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 Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 12:54 am
Pascal hadn't wanted to leave Zia out there but now that he knew she was safe he knew it was better for her that he left. It had left him with a lot of strange questions and feelings. He simply sat in his apartment thinking about how the night had played out and why. He wasn't expecting Zia to come over anymore, not after the events that had occurred. It was disappointing but what about the night wasn't? He had renounced himself to the fate he had avoided for a year only to be punched in the face. Now instead of spending the night with Zia he was alone.
Or that's what he thought. There was a banging on his door that pulled him out of his depression and into the even more depressing reality. He considered not answering but he could use a break from his thoughts. There was a groan as he got up as one hand covered his nose, his other hand unlocking the door and then opening it.
"Zia... I didn't think you were coming..." he spoke, a little reserved than usual.
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 1:07 am
There was a moment. Zia stared at the face that opened the door, making sure to take in the comforting humanness off it, like she was half expecting a bloodied wraith or some disfigured youma to answer instead of her friend. But it was him, and she reacted to that with a choked gasp as she grabbed him into a hug that was about as tight as her body could muster.
She buried her face in his shoulder and cried so stupidly she hated herself. It was weak, it was gross, and she couldn't seem to stop, even when she raked her fingertips into his back to keep making sure he wasn't an illusion.
"I'm sorry," She mumbled when she finally got enough of a handle to let him go from her death grip and wipe her face off, and she glanced up to see how weirded out she'd just made him. Random crazy girl you barely knew attacking you like that? Yeah, she wouldn't blame him for being super uncomfortable right now. Except she instantly forgot why she was looking at him when she noticed his nose.
"Oh my god, what happened?" She sounded genuinely worried for being the cause of the injury.
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 1:26 am
He had half expected Zia to punch him again when she moved in his doorway but when she wrapped her arms around him with a vise grip and hugged him, he soon found himself falling into her arms with relief. His life wasn't falling apart again because his unfortunate senshi fate and the night wasn't totally horrible. From what had happened, he thought his relationship with Zia was gone and over but here she was. It felt warm in his chest but the reality of the situation didn't take long to wash over him: Zia was crying so much into his chest. He felt so guilty, like he had been the cause of it.
"You're crying..." he frowned, brushing the corners of her eyes with his hand and then brushing some of her lavender locks out of her face before his arms fell across her shoulders and rested comfortably there. He wanted to ask what had happened, what was wrong but he knew. Well, he sort of knew. He didn't want to bring it up again though, he decided, and instead he would just be there for her. "You don't have to elaborate, it's all right."
There was a small pause before she finally noticed his nose. It was sort of a difficult thing to have to explain and it wasn't something he could tell her the truth about. It wasn't like it would be the first time he lied to her though, his life was just so full of lies. His whole life, in fact, was a lie. He wasn't really Pascal Lalande but he could never tell anyone that. Why stop there? Zia hadn't punched him, some other girl had.
"Oh... this girl sort of punched me earlier. It's no big deal."
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 1:42 am
"I-... really?" Zia sniffled again and felt mild self consciousness rising about how ugly and splotchy her face must look. But still, being allowed to just cry and be weird with no questions asked was an opportunity she wasn't going to pass up.
"Thanks," She murmured, stumbling into an odd sense of security at the thought. "I'm okay, I mean... just... You know it-- Did someone really hit you?!" Her brain was all over. When did this night get so weird? This is what happened when you stop hiding in your apartment with cookies and Netflix. Netflix never put you in these situations. The worst it does is take Dead Like Me out of the catalog and while cruel, it was no threat of supernatural subterfuge and death.
She was all to happy to shut his door behind her, but not without a wary glance for any all too familiar faces. And then she turned back to him trying to wrap her brain around it all. She delicately reached for his face and stopped just before touching it, like she was afraid to cause him any pain. "Ow... did you do anything for it? Someone hit you?!" She was downright indignant about the whole thing. Poor baby, getting attacked.
