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 Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 6:53 pm
Two days had passed since the sailor senshi of St.Elmo's Fire had her very first encounter with a Negaverse agent. Two days since she'd found herself barely coherent, making her way to the little apartment her civilian counterpart resided in. For the past couple of days Natasha Russell had ignored phone calls from her school, and responded to her parents, informing them she was simply ill. Fact of the matter was she didn't know how to go into the hospital and exactly explain the blunt force trauma she'd taken to the head.
Being a sailor (and not just the senshi kind) Natasha was somewhat familiar with the first aid her father had taught her. He'd told her it'd come in handy if she'd ever find herself stranded in a storm. Well, while she wasn't in a storm, she'd at least managed to fix herself up enough to get to resting in her bed. Even with the time that had passed, her head ached, and the bruises still pained to touch. Any bleeding that had occurred had subsided, and bandaged remained simply to (what she thought would) help with the healing process.
Nat sat on her couch, the tv on with the volume low. Her mind was still reeling with images from the fight. If she'd been two seconds slower, she would have been killed. The reality of that all was beginning to settle in, and for the first time, in a very long time, she was aware of her mortality, and how fleeting it actually was.
Truth be told, it scared the s**t out of her.
Cupping a mug of green tea, she sipped from it. When she drew the cup away from her face, she stared at her wavy reflection within it. She looked terrible. Natasha wasn't exactly the vain type, but looking like she'd come out from under a meat tenderizer was even a bit much for the outdoorsy girl. Admittedly though, she looked better than the day before.
"Ugh." she groaned to herself, placing her tea down on a little coffee table in front of her. "******** hell."
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 9:20 pm
He was surprised at himself. Usually his first stop after class was to go straight to his dorm room and change, throwing his school uniform onto the floor before quickly grabbing a clean shirt he had lain out earlier. It was all he could to avoid running in the dorm halls. He especially didn't want to run into the hall monitors, or Demy and/or Z: for starters, he did not want more glitter on his personage, or to owe it up to the latter in forms of blackmail later.
From Hillworth he wound run and jump over fences, cutting through yards and darting across streets. It became a sort of game for the two of them; which one would arrive at the Shufflepuck first? He, breathless and attempting to look as if he had been waiting? Or she, rolling her eyes at his display. ”It's not a game,” she'd chide, her hands warming themselves around a cup of hot tea. She'd laugh, and he was perfectly fine with that.
It wasn't every day, thankfully – just every Thursday to avoid the Friday rush. He was surprised to have shown up first, not to mention smug. His confidence waned as ten minutes passed. Where was she? Thirty minutes. An hour. Two hours. Closing time. She didn't show up. She didn't answer his calls.
Friday he had torn apart his room, searching. He was thankful he didn't have a roommate, using the extra space in his room to carelessly toss things aside, the extra desk used as a place to sort through a dumped-out desk drawer. Finally he had it – it was faded and worn, but he could still make out the numbers on it.
Finally, after Googling the bus routes and using his arcade money (two week's worth – he was surprised it was so much!) to pay for his fare, he was there. He clutched the faded address tightly, checking and double-checking. Was this the place (yes it was) where Natasha lived (yes)?
Alexander stood outside her door, staring at the door handle. She didn't answer his calls, or her e-mail, or her Facebook... Was she even home? He wished for a brief moment that he knew the other boys better at Hillworth to at least become versed in the ways of bypassing locks, just to have a quick look around. But since he didn't and was just a normal boy, he raised his hand and rapped on the door, knocking and hoping she was home.
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 9:32 pm
Natasha had moved from the couch and was heading into the apartment's small kitchen. The girl was mumbling something about advil and migraines to herself. Yanking open a cupboard door, she found the little turquoise bottle she was looking for, pushed open the top and popped a couple into her mouth. She followed that quickly with the last mouthful of her tea.
She gagged a little as the pills went down, she wasn't a huge fan of that. But her complaints were momentarily disrupted by a rapping at her door. More grumbling followed by tired footsteps trudging towards the door. She figured it was likely the landlord, or at least the landlord's 'fixit' guy. She had a crack in the wall above her sink in the bathroom. Not a huge deal, just more of an aesthetic annoyance.
Sighing she pulled the door open, preparing mentally to make some excuse (rugby?) for her appearance. Her eyes had closed for a moment, but when they opened her face faultered.
"A.. Alex?!?" she quickly tailed in behind the door, hiding her face best as she could without completely ignoring him.
"What are you doing here?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 9:56 pm
“Well, I was going to surprise you with my shirt open ala Elzo and lean like this,” here he flipped open his jacket and leaned against the doorway, striking a pose better left to the professional male underwear models, “But then I realized I was wearing the wrong shirt,” his shirt was faded blue with PROCRASTINATORS: THE LEADERS OF TOMORROW written on in white, “And that, well, I'm lazy.”
