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 Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 6:40 pm
Vanessa didn't have any hiking boots. Except for the yellow flats her father had purchased for Jada's debut, all those months ago, she owned only one pair of shoes. They were worn around the edges, ugly as sin, and covered from heel to toe in faded pen lines, because Vanessa liked to draw on them when there was nothing better to do in class. She was fond of them anyways. Plus, they were comfortable, in that way that old shoes can sometimes be.
"I've never been this close to the mountains before," Vanessa babbled companionably after Kam, whom she'd coerced into spending time with her after he'd finally texted her with his phone number. She picked her way semi-gracefully through bushes and around trees, and thrilled to the fresh air.
It was good, to be away from the hustle and bustle of the city. It was nice, to be distracted. Out here, where the rivers ran clear of garbage and the grass grew to her knees, it was easy to forget that there weren't monsters and bad guys oozing practically out of Destiny City's every orifice.
There would be guilt, later. Super heroes weren't really supposed to take time off.
But for now?
For now, Kam had muscles. And tattoos. It was difficult to argue with them.
"So this was your life then, huh?" she wondered allowed, "When you backpacked through South America? Hiking, camping, hunting-- wait a second. Did you hunt?"
Vanessa crossed her fingers. She hoped he did.
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Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 8:29 pm
Unlike Vanessa, Kam actually did have a pair of hiking boots - not that they were in any better repair than her shoes were. The steel toe was glinting from beneath the worn outer canvas and they looked ready to bust at every seam. They had been worn nearly to pieces but, as a man with little money to waste, he wasn't going to replace them until he walked the soles clean off.
"My family used to come here a lot when my brother and I were younger." It was said without too much emotion, but perhaps just because feeling anything meant feeling it all. So, instead, it was just another statement - a fact that kept the conversation going.
The slope of the hill was rising and soon it would give way to a rocky surface leading up into the smaller mountains. He was already examining the ground for sure footing, picking out tiny rocks that looked lose. A slip this far down might scrape a knee cap, but farther up? That risked broken bones or worse.
"Sort of, there were less mountains usually, except when I swung out West." He smirked slightly and waited for her to catch up - suddenly, walking ahead of her seemed unwise. He didn't care too much about pushing himself too hard, but he didn't want her to hurt herself trying to keep up. After all, he was a master at this. "But yeah, I did hunt when I had to. I think it's easier here than it is down there, since you never know what in the hell you're going to find in the damn amazon." Oh, the things he'd eaten.
"I haven't been hunting since I got home though, sometimes it's nice to relax and eat food other people have already killed for you."
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Posted: Sun May 15, 2011 11:38 am
His brother.
Vanessa had not forgotten about Khaldun. He was a boy she had never seen-- a boy she believed still lived because the alternative was much too sad to be true. Vanessa had seen (and been through) enough in the past few years of her life to know that there weren't happy endings at the end for everyone.
Still, she hoped. Without it, there would be no point in trying.
It pained Vanessa to hear him speak so casually about something that would have made her weep, if John Jr were missing. For an instant, Vanessa itched to reach out to Kam and tell him that everything was going to be alright. But he was tough, like she was.
Probably he didn't want to talk about it anymore than he had to. So she kept her mouth shut, and followed as close behind as she could. An athlete by day and a hero by night, Vanessa was a little on the skinny side, but healthy and strong. It was not terribly difficult for her to keep up, even though she stumbled on an overgrown root every now and then.
"Oh man," she cooed excitedly at Kam when he stopped for her. Vanessa was a little bit pink in the face, and it wasn't all from the exertion of the hike. "That's so cool! I've never killed my own food before!"
She imagined herself, for a moment, as a mighty huntress stalking a tiger (or something equally as fierce) through a jungle filled to the brim with giant man-eating snakes and crocodiles with razor-sharp teeth. And then she thought that she really wouldn't like to eat a tiger, and replaced that with a chicken.
