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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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 Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 11:20 am
The thought - no, the fact - that Lucas was purposefully avoiding her had obviously been much cause for alarm and inner self-reflection. What had she done to bring this upon herself? Had she stepped over some invisible boundary? Probably several, at least. Had she said too much at some point? Once or twice, more than likely. Had she hurt his feelings? Well, he cried one night when he was drunk but was that really her fault? Probably, since for some reason - or every reason - he wasn't talking to her, didn't want to see her, wanted to avoid her whenever he saw her.. He didn't even want to look at her. What the hell had she done?
This inner negative monologue had been keeping her awake most nights lately, distressing as it was, and thus far she'd managed to keep her sleeplessness from affecting her work. Hopefully this would continue, or hopefully she'd actually get some sleep at some point which she desperately needed.
Such was the state of affairs one late evening in the rec room, where Claire sat sleepily on the couch, refusing to sleep there for a plethora of reasons, one of which was chubby and yellow-orange, sitting several feet in front of her and playing Guitar Hero. Whenever his score was less than perfect in his opinion, he'd squeak out a variety of pokemon curses - or that's what Claire had begun assuming they were, due to the intonation and how he'd angrily shake his plump little fist at the screen - before vehemently trying the song again. Besides the Pikachu, a gold and white Pidgeot stood next to one side of the couch, carefully and thoroughly preening while keeping one keen eye on her sleepy human. An Eevee and one of its evolutions were curiously missing from the scene, perhaps in their pokeballs or maybe even back in Claire's room altogether.
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 11:50 am
Ugh. Another day of drudgery over, one that had been worse than most. It was late, he'd known he was going to finish late, but he'd been planning to go and get some training in right about now all the same. He'd been planning it right up until the moment he slipped down the stairs from the first floor to the ground floor. Somebody had put polish on the top step. He blamed the man he had been working with, that son of a b***h he was forced to sleep in the same room as, the one he'd shown who was boss on his very first day. He had no evidence though (he hadn't seen him do it, and the git had left before he had fallen so he hadn't even been able to cite a smug look on his face or anything) and he had no intention of going crying to the higher ups anyway. He was a big boy: he could take care of himself, and sort out his own revenge. Unable to do anything other than swear and seethe for the time being he had cleaned up the polish, put away his cleaning kit, and put his plans for exercise on hold.
Bruised, embarrassed, and limping heavily Aulus made his way towards the nearest rec room armed with a bowl, a fork, a packet of instant noodles, a large pack of toffee popcorn, a large bar of caramel chocolate, and a whole carton of orange juice. He was going to sit down, eat trashy food, watch some trashy action or horror movie, and feel better. Shoving open the door with his shoulder, he prepared a dark glare for whoever was in there playing Guitar Hero; if they thought they were staying they had another thing...
"Oh." As he took in the gamer his scowl faded, but he was in too poor a mood to replace with with a smile. "Hi there Zeus," he nodded, "hi Odette, hi Claire. Seem to have quite a talent for running into you lot." Dumping the popcorn, chocolate, and drink on a coffee table Aulus limped into the mini kitchen and started a kettle boiling for his noodles.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 11:58 am
Claire was oblivious to everything that had occurred in the stairwell before Aulus' arrival, and only knew two things: One, he was limping, and two, he looked tired too. Of course, he could also have been in a bad mood - and probably was - but she was much too sleepy herself to really notice anything else. A hand covered her mouth to hide the yawn that escaped it, and she blinked sleepily as he limped into the kitchenette. "Hello yourself," she replied, leaning heavily against the back of the couch before drawing her knees up in front of her, wrapping her arms around them and resting her cheek on one knee. "And I suppose you do." Whether that was a bad or a good thing, she didn't know. She was much too tired to think about much of anything, though she made an effort to keep thoughts of Lucas out of her head for the time being.
"Chu." That was the curt reply Aulus received from the Pikachu on the floor as he fiercely mashed buttons and the bar to play the song as best as he could in that awkward position, all of his concentration focused on playing the right notes in the right order and on time. It was very difficult.
