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 Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:05 pm
The day had gone by without much further incidents, as fr as Nuka was concerned at least. He'd gone back to the infermary after making sure Anana wasn't there, and had had his cuts treated; the nurse had berated him for leaving, but in all honesty, he couldn't have cared less. The only part that had seemed slightly more severe, was a bruised cut on his torso that the old woman had bandaged up. That aside, and aside from being unable to fight others for a few days at least, nuka felt a lot better. The fact he'd skipped class and had taken a much needed nap after all the stress and frustration had helped, granted.
Everything was okay with the world.
Everything, except one simple fact; he'd lost track of time while sleeping. He'd been awoken from his perch on the school roof by the soft drizzle. When he'd opened his eyes he'd been greated with a darkened, almost night sky. The sound of thunder boomed in the distance as the water droplets drizzled down on him. Instantly, he'd taken refuge inside the school, cursing himself for not wearing a watch; What TIME was it? Whatever time it was... it was late as all hell, because once inside the corridors, he'd found the lights turned off.
Frowning, he'd made his way towards the building's front doors, however, he'd found them firmly locked, much to his dismay. He stood in the darkness after a moment, moved to kick the dumb door, "******** YOU!" he told the door, as if everything were it's fault.
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:07 pm
Why did it have to be tonight? Of all nights, why tonight?
Ana chewed at her bottom lip as she half-jogged through the hallways, the sound of her own footsteps greeting her in the empty corridors. It was dark, full of terrible shadows that played tricks on her mind, and though all rationality told her there was certainly nothing to fear, she found herself seized with horror at the thought of being locked alone in the school all night.
This certainly wasn't the first time that she had stayed too long in the library studying, but the old librarian usually came to find her before she left for the day. Ana had no sense of time when she was lost in her books and she could barely keep track of time when she wasn't curled up in a cubby hole. It wasn't until that first boom of thunder that she had looked up to notice the darkness, and the thunder and lightening crashes had tormented her desperate attempt to find her way out of the school ever since.
She turned down around the corner that led to the main hall, eyes glancing around her worriedly as she carried her books cradled in her arms. She heard another terrifying crash of thunder, causing her entire body to convulse in a jerk. Then, it was followed by a blinding flash of lightening, just as she noticed the figure standing next to the door. She let out a small cry, stumbling, and fell to the floor in a whirl of books and paper, landing none too gracefully upon the cold tiles.
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:18 pm
Nuka had been all too busy kicking the front door, repeating the same words over and over; he wasn't hitting it hard, mind you, for he knew the effort was futile. The doors were huge, and were not budging. Thus so, when the crack of lightning came, blinding him for a moment, the last thing he expected to see, was a girl crashing at his feet, "The hell?" his foot had stopped just inches short of hitting the door again, his gaze falling down on the girlt hat had managed to land rather clumbsily on the cold floor in a whirl of papers and books.
WHO the hell ran in a darkened hallway carrying so many papers and books they could barely look where they were going?
The answer his mind taunted him with, made his blood run cold. No, it couldn't be. The gods couldn't be that cruel... there was no way in hell that out of all the people in the school...
Except, it was; he knew it was her even before a second crack of lightning came to illuminate the halls. Her perfume (was it perfume? He wasn't even sure if it was just her damned scent) drifted to him, and he was on his knees in an instant, his hands on her shoulders in an attempt to lift her from the floor, "What the hell are you doing here?" there was obvious confusion laced in his words; no trace of the anger he'd shown earlier that day.
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:50 pm
She blinked away the spots left behind from the lightening, though the second crash of it had caused her to jerk on the floor again. When her vision cleared and she was finally able to see who it was standing in front of her, she could have laughed, laughed until she cried or choked, or both. She supposed if there was anyone that was scary in the darkness, it should have been Nuka, except that she was probably the last person on earth to think that.