An evil, blood-thirsty chicken. Because Vanessa wouldn't have the heart to kill an ordinary one.
She looked Kam in the eye, and paused for dramatic effect. There was hope in her voice. "Did you eat any snakes?"
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Posted: Tue May 17, 2011 9:56 pm
When Vanessa got close enough for Kam to see her face, he instantly saw the blush. Unfortunately, because Kam was oblivious to the fact that anything was wrong with her other than their hike, he decided now was a good time to take a little rest. Not because he need it, of course, but because he wasn't sure he could carry her back down the mountain if she passed out.
"Sit down on these rocks here for a few minutes, they're stable." He reached to his back and pulled down the small, beaten bookbag he had found and set it on the ground next to one of the large boulders. Then he sat down and began to shuffle through it until he pulled out two bottles of water. He held out one to her just as she leveled her serious gaze on him.
"Yeah, but I wasn't very good at killing them. A group of tribesmen tried to show me how to do it but those little things are like lightning." He wasn't going to tell her that he had been awfully loud tramping behind the hunters. "One of them killed one and shared it with me. It was.. interesting." That was as much as he was really willing to elaborate on the subject, maybe because it hadn't been a case of him being the very best at what he did.
He pulled the water bottle up that he had gotten for himself, unscrewed the cap with one hand as he balanced it on his leg, then tipped it up and took a long drink of it. When he was done, he glanced back at her with a little smirk - charming, but very conceited. "I can take you hunting some time, when seasons are actually open for it."
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Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 10:38 pm
On any other day, climbing any other mountain with any other boy, Vanessa might have scoffed at the idea of stopping to rest. Vanessa was breathing a little heavier than was usual, and there was a little scratch on her arm where an angry branch had announced its distaste for their hike, but she was fine, really. Really. It was beneath Vanessa to hold anyone back, especially from something like this, and she would have followed Kam to the top of the mountain without a single complaint.
Because she was tough.
"Thanks," Vanessa took the water bottle he offered with a hand that was just a little bit shaky. It would be easy for Kam to miss, if he were not paying attention.
Any other day, Vanessa might have taunted her companion into ploughing onwards. Might have jeered him into action.
Instead, she took advantage of this opportunity to be close to Kam, and chose a seat on the rocks directly beside him. Their hips brushed. Vanessa beamed quietly to herself, and sipped from her bottle. The corners of her lips twitched around the nozzle.
"Oh, gross!" She laughed, and turned her golden stare on Kam. "You mean you actually ate a snake?"
Vanessa's words implied that she was a little bit horrified. Her tone, however, expressed the opposite (or maybe it was both)-- she sounded impressed.
"I'd… love to go hunting," Everything about the girl softened. Her expression. Her voice. Her posture. She glanced, distractedly, at Kam's smirking lips. "Sometime."
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Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 11:28 pm
The fact that Vanessa was suddenly invading his personal space didn't seem to bother Kam in the slightest, nor did the fact that their legs brushed together. In fact, from the looks of it, Kam had barely noticed at all - just like he didn't notice her shaky hand.
Instead, he was focusing on glorifying himself just a little bit more. Kam was egotistical and his own accomplishments were by far one of his favorite subjects. If she was going to indulge him so much, he certainly wasn't going to be the one to complain.
"Of course I ate a snake. When you're hungry and have three dozen tribesmen bearing down on you, you're not going to spit in the face of their hospitality are you?" He let a brow quirk at the question and his lips were making a charming half smile, half smirk before he even spoke again. "It was kind of crunchy and chewy, like jerky." He chuckled and took another swig of water from his bottle as if eating snakes with a group of hunter gatherers was simply natural.
He looked away from her and let his gaze glance out across the rolling hills that dropped away beneath them, baring miles of country landscape for them. He leaned forward and propped his forearms across his knees, hunching his back and letting his water bottle dangle in one limp hand. It was clear he wasn't getting any of the tiny hints about her feelings, or reading into the flustered demeanor she was showing.
