Welcome to Gaia! ::

It had started on Twitter because didn't ******** start on Twitter on this island? Maebe had seemed a little off and, in her usual fashion, Cami had reached out to see what was wrong. See if she could help. Normally the young woman would have just gone down a floor to rap on the door, push it open, and make her presence known. Yet the hole in her back was painful, Otto needed her to be the warm body curled around him, and she needed the quiet dimness of their blanket world for a little while longer. One direct message. Unanswered. Another. Unanswered. Text after text. No response from Maebe.

So once she had extracted herself on the promise she'd be back as soon as possible, chewing on her lip in worry for both of her beloved blondes, Cami went down a floor. Made a beeline for the door she knew belonged to the woman that had her all but in a panic. Knocked once, quietly. "Maebe baby? You're in there, right? Please answer the door 'm worried about you." Silence. Another knock. More silence.

Angry now, and perhaps a little panicked, she banged harder. "Maebe Grace Bartrand you open this door right now or God help me I will break it down!" How, she wasn't sure, but it was going to happen!

No, Cami would not give up. Tenacity was a virtue she had inherited from somewhere not her mother because Vanessa had given up on just about everything she'd ever done or tried. Maybe it was because of that flaw of her mother's that had developed the virtue in the redhead. Cami didn't enjoy knocking down walls, breaking barriers, shattering bubbles. Avoided it at all costs. Yet the memories of being the Ancient of Isolation, watching the colors bleed down and away, together without her, was too raw. Too new.

Blue eyes narrowed to regard the porcelain perfection in front of her and, for a moment, she wondered if this was how Otto felt about Maebe. Wanting to kiss and strangle her all at once because she was just so...damned...frustrating! "Getting there?" Stepping up into the doorway she waited to see if she was invited in, pushing into the personal space of the only person she'd been intimate with since coming to the island.

"Like you were getting to the..." She pulled out her phone to show the screen to Maebe. "Five texts? Two DMs? Were you gonna get to those at all or just make me panic that you'd gone off and done something, or something had happened to you? Jesus, Maebe."

Accepting the invitation almost immediately she nonetheless appreciated the slide of a hand against the curve of her a** as she passed. Some things never changed and that was lovely. Some things, however, had changed irretrievably from their time in the Tower of Ancients and if they had to talk about it, that was fine. But things were not what they had been before. To pretend they were was to lie and it was unhealthy to do such a thing. Added bonus was that Cami had been genuinely concerned, genuinely worried for Maebe, and was still stewing that she'd simply been ignored.

Sitting next to the blonde a hand was rested on Maebe's thigh, fingers stroking the other woman's hip lightly. "To me? Yes. It's not hard to simply tell me that you're not in the mood to talk and want some alone time. I was worried about you. We're supposed to be looking out for each other, aren't we? But you didn't respond, you didn't come up to the room at all, and I read Twitter too." She was solemn, quiet, deadly serious. "All that about people dying and I missed you. I wanted to know you were safe because I remembered Night." A shiver slid down her spine, causing her to gasp in faint pain from the hole in her back.

Sliding down so that Cami was sandwiched up against Maebe on her stomach, both of their curved bodies barely fitting on the tiny bed, the redhead bumped her forehead against Maebe's temple. "That's the emergency. You scared me." She wasn't going to tell Maebe that she ought to be sorry but...she should. That much was clear.

Lethal? Yes, that was Maebe. Misdirection was her best and most prized skill, Cami was sure, because she was just so damned good at it. Her back was hurt but there was nothing at all wrong with the skin that was being caressed and fondled. Her chest was covered today in a t-shirt that was prime for snuggling and wouldn't rub too hard against her bandage. Still, she could feel the warmth of breath against skin as Maebe spoke and it made her bite her lip against anything that could be taken as encouragement.

Was it a leash? Perhaps. Feelings could be a leash, could be a restraint, but they could also be wings. Obviously they were the former to Maebe and the latter to Cami as she'd taken the feelings she had for both blondes and flown with them. Counted on them. Fingers skimmed through perfect, beautiful locks as Cami looked almost helplessly down at the head nestled against her chest. "I can't do that, you know I can't. That's as silly a thing to say as everything else. You're important to me, Maebe baby, and I don't know what I'd do if something serious happened to you." Over and over her fingers skimmed and stroked, soothing more than titillating.

Thinking about it for a long moment in the silence she sighed and, very quietly, added: "I wish you'd worry about me a little bit."

********. Perhaps it was a shitty thing to think but when Maebe was able to pull herself off of Cami and sit up so that they were no longer as close as they could get while still wearing clothes, you knew something was serious. The Sun hated upsetting people and upsetting the ones closest to her heart was the worst part of that yet she could never quite control her mouth. Ironically that was something that she thought Maebe had liked about her though, perhaps, not quite in this context.

Easing herself into a sitting position as well would have been impossibly difficult with her arm in its brace due to the fracture in her tibia. It would have been agonizing on the healing skin of her back. Yet it was a measure of how much she cared that, biting her lip against the pain, blinking furiously, Cami pathetically sat up as best she could.

Looking puzzled (and a little bit in pain) she shook her head. "You don't hurt me Maebe." Pet names were not used in serious moments as she reached out towards the blonde. "Why does it sound like we're hurting you? I don't want to hurt you, I want to make you happy." There was a little bit of anguish in her voice, a plea to tell her what would make the Moon trainee happy. "Why are you worried? We're right here and we're okay. Better with you." Perhaps she shouldn't have been answering for Otto but he seemed more sure of himself and Cami was convinced it was Maebe's influence.