"I lost track of time", she said slowly, frowning as he put his hands on her shoulders, though she let him lift her from the floor. She stepped over the books and papers littered around her feet, and as she looked down at them, a slight smirk spread across her lips. It must have looked comical, she thought, to have seen that from his point of view. "I was in the library, the old woman usually tells me before she leaves, but I guess she forgot this time," she muttered, squeezing her hands into fists at her own irritation. Not at the library, but with her own scatter-brainedness.
Another boom of thunder crashed overhead and she let out a gasp, her body jerking, and without a secondthought she had wrapped both arms around his and pressed her body against it out of pure fear. Under her breath it almost sounded as if she had muttered a curse, which she might have, except that would have been totally unlike her.
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 5:01 pm
Indeed it'd been comical, however, he had been too worried over if she'd actualy managed to hurt herself (lord help him), to actualy really find anything laughable about the stunt, "Fine; that doesn't bloody explain why the hell you were running down the halls, screaching like a beheaded chicken," of course, he'd failed to notice she was afraid of the lightning... and the idea of her being afraid of the dark, well, it'd not crossed his mind, in all honesty.
It was right about then that the lightning chose to crack with a boom around them, and before Nuka had had any time to asimilate the situation at hand, the girl had tossed herself at him in a vice-like grip. The force of the collision had forced him a step back, and honestly, it was a miracle that she hadn't toppled him to the ground: her frame was small, yes, but she'd caught him by surprise. For a full half a minute, Nukpana found himself at war; he'd almost wrapped his own arms around her in instinct, but had stopped just short. He was currently torn between finishing the action and not.
To do or not to do... to do or not to do....
It then finaly registered that something about the situation was just not right, and thus, kicking his mind out of second gear, he turned to look down at the shuddering girl, "Are you..." a pause in his voice, low, almost a murmur, "Are you afraid of the thunder?" he'd given up fighting against himself and had opted for the third option; he'd allowed one arm to come up around her shoulders, for support, while he kept the other lifeless, hanging to his side.
Even such a motion would've been odd from one such as him, however, given circumstances... there was no one around to notice, and Anana... well, she'd seen sides of him no one else had; she might not see it as that odd, "Was that a curse?" he seemed almost bemused.
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 5:36 pm
He was a comfort to her in the midst of darkness, in the middle of this terrible storm. She couldn't have cared less at that moment if he started bitching at her for touching him at all, because he was warm and sturdy and something human that she could cling to while that terrible storm raged outside.
As his arm came up around her she let out a soft breath of relief and shifting to curl herself against his chest, turning her head away from the window outside. "I was running because.. fine, alright," she said an exasperated sigh, "I'm afraid of the thunder, and the lightening, and kind of the dark too at least when I'm all alone in this place at night." Her lips pursed at the thought, irritated that she had to admit it, but she'd rather go ahead and say it than have him pry and pry at her for the rest of the night (which is what it seemed like it was going to be).
She was silently thankful that he didn't act all weird about her clinging to him, as she really did need his support. Though, his last question caused her to narrow his eyes on him, a slight frown on her lips as she huffed. "Of course not," although no sooner had she spoke than another round of thunder and lightening crashed down upon the building. She clung tighter to his chest, squeezing her eyes shut and burrying her head into his shoulder, with a rather obviously mumbled, "damn it," under her breath.
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 5:37 pm
For some reason beyond him, Nuka found the fact she was afraid of the lighting, rather amusing indeed. Even further more amusing was the fact she was chosing to find omfort by clinging onto him; had she been any other person, he would've likely shoved them off. As it was though, he chose to cling onto what small bits of guilt pleasure life was allowing him to have, "Huh," it was above a murmur, but it showed the fact he was amused, at least. Not mocking, simply almost surprised, "Right, so you're afraid of the thunder... and you cling to me?" he seemed to be trying to find logic in this, his mind failing at it rather spectacularly.
Well, whatever, beggars can't be choosers, he decided.