"When I get home I'll look up the exact season start dates and then I'll let you pick what you want to do, how's that?" His eyes lingered on the rolling hills beyond them for a few minutes before he glanced back at her over his shoulder with questioning smile.
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Posted: Thu May 19, 2011 12:02 am
Vanessa had never had three dozen tribesmen bearing down on her in the name of hospitality before, but probably she wouldn't have spit in their faces either. And, truthfully, there was a big part of her that would have jumped at the opportunity to try snake. Not because Kam had done it, but because it was awesome. Bad-a** heroes deserved bad-a** food.
"I like jerky," she said, breath a dreamy sigh, and stared at Kam as he stared at the landscape. Vanessa was much too caught up in him to be bothered by the truth of his focus, and sat peaceably on the rocks. Kam looked at the hills and the trees, instead of gazing into her eyes. He didn't see her, or the things she was unwittingly trying to tell him.
Vanessa was simple enough that it didn't matter. Today, she was grateful for his company, and for this opportunity to get to know him better.
"Yeah?" It was difficult to miss the way she brightened, when he glanced her way at last. Vanessa's smile widened. Something in her belly flip-flopped awkwardly, and made her feel a little bit sick. Sick, but good. Somehow. Together.
"Oh man, I don't even know where to start," Vanessa couldn't help the way that she gushed. The blush on her cheeks darkened considerably. Hunting! With Kam! Legally! If that wasn't exciting enough, the fact that he seemed to want to spend more time with her made Vanessa's heart skip a beat.
"I bet I've got a good shot," she pretended to hold a gun and, squinting, aimed it at an imaginary target, "Except-- I don't really want to kill anything, Kam."
It was also, truly, better for the rest of the world that Vanessa never got her hands on firearms. Kam was brave among the brave.
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Posted: Thu May 19, 2011 12:27 am
He was amused with her when she pretended to pick up a gun, aim and shoot - then less so as she admitted that she didn't want to kill anything. Inwardly, Kam was sighing over the fact that deep down, Vanessa was such a girl. It was easy for him to forget, sometimes.
"You can't hunt something without killing it," he blew out a sigh as he spoke, "unless you're hunting with tranquilizers I guess, but where is the ******** fun in that?" He up ended his water bottle over his mouth and crumpled the thin plastic in his fist. Then he stood, unzipped his bag, and tossed the half destroyed bottle on top of whatever else he had packed. At least he wasn't littering!
"Maybe we should just go fishing, at least then you can throw the fish back." Even if Kam, himself, would have preferred eating them. He slung the bookbag back over his shoulders, shifted to make sure it was in place, and then held out his hand to her in an offer to help her up. Sure, she was a tough little thing, but she was still quite little in comparison to his hulking mass.
"Ready to get going again?"
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Posted: Thu May 19, 2011 1:02 am
They couldn't hunt without killing.
For the first time since they'd met Vanessa looked at Kam with something that wasn't unadulterated admiration. Whatever it was fluttered across her features for an instant and then, just as quickly, vanished. Being a member of the Blood Moon Court had taught Vanessa how to hide certain emotions. Her temper still always got the better of her, but she was not angry now.
She was… She didn't know what she was.
"There is nothing fun about killing," Vanessa said. It was her turn to look towards the hills. Her voice was light. Casual, she sounded almost as though she were talking about the clouds and stood on her own, ignoring his kindly offered hand, "…or watching somebody else do it."
It was hard, sometimes, to keep her tongue to herself.
Vanessa slipped her water bottle into her little backpack, offered Kam a soft smile, and said; "Yes, let's go."
Suddenly restless, in need of a change of pace, she started back up the mountain again. Ahead of him. There was a challenge in her step. A lifetime spent playing organized sports had taught Vanessa how to recognize a competitive streak. It was easy-- she had one, and it shone now when she glanced over her shoulder at Kam.
"Are you tired?"
