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Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 9:28 pm
If West had ever stopped to think about it, he might have realized that his half of the friendship he shared with Yaya was largely fueled by curiosity rather than actual friendliness. From the moment they met and she offered to train his pets in exchange for a mark, he had been transfixed by how different she was from him, even though he would probably never be able to articulate that fact himself. Although he had come to reluctantly care for her over time, at the moment a good-sized chunk of him was more interested in hearing about what she had seen on the island rather than whether or not her leg was all right.
He would, of course, ask how her leg was, as was expected, but he couldn't say he really cared. West knew that with time the hurt would fade and everything would be fine. Injuries healed. Crazy didn't, and there was a lot of crazy floating around Amityville nowadays.
That he had offered himself as support and an outlet for her pain during the trip would not be up for discussion at all.
West was glad, for once, that he had been to the ghoul's room before, if only because he didn't have to ask for directions along the way, an act that would and draw attention to the fact that he was visiting her at all. When he reached her door, he gave it three rapid taps, not too loud or too soft, then twitchily rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet.
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Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 10:40 pm
Dark fingertips twitched where they lay along the pale chest of the boil beside her, tensing as the dream she'd been within crumbled around her and she was left blinking blearily at the room around her. A bed, mounded to the point of over flowing with pillows and throws. Her bed, in her dorm back in Amity. That's right, they were home. She'd forgotten, or perhaps simply hadn't let the fact sink in yet. It'd only been a day, not even a day since they'd returned. She sat up so she could peer at the clock, frowning at the numbers before holding a hand up to stifle a yawn.
Only then did she recall what exactly had woken her, that quick rap on her outer door. One of her friends come to check on her no doubt. Probably Junko, lord knew the poor ghoul worried. Grabbing an over sized shirt from the back of a chair she quickly buttoned it before snagging a pair of silk shorts from a draw. Pulling them up over tanned thighs as she closed the bed room door behind her and made her slow, limping was across the sitting room to the outer door. By the time she turned the knob to peek into the hall she was decently dressed, though her hair was an unbound mass at her back. Long strands tangling along her ankles and draping along thin shoulders.
The face that greeted her was not one she'd been expected, and West was met with wide eyes as she opened the door completely. For a moment she could only stand there and stare at him, too shocked to speak, let alone move. Then a wave of relief crashed over the surprise and she was throwing her arms around his neck. Hugging the poor wrath demon in a horrifically girlish manner. Completely unbalanced on her one good leg.
Jack, was she happy to see him. She'd let Sharra take her straight to her room when she'd arrived home, bypassing all other reunions with anyone else she might have been worried over. She'd felt guilty, but she'd let it happen. Now that guilt was back, and it made her loosen her grip, arms falling away from his shoulders as she hopped back and dropped her gaze to the floor. "You're okay." It was almost a question.
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 8:57 am
Oh. Right. Hugs.
Everything dragged in slow motion as the marid lunged towards him, but remarkably, West didn't flinch back or pull away. He had understood what he was getting into by coming here, even if that understanding had been of the subconscious sort, and he was determined to take whatever was thrown at him in an effort to make this visit less uncomfortable. West tried to relax, even giving Yaya's back a pat as he waited for her to let go first, as if he was playing a game to see who could hold out the longest. He realized as she dropped her arms from his neck that the ghoul could probably hug indefinitely and had only let go for his benefit. It made his victory taste slightly bitter. Oh well.
The wrath demon nodded sharply, muttering, "Yeah, m'great." He looked her up and down, his gaze lingering on her injury, before diagnosing, "You should stay offa that," as if she could have somehow opened the door while lying in bed. "Can I...?" He poked a finger over Yaya's shoulder toward the interior of her rooms.
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:17 am
His affirmation of health made her smile, taking away some of the guilt she'd been feeling. He was okay, the others were surely okay as well. They had to be. Maybe West would know.. She'd have to ask before before he wandered off again. Er, why was he here? He'd never payed her a visit before, had he really been worried about her? It wasn't entirely unlikely, she supposed, they had been growing closer since she'd helped him bandage his hand.
She glanced down at her own ankle as he mentioned it, lips pressing into a thin line. The bandana was gone, but in it's was actually a brace, reinforced by coils of bandages. It wasn't a cast, but it'd do, the break had been a minor one. "Should, probably won't." She sighed, but the corners of dark lips twitched upward.