As another lightning bolt crashed down, he watched her cling to him with even further force, and before he could help it, his other arm had curled up around her unbidden; the fact she looked so terrified tugged at him for some odd reason, "That was clearly a curse," he told her, tartly as soon as the thunder died down. Well... spending the night standing up right there wasn't going to help matters much, "Door ain't opening; I tried kicking it," he'd even pondered tossing a chair out of a window to get out, but seeing as how the storm raged outside... that was hardly logical, "Crashing a window ain't gonna take us far... so the next best option is to hole away somewhere; let's go find some classrooms," he was waiting for her to tell him that no, she did NOT wish for him to sleep in the same classroom as her.
This said, he tried to desentangle her from his body (as nice as it felt) so they could walk.
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 5:55 pm
"Well, what do you propose I cling to?" she said sulkily, chancing a glance over her shoulder, through the window at the storm outside. Her eyes shifted back up towards his face instead, dimly lit in the darkness, not very easy to make out between lightening crashes. "You're warm and familiar, and when it comes down to it, just human in all this.. darkness," she shuddered slightly as she looked down the hallway at the endless shadows that stretched on in what she thought of as forever.
"Yeah, so, what if it was?" she muttered irritably at him, glancing down at her feet as he said it. She didn't curse often, and only did so now because she was scared out of her wits every time that noise came booming in. She tried to prepare herself for it, but found that she couldn't, no matter how hard she tried.
"Alright, let's find a classroom, then. Maybe one of the home econmics classes will have blankets or something," she let him disentangle herself from her body, although reluctantly, but immediately clutched his arm to herself. As bossy as she usually was, though, she was obviously waiting for him to take the lead. She knew as soon as that thunder came again, she was going to be a trembling mess, and there was no use in her trying to think at all. That was also the same reason she didn't mock him for trying to kick the door down. Better not to mock someone when you were acting like a child.
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 6:11 pm
"I've no ******** clue," honestly? He was figuring he'd be more scary than the thunder; she'd single-handedly bested him, whom almost everyone feared... and yet here she was, afraid of a storm. He filed that thought for later musing, and instead tried to guide her through the darkness; the task in question wouldn't have been all that hard (he was used to moving in the darkness), had it not been for her lithe frame, which she seemed to insist on pressing up to him, "Nice to know I'm human after all," idly, he wondered if any of the classrooms would have a candle for them to use, however, off the top of his head, he had no idea where he could go about finding one.
His thoughts were haulted on the spot when she obviously hinted at just one room. Pausing briefly he looked down at her, "You want me to sleep with you?" there was no mocking tone in his voice; not even teasing. He seemed honestly surprised; on one hand.... that was a VERY potentialy BAD idea. On the other, it was dark, maybe he could make it work without crossing into dangerous territory...
The fact she was clutching his arm againt her chest though, made it easy to see that yes, it was going to go into potentialy dangerous grounds very swiftly. He couldn't deny her though, as scared as she was. Any other time, he'd have told her to suck it up, he was leaving; the fact she was terrified though, dissolved his resolve to leave her in a room and find another for himself. Lord help him. He wasn't getting any sleep tonight, that much was obvious.
So thus, into a home-economics classrom he lead her, and with just one arm, raided the cupboards as she clung to the other, "Just one blanket," which he passed over to her; he didn't need it. Then, he desentagled his arm from her grip once more as he allowed himself to slide down the wall and onto a sitting position on the floor.
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 6:24 pm
She smirked at his comment about being human, amused even in her fear. She supposed if anyone else had been locked with him in a school during a storm late at night they probably would have been scared out of their wits. When it came right down to it, though, she had seen that he was human and she wasn't afraid of him at all. On the contrary, she was probably more comfortable with him than anyone else that she could have gotten stuck here with.
"Of course I do!" she said incredulously as he stopped and looked down at her, "I'm not going to sleep by myself in a lonely room in the middle of this deserted school tonight, especially not in this storm." She shivered and clung tighter to his arm when she heard a peal of thunder overhead, more distant now that they'd moved away from the entrance. She had no idea what he was thinking about, what the issues with him sleeping in the same room with her could be, for she was only concerned with him comforting her.