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:01 am
Zia took his offer to cry without explanation and that was a big relief to the young man. It wasn't that he didn't want to know why we had been so upset but that he was afraid that she would say something that he'd never be able to get past. He didn't want to remember his guilt or his disgust, and in truth Pascal partially wished he had the same opportunity as Zia. To be able to cry over your crappy life without the burden of having to explain yourself or be defined as sensitive would have been a big relief. He didn't cry though, instead taking the role of a strong and sturdy shoulder to lean on.
"I think maybe I was in the wrog place at the wrong time. I don't regret it though," he stated. He was disgusted and his face was hurt but Zia wa here with him instead of dead somewhere. "At least she didn't break my beautiful nose, right?" A joke was welcomed in Pascal's mind as he tried to reason the fact that Zia had not only punched him in the nose but hard enough to make it bleed.
"Over here," he directed, offering Zia a seat on a surprisingly fashionable futon sofa after the door had been closed. "Can I offer you a beverage?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:12 am
Zia gave him a stare that was bordering on 'unpleasant b***h'. He was hurt and trying to offer her a beverage? Nope. Not going to fly.
"I-- tsd--... Sit down!" She may have been obsessing because she wanted to think about less earth shattering things, but if Zia had gained any skills in the war of Destiny City, it was patching up poor, stupid babies who managed to get themselves punched or slashed or shot or tossed across the room. She practically pushed him down on the futon, or at least tried to and hoped he rolled with it.
She made her way towards his freezer, entirely unhindered by the fact this was her first time in his apartment, and returned with frozen something or other wrapped in a towel.
"Don't move," She said like an order. Her bedside manner still left a lot to be desired, but at least she was gentle physically, even if she was being kind of a b***h verbally. She eased the makeshift ice pack towards his face, hyper sensitive about causing more pain. "This city is ******** up, man," She muttered, still wondering what kind of crazy b***h just punched a guy on the street for no reason.
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 4:53 pm
So that was a no on the beverage? Mentally Pascal laughed, allowing himself to be 'forced' onto the futon. Who dare fight with a pretty lady when she demanded his a** on a futon? Certainly not Pascal. It was obvious what her intent was but given we state of mid maybe it was better to let her. Help yourself Zia, rummage through his freezer and find yourself a frozen bag of edamame to place on his face.
It was sensitive on his face when the cold towel pressed again the damaged skin, a small wince escaping him. He looked at her, signaling it was fine. She was a lot more gentle with his face now than she had been while causing it.
"No joke there," he agreed. He was certain their reasons for why this city to g ******** up were different... Even though they were exactly the same.
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 5:11 pm
Zia sighed and settled in, gingerly reaching over to pet his hair and just generally frown a lot. "Are you sure it's not broken? Maybe you need to go to the doctor," She worried. Not that she wanted to leave this place to walk him to said doctor. It would take an apocalypse to get her back out there at night.
But she might as well ease into that and not announce it.
"I mean, are you absolutely sure you're okay?" It was just so much easier to worry about him being okay than the tangled ******** of knots that was her own damage.
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 6:35 pm
Was he sure it wasn't broken? Unfortunately, yes, he was quite positive that it wasn't. Pascal knew broken and this was not broken. His nose was still in the right place, damaged but not deformed so the odds that she had definitely not broken it when she punched him were quite high. Even if he was sure it was broken, he probably wouldn't have told her.
"It doesn't feel broken, I'm sure it'll be better in a couple days," he assured her. He was hopeful that it was definitely the case because he definitely didn't have the money to go the doctor if it was broken anyways. He remained silent for a moment, watching Zia with his amber eyes closely. She looked so worried and he was certain it couldn't possibly be all because of him. He slowly brought his hand up to her, resting it carefully on her wrist as she held up the towel to him.
"It's okay."
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 7:04 pm
"Well, if you're sure," Zia kicked off her boots and pulled her legs up under her, which only served for better leverage to keep prodding at him. Until he grabbed her wrist. Well, it was a lot more gentle than that, but the gesture still made her freeze and stare up at him wide eyed. "It is not, it's just--... am I annoying you?" She asked, suddenly retreating from her in control act from moments earlier.