Odette had a warmer greeting, cooing a "geooo" at the scarred man before she resumed her preening. He thought she was gorgeous, that much was obvious, and as long as he stayed a good distance from Claire they would have no problems.
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:22 pm
As he waited for the kettle to boil Aulus removed his uniform jacket and tossed it over onto the sofa. This left him wearing a black vest (with obligatory red R on the right-hand side), and revealed a couple of bruises forming on his powerful arms. Scowling, Aulus poked at one of them experimentally. Unsurprisingly, it hurt. Sighing slightly he fetched Tortie's pokeball out, and released the dark type into the rec room.
"No training tonight," he explained to her as she cast around in confusion, "some kind sod greased the stairs and I fell down them so I've come here to sulk and watch movies... And don't think you're getting any dinner," he wagged his fork at her, "don't think I didn't see you steal that chicken when we were cleaning in the kitchens." A whole chicken. He was just glad that they hadn't been caught.
What? No training? Egh, she'd been looking forward to that all day!... But her human did look rather rough; she could live with a lazy evening. Of course, having a stomach full of chicken made her happier to accept most things. Yawning and stretching, the patched Absol settled herself down beside the sofa, more or less ignoring Claire and her pokemon; her trainer seemed to like them well enough so there was no call to be hostile, but they took his attention away from her so there was no call to be friendly either.
At long last the kettle boiled, and Aulus poured the steaming water over his oh-so nutritious dinner. Limping back into the main portion of the red room he sank down beside Claire on the sofa (but not too close to her) and prodded experimentally at the still solid block of noodles with his fork. He hadn't had instant noodles in ages, and he had to admit that he was kind of pleased to be having them again now; sure they were full of additives and salt and crap, but preparing them was sort of fun and they did taste pretty good in the end... Well, they did to him anyways.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:45 pm
The tired young woman absently watched the events unfold before her from her comfortable spot on the couch, her eyes once again distinctly hazel. Her contacts had become unbearably dry and annoying, so she'd just taken them out to save herself from further frustrations. That and if she accidentally fell asleep at any point, she had no desire to wake up some amount of time later to find her contacts had slipped behind her eyes. It hadn't happened yet, and she had no desire to find out just how painful it was.
As Aulus spoke to the Absol, her thoughts drifted back to Lucas and his recent behavior towards her, and her brow creased slightly as a result. What had happened for him to act differently towards her? She hadn't done anything out of the ordinary, nothing she wouldn't have done normally... Maybe he remembered something after his concussion? Maybe.. huh?
Oh.
Aulus had plopped down next to her on the couch, and she felt herself lean in that direction due to nothing more than the weight of a second person pushing the cushions further down. Movies? Why did she suddenly think of the word movies..? Zeus was playing a game, she had no desire to watch a movie - that ramen looked good, and reminded her she hadn't ever eaten dinner, she probably should have, but she really wasn't hungry.. Oh, right, movies. Did Aulus mention..? Yes, she thought so - the more she pondered on it, the more she was certain he'd mentioned the word 'movies' to.. something. Tortie? Hopefully, because if he'd said it to Claire she hadn't even noticed. That was fine though, she didn't mind if he.. oh, wait. "Zeus," she said suddenly, blinking the sleepy, absent-minded look from her eyes, "enough playing."
The Pikachu had just failed spectacularly at one particular song, and at his trainer's words he sat up and flung the guitar away from him - a whole four inches before it plopped on the floor. "Chuu!" He growled, folding his arms over his chest. He'd damn well play as much as he wanted, he didn't care if Aulus wanted to sulk and watch movies. He could just go somewhere el--
"Zeus, it's either stop playing of your own accord or run on the treadmill for two hours." She was in no mood to argue or deal with a grumpy Pikachu, and her tired tone was a fairly good indication of this feeling. The angry Pikachu merely harumphed in annoyance, pinning his ears back before he got up, pushed the guitar out of the way with his foot, and angrily shut the system off before plopping back down on his rump with a huff. He'd obey her for now, but he was most definitely not happy about it.