As he handed her the blanket and moved away, she frowned slightly and glanced to the window of the classroom. Just as she was about to say something, a flash of lightening streaked through the sky and she jumped. In a hurried mess, she unfolded the blanket and flopped down beside him. Tossing it around her and partially over him in her hurry, she curled up against his side, her mouth curled into a frown.
"I really hate storms," she whispered, her body quivering slightly as she heard the beating rain.
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 6:39 pm
Of course she wanted him in the same room. Of course. Having him in a seperate room would've made his life so much easier; can't have that, he thought to himself almost darkly as his gaze shifted to the window, "You're a first," it was said as if he were pondering something or other and he hadn't even meant to be over-heard. Regardless, he rolled his shoulders and leaned back against the wall, waiting for either the storm to subdue, or her to fall asleep. Which ever came first.
Watching her almost meep and crash down beside him, he had to refrain the snort that threatened to arise; alas, rather than mock the girl in her state, he took what part of the blanket had fallen on him, placed it around her again silently and turned to watch the storm.
It didn't bother him, in all honesty. He liked storms. Whenever he wasn't locked up in darkened school buildings anyhow. As it was though, it was giving him a rather nice means of distracting himself from the warm body pressed up against his side. He could deal with that... if she didn't move around much. He could deal. Watch him deal; he was a grown, mature... teenager. He could deal. Now, if he just kept on repeating that to himself, maybe it'd work. A small snort of a breath was released at her words, "I could tell," and he turned to look down at her, as if trying to puzzle her out in the darkness.
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 6:51 pm
"What do you mean?" she said, puzzled, at his words. Her brows furrowed as she tried to figure out how she was a first. Was it simply because she wasn't afraid of him, and yet, here she was cowering over the violence of nature? If he expected her to be afraid of him, then had had another thing coming. After she got past that rough exterior, deep down, he was kind of fluffy and.. harmless. Well, at least to her, anyway. He did like to pick fights with other people, but he had been more than kind to her, and it was even appealing. Sometimes she wondered why he didn't act like that with everyone, but she guessed he probably wanted to appear like an a*****e.
She squirmed closer to him as the thunder crashed again outside, as the lightning illuminated the interior of the room. She forced her way under his arm until she could cuddle up against his chest, vaguely aware that he was looking down at her. She still didn't see any issue with it, had no idea of the thoughts that were going through his mind. As far as she was concerned at the moment, he was something akin to a big teddy bear. A big, angry teddy bear sometimes, but a teddy bear none-the-less in this sort of situation.
"So why are you still here this late?" she asked, in an attempt to get some sort of conversation going. The silence made her uneasy, talking took her mind off of the storm outside, the darkness of the entire school.
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Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 1:27 am
What did he MEAN...?
That was without a doubt, the million dollar question. However, explaining to her just what he meant implied telling her things... he honestly didn't want to, and thus, Nuka did his best to ignore the question alltogether. Of course, the fact she kept looking up at him, as if expecting him to talk and answer, and have a rational conversation (despite the fact she was hellishly still pressed up against up) was making it difficult to ignore the matter. After letting a go of a frustrated breath-of-a-sigh, the boy turned his gaze away from her, focusing on the droplets beyond the window.
Cool, cold, freezing water that drummed away outside. Yes, he'd focuse on that, seeing as how a cold shower was currently out of the question. She'd have been dragged off with him anyhow, if he'd tried taking one now, seeing as how she was clinging and refusing to let go and- He haulted that thought inmediately and was horribly glad the room was shrouded in darkness, enough to hide the blush, if not the mild shudder his body gave at the mental image, "Most girls, er... wouldn't asociate with me. For a night, in the dark, in a lonely classroom anyhow," he turned to offer her a pointed look, almost as if hoping her mind would jump onto the same track HIS was in, and thus, make the night just a tad easier on him.
Was that too much to ask?