Can I..? The djinn blinked, glanced over her shoulder, then looked back up at the boil. He wanted to come in? That was an absolute first. Maybe he really was worried about it? Naaaaaaw. "Sure, come right in." She limped to the side, holding the door a little wide for him to slip past it, then closed it behind him and sort of hobbled over to one of the cushions on the floor surrounding her low table. Carefully lowering herself onto it before stretching her legs out beneath, ankle propped on the pillow opposite her. If he wanted to remain standing, he could, but there was no way in Christmas she was staying on her feet more then was strictly necessary.
"So what's up?" Because he wouldn't be paying her a visit without a really good reason.
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 5:44 pm
West hesitated as she moved to one side of the door, still reluctant to enter even though he had been the one to initiate this little visit. A few seconds later he relented, hurrying forward, though he stopped again right inside and waited for her to close the door and advance further into her rooms before he followed. His arms went to their customary position folded across his chest, but the motion was less awkward than it had been in recent weeks since the removal of his cast. He was clean-shaven for a change as well, and the new pinkness of the scar on his cheek stood out clearly against his ruddier skin.
Should he sit? He really didn't like sitting in Yaya's room with its pillows and his inability to effectively stand up with any speed and stomp away while reclining on said pillows. His next blink lasted a little longer than usual as he mentally facepalmed, then he took a seat nearly across from Yaya, to one side of her feet. West sighed. There was simply no way to look dignified surrounded by a heap of fluff.
What was up... well, hmm. "Jus'wanted t'see how you were d..." The lie caught in his throat and he frowned, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table. "Fine, look," he said, voice low. "I didn'come t'see if you'ere okay. I kno'you'll be fine. Y'got strong... legs, an'it's'not like people dun live through these kinda things'all th'time." There. He suddenly felt much better having spoken his mind. "I wanna know what'ya saw, 'cause I sawsome screwed up s**t. Didja talk t'anyone else yet?" He didn't really mean to grill her, but she had asked why he had come, right?
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 8:31 am
There was a moment there when the avarice demon stood there awkwardly looking down at her, or rather the table she was seated at and the cushions around it. She in turn watched him curiously, dark brows arching gently as she folding her arms on the table in front of her, chin lowering to rest on top of them. On any normal occasion she might have found this all terribly amusing, but with everything that had happened so very recently she was simply too worn out to appreciate the silliness of his actions.
He sat, finally, and that did tempt a smile to tug at garnet lips. A smile that only deepened into something relative to a smirk as he went on to query about her well being. Or rather began to, before the question died on his tongue. So not here out of concern for her safety, she waited to be disappointed by that admission. Though as he said, he had every confidence in making a full recovery, so with that logic he had no reason to worry. It made sense, she supposed. So, with lips pursed she gave the faintest of shrugs in response to her injury. It hurt, but it would heal.
When he went on to ask her what she saw she sat up straighter, arms retreating from the table to curl automatically around her stomach and ribs. Blue eyes going wide as the color drained from stricken features. She pressed suddenly dry lips in a thin line, resisting the very real urge to draw legs in against her chest and huddle. "Fire." The word seemed to catch in her throat, and she hand to clear it before continuing. "I saw fire. It spread out to cover the entire beach before.."
It had spread up like a burning wall to sweep over the entire beach and up into the heart of the island. Consuming everything, and at it's height it had spread to surround the djinn on the sand. The memory made her shudder, haunted eyes slamming shut as if that was enough to cut off the scene in her mind. "It spread out and trapped me, closing in until I was all it had left to burn.." The last was whispered, and her grip on herself tightened. If she had been phobic of fire before, it was nothing to what the fear was now.
When she looked up at him again it was through a veil of dark bangs. "The only one I've talked to is Sharra, and he seems reluctant to tell me everything he saw. I know it was traumatic though."
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 4:35 pm
Watching Yaya grow progressively more uneasy as she began to tell him about what she had experienced while sitting on the beach was kind of like watching a couple of bully kids taunt and pummel a nerd. Fascinating.
West leaned forward, hanging on her words as she mentally curled in on herself. It occurred to him that he should stop her, since he hadn't meant to upset her, but he let the djinn finish before poorly attempting to console her. "'t's okay now," he mumbled quietly. "I'm jus'glad I wasn't th'only one." Had that place somehow been able to tap into their greatest fears and play them back into their brains like particularly embarrassing home movies? No, probably not. As far as West knew, he wasn't really afraid of being called a p***y by his ex-girlfriend. He had already lived through that little bit of loveliness. There was that whole thing with Yaya's mark though... West wasn't too keen on thinking about the implications of that.