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:55 pm
"Hey," Aulus raised an eyebrow at Zeus as he went into full sulk mode, "at least you didn't fall downstairs today; count your blessings." Still, he felt a little guilty for interrupting the electric type's game... "If Clare says it's okay, you can have a bit of my chocolate when I open it," he offered after a moment. "That's when I open it, not right now." Poking at his noodles, which were beginning to go soft, Aulus peered over at the book case that was lined with DVDs. Humm, was that Rambo he spied? That would do. "Tortie; forth shelf up, and... fifth in from the left," he gestured vaguely at the ranks of cases, "fetch it down will you, and hand it to Zeus. I'm sure he can cope with opening it and putting it in for a second piece of chocolate." He sure as hell wasn't getting up to do it now that he'd sat down.
Tortie gave a rather put upon huff at the instruction, but quickly got to her paws to do as she was told anyway. A lack of fingers and thumbs made it difficult to get hold of one slim box from among so many thin boxes, and so she just dragged down half the shelf. Picking up what she thought was the right one (Aulus didn't correct her so it had to be), the dark type carried it over to Zeus and put it down in front of him. Task completed, she returned to Aulus, giving his knee a gentle nudge as she sat down to show that she hadn't really minded fetching it for him.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:04 pm
At the mention of the most magical word in anyone's vocabulary, Zeus' ears shot up and he turned, peering at Aulus wide-eyed. Did he actually offer him chocolate? For real? And not one, but two pieces. Aulus was, once again, his favorite person ever. He didn't care what movie they were watching or if he had to become the movie-putter-inner for the night, he was going to get chocolate.
He watched eagerly as Tortie knocked down half the DVD cases on the shelf, and quickly grasped the one she put down in front of him, snapped it open, pushed the button on the DVD player for the thing to whir out, placed the disc in it then pushed it closed - hopefully he wouldn't break it - and feverishly pushed the menu button.
The menu screen that came up, with many sparkles and magical sounds, was most definitely not Rambo.
"...Cinderella?" Claire said curiously, one eyebrow raising quite high as she studied the menu screen before turning quizzical hazel eyes onto the man beside her.
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:09 pm
"...Uh." What? Aulus paused with the first forkful of noodles half way to his mouth. "Apparently? It was meant to be Rambo... Eh, sod it," he shrugged, "want to watch it and take the piss out of it, or should I make Tortie try again?" Or he could just get up and find the right DVD... Na. Waiting for Claire's response, Aulus made a start on his dinner. Process, artificial, delicious.
What? Tortie looked up at her trainer and rumbled deep in her chest; she'd got the wrong one? Well, that wasn't her fault; she didn't know what the boxes said on them. Humph. Well, she'd tried, and if that wasn't good enough for him, then she'd be sure to rub lots of hair all over his clean clothes later.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:17 pm
Was it really meant to be Rambo? Really? She wasn't sure and he'd never say otherwise anyway, so she chuckled lightly to herself and shifted her position a bit to be even comfier. "Sure, I don't care," she said with a shrug, trying (and failing) to stifle a yawn.
Before either could say anything more, Zeus had found the sideways triangle button and pushed it - he remembered that meant 'play' but not in the same sense of the word as playing games was - and the movie started. That accomplished, he bounded over to the couch and put his paws on the cushions, staring up at Aulus and waiting patiently - or at least, he thought he was waiting patiently - until the scarred man would open his chocolate and give him some. Mmmm, chocolate...
Odette, on the other hand, had narrowed her eyes slightly while preening. The man was very close to her human, and she wasn't sure how to feel about this development. She decided to just keep an eye on him for the time being, just in case.