She became uneasy and acutely aware of his eyes on her and felt uncomfortable. She was used to hiding her freaking out and toning it down to mild social weirdness, but she wasn't used to people trying to analyze it, or whatever he was doing.
Her own eyes darted around, at first trying to avoid eye contact and look for something else to harp on, or something other topic to bring up, but she just went back to this weird vibe between them. "What's wrong?" She asked in a much quieter tone.
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 7:18 pm
s**t. He hadn't meant it like that.
"Zia, I didn't mean it like that. You're not annoying me at all," he sighed, laying his cheek against Zia's hand. "I just didn't want to be bothersome."
This hadn't been anything like what he expected when the two of them made plans. He hadn't expected having to go find her, to save her, to get punched by her, to go home and expect to never see her again, to have her show up at his door crying, to then panic over his nose, nursing him, and generally making him feel like he'd done two wrong things in the night. First he made her punch him, second he made her tend to him. How horrible was that?
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2012 7:57 pm
Zia's brow furrowed at the weird vibes in the room. He wasn't the usual type A control freak guy she was unanimously surrounded by in her daily life. and while she thought it was cute at first, she found herself completely in uncharted territory trying to read what the ******** was going through his head.
"I didn't mean to, um..." Her rules for weaseling out of awkward situations with her general family and working relationships weren't working on him.
She even flinched a bit when he laid his hand on her cheek and had to remind herself that was weird considering how freely she touched everyone around her, and she almost bit back the urge to just bounce back completely. Uncharted!
"You're not bothersome, I want to help," She insisted, reasserting some bossiness in her voice as she shifted to sit up on her knees and pet his hair back before lightly bringing the ice pack within dabbing range of the bruised flesh. "Trust me, I used to do this all the time," She said and then realized there was no normal person explanation for 'like that time I cut an arrowhead out of someone and closed it up and they totally didn't die!' Her brain rapidly screamed at her for excuses before she laughed awkwardly. "You know. Three older brothers."
Blatant goddamn lies. Well, she did have three older brothers, but they had never had anything to do with her. Noah did for a brief phase before she ditched him.
"So sit down, shut up, and let me help. And if you really feel guilty, feel free to buy me a pizza." Trauma and angst was hungry work.
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Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 7:13 pm
Pascal wasn't keen on the shutting up idea because he was certain Zia was going to continue talking shortly after expecting him to reply but he was willing to sit down and let her help him. He was willing to do more than just buy her a pizza though, perhaps dinner and a planetarium visit? He did like the sound of that, but would she? Well, there was one way to find out.
"How about dinner with me instead?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 7:32 pm
Zia stopped petting his hair under the growingly lame excuse of moving it out of the way and kind of backed up a little to look him in the eye. She raised an eyebrow at the invitation and then considered the various implications.
"That depends, what's for dinner and when is it?" She wasn't flirting, she was dead serious.
The b***h was hungry, dammit.
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Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:06 pm
Let's be honest, Pascal's favourite food was actually pizza but he didn't want to just order in a pizza. He want to take this beautiful woman out somewhere, liven up what had been turning out to be sort of a depressing evening so far. The only question was where? It couldn't be too far given he was fairly positive that Zia hadn't driven here, and it had to be somewhere that he knew the food didn't taste like s**t. Given the small parameters, it didn't take him long to think of the perfect place.
Amber eyes met hazel, examining her expression and body manners more than anything else. They were pretty eyes but staring longingly into them was not the main interest the young man had at the moment. Maybe later if she accepted his dinner invitation but not currently.
"How about Au Soleil right now? It's a small bistro that's just a short walk from here. The service is good, the setting is nice and the food is great." Better than pizza though? Pascal could never decide if he wanted to grow out of his love for pizza for something more mature but in the end who didn't like pizza?
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