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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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 Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 4:35 am
Luckily for Aulus she had no idea he wanted to laugh - though she probably suspected it with a question like that, anyway - but either way it was fair, considering she'd had a hard time not laughing at him when he was giggling and squealing like a little girl. Still, if he had laughed he would've had to find his own ride back to the base.
Neither of those options sounded at all appealing, and Claire was beginning to wonder why she didn't realize the implications of riding on a motorbike with someone sooner. Why hadn't she? Arceus, she was regretting her decision now. On one hand, she felt very, extremely uncomfortable about being that close to someone of the opposite gender - nevermind she'd accidentally fallen asleep on him the night before, that hardly counted; not it was a conscious choice - but on the other hand, her discomfort with males of a similar age was just about as great as how stubborn she was. Should she give into her uncomfortable feelings and look like a scared jerk by refusing, or should she be a stubborn idiot, suck it up and swallow her pride, and just get it over with?
The internal struggle she faced was only evident on her face as nervousness - rather obvious nervousness - for the one thing she never was really very good at hiding: How uncomfortable she felt about being physically close to men her age, or in this case, the prospect of that closeness. More than likely it would seem she was simply nervous to actually get on the bike, which she was. That would mean being close to Aulus, which a small part of her mind didn't mind at all, while the rest of it bludgeoned the small part with spiked clubs. "Umm.. okay," she said finally after quite a few more moments of obvious hesitation, though still looked exceedingly nervous, even moreso as she stepped a bit closer and attempted to figure out just how she was going to do this. Arceus, why did she ever agree to this?
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 4:50 am
She looked nervous. He felt kind of bad about that, but it wasn’t his fault, wasn't like he was forcing her to get on... He was no good at this touchy feely kind of thing.
“You’ll be fine, I promise,” Aulus said after a few moments, his voice taking on a far softer tone than his normal snarls, sneers, and defensive snaps. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
He couldn’t really offer much more assurance than that, and if it wasn’t enough he supposed he’d go for a ride by himself. That prospect was oddly disappointing... Oh, he could take Tortie if Claire wasn’t coming. That was still disappointing; it shouldn’t be, but it was. Why did he want her to come with him so much? Well he supposed it had been nice to have her asleep on him, maybe he was just pathetically in need of human contact or something.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 5:21 am
For some reason, his reassurances made her feel even more nervous, but that was likely due to the fact she wasn't so nervous about the ride as she was the driver. Drive, that still bothered her - you didn't drive a motorbike. What word to use, then? ...did that really matter right now? Apparently it did, because thinking about that vaguely and barely overshadowed the fact that any second now she'd need to get onto the back of the motorbike and actually physically hold onto Aulus.
Freaking Arceus why did she agree to this..?
"Okay," she said finally for probably the third time in the past couple of minutes, still staring at the bike and looking extremely uncertain of something, possibly several things. After taking a deep breath and finally repressing the acute urge to reaffirm personal boundaries by stepping back a good six or so feet, she held her breath as she sat down behind him on the bike. That only took way longer than it should've, but she exhaled slowly to calm her nerves as she realized.. she was probably too far back. Baby steps though, baby steps. Really big.. extremely huge baby steps... Arceus, why did she agree to this again...?
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 5:42 am
Well that was a start he supposed, but Arceus she was edgey. He didn't think he'd ever seen her like this before; she'd seemed a little awkward in the pool he supposed but not like this. Was she really that scared of going for a ride, or was it something else? What else could it be? It couldn't be that he stank or anything, he'd had a shower and changed clothes before they'd set off. Was it just him in general? Well so what if it was, so what if she thought he was crazy and irresponsible and would crash them into a tree. He didn't care. He didn't want to care.
She was the closest thing he had to a friend at HQ that didn't have four legs and fur, maybe the closest thing he had in the world, and she didn't trust him.