He then held up the folded piece of paper, where her baby blue writing was... somewhat still visible. The trip through the washing machine didn't do it any favors. “I remembered you gave me this, and since you didn't show up yesterday or return my calls, I got a bit worried. You okay? Can I come in?”
Alex paused, then grinned. “If you're holding the door like that 'cause you're afraid of a dirty apartment, don't worry. Mine's worse.” His foot had snuck into the opened crack as he spoke, just in case. “Can I come in?”
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 10:07 pm
If it hadn't been for the fact that his foot was actually, physically, stuck in the opening of her door, she likely would have shooed the boy away, and shutting the door quickly to block him out. That, however, wasn't an option at this point and time, as Alex had made sure of that. The wheels spun in Natasha's mind, making up a plethora of excuses to throw at him once he actually got in the door. She couldn't just send him home now. Well, she could, but she wouldn't.
"Yeah, I guess. And my apartment isn't dirty, thanks. I'm just not feeling that great so I turned my phone n junk off. Haven't really been to the computer either." Her head was still pounding, and her arms ached as she opened the door, still semi hidden behind it.
"C'mon in, I'll get you some tea." she motioned towards the kitchen, hoping to have him walk ahead of her for the time being while she continued to cook up plausible reasonings.
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Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 3:25 am
He didn't comment on the slight pressure that was applied against his foot. Nor did he comment on her excuses, settling to simply arch an eyebrow at her. It was, in a sort of way, amusing – wasn't the situation reversed, some time ago? Granted, he would still show up to meet her, never mind the fact that he used to be late quite often for those. But he would still show up!
“Eesh, you're getting better though, I hope?” Alex asked as he successfully slipped into the apartment, walking in far enough to allow her to close the door behind him. He had taken several steps onto the carpet before freezing in place, a blush creeping up his cheeks as he quickly peeled off his shoes and turned, setting them next to the door.
“Ahhh, sorry!” He said, rising from his half-crouched position and looking at the carpet. “Thankfully I didn't drag in dirt, but you never know.” He stopped, raising his gaze to look at her. “Hey. Nat. You sure you're all right? You look a bit pale...”
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Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 10:05 am
"Yeah, slowly." she reassured the boy, letting the door shut with a soft thud. Turning around she leaned against the door as Alex put his shoes in place.
"Don't worry about it, even if you had 'dragged in dirt' it's just dirt. Never hurt anyone. S'what brooms and vacuums were invented for anyways." she brought a hand up to her temple, rubbing it a bit. The motion helped ease the throbbing, just a bit. It made the pain bearable at least.
It took her a moment to clue in that Alex had risen from putting his shoes in place, and was now looking at her. She scrunched her brow a bit, wrinkled her nose and gave a short nod, turning her head to the side, breaking the gaze.
"Side effect of not being outside for the last few days, I'm sure." her words were insisting, and almost begging that he didn't inquire more.
"Anyways, c'mon, lets get you that tea. I'm sure it was a long ride out here." she bit back the pain that her body was screeching at her, wanting her to go back and lay down on the couch, or her bed. Her pride was in the way though, and she wouldn't show that she was ready to fall apart just now. Not in front of Alex. She'd never live it down. She moved around the boy, ignoring the cautionary way she'd been planning on having him walk ahead of her, for obvious reasons. Heading to the kitchen where the kettle was still heated with water.
Electric kettles were a godsend.
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 3:44 am
"But that would require work," he pointed out bluntly, shaking his head. He was lucky -- his room at Hillworth was one of the rooms that had cold tile instead of a cheap carpet for a floor. Cleaning up the floor was easy, even if it was buried under clothes most of the time. He preferred having his clothes strewn about, actually: any dirt would get onto the shirt, and when it was time for inspections, it was easy to round up all the shirts, pants, and everything else on the floor into a giant katamari pile and toss a blanket over it before tucking the bag in place. A quick sit-down on it turned the lump of clothes into an instant bean-bag chair.
A bean-bag chair that reeked heavily of Febreeze of course, but that was a moot point. It got him past the room checks at least! Most of the time. Sometimes. Okay, so he had to use the excuse he was doing laundry a lot, but it worked.*
At her comment, he narrowed his eyes and looked at her suspiciously. As far as he knew, not being outside resulted in a pale skin tone -- as pale as his own skin-deficient skin, acutally. Maybe it was from watching too much TV in bad lighting? He glanced at it as he followed her. The volume was low, but...
He looked after her, following her and settling to lean against the kitchen door, watching. After a moment, he dropped his gaze and looked around. "Nice place you have here," he began, "What's the rent like?"