"Sharra's'okay too, right?" he asked, his voice still little more than a low growl. His tone was meant to be reassuring, but it really just made him sound like a cornered animal.
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 11:45 pm
It seemed colder then it had been, though she knew the dip had very little to do with actual temperature, and and no amount of huddling was going to chase away this particular chill. It took a great deal of will power to uncurl her arms from around herself to place her hands on the table before her, palms resting flat against the coolness of the lacquered surface. For a few seconds her gaze lingered on the tips of her own nails, quiet stretching between them as she thought on how best to answer him. He'd tried for reassuring, and for that he got the shadow of a smile, there and gone as she started to speak.
"Physically yes, I think." She'd gotten bits and pieces, and the few things she knew she wasn't welling to speak of. "He'll be alright." He was shaken, that much was obvious, but he wasn't broken, and he'd take what he experienced on that island and grow from it.
Of course now that he brought it up, Yaya too found herself curious. "So," she licked her lips, leaning forward. "What did you see?" She'd shared her nightmare, it was only fair he did the same. With only her own experience and what little she'd gotten from the nergal she assumed it had something to do with their fears. At least that's the impression she'd gotten.
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Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 7:23 pm
The suddenness with which West plunged his fist into the pillow he was sitting on was not unexpected, but the fact that he managed to reign himself in before immediately displaying any other symptoms of his reluctance might have been to those who knew him. He had opened himself up to this by admitting he had seen something too, hadn't he? Hell, even showing up here in the first place implied that he felt something was amiss. Dammit! His arms crossed once more and he narrowed his eyes, refusing to look straight at the marid. "I didn'come'ere t'talk about me," he grumbled. "I'm jus'... glad... th'twooa you r'okay." Even the word was hard to say. He wasn't glad. No way.
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Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 8:09 pm
His fist colliding into the cushion beside her foot actually made her jump. Not that the behavior was at all unexpected really, she'd known him too long and too well not expect violent reactions for minor things, but with the events of the past week..
He'd actually managed to get a reaction from her, not something that happened often, though under the circumstances could he enjoy it?
"That's not fair." Blue eyes narrowed to match neon green, and she withdrew her hands from the table to cross arms under the swell of her bust, the collar of the borrowed shirt gaping. "You came to me, had me recount that nightmare, then lie." She shook her head stubbornly. "I don't think so." Now, he could very well have been happy, on some level, that she and Sharra were alright. They were friends, after all. But she wasn't buying that his concern was what landed him on her door step. It would have been a nice gesture, but that wasn't her avarice demon.
"Spill it, Westus." Her tone left little room for refusal.
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Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 11:01 pm
Normally Yaya's reaction would have indeed prompted a favorable one in return from West, but he was far too concerned with keeping what he had seen a secret to notice anything like that, or even the ghoul's cleavage for that matter. He glared at her across the table. Had he come here to... talk? He didn't even know anymore.
West thought about the secrets Hadiyya already knew about him. His mark? Well, duh, she had put it there. The facts about his FEAR? It seemed she had kept those to herself too. His lips puffed out in an exaggerated sigh. Fine. "If you tell'nyone, I swear I'll..." Kill Sharra and hang his arm from the wall like a trophy? Paste her head on some porn star's body and hang posters of his creation all over the school? He wouldn't even know how to begin to do that. He was fairly sure nothing he could say would dissuade her from tormenting him about this, so he decided to save a little time. But only a little.
"I saw... my ex-ghoulfriend." Start small. Maybe she would tire of his stalling before he got around to telling her the whole story.
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Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 11:24 pm
Vivid eyes narrowed as he finally caved and started in with the threats. Really, this again? "Save it." She had already told him on more then one occasion that she wasn't in the habit of blabbing things of importance. She'd kept his other secret just fine, she'd keep this one two. And if the snerky little comment didn't get the point across, the cool expression darkening pretty features certainly would.
Still, he did compile, and though it hadn't been much, she couldn't deny the subject matter intrigued her. "Oh? Go on." If he thought she'd tire of this he had another thing coming. He'd always been so damn tight lipped about his past and why he was so against dating that she couldn't help but be curious.
Arms loosening, she replaced her palms on the table to lean forward. Sitting up straighter now that the topic had shifted from her own nightmaric experience on the island and onto his. She couldn't even begin to guess what he might have seen in the fog. Did he still have feelings for this ghoul, had he seen her hurt, dead? It was a morbid thing to be interested in, and so eagerly, but she couldn't help it.
