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 Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 5:07 pm
Lily was beginning to realize that the scope of greeting cards was tragically limited. She'd been to two drug stores already and there was nothing that came even close to encapsulating 'sorry I almost got your husbando killed and also sorry for not listening to you because our plan definitely didn't work'. She settled for a discount birthday card with a dog wearing a party hat and crossed out the 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' with a black marker and wrote in 'SORRY' instead. It was the effort that counted, right? Truth be told, Lily had no clue how to reconcile with someone she barely knew, for an offense she was still coming to terms with, but Lucas was pack, and he wasn't something she could drop on a dime and pretend didn't exist. She still had his address in her phone, and nothing said apologetic like an unannounced visit, right? ((She felt like this was the sort of situation that called for a conciliatory six-pack, but Lily was still a good four months out from being able to purchase alcohol. October never felt farther away.)) The apartment complex looked nice, which didn't say much considering the decrepit student housing she'd been living in for the past two years. But most notably, it was decorated with trees that lined the front walkway, and before she could even get to the lobby Lily stared up at the branches with an intent expression. A breeze fluttered, and with it came the smell of fresh-cut grass and a familiar itch. She had to climb. The lanky girl was halfway up the statuesque oak when something caught on the mesh of her shirt--she'd dressed to reconcile, not to participate in outdoor activities. "s**t," she hissed between her teeth, reaching back with one of her hands. In the shuffle to get herself free, the card she'd worked on so painstakingly fluttered out from under her arms and lilted to the grass below. And she was still stuck. " s**t."
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Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 5:43 pm
Six more days, and he had to go back. It was a nervous thing on repeat in the back of his mind, one he was trying to drown out with some loud Fleetwood Mac in his earbuds, and succeeding for the most part. It didn't hurt that he was cleaning like a bandit, unfolded boxes propped up against the wall his television was on, some filled and stacked on the opposite side. Lucas hadn't been in the apartment all that long, but he'd done a lot of work in that time and had a lot of things to take to work the next day - and to just get rid of in general. Most of his good stuff had already gone to the donation drive (and goodness would he have fond memories of that forever) and now it was just... Out with the old. In with the new. Including his new life. Which brought him around to six more days and he'd have to go back. He came to a halt en route to his room, putting his hands on his hips and sighing deeply, staring at the floor. Six days. It wasn't far, and with Lady still not saying anything about it, a new Pack member and radio silence from said Pack, Lucas was finally starting to feel like he was in over his head. Even a little. Maybe a lot. Running a hand over his ponytail, he pulled out his phone with intention of texting the red-head, glancing up when he saw movement outside the window, not expecting anything other than one of the three white cats that paid him a visit -- -- and saw an entirely different type of animal clinging to the tree. Pale grey eyes opened wide, pulling out his earbuds and tossing them and his phone aside, moving to the window and yanking it open all the way. " Sunshine?" he crowed in disbelief, shock and worry raising his brows high as he stuck himself out halfway, as if he'd jump to the tree himself. Lucas knew she was a cat of some sort, but this -- -- this -- -- this was too much. The stress of the past month, upheaving his life again, dealing with the were aches and ridiculous hearing, all of it - it put a crack in his fear and tight uncertainty. It spiraled through him in the sensation of wonder, pulling at the worried corners of his lips, evaporating into a grin. He started to shake his head, a helpless sort of amusement in the line of his brow and lid of his eyes and before he could even pull himself back inside, he started to laugh. It started soft, but the more he saw her clinging there so out of place, the more he could feel his own body ache with the want to be a different shape and reach out to her at the same time, the louder the laughter got. Within seconds, he was doubled over out the window and laughing from his belly into the crook of his metal arm, helpless.
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Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 6:52 pm
Lily nearly jumped when someone called out to her, nails digging into bark to keep from toppling to the lawn below. Her head whirled on a dime, wide hazel eyes pinning down the figure in the window, only to have her face contort in an expression of confusion and embarrassment. Of course she would pick the tree right outside his apartment. "It's a--thing--" she began to stammer, only to stare at the man as he doubled over in laughter. She continued to stare, contorted as she was in her treetop perch, her mind going blank as she searched for something, anything witty to say in this situation. Instead, she huffed softly, her olive skin beginning to flush a patchy shade of pink. "Help me Obi-Wan, you're my only hope here," she called out plainly, trying to tug at the snag on her shirt without outright ripping it. When it wouldn't budge, she began to mutter under her breath, maneuvering herself slowly to try and unpin herself.
