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 Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 3:31 pm
She twisted her ankle jumping off a building, and that was the end of Europa’s night. Gunn, in a voice that suggested disgust but also pity and compassion (weird!) had instructed her, “Go home and send me Babylon,” and so the senshi of the deep limped off to drop her henshin someplace safe and catch a cab back to Florence Court. She texted Finn the details of the fight on the way, so that by the time she got home and paid the driver, he was already gone.
She limped up the front stairs and into the apartment, where she found Nick sitting at the kitchen table, her worn copy of Uglies open in front of him, reading by the light of his little Babylonian charm. “You finished Allegiant?” Tallulah asked, trying not to show her limp too much as she crossed the room and lowered herself into the other chair. “How’d you like it?”
“Big fight brewing,” she explained offhandedly. “Kaatje sent me home to tag Finn in and check on you.” She glanced towards the ceiling. “Hope the power comes back on soon.”
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 3:47 pm
The ending of Allegiant sucked, and Nick was never going to read anything by that author again, if he could ever even bear to read young adult dystopian novels because at this point, he was fairly sure his girlfriend was actually dead. Finn’s reassurance on the way out the door that she was fine was not exactly what Nick wanted to hear--he wanted to hear Oh! Tallulah’s back! She’s okay! And that… was not… happening? So he was going to sit here and read this book, which he imagined Tallulah must have enjoyed a lot because it was kind of a little beat up (a lot beat up). And he was not… going… to panic…
He was re-reading page five for the fifth time when Tallulah limped in. Nick had looked up the moment he’d heard the door open, and he was not so far gone that he didn’t notice, and his eyes had adjusted pretty well to the pitch black anyway. And there she was. A little scuffed up, like she’d lost a fight with a dirt pile, and there was… blood. On her. He didn’t freak out, because her clothes were clean, so it wasn’t her blood. Probably. Nick reached over and examined her hands (clean) and ran his hands quickly through her hair (also clean) and then, with great deliberateness, licked his thumb and smudged the blood off her face.
Then he exhaled. She was relatively unhurt. “Allegiant was a piece of s**t. I’m so glad you’re okay. What did you do to your ankle?” He put his book down and knelt, but couldn’t remember which foot she’d been favoring so he just took off both of her shoes and dragged down his Babylon light to get a better look. One of them was reddish and bruise-y looking. “The power’ll come on when it comes on,” he says. “Does this hurt?”
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 3:47 pm
Tallulah looked down at him, and the sight of Nick down on his knees reminded her of the whole marriage question that she’d been stewing on. She pushed it determinedly to the back of her mind to be dealt with later, and instead consented to being babied, because he was cute when he was concerned, and she’d spent four and a half years as a senshi without anyone giving a s**t about her injuries and it was nice to finally have someone taking care of her. “I jumped off a building and landed funny,” she said. “Which I guess is an occupational hazard of doing parkour in two-inch heels.”
She seriously had no idea how Ganymede did everything she did and did it in stiletto platforms, like, seriously. How.
“Anyway, Kaat sent me home,” she said, leaning over to check out the ankle he was currently examining. It definitely didn’t look like it was okay. “Told me to send Finn out to take over for me.” Which she supposed meant that Gunn considered Europa and Babylon to be interchangeable? So, whatever.
He pressed a tender spot, and Tallulah hissed through her teeth. “Yes,” she winced. “Yes, that hurts a lot.”
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 3:47 pm
“Sorry,” he said, when she hissed. “I’m trying to make sure it’s not broken.” He was as gentle as he could be, but there was only so much he could do to avoid pain without sacrificing medical necessity. “I think it’s just sprained.” It could be a fracture of one of the smaller bones, but he wouldn’t be able to tell without specialist equipment and he doubted Tallulah wanted to go to the emergency room right now. He got up, carrying the light with him, and said, “I’m going to elevate it and ice it.”
It made him feel better to take care of her. That was pretty much the whole thing. He went to the fridge and grabbed a bag of frozen peas--which were disgusting, by the way--which was why he bought them solely for use as more convenient ice packs to wrap in one of the fluffy new dish towels. “Was it a trap, then,” he asked, because he needed to know. So he could stop worrying. “Kaat looked after you, right?”