...But why should she trust him? He didn't trust her after all. He still didn't know her real name, but then she didn't know his either. Maybe he should tell her sometime; would that help with... with... something? Oh who cared; he was thinking about this too much, thinking about her too much. He didn’t trust her, and couldn’t trust her. She’d betray him if it ever suited her mysterious ends, so it was stupid to get upset because she didn’t want to come play with him in his bike. Idiot. He just couldn’t learn his lesson, could he?
"If you don't want to come you don't have to," Aulus said eventually, unable to keep a faintly wounded edge from his tones. "No need to spare my feelings if you hate the idea, but you could have told me before I'd gone to the trouble of offering you my gear, Lucy."
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 5:52 am
Well crap, now he sounded mildly upset, and it was probably definitely all her fault. "No, no," she said with a firm shake of her head, mentally resigning herself to what she'd stupidly gone and gotten herself into - why had she agreed to this again? - and attempted to test her weight on the bike by lifting her feet off the ground. Or rather one foot, she felt too lopsided right now. It didn't feel.. too strange.. Well actually yes, it did, but that wasn't something she could really deal with right now.
"I'm fine, just.. a little nervous." If that wasn't the understatement of the century, she didn't know what was. Okay, now that she was actually on the bike, she should probably... get a little closer, since she couldn't really hold on safely when she was so far back... Why oh why had she agreed to this? A deep, inaudible inhale that wasn't immediately expelled after being pulled in accompanied her movement a little further forward on the bike and.. closer to Aulus. Crap, this was way too close. Way too close for any sort of comfort, though she was trying her damnedest not to show it. Thankfully he couldn't really see her effectively now that she was behind him. Or at least, she didn't think he could.. did motorbikes have side-view mirrors like cars did?
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 6:36 am
The bike did indeed have side mirrors, but luckily for Claire Aulus was looking straight ahead rather than into them. “Well... okay. If you’re sure then,” he said in slightly hesitant tones after a moment, “I don’t want you to feel coerced to go through with it just because you said you would though.” She was moving closer gradually, but her uncertainty was pretty blatantly obvious. It was him, wasn’t it, but she was being nice because... because... because he didn’t know why. Why didn’t she just tease him like she always did, say she trusted his skills as a biker about as far as she could throw him and the bike combined? He didn’t know. He didn’t understand her, and probably never would. Definitely never would if she never told him anything about herself.
Was this even about the bike ride? Something Lucas had said that first night he’d been on base drifted back to mind. He couldn’t remember the man’s exact words but... but he’d said he was going to break his spine because he looked like the kind of guy who hurt women like Ian and somebody, and Claire had said she didn’t want to hear that name (one of the names anyway) again... He was probably reading too much into it, she didn’t seem like the kind of girl who’d take any crap from a guy. Maybe one of the guys Lucas had been talking about had hurt a friend of hers, or maybe she’d had a boyfriend by that name who she wanted to forget for another reason.
There was really no point in speculating about Claire; no matter what he guessed, it would be wrong, or she would tell him he was wrong anyway even if he was right. The long and the short of it was that for whatever reason she didn’t trust him, didn’t want to be close to him... Yet she seemed not to want to upset him. She was confusing. He didn’t know why he was still even trying to understand her. Maybe he liked a challenge, or maybe he was just a glutton for punishment. Maybe both.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 2:01 pm
An escape - he'd allowed her an escape through what he'd just said. She could get off right now and not have to go through with this, just had to apologize and say maybe another time but really mean never, she could go back and huddle in the car or something, or, or.. ....or not move and actually go through with it because she was too Arceus-be-damned stubborn. Seriously, why did she have to be so stubborn? "Yes, I'm sure." No, she really wasn't.
Whatever. She'd resigned herself to this so she was damn well going to go through with it. Anyway.. she just had to put her arms around him now. Any second now, she'd do it. Yep, any second..