Obviously it was, because no sooner had the thought crossed his mind, the girl in question slid herself under his arm, effectively 'forcing' him to hug her, in a way. Which he did, unbidden; his hand came to grip her shoulder pressing her against him almost as if instinctively. Then he mentaly kicked himself because she was practicaly ON his lap. All she needed to do was flop over his one leg and viola...
He was going to stop those thoughts right there though. It was bad enough as it was.
A gasp of breath was drawn in, and then Nuka cleared his throat, almost as if a means to distract himself from the fact her chest was pressed up against him, "I... uhm," a pause, his voice sounding raspy, "Fell asleep on the roof after the nurse patched me up. The storm woke me up."
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Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 11:07 am
While she simply waited for him to answer her question, she let her head rest on his shoulder, content with his arm around and looking (if one could possibly see her well in the dark) all the much more comfortable just for the simple comfort he was giving her. She had to admit that it was almost nice, in a way, and though that thought made her frown slightly in wonder, she didn't push it away. No, she embraced it, trying to divide it and figure it out. She had to admit she had grown somewhat attached to him over the past few weeks, though she was unsure if the thoughts were simply surfacing now because she needed him (in at least the sense of needing comfort in her time of fear) or because they were alone for the first time. The ways of emotions and romance really weren't her thing. Too bad there wasn't a book that could tell her how to figure out what was what.
"That's probably because they're scared of you, you do come off as a bit of an a*****e," she said with a smirk, rolling her teal eyes up to look at him from where she had comfortably placed her head on his shoulder. "I guess I'm just not most girls, though. I don't really find you that scary, you just have a bad attitude. More bark than bite," she even let out a small laugh as she shifted and lay her head more into the crook of his neck, her eyes turning down to look at the floor instead. She had entirely missed his point, though it was an honest mistake, at least for her.
She jerked a little from the outside rumbling of thunder, though seemed much calmer for having him closer. Unaware of the thoughts plaguing his mind (the true ones, at least) she furrowed her brows and looked up at him. His pausing and raspy voice had not gone unmissed, not in perceptive little Ana, and she reached up immediately to put a hand on his face. "Are you sick? You sound like your throat might be sore." She was undoubtedly checking for a temperature, and if he had fallen asleep on the roof and woken up in the rain - well, that could certainly make him sick, couldn't it?
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Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 12:02 pm
He stiffened further, if ever posible as he felt her head lean in his shoulder, and slowly, he allowed his head to drop back against the wall, rolling his eyes to the ceiling, because he'd reached a rather terminal decision; there was no god. And if there was, said entity reeled in watching him suffer, there was no doubt about it at all. Of course, had he been able to peek inside Anana's mind, he might've been thrown off for a hoop. As it was though, as far as he knew, he was being used. And god, he wasn't going to last all night long; he'd never wished for sunrise more furiously than he did at that precise moment. All she had to do was move a few inches and she'd be on his lap... he was currently wrestling with the idea of liking the notion, or hating it.
When her words pierced his thoughts, the boy frowned and backpeddled in an attempt to focuss on her. What'd she just said? Something about him being an a*****e? "Ever paused to wonder that perhaps I AM an a*****e, and you're just absolutely mental?" that pretty much summed it all up, because honestly, he was still trying to figure out why she was still hanging around him. Hadn't she grown tired of him yet? Surely she could find someone less more worth spending time with.
A snort that clearly voiced the fact he did NOT agree with her followed. More bark than bite... if she only knew. He refrained the gasp of air that threatened to escape as she burried her head into the crook of his neck, his teeth gritted for a moment till he saw stars, "Yeah, you keep on believing that, then."
As her hand reached his face, he blushed even further; the effect made his skin hot, no doubt, "W-what?" a pause as he cleared his throat and tried to push himself further against the wall; this was a futile effort, for he was already pressed up as far as he could, "You... just.... c-can you just..." a pause as he reached out with his other hand to still her moments, trying to take her hand from his face, "It's fine, I'm fine, just... it's fine."
Except it wasn't. God help him.
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