He considered his options, and then crossed the room to pick up his girlfriend. She wasn’t too heavy for that, and he didn’t want her going up the stairs on that ankle anyway. Once Nick had Tallulah settled on the bed, he sacrificed his pillow to elevate her ankle and set the makeshift ice pack over it. “Twenty minutes on,” he told her, and then sat himself on the side of the bed beside her. “Am I going to be doctoring up anyone else this evening?”
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 3:48 pm
“It was a trap,” Tallulah nodded, settling her arms around his neck. “But Kaat expected it to be one and we were ready going into it, and traps aren’t so bad when you know what to expect.” With such a level of coordination and no immediately apparent motive, Tallulah could only assume that the battle she’d just come from was part of some longer con in need of foiling. She paused, leaning her head against him as he carried her upstairs, unsure of what he meant by Kaat watching out for her.
“She made sure I knew what to look out for, if that’s what you’re asking,” she said. “We wound up separated in the action, but she’s okay. She’s trailing the fight - whatever’s going on, it’s going to be something big.” It frustrated her to not know what was going on, and to not be out there finding out for herself - but a senshi who couldn’t walk was a senshi who couldn’t fight, and a senshi who couldn’t fight was as good as dead.
“I don’t think anyone else will be by,” Tallulah said, leaning against the headboard and staring at her foot. It wasn’t like they’d advertised Nick’s services as a doctor yet - most people she knew walked things off, or went to Destiny City Memorial with stories about muggings and car accidents and roller derby matches. “You get me all to yourself - why, bummed?”
She knew he was not bummed by that, and shot him a smile, just to be clear it was a joke. At which point the whole marriage thing reared its ugly head again and Tallulah tapped her fingers together, debating whether to bring it up.
Yes, she decided. She was going to go for it. “Hey, um, Nick?” she asked. “I’ve thought a bit more about the whole getting married thing, and I think that as long as you want to do it then I want to do it, too.”
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 3:48 pm
He’d been thinking more of Kaatje and Finn, who had after all gone out to fight monsters with monsters and that just wasn’t an ideal situation as far as he knew? If either of them came back injured… he’d deal with it then. It wouldn’t be for a while, he assumed. He took her hands into his, and thought about the possible implications of getting his girlfriend all to himself. There weren’t really any bad ones. And while he wanted to be out there, on some level… he’d agreed to let them go. He was going to stay here, because he was a liability, and this was… yeah.
Sitting with Tallulah in relative quiet, he felt almost peaceful. He ran his thumb over the back of her hand. “The whole getting married thing,” he asked, a little surprised, and then he remembered. They hadn’t… brought it up, so of course he hadn’t been considering it. He wasn’t even allowed to henshin up to keep Avalon’s steely gaze off him (and how did he know her eyes were gray) (he didn’t want to think about it) (he wasn’t thinking about it). He loosened his grip on Tallulah’s hands. “Sorry,” he said, and he took a deep breath.
“Of course,” he said. He leaned over and kissed her hair, gently. “Do you want the ring now or do you mind if I make a thing out of it?”
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 3:48 pm
He already had a ring? Tallulah took a moment to process this information, and decided that she was already so far into this that it wasn’t worth freaking out over. “Um,” she said, “Whatever you want to do?” she asked. On the one hand, getting that bended knee moment was kind of the fairytale everyone always sold as important, but now she’d gone and ruined the suspense for herself. They were going to get married. There was already a ring. Case closed.
“I’m good either way,” she said. “If you want to make a thing out of it, you can make a thing out of it, but-”
Well, maybe it could still be a surprise. If he caught her off-guard. “You can try to surprise me?” she suggested.
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 3:48 pm
He could have the best of both worlds, he figured, because... There was no law that said he had to not take his girlfriend out to dinner or propose again (after checking with her father, of course; not that it mattered, it was just a tradition and he figured such traditions came with the unspoken disclaimer of 'if your daughter says yes ******** your opinion'). And he figured having the prop would make her that much more impervious to Avalon's eventual check-in. At least he kept the ring fairly close, he thought, getting up and crossing to the dresser.