..oh, oh! Another question! She didn't have to yet! "Oh, um," she started, looking at either side of her with a mild frown, "where do I put my feet..? Here?" She asked, experimentally putting one foot on a metal piece where she assumed she was supposed to keep them but she really wasn't sure. Yes, it was an extremely important and time-consuming question and it needed to be fully addressed before they could even do anything else.
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 2:42 am
"Hu?" Aulus twisted around slightly and looked down before nodding and sitting back upright. "Yea, that's fine," he said, "you can move them forward or back on there if that position isn't comfortable when we get going... Not too far forward though, that's where my feet will be."
He wished he could figure out what was going on with her so he could fix it. Fix it and get on with his ride, that was, not just fix it out of concern... Right? She was the closest thing to a human friend he had in the region but that wasn’t saying such, didn’t mean he cared about her all that much. She had been pretty decent to him, other than the lies, teasing, and annoying enigmaticness (was that even a word?), so maybe he did care about her a bit. He certainly didn’t want her to be unhappy, but that didn’t mean he intended to go out of his way to make her happy. He had bought lunch for her and made sure he took her somewhere she’d like the food, but that was just repaying a debt... Well it was. Why was he even bothering to tell himself that, it was obvious. Just repaying a debt.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 3:06 am
"Oh, okay," she replied, noting that so she wouldn't accidentally interfere with anything. ...well crap, now she had no excuse now, and she was out of reasonable questions she could ask without getting into the ones that would obviously be asked to stall for time ("How long have you been riding motorbikes for?" or "How long have you had this bike?" or "How much did it cost?" were several questions that came to mind). Crap, now she was out of time, so she had to just suck it up and get it over with. Well, this was as good a time as any, she supposed...
Well, maybe she could put her feet up first. Yes, that would do. She adjusted the foot that was already onto the.. the... the whatever it was, then slid her eyes to the other side. She just had to get her foot up there, no problem, and stay balanced.. crap, that was the problem. The bike was at an awkward angle - or at least, it felt like it; that was her excuse and she was sticking to it - so she nearly slipped. Nearly though, because the foot shot back down to the solid, stable, flat ground at the same time her hand flew out to his shoulder to help steady herself. "Ah.." A very slight blush crept into her cheeks then, and she would swear up and down it was from embarrassment and nothing else, "I think I've gotten so used to just riding a Pidgeot that anything else is just.. odd." Difficult to acclimate to. Weird. Strange. Certainly not because her personal space boundaries had been smashed and thrown out a window.
Okay, now she really had no other options left, she just had to suck it up and stop being a baby. ...easier said thought than done, though. It would help with balance though, and it wasn't like they were going to go anywhere until she did, so.. so she just had to get it over with. After pulling in a deep, inaudible breath and refraining from releasing it just yet, she scooted a fraction closer and slid her arms around his waist, grasping both her wrists so she wouldn't fall off. It definitely wasn't the most secure grip in the world, and she would probably swiftly adjust as soon as the bike started, but for now it was all she could bring herself to do. Baby steps, baby steps... baby steps and remember to freaking breathe.
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 4:23 am
Mmh. That was nice. It was totally normal to enjoy having an attractive woman put her arms around you, didn't have to have much to do with her personally. She wasn't holding on very securely, but he had no doubt she'd change her tune once they started moving. As he reached for the ignition, a wild grin spread across Aulus' face. "Right then," the engine roared into life, "let's ride." Flicking down his visor the scarred man put the bike into gear and set off. After the dramatic revv of the engine and 'let's ride' it was very temping to tear away like a crobat out of hell, but the last thing he wanted to do was lose his passenger. As such Aulus started fairly slowly, and accelerated smoothly as they pulled onto the road that led out of the city. There seemed to be very few other people around, and that suited him just fine. He couldn’t wait to get on a long straight road and open the throttle properly.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 12:55 pm
As the engine rumbled she quickly put her other foot up - almost forgot to, whoops - and tensed up a bit. She was good though, this wasn't too terribly extremely incredibly uncomfortably close.. that is until the bike started moving. She didn't realize that while it was probably a slow speed, it still felt fast, so with a quiet, startled noise that was a cross between a squeak and an 'eep' she instinctively closed the rest of the distance between them, and her meager grip on her own wrists turned to hugging her arms around him tightly and clinging to him. This was not a good day, not at all.