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Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 7:26 am
Kam stared at Vanessa blankly, slack jawed and distant with confusion, after her random space out. He didn't have the slightest idea what she was on about, or what random memory had made her sober up so quickly. Kam was pretty sure that killing was fun - he'd dusted a half dozen youma and had a damn good time doing so.
Unfortunately, Kam wasn't a very insightful person and he definitely wasn't good at this 'cheering up' s**t. In fact, the only thing he really wanted to do at that moment was sing The Circle of Life until she smiled because, really, who wouldn't smile at that? However, some little part of him made him hold his tongue (a first, no doubt) and he just watched her dumbly until she stood up and got over it by herself.
"Are you joking?" It was the break he needed from their somber, boring conversation. It was a chance to jump right back into something he enjoyed - competitiveness. His lips split in a lopsided grin and he jumped over the rocks they had been sitting on and then scrambled up the hill until he was at her side. "You don't actually think you're going to beat me to the top, do you kiddo?"
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Posted: Sat May 21, 2011 2:59 pm
Kiddo.
The word made Vanessa flush. Two parts amused and one part troubled, she twinkled at Kam, and wondered if that really was all he saw in her. A little girl. It was true that Vanessa had spent most of the last nineteen years of her life punching boys instead of kissing them, but she was still a woman.
It was important, for some reason, that Kam understood this. Vanessa just wasn't sure how to get the point across.
"I'm going to make you eat my dust," she promised playfully, and shone at Kam with an energy that she'd never learned how to suppress. Vanessa bounced a little on the spot. The heels of her shoes sent a couple of rocks tumbling down the hill behind her. "Last person to the top has to buy the winner some ice cream, or something. Alright. On the count of three?"
Vanessa braced herself.
"…One…"
She paused, and looked Kam dead in the eye.
"…two…"
Vanessa reached out to Kam with a steady hand, bit her lip, and shoved lightly on his shoulder. This was a rather pathetic attempt at unsettling her companion, because Vanessa didn't actually want to knock Kam over. It was also flirting, and an excuse to touch him. "…THREE!"
She was off suddenly in a flurry of worn-out shoes and merry giggles, attempting to bulldoze her way through the branches and the rocks that stood in her path. Enthusiasm? Vanessa had it in spades. Skill? Not so much.
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Posted: Sun May 22, 2011 1:05 pm
Kam's eyes fell to the ground as her jumping feet send a few rocks tumbling down. For a moment he seemed troubled by it, as if he was going to warn her off from doing it, but then she issued a challenge that he just couldn't ignore and all thoughts of reprimanding her vanished into thin air. He really wasn't the most responsible guy in the world, after all.
"You've got a deal," he promised with an edgy grin. His confidence was shining through and the grin on his face was growing more and more cocky. He bent his knees and readied himself be falling into an action-ready pose, arms bent and ready to keep him balanced.
When she reached out mid-countdown and nudged him in the shoulder, he shifted and stumbled back one step. On solid ground he would have been next to immovable but on a slope, let alone a rocky one without sure footing, his weight was almost always working against him. He recovered just in time to here her shout the final number of the countdown and dart up the hill.
He wasted no time in running after her. She was small and light compared to his large and heavy build, making her the faster one. He, however, was the skilled one in this environment. He found footholds, steady ground, and quick paths instead of just trying to barrel through things like his smaller companion. In the end, it put them on pretty even ground, but he was at least laughing as he trailed just behind her.
His tune might change if she actually managed to beat him to the top.
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Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 9:16 pm
Vanessa had not meant to make Kam stumble, and was too busy trying to force her way up the mountain to notice when he did. There were all sorts of obstacles in the way. Some of them hurt. Others didn't. Skinny branches reached out of the mountainside like spider's legs, snagged on her clothes, and then either surrendered or snapped in two when Vanessa's competitive enthusiasm proved stronger.