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Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 7:47 pm
Lucas had to cover his face with his hands for a few more seconds, muffling his helpless peals of laughter that he tried in vain to corral. "How -- did you -- e -- even -- " His voice shook between attempts to repress the laughter that still made his grin linger in a cheeky fashion, gasping for air and gripping the window pane as he grappled with his sudden and inexplicable mirth. Wiping his eye with his good hand, he could not keep the toothy grin at bay. "Ah -- okay, ah, padawan, I -- " he paused to stretch his jaw, his chest lilting with the laugh he didn't allow to escape audibly, " -- what -- what can I do? I can't, exactly -- climb." Good intentions or not, he still had two prosthetic limbs that weren't exactly ideal for scaling trees. He could call his boyfriend, and boy wouldn't that be a story - please help save one of his Pack, the feline portion, they are stuck in a tree, and no that's not a euphemism for anything. He suspected Lily might murder him. Clearing his throat (but that grin, how stubbornly it clung to him), he carefully put his prosthetic leg outside the window, straddling the frame and holding his good arm out to her. "You gotta -- let me know, what I can do." Lucas swallowed down the bubbling mirth that threatened to spill again. " -- seriously, what the hell, Sunshine?" The look he cast her was one of marvel and intrigue, mostly glossed over with a genuine happiness to see her again - even if the situation was a bit unorthodox.
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Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 10:30 pm
Lily watched as the man began to clamber out the window, and her face went from pink to a beet red. "No--no, hey, look, you don't need to come over here, I just need to--um--" She reached down for the snagged part of her shirt and yanked, wincing as she heard the sound of tearing fabric. "Just, like-- stay there, I'm gonna shimmy down and then we're going to pretend that you didn't see me acting like I'm some ******** savage." She was perhaps a bit perturbed at his amusement. Maybe it was just embarrassment in general. "I brought you a card," she finally said in a huff, in a hurry to be done with this affair as she straddled the main trunk and began to lower herself down. "Is that what you do? I'm not sure if that's what you're supposed to do."
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Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 11:04 am
"You're not a bleeding savage, you're -- coping." Lily's instincts said climb, just like his said keep your territory. Lucas hardly blamed her for being in the tree - unless it wasn't were related, then he really wouldn't know what to tell her. Trying to smooth his hand over his grin, he peered downwards and then back to her. "You want me to meet you down there?" The laughter had subsided, but the mirth still kept him feeling light, a pleasant feeling after all that had transpired. Dark brows lifted in amusement and interest, though his voice was puzzled. "A card? -- to do for what? My birthday is still a few months away yet." He leaned back against the window frame, watching her. Sure, there was a wrinkle of discontent that she could actually hurt herself, but he trusted her to know her capabilities a lot more than he did. Shaking his head, he started to climb back into his own apartment. "I'll meet you in a second, don't rush, just -- be careful, padawan." He wouldn't accept no for an answer. It would take him a lot less time to hop some stairs than to just sit there uselessly.
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2016 11:09 am
Coping. She hadn't thought of it that way. "Yeah, just--gimme a sec," she wheezed, reaching with a spindly leg for the next foothold. "It's a card for--stuff. I'll let you read it." Climbing up the tree had been so easy, so effortless--why didn't her instincts also entail coming down? She waited until Lucas was out of sight of the window, and glancing at the ground let herself drop the rest of the way. It wasn't a graceful landing, but she soaked the brunt of it with a well-placed bend in her knees, and in another moment she was scooping up the crinkled envelope she'd dropped, dusting the grass off with a sigh. For a moment, she considered bailing. She would certainly be able to trot off before Lucas made it down the stairs, and then she wouldn't have to have this conversation. But she knew deep down she'd be seeing him in a few days, and at bare minimum the month after that and once a month until further notice. There was no running away from this, so she let herself feel the motion of her boots grounded in the dirt and waited, trying to tell herself to just breathe. He was still calling her padawan. He couldn't have been that mad.
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2016 1:29 pm
It took him a few minutes to get to her, jogging from the building to where she stood with a crooked smile. Lucas would have scooped her up in a hug, but there was something about the card and her presence at all that gave him pause to reconsider. Irregardless, he was still an open book to her, head tilted with interest as he could finally look at her on ground level. "It's good to see you," he said as he came to a halt near her, extending his good hand to ask for hers. He was, were or not, a creature of affection and his methods of showing it were some physical sort of reassurance. "Sorry about that -- up there," he glanced up to his window and back to her, "it's been a...a strange month, and looking outside to see you clinging to the tree..." The wolf's smile flickered, but the mirth was held at bay this time. "I dunno. I guess it was more than I knew how to process." Grey eyes turned down to his feet for a moment, as if he'd been admonished, before looking back to the tall woman again. "'scuse my ignorance, but what is your were, anyway? Can't say I've ever seen something like that before, like an otter and a red panda had a kid." AMItotic sorry he's a west coast nerd, he is ignorant
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