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:24 pm
Good Gods, why had he suggested this? There was going to be... pink. Sparkles. Something about Rattatta being turned into footmen? He'd never actually seen the film before but he knew the story. Ridiculously bland, helpless, hopeless girl wants ball. Oh so mean relatives stop her going. Magic happens. Girl goes to ball, impresses princes, runs away, and is found again by shoe size. Well, certainly seemed like ripe material for piss taking... Zeus was staring at him.
"Fine," Aulus set down his bowl and fork, opened the chocolate, and handed to squares to Zeus. "There, payment as promised," he nodded, "so you can stop looking at me." Picking up his bowl again, Aulus turned his attention back to the screen... Claire was yawing quite a lot. "Tired are you?" he asked rhetorically, still looking at the television. "Another long terrible day of not mopping and not falling down stairs?" Much as he wished Claire no ill, at the moment he didn't have it in him to feel sorry for anyone who hadn't nearly broken their neck today.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:32 pm
Whether there were sparkles and pink and Rattata being turned into footmen or tons of action, explosions, and hot guys, Claire had no idea whatsoever, because she was barely paying attention. While her eyes were vaguely focused on the tv, her thoughts had drifted back to Lucas and why the hell he was ignoring her. Aulus' sudden question directed at her, however, pulled her back from her thoughts. "Huh? Oh." Tired, right. "Yeah.. I haven't really been sleeping well lately," she admitted, then paused to blink once or twice, brows furrowing a bit. "Or at all, actually." It was hard to know if she'd fallen asleep or not when she was too busy thinking about distressing things that made her want to cry.
Zeus immediately grabbed both pieces of chocolate and gleefully stuffed them into his mouth, then plopped onto his rump with the most pleased look on his face. He was in heaven.
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:37 pm
"...Oh." And there he'd been resolving not to feel sorry for her. Sleepless nights were no fun at all. "Well that sucks," he went on after a moment, "but maybe this pile of sparkle-topped crap will bore you to sleep? Hu, do feel free, I expect your snoring might improve the overall quality of the movie, or at least be pretty accurate commentary." Setting down his bowl, Aulus reached out for the orange juice and twisted the cap off to take a long drink. He did feel bad for her, but really there was nothing he could do beyond telling her he didn't care if she fell asleep here... Well, he supposed he could ask her what was wrong, but he didn't feel bad enough for her to go getting himself mixed up in whatever her issue was.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:47 pm
Her cautiousness, dulled by sleeplessness and how effing tired she was, flared up a bit as he suggested she fall asleep. "No no, I'm fine," she said, hiding another yawn behind her hand which would probably do little to affirm her statement, "and I don't snore. I think if I did, Zeus would zap me while I'm sleeping every night." And he hadn't - or at least not whenever she let him out at night to sleep on her bed - so that proved that she didn't snore. Or at least, in her tired mind it did.
Zeus, upon hearing his name and the context in which it was used, nodded his head vigorously. He wouldn't tolerate anyone snoring, and would have trained such a behavior out of his human if she had it. Luckily for the plump lazy electric-type, there was no need to.
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:53 pm
"Mmfh," said Aulus as he lifted up his bowl to drain the last of the broth, and slurp up the last of the noodles. "Whatever," he shrugged, setting the empty bowl down and wiping his mouth, "no skin off my nose either way. Popcorn?" Leaning forward he grabbed the bag and pulled it open, before scooping up a small handful of sweetened puffed corn bits and tossing them into his mouth; he was even more hungry than he'd realised, and even if Claire didn't want any he'd probably make it through the bag with ease. He'd probably be able to eat up all the chocolate too, which would upset Zeus no doubt but that wasn't his issue.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 2:11 pm
If Claire had been less sleepy, she might have commented about how slurping noodles wasn't exactly proper - not that it even mattered except to tease him about it - but she was much too tired to barely even notice. At his offer of popcorn, however, her brows rose and she shook her head a bit. "No thanks." She still wasn't hungry. Zeus, however, peered up at Aulus curiously. He certainly was in a sharing mood.. perhaps he'd want to share more of his chocolate? He could certainly hope.
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