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Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 8:52 am
Yeah, yeah. West knew all about the expert ability to keep secrets and other spotless virtues Yaya thought she possessed. But how was he to know she wouldn't turn on him one day like... well, like Duerre had? The truly disturbing part of his hallucination hadn't been the crazy ghoul's face melting off or even her taunts, it had been the fact that, even after how she had crushed him, he still trusted her. He had been glad to see her. It was disgusting.
"Go onna'bout what?" he sneered, knowing full well what Yaya meant but determined to show his displeasure over her line of questioning nonetheless. She seemed far too interested in where this conversation was going all of a sudden. "She wuzza b***h when sh'dumped me an'she's stilla b***h when sh'shows uppin some stupid fo..." Too much information. West stopped speaking, his mouth clamping shut with a click of teeth.
"That's not the point," he said slowly, disengaging his arms from their protective X across his chest. "Sh'threatened t'tell everyone 'bout my mark. She asked why I'adn't let her mark me. Humiliatin'." His voice got lower and lower as he continued to speak and he was quiet for half a minute once the words were finally out before he spoke again. "Whadya want me t'do? Y'know. T'pay you back."
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Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 9:49 am
She had to bite her tongue to keep from asking unimportant things like the ghoul's name, what she looked like. Now wasn't time. There was a small part of her that screamed that she'd never get another chance like this, that he'd never again come so close to sharing these things, but she did her best to ignore it. There had to be a reason he didn't like speaking of her, and though infinitely curious, she could at the very least respect that.
He did let slip a little. Painting a charming picture of an entirely unpleasant sort of woman, but he cut off before getting into anything really interesting. A frown tugged at the corners of her lips as he very obviously turned the topic in a new direction and she was left feeling a little cheated. She had confided in him the extent of her horrific visions, after all, the least he could do was share his own.
It was interesting though, that her mark had played such a crucial role in his own lovely nightmares. His tone, the look about his person, all of it left Hadiyya with a bitter taste on her tongue. Guilt over having given him the mark in the first place, over never giving him a means to redeem it. Though she'd never thought of it before now, she'd trapped him. Perhaps she had never taken advantage of the power she held over him, but that certainly didn't mean he never thought about it. Really, knowing him, it probably bothered him quite a bit, and here she had been just sitting on it. Letting it stretch and carry on selfishly.
If she was really honest with herself it hadn't been so simple a thing as her inability to come up with a suitable pay back. There had been many chances. No, she'd been afraid, as she still was, that once the contract was up whatever charade of a friendship they shared would cease to exist that had been a truly painful thought to process. Why would he want to carry on with her, they had nothing in common, she annoyed him endlessly.
Still, hadn't it all gone on long enough? Didn't she owe it to him to give him the option of being her friend, instead of it being forced on him?
"I.." Her voice trailed off, baby blues drifting from his face and off to the side. It didn't seem fair, after all this time, after all he'd done for her, to make him to anything. ".. may have thought of something."
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:03 pm
Out of all the words Yaya might have uttered at that moment, ones that hinted at a possible end to their agreement had not been what West had expected. It might have seemed that they should have been, given what he had asked of her, but the djinn had never seemed particularly interested in demanding that he repay his debt before, so he assumed she wouldn't be now. Maybe he simply should have asked sooner.
The wrath demon leaned forward and placed his elbows on the table, his expression a completely transparent blend of relief and curiosity. His mind raced with the possibilities. Would she have him carry her books for a week or streak past Hellma's office or kiss someone? It didn't seem to matter to his brain that those last two weren't even technically favors. He would do whatever she asked if it would stop him from feeling like he needed to constantly hold back, to weigh his actions against some sort of Yaya approval scale he didn't even understand. What had begun as idle curiosity had become a point of constant potential humiliation for the boil. At first, West had thought he would just punch anyone who dared look down on him for his choice, but as time went on he found he wanted to curl in on himself whenever someone spoke of marks or got too close to finding out that he had one. In addition, the thing itched, and when he was feeling particularly contrary, it would grow hot to the touch. He had no doubt that if left long enough, the damn mark would start generating its own light.
He took a slow, shaky breath. Now was certainly not the time to seem too eager. He wasn't so completely oblivious to his tendency to wear his emotions on his sleeve that he would think she wouldn't notice his excitement over the turn their conversation had taken, but he hoped it wasn't too obvious. "Mmhmm. Spill." West couldn't keep the smile from his voice or stop the corners of his mouth from rising slightly.
Excitement: obvious.
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