Though, the wind blowing across her face and through her hair was reminiscent of riding on Odette - though the air smelled noticeably more... unclean - and it did calm her down a bit. She was still extremely uncomfortable - too close, holy freaking Arceus way too close - but there was nothing she could do about it now except hold on and attempt to enjoy the ride. It certainly was a lot different than riding on Odette, or even in a car.
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 1:02 pm
Ha! That was more like it; as Claire's grip tightened Aulus' grin broadened. He could see why so many guys loved going for rides with their girl... Not that Claire was his girl, she was just a girl and it was nice with her so it was probably nicer with somebody you were in a relationship with. Anyway, the speed limit had just increased, time to accelerate again. He felt far more relaxed at this speed than he did pottering along like a Torkoal; the balance was so much easier to maintain, he didn't have to think about it at all while they were moving in a straight line. Mmh. Open road, his bike, hot girl snuggled up to him, good lunch, two new pokemon, on the way to take pictures of whatever he felt like taking pictures of. Today was a good day.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 1:19 pm
Faster, why did they have to go faster? ...she probably reached faster speeds on Odette, but there was something that just seemed a lot safer about being on a Pidgeot rather than a motorbike. Oh, that's right - on a Pidgeot, there were hundreds of feet between her and the ground. On a bike, there was maybe one or two. It was more than a little unnerving, and for a bit that nervousness overshadowed the nervousness brought on by the fact she was currently clinging to a guy.
...okay enough with being so nervous about everything. It wasn't like her to worry about every single little thing, it was ridiculous, superfluous, and she just didn't want to. If they crashed or fell off then they crashed or fell off, whatever. And it wasn't like Aulus could do anything while driving - riding? Whatever - so why.. ...wait a minute. Wait a minute. He couldn't, could he? The realization had fully dawned on her, and it ever so slowly started to make her feel more relaxed, or as relaxed as someone could be going.. however fast on a motorcycle. Point was, she wasn't as nervous now. She readjusted her grip so she wasn't clinging so much as hugging him securely - she was still much too close for comfort, and her arms weren't the only things touching him, but whatever, that didn't matter anymore anyway - and took the chance to actually try and look around her. She was used to the wind blowing in her face all the time anyway, so that didn't bother her in the slightest. This was actually.. sort of enjoyable now that she wasn't so nervous. Huh. Weird..
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 1:26 pm
As soon as he got the option, Aulus turned onto the coastal road. The sea glimmered, and Claire seemed to be relaxing. Maybe in a while he'd look for somewhere to park off the road and they could go down onto the beach to get some pictures. It really was turning out to be a good day, even the weather was good. It just about made up for all the drudgery he was being forced to put up with, an afternoon like this. When he was mopping and sweeping tomorrow he could let his body do the work automatically while his mind drifted back to this. Life wasn't so bad really, and it would get better once he was a grunt. Things could only get better, or so he felt at the moment anyway.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 2:22 pm
Ooh, the ocean. She'd almost forgotten that Camphoreon was a port city. The weather was perfect and the beach looked beautiful, and she couldn't help but hope they would stop and look around. She'd always loved beaches, though wasn't sure why, and unfortunately there wasn't one nearby when she lived back in Sinnoh. Well, not when she lived with her parents in Hearthome; Veilstone was by the sea. She was too busy thinking about the ocean and memories to notice she was practically leaning on Aulus. Not too much, of course, but still.
Though she did notice it and corrected it when he pulled over and stopped in a small beach parking lot. She waited until the bike stopped before she got off and stretched a bit, forgetting for the moment that she still had his jacket on.
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