From the sock drawer, which was obviously the best place to hide things, he unearthed a small yellow velvet box. It didn't look quite modern, even to Nick; it shouldn't, either. The ring was a family heirloom, obtained before his purification on the off chance that, in two or three years, Tallulah would have considered saying yes to him. His circumstances now were, to put it politely, ******** up. But he was glad he had the ring all the same.
Nick got down on one knee beside the bed, popped open the box and offered it to her. "So will you marry me, Tallulah Cowden?"
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 3:48 pm
Well, she certainly hadn’t expected him to do it right on the spot! Tallulah, who could not fully express her gratitude because doing so would contradict her orders to keep her ankle elevated, rolled over onto her elbow and looked down at the ring. It was antique, a sapphire in a silver band, and she’d never wanted a diamond, anyway - she wondered if it was a family heirloom, and what that said about how far in advance he’d been thinking about asking.
But what she actually said was, “Yes, I would love to,” and reshuffled her weight so that she could hold her left hand out to him without moving her ankle.
“This definitely counts as a surprise,” she added, certain that she was blushing bright red. “I thought you were going to, like, sneak up on me at dinner or something.”
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 3:48 pm
He slid the ring on her finger. It wasn’t a perfect fit, but he could get that adjusted after his paycheck; the important thing was that it didn’t slide off. Nick smiled at her, the corners of his eyes crinkling up. “Yes, well, I still intend to sneak up on you,” he said. “But this way you have it in case you need it.” Silver maybe wasn’t the best shade for her skin tone, he considered, but the sapphire was as beautiful as he could have hoped. The blue light might be affecting how it looked, too…
Besides, this way… if anything did happen between now and then… he kissed her palm, and the inside of her wrist, where the thin skin there exposed the deep blue of veins. “I love you,” he said. “I promise I will propose again and do it better, Tallulah.”
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 3:48 pm
Tallulah didn’t exactly know how rings were supposed to fit, and this felt fine to her. Better than she would have expected an antique ring to fit, really. “I’ll have to keep sharp, then,” she said, holding her hand so that the ring caught the limited light. “It’s beautiful,” she said.
“I love you, too,” she added, feeling self-conscious to have come home injured and then dragged him into this, ruining whatever proposal he might have had planned. Would a ring be enough to get Avalon off her case? Maybe? Or would Avalon want them to get married next, and follow it with a kid, before she’d be happy? All Tallulah wanted was for her and Nick to be safe.
At least she didn’t know where Tallulah lived anymore.
“How long have you had this ring?” she asked, continuing to stare at it.
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 3:48 pm
He smiled a little crookedly. This was a really, really awkward question to answer, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. She did deserve to know, though. “Uh, technically, it’s been mine since I was born?” Okay, not helping. “It was my mother’s, and my father’s mother’s before that,” he said. “Family heirloom. I… remember when I went to Montreal? Over the weekend between Christmas and New Years’?”
Nick ran a hand over his hair, embarrassed. “I got it then. I figured, I didn’t know when I’d have a chance to go get it when Papa was pleased with me, so I might as well get it while the getting was good… and if you didn’t want it, I’d have it in case of someone else taking a chance on me.”
Was honesty always the best policy? He was sure gonna find out.
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 3:49 pm
“Oh,” said Tallulah, assuring herself that he’d only gotten the ring as a precaution. They’d only been dating for a month then, and he’d been corrupt, and- she’d really dodged a bullet there, hadn’t she? Tallulah smiled for Nick, trying to force all her apprehension away by being absolutely cheerful. “It’s really, really beautiful.”
Heirloom ring, for a family he wasn’t strictly part of anymore. Well, she wasn’t going to bring that up if he didn’t - it would ruin the moment. But it was just one of those things that rubbed in that their lives were hardly going in the directions they’d probably expected them to. “So, uh,” she said, rolling back onto her back. “We’re engaged. That’s really exciting.” And now came all the wedding planning things Paris had warned her about, so there was that.
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 3:49 pm
Nick patted her hair. “Yeah,” he said, “it is.” Or at least it made him feel a little more Nick Wellington and a lot less Paul Wyndham. Paul hadn’t planned on proposing for… a while. But here he was. Engaged. “More pressingly, I want you to stay off that for the rest of the night.” He leaned down to kiss her forehead, and said, “I even have a few ideas as to how I’m going to get you to do that.”
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