She was determined to beat Kam to the top, and surged upward with a sort of unbridled zeal. There were few things in life Vanessa enjoyed more than winning, and she looked forward to the sweet thrill of victory.
It did not occur to her to worry about his reaction, should she win. When it came to games, Vanessa's eyes never wandered too far from the ultimate prize. But she was as reckless as she was zealous and, sometimes, forgot to look both ways before crossing the street.
"You don't stand a chance," she goaded Kam playfully from above, and tossed a cheeky grin over her shoulder. Those golden eyes widened for an instant upon seeing how close he was. Vanessa jammed her toe into a nearby crevice, and attempted to pick up the pace. "I'm just gonna tell you right now my favourite flavour is vanilla."
Her knee trembled. A couple of tiny stones crackled loose.
"And I like two scoops with my cone," Vanessa, unworried, reached for an outstretched branch of an old tree to regain some of her balance. Fingers closed around rough bark, and then the whole of the little, gnarly tree came loose from the soil with a vicious snap.
Vanessa did not scream or cry out for help, but terror flashed across her features.
And then she started to fall. <********," she swore softly under her breath, and grappled madly with the wall of stone in front of her for something to hold on to. Rock tore through cloth and scraped against skin. It stung, but she did not feel the pain.
Not yet.
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 4:35 am
Kam had not really minded her s**t talk, despite the fact that it would have been the last straw from anyone else. The difference between Van and, say, Delphine was the fact that Van could still be a good sport about it - it still felt like a joke. Not to mention that Kam already knew he had chosen strength instead of speed, which meant his tiny companion (by comparison) was like a hare to his tortoise. Slow and steady never won s**t as far as Kam could tell, but it was all he had when he was trying to climb a mountainside and keep himself from face planting into an avalanche.
Of course, the hare probably could have learned a little from the tortoise's approach. Mainly, not to be absolutely reckless.
Kam had looked up from his careful steps to make a retort, just in time for a stream of tiny rocks to rain down on him. That wasn't unusual, but the teenager hurling down towards him with no control was. Kam had only seconds to plant his feet on sturdy ground before she was on him. He swung out a little and caught her - her weight jerked against his entire body and for a few split seconds he thought he might fall too. Instead, though, he used his weight to pin her down against the sharp slope and shielded her from the aftermath of debris that tumbled down around them on all sides.
It wasn't a painless rescue, not with the momentum she'd already had or the rocky terrain he held her against, but she was safe and mostly unharmed.
Once the rocks stopped falling and Kam was sure they were on stable ground, he pushed himself up just enough to look her in the eyes. He seemed genuinely concerned that she had hurt herself, not so much that they were in a compromising situation. His eyes dropped from hers and instantly tried to inspect any part of her he could see from their position.
"Are you okay? Did you hurt anything? You know, other than the mountain?" It was a laughless joke, but it was his way of relieving tension.
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Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 1:35 pm
One moment she was the victim of gravity, falling to what might have been a most untimely death, and the next… she wasn't. There was a warm body in front of her, and harsh mountain behind.
Vanessa's heart thundered a wicked tattoo inside her chest. Her ears roared with the sound of the rockslide that she had caused. Her knees stung where the stone had scraped through her sweatpants.
Adrenaline, the demon child of fear, rushed like wildfire through her veins.
She did not cower in Kam's arms, but drew strength from the power of his embrace, and clung to him with steady arms so that he would not go toppling over the mountainside. If he did, she was going with him.
It would be one hell of a ride.
"I… I…." Kam's question caught Vanessa off guard. It was difficult to think, with him so very very close, and the memory of danger still fresh in her head. Her cheeks glowed red.
They could have died. He had saved them both.
"I'm fine," she whispered, hands suddenly tentative where they gripped his arms. Vanessa stared up at Kam, and wondered what would happen if she closed the short distance between their lips. "And you? Are you hurt?"
The rocks had stopped crashing and the dust had settled, but Vanessa's heart still pounded.
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