding back all this time, and it was always fun to divulge a little this and that to spice things up.
"Let's see . . . I've always wanted to go ziplining," Stormy told him with a nod. "It looks like such a rush! Like flying but without the rollercoaster noises or engines . . . Hang-gliding's a close second, though!"kurotomato /sleep deprived tags errehwhere
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 11:13 pm
"Yes, I do already know about Disney," said Gale with a smile. "Which means you have to give me something new and improved and just as delightful and magical as Disney."
The words were said in a gently teasing manner, Gale taking another sip of water. "I've never been ziplining," he said. "I'm not sure I've ever heard of it, even. Hang-gliding, yes - my dad took my mum hang-gliding once, she was terrified. I remember she came back, though, and she looked like she'd had a lot of fun."
He tilted his head a little. "You don't have any siblings, do you?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 7:21 am
"New and improved and delightful and magical, huh~? That's a tall order." But there was a twinkle in her eyes at the challenge as she bumped his shoulder again. "Never heard of zip lining?Gaaaaale, we should go sometime! I mean, I bet it's pretty scary at first, yeah...But that's where the rush comes in!" Stormy added with a grin. "That's why some people love going to horror movies, or become daredevils."
Twisting open a water bottle, she drank a few gulps. "Siblings? Uh, I have a sister two years older and a brother a year younger." Stormy paused. "I had? I used to have?" She paused, a frown forming over her verbal crisis. "Ah...middle child at any rate," she picked back up mildly, her accent poking back in. "I guess that's why I'm good at blending in. Anna Lucia, then me, then Timoteo. At least they got the normal names."
She finished off sandwich and rubbed her hands of crumbs into the sand. "Freebie. You know what your name is? Vendaval. Or if you want a little informal, Ventarrón," Stormy told him with a grin and a roll of the r's.
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Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 7:50 am
"Where do you go ziplining?" Gale asked with curiosity, the half-eaten sandwich still in his hand. "I mean...what exactly does it entail? You go...zipping on a line, whatever that means? I literally have never heard of that before, it sounds...peculiar."
He tapped a finger against his water bottle. For some reason, he had never thought to ask Stormy about her family, not in the several months they had known each other - at least, he was relatively certain that he hadn't ever asked her. Perhaps that too was lost within his own missing memories, but a part of him felt selfish somehow; he'd shared with Stormy about his sleeping sister and small bits about his parents, but he had not ever asked about Stormy's.
He felt like a cad.
"Those are pretty names," he said. "Anna Lucia and Timoteo. But, then again, I also think Ursalina is a rather pretty name too, so..."
Gale trailed off, smiling a little. "Vendaval," he repeated. "That sounds a bloody well more impressive than Gale. Honestly, I'm not even certain where my mum got that name, she just told me that she liked it. When I was younger I used to tell her that it sounded like a girl's name - you know, like Gail - but she said she liked it too much anyway."
He trailed off, realizing he was talking about himself again. Clearing his throat a little, he said, "So you speak Spanish fluently then, do you?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 8:23 am
"Oh! Basically it's you being strapped in and letting gravity pull you down a really long cable in the air! Ziiiip! Sort of like those roller coasters where your feet dangle, but without flipping," she described happily. "I remember asking Papa about the one in Florida, that's really popular. We could have gone to Disney World at the same time!" Cue a long suffering sigh.
She smiled a little a the compliment, tipping the water bottle to her temple in salute. "Thanks~ I went by Lina in school, though...It was shorter and better sounding, and the teachers didn't get confused on how to pronounce it. Yours I told you I liked too, at that first meeting," she said. "Almost stole it for a character name!"
Did she speak Spanish well? Oh ho~ Stormy grinned widely. "Es el lenguaje del amor, así lo debo hablar con fluidez. Debo decirlo hasta que entiendes." She paused, then a mischievous gleam appeared in her eyes as she leaned in close. "La isla está caliente hoy, pero siempre eres guapo," she said in a softer tone, words smoothly tumbling from her mouth. "Incluso si usted no tiene recuerdos, tus labios todavía recuerden mío~"
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Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 11:43 am
There was a small pause.