Certainly she was happy to have Maebe in her life for all that the woman was infuriating!

Condescending indeed. It had been encouraging, it had been wonderful, for those few moments of real care as she'd been snuggled up to Maebe. It had felt like the dream she'd had of them, of family, of something elusive that she didn't have a name for. Perhaps she'd create a name for it because it would be theirs and anything that was theirs had to be fantastic. For a moment she'd almost given up being angry, being worried, because it was so Maebe to cuddle her while being reluctant to talk about it.

And then the moment was shattered by that kiss to her forehead. Three words that made her want to sit up and slap the blonde across the face with a fury so righteous that Kidana awoke from her disgruntled stupor to approve. "Don't." It was clipped, hard, perhaps the hardest statement Maebe would have ever heard from Cami. "Don't say that." God she wished she had the strength, the energy, to sit up. To stare down those beautiful blues as she said what she was very likely about to say. Otto and Maebe had made their peace and it was time for Cami to make it as well.

Had she been uncomplicated? Well, that was then. This was now. There could be times of easy breeziness in the future but in this single moment when Maebe had caused Cami's heart to ache she was going to have to answer for it.

"I don't care if you think it because I can't and won't control your thoughts. I won't even control your feelings. But don't you tell me that it won't last and that I should wait for it because that will kill it faster than anything else, Maebe. Love takes faith. Perhaps not faith in me, or faith in Otto, or faith in yourself. But faith that we want to care. Faith that we do care. Have a little faith, Maebe baby." It was firm, a position that she would not move on, a position she could not move on. It was as fundamental to her being as smiling was.

Pride was a hell of an emotion. A hell of a sin though for a long time Cami couldn't understand how it was a sin. Shouldn't you be proud of yourself? Proud of what you were, what you stood for, what you accomplished? What you protected? It had taken time to realize that sins were simply excesses and that too much of anything was just that -- too much. So while she was proud Cami never drowned in her pride, never was too attached to it to drop it when it needed dropping.

Still her chin rose slightly even as fingers stroked her jaw, her cheek, pride in her feelings quite clear. It was good she didn't know that Maebe regarded her as something akin to a miracle because she wasn't sure she could have handled the knowledge of it. Would have been weak and undone entirely by that single word, clinging to the pedestal she'd been set upon with ultimate discomfort. Camille was the earth, strong and sure, and was never very comfortable far from it.

"Ma..." She stopped, found a laugh even now. "Perhaps I am. But I can't force you to. I don't want to force you to." Cami clarified this because it was very important that Maebe realize controlling the thoughts or feelings of Maebe was not something she wanted. "I can only ask you, and perhaps even beg you, to try. Because I want you to try so badly." One side of her face was pressed against a warm shoulder, the other stroked by a small and capable hand.

It felt so good she could have drowned in the feeling.

"I think," She started tentatively because she knew that this was dangerous ground, knew that she didn't have all the pieces to the puzzle, that she couldn't understand though desperately she wanted to. "I think you'd be wonderful if you wanted to be. You're so perfect it's hard to think otherwise." Terrifying, wasn't it, to realize that Cami meant the descriptor? Perfect.

She wanted to smile. She wanted to weep. But, really, who had ever said this was easy?

Four? Maybe to someone who had had more of an upbringing than Camille, someone who had had more of a family and normal life, that might have been appalling. Unfortunately for poor Cami that was two more people than she'd ever been allowed to love and neither of them had returned it in any fashion. Her mother she'd loved but Vanessa was a woman who had given all of her love away sometime before her daughter had even been born, it seemed. She explained that all of her care and criticism was simply how she showed what love she had left but, to a needy child, it was no consolation.

Damon had not loved her. Damon hadn't even wanted to try loving her. He loved having her in bed, loved having a pretty girl to show off to his friends and associates, loved the sweetness and convenience of her.

Cami had loved her friends and was sure some of them had actually loved her in return but it was...it was not this. It was not the strength and depth of feeling that had been growing between Cami and Otto as two people who wanted a family. I twas not the strength and depth of feeling that was exploding between Maebe and Cami that she'd never be able to accurately describe.

The idea that she would have to teach Maebe about something that, for Cami, was like breathing was dizzying and terrifying. Yet if Maebe was going to try then, by God, so was she. Lips clung for a moment before she smiled, arms tightening around the blonde so that all the curves Maebe loved so much were pressed in as tightly as possible against her. "You will be the best ever at it. I'm not going to abandon you. I have no plans to die." Who did?

The memory of a table, of a sterile hospital, flashed in her mind for a moment. Some people did have plans but it was hard to make them work when you had someone to care. Someone to call the number to save your life, who refused to let you drift away.

"You don't have to survive alone anymore. I'm going to help you live and you're going to help me live. We'll make it such a good life." Cami could see it, could almost reach out and touch it, and it was going to keep her moving and fighting no matter what. She had two people to care for, two people that needed her, and it was so wonderful that she could hardly stop the tears that leaked out of the corners of her eyes. For a moment she turned her face into Maebe's shoulder before she got a grip of herself and leaned up to steal another kiss.

Everything was going to be alright.