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 Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2017 11:03 am
It had taken several hours for Chase to cool off.
While he would have normally powered up and used combat or training as a way of relieving his aggression he was acutely aware that it would only exasperate the problem. As such, when he stormed out of the house he had mounted one of his bikes and peeled off.
Riding Hermes always helped to take the edge off when he was too wound up.
Initially, he hadn't expected it to help, but by the time he had gotten back to the house he felt considerably less on edge. There was still an unpleasant thrum beneath his skin that reminded him of how restless he and his beast still were. When he stepped back into the large manor he found that it was dark, expectedly so with how late he had returned but, to his dismay, he found that outside of the various felines that populated his home...it was empty.
Chase wasn't surprised, after he had stalked off it was to be expected that Prissy would either throw a tantrum or stalk off herself. The latter proved to be correct when he located her note.
Chase,
I'm sorry.
He wanted to be irritated, annoyed, maybe even angry but he wasn't. Instead, he was weary and opted to leave the search for his girlfriend to another day. It wouldn't do either of them any good if he tried to talk to her then and perhaps an attempt at some sleep would do him good.
Still, he texted her anyway.
[Text to Princess: We need to talk. ]
The first message was curt, because that's how Chase was when he was tired and irritated. The second was meant to soften the blow.
[Text to Princess: Please. Tomorrow?]
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Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 1:07 am
It wasn't that she didn’t want be to found - far from it. In fact, she'd probably argue that she hadn't run away at all; she had 1simply left. Priscilla Stratford embraced time to herself just as she did everything else in the world: with style.
The twenty-two year old had thought about taking an Uber to the airport and flying off on a trip, courtesy of either funding sources she continued to rely off of. Sure, Daddy’s money wasn’t unlimited anymore but he had sufficient funds to live comfortably off of and Chase hadn’t put up a fuss when she'd requested a means of survival in the form of a shiny new platinum card (after all, the darling had felt guilty for leaving her practically destitute).
Besides, hadn't he promised to take her away to New York, when things had calmed down?
And things had yet to calm down. They didn't feel like they were ever going to calm down. Whether he was flying off the handle or she was, there were fewer and fewer “happy” moments shared between them and instead, a growing tension she continued to avoid acknowledging.
If he wasn't able to get off this senshi-hate kick he was on, was this going to be the end of Sailor Dia? Was it a sacrifice she was willing to make to try to keep things going between them?
Her henshin pen was tucked away at the bottom of her bag but the question lingered in the back of her mind. Would he be more welcoming if she retired? Or would she be found more useless when it came to his arsenal of wolves?
Thoughts were put on pause as the car arrived at the entrance of the fancy looking downtown hotel. The driver was kind enough to fetch her bag from the trunk, soon leaving the pink haired priss to her thoughts as the gold plated doors of the swanky hotel slid open to her arrival. A bellhop was quick to meet her inside, relieving her arm of the light weight it held as the young Miss Stratford approached the front desk.
While the thought of traveling had been tempting, the idea of taking yet another vacation on her lonesome sounded anything but fun.
Maybe one day.
In the meantime, she would take her weekend refuge in the care of local staff, trained to earn every star of their rating.
Chase’s card was offered as payment, Prissy well aware it was an easy trace, should he actually care where she'd disappeared to. If not…well, it was a drop in the bucket as far as costs went for the wealthy Black Dynasty.
Three hours later, room service dinner had been hardly touched, the wine had been consumed and a quiet Priscilla was spread across the large bed by her lonesome, arms wrapped around the otherwise unused pillow.
Chin propped on the edge of the cushion, she sat there silently dwelling on her thoughts until the phone, discarded on the nightstand with her pen, buzzed. Flicking it on, she read the message and bit her bottom lip, just in time to see the second text flash across.
She waited a minute and then another. There were several things she considered saying but she settled on a simple response:
“Okay.”
Flicking the screen to black, she pressed her cheek against the pillow and sighed. She was seriously regretting not selfishly stealing her kitten away for this excursion.
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Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2017 11:09 am
Chase woke up from fitful sleep to the Okay and found that relief filled him.
Prissy was giving him the space that he demanded, but was still around and willing to talk or appeared so at least. And, with everything else going on, Chase was willing to take what he was given. His nerves were calmer at the moment, the white hot adrenaline rush that fed his wilder urges was sated, calmer and he needed to believe it would stay that way when they tried to talk.
Tracking his girlfriend down was easy without having to ask where she was. The card she used was in his name, a gift and a fallback should she need it even if he required that she still worked, and he simply had to check to see what hotel she'd gotten herself a room at. When he left the house, he dressed nicer than what she'd likely grown accustomed to in the house.
A dress shirt, vest, his nicer pair of black jeans, and the leather jacket he often wore.
It was tempting to take Hermes, but instead he took the Camaro. Getting the room number and a key was easier than he thought it should have been, but he wasn't going to complain. Instead, he thanked the person at the desk and made his way to her room. As tempting as it was to simply open the door, he knew he needed to respect the fact that they were fighting and he couldn't just barge in.
It would likely only escalate things to the same point as it had the day before and he didn't want that. So, instead, he knocked on the door. "Prissy?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 8:02 am
There hadn't been a follow-up response before she'd fallen asleep, the phone remaining eerily quiet for belonging to Prissy Stratford.
She'd waited a little while to see if he would respond, flipping through various apps, distracting herself with games and instagram. Somehow, she managed to find herself thumbing through Facebook, glancing at all of the happy looking people from her former years that were still giving off the appearance of living fulfilling, wonderful lives. Some had gotten married, some had even had children. Others were out conquering the world, making money in their parents' footsteps or traveling across the continents and reassuring those back home of how beautiful the world is that they weren't getting to see.
So what had she accomplished, since her years in boarding school?
The troubling thought chased her in her sleep and had her waking up long before dawn arrived. Pillows had been to moved and adjusted, the young woman waking up among a nest of them, pressed against all sides of her body. Their comfort wasn't enough - much like the days shortly after his disappearance, Prissy was finding it hard to adjust to sleeping alone.
A quiet shower and breakfast had passed, the room service tray looking delightful when it appeared, but picked over once she actually sat down to partake. A nibble here, a slice there, but nothing that excited her enough to actually finish.
By the time the knock on the door came, she was in the process of putting the finishing touches on her curls. The iron was set on the counter as eyes widened. Prissy had assumed that Chase would use his phone when he was finally ready to talk, that she'd wake up to some long message about how disappointed he was in her or how she could have handled things better than she had. When there had been no message, it was easy to assume that he was just biding time, coming up with whatever words he wanted to say to his passionately dramatic girlfriend.
So when the door knocked and the muffled sound of Chase came through the wood, her heart did a tiny leap in her chest. He was there?
He'd come to find her, himself?
She didn't even realize she hadn't exhaled until fingers were sliding the chain from off the door, handle turning slowly. When she saw him standing there, dressed as he was, her stomach did another little flip.
"Chase?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2017 2:45 pm
While many things had changed, somethings didn't. One of which was the fact that Chase preferred to conduct serious conversations in person. Too much was lost in the context of text based communication and his ability to observe and read people was vastly removed in any situation that wasn't face to face. So, when he had decided that he and his girlfriend were going to chat, he knew it had to be in person.
Prissy opened the door, wearing a surprised expression and he raised one eyebrow in response. "Were you expecting someone else?"
He supposed that wasn't entirely out of the question, he had been extraordinarily unpredictable in a greater manner than before his time away, and he hadn't bothered to contact her before hand. "If now isn't a good time, I can come back later." He wouldn't be happy about such, but it was the least he could do after their explosive fight the day prior.
Glancing over her shoulder and into the hotel room he could see that she was one, alone and two, that she had ordered room service. Briefly he wondered how much it was going to cost him for her little stunt and then he shoved the thought aside. Now was neither the time nor the place to dwell on such matters. Especially not ones that didn't matter. He had more money than he knew what to do with and money still coming in.
"May I come in?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2017 12:40 am
It took her a moment to register what he was saying, the surprise turning into confusion, then to mild irritation at his inquiry.
“I wasn't expecting anyone, actually.”
Fingertips pressed into the side of the door as she leaned against it. He was still acting formal, almost hesitant, and Prissy couldn't help but wonder if his offer to come back was an attempt to escape the situation. Whiskey eyes darted past her and she glanced back, curious as to what he was staring at. When she noticed the picked-over food, she bit her bottom lip. Was he judging her? Surely he'd found her through the bill - was she only adding to his ire?
“I can pay you back, if that's what you're worried about. Should have enough to transfer over to your account.”
The door was pushed out, the young woman leaving it open as she turned to make her way back towards the tray. The lid was placed on top, hiding the remaining food before she took her seat at the desk, one leg crossing over the other.
He was here. This was good, right? He wouldn't have bothered if he was still angry...right?
Taking the initiative, she tossed back her curls over her shoulder and straightened herself up in the chair. She'd been rehearsing her “speech” ever since she'd checked in to the hotel, the words rolling off her tongue.
“I didn't listen and I'm sorry.” She paused, her own gaze moving to stare at anything but the solemn eyes staring back at her. “I should have given you space. I'll give you however much you need.”
Even if it was the last thing she really wanted to do.
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Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2017 8:21 pm
"Hey," Chase said, quiet but sternly. "Prissy, please." He didn't want the conversation to start out like this. It had been his mistake to imply someone else might be coming by, but he didn't know what her social life was like outside of him anymore.
It was too difficult to keep track of things when he was still relearning what the concept of time meant.
"You know I don't care about the costs." If he had, he wouldn't have provided her with a card. Eating the cost of the room and whatever expenses his girlfriend incurred was a small price to pay if it meant reconciling with the woman who'd been determined to stand by him regardless of the risks and the personal costs doing so might have for her.
But Prissy let him in and he felt himself relax, even if he kept tension between his shoulders.
Chase let her talk, watching