* After doing the obligatory laps around the track field that is.
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 6:37 am
"Lil bit of work never killed anyone." she chuckled. Natasha walked over to her electric tea kettle and plugged it in. "Shouldn't take long for this to heat up." there was water in it still from only a short time ago. She'd made herself tea to sit with at the couch. The tv show really was terrible. Some random soap opera. Not her thing really, but there was little to nothing else on this time of day, and her cable was limited.
She wasn't generally a observer of the television, so this generally wasn't an issue. If nothing else, Alex was currently providing her with a much needed distraction from the mind numbing box in the small living room.
"Rent's about $650, which isn't bad really given the size." she looked around the apartment. It was two bedroom, the kitchen was open to the living room and had a little island in the middle of it. Which Natasha loved, made getting breakfast easier. She motioned to the island for Alex to sit down while they chatted. There were a couple of bar-styled stools in front of it.
"The extra space is great for storage." the kettle began to whistle, apparently the water that had already been in it hadn't completely cooled. The teen reached up into the cupboards, and pulled down a plain, blue mug as well as dragging down a little tin full of tea bags. Tossing a bag into the mug and pouring water over it, she let it steep.
"Sugar, milk, or do you like weird things in your tea?"
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Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 3:28 am
The boy snorted dismissively and shook his head. He didn't understand the need for a completely neat and clean area himself -- he personally preferred his room as messy as it was. The theory was that he would know if someone came through his room by the mess, but in all honesty he couldn't tell where what was on most days. In fact, his room showed a visible improvement in cleanliness after looking into a certain Guitar Hero's closet...
"$650? Not too bad," he murmured, following her gesture and taking a seat carefully on the bar stool, sitting as though his weight alone might break it. Thankfully it remained sturdy beneath him. His caramel colored eyes dropped from her back to the table, studying it as he drummed a soft disjointed melody upon the smooth surface.
He looked up at her question, blinking before comprehending. "Hit me with whatever. I don't usually drink tea. Though," he paused, "Isn't it supposed to help you sleep? I've been having... trouble sleeping, I guess."
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Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 6:08 am
"Depends on the tea." she mused, pulling down a couple of small, ceramic containers from her cupboards. She mixed in some milk and sugar to his tea, and moved it over to the island. She set it down in front of him, with a spoon, then placed the sugar container next to it. "In case you need to add more. I have a friend who seems to like having a little tea with her sugar. Don't know how she does it though. I don't mind sweets, but yikes."
She pulled a stool out on the opposite side of the island, and sat, facing towards the living room. She seemed to think for a moment, taking in what Alex had said at the tail end of his comment. Unwittingly she turned to look at him.
"Why haven't you been sleeping, you alright?" as she looked at the boy, dead on, she felt the heat begin to rise in her face as she realized what she had done.
"Cuz, yeah, that'd... suck." she turned back away. Maybe Alex was that oblivious. Maybe.
Unlikely.
********>
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Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 7:51 pm
He accepted the cup with a nod, wrapping his fingers around the warm ceramic. Alex was hesitant to try it. While it was nice and warm, it was starting to become too warm for comfort. He loosened his fingers as he looked up, mouth open to answer her question before the words froze in his throat.
The bar-stool clattered to the ground, knocked over in his haste to dash around the kitchen's island to Natasha's side, reaching out to carefully brush her hair aside for a better look. "What happened to you? Who hit you? Do I know him? I'll make him pay for what he did! How long have you been going out with him? Nevermind, I don't care, no one has any right to be abusive!"
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Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 8:38 pm
Natasha felt her body tense up as Alex brushed the hair from her face. She frowned, and looked away again.
"I'm, I'm not seeing anyone else." she murmered half to herself, half to the frantic boy. She winced a bit as she realized the 'anyone else' bit.
"Look, I... I overstepped some boundaries. You don't know them. I .. I..." she kept stumbling over her words, frantically trying to reach for some explanation. It was only a few moment when she felt hot tears streaming down her cheeks. It was so complicated, this was complicated. It should have been so easy. She should be able to shrug all this off.
"I'm sorry." was all she could muster as her legs began to shake beneath her.
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Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 9:20 pm
He let his hand fall away from her as he stared in silence. She wasn't seeing anyone else? Was it true? Was she lying? He was at a loss, not knowing to believe her or to pry further. "But -" he began, cutting himself off as the tears began.
He lowered his hand to is side, a frown starting to dance around his lips. Boundaries? What boundaries? Why couldn't he help? It was painful to look at her. He clenched his fists and looked away, tensing.
What was he doing? The boy sighed, more for at himself than her before reaching forward, saying nothing as he gently hugged her.
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