"It sounds...well, both interesting and terrifying," said Gale with a laugh. "Though I suppose that's the whole point of it. You'll have to take me one day, we'll see how it goes. I fight monsters for a living, but the thought of heights makes me nervous, go figure..."
Her smile was cute. Gale couldn't help the smile that spread across his own face. "Lina's pretty," he said. "Personally I like Stormy best, but I might be just a little biased here..."
The sandwich finished, Gale reached back into the snack box for a bag of fruit snacks. He turned sideways to look at Stormy, eyebrows raised in both amusement and slight surprise at the tirade of Spanish that was suddenly in front of him.
He stifled a laugh. "And what, pray tell, are you saying exactly? Are you saying ridiculous things about me because you know I can't understand?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 12:05 pm
"Yo digo que no puedo decir lo contrario. No cuando estás así." She had sort of been hoping to instigate his blush and was disappointed when she only got a laugh. Ah well. "No son cosas ridículas en absoluto," Stormy muttered, pulling away. "Si pudiera darte un beso y no hacer nada más por la tarde, lo haría. Por favor, recuerde para mí..."
Out of Gale's personal space, she reached in for another sandwich and swallowed down her pride--as well as hedged around his question. "I learned Spanish at the same time as English," she explained. "My parents would watch tv and split the languages between them with me. Mom learned more English from Oprah than anything else." She gave a weak chuckle and nibbled on her sandwich.
"I'd rather no-one call me Lina anyway; that's old me. A mask, if you would," she added, referencing her raccoon rant from their previous date. "Ursulina, Lina, Stormy, Watson...all masks, really."
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Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 2:58 pm
Had he upset her? She seemed annoyed at something. Gale felt his face heat a little as Stormy moved away from him, her voice a low mumble. The Spanish had been quite beautiful, after all, and he felt rather uneasy that she was looking so downhearted about something.
Was he supposed to have understood? He felt a little lost and confused.
Reaching out, Gale put a hesitant hand on top of Stormy's, curling his fingers around hers.
"Do I get to see what's under those masks?" he asked her quietly, biting his lower lip.
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Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 3:42 pm
She closed her eyes, taking his hand. "Hmm..." After a few moments, she lifted it to her lips and gently pressed a kiss to the back of it. "Yeah, if you want," she mumbled against his skin. "Because I like you, Gale." Please at least remember that. Even if her memory really was a little twisted, that part hadn't changed.
"You'll have to run the endless gauntlet of the Russian nesting eggs of layers there are, though," Stormy added more light heartedly, opening her eyes to give him little smile; the way Gale bit his lip was surprisingly adorable, and while she felt bad for causing him even a little alarm, she got the warm dizzied about it never the less. She sandwiched his hand between both of hers and let them sit on her knee. "Sorry about that, just by the way; I have a knee jerk impulse against anything direct involving me, if you couldn't tell yet. And, uh, I've been getting better, I think..." She counted wanting to give up information, even in tidbits, progress.
"I, uh...I have some trust issues," she added in an undertone, a self-deprivation chuckle following. "So...Sorry again for whatever those might cause, too."
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Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 10:06 pm
His stomach made fluttering gestures at her kiss, Gale feeling the heat in his cheeks grow a little further. He closed his fingers around hers and squeezed, wanting to keep the contact, wanting to reassure that he was still here and that even if he couldn't remember some things, he at least remembered how he felt.
"I like you too," he said quietly. "I like you a lot - a lot."
There was an almost pleading note for her to understand this, for her to know that he wanted to stay with her and that he wasn't about to leave anytime soon, even with his fragmented mind.
Gale shifted so that he was sitting closer to her, and reaching out he hesitantly put his hand on her leg, curling her legs over his own before he looked back at her, his cheeks still flushed red.
"I'll be here," he said. "I'll be here to listen to you and to wait for you, and I'll be here for you to trust even when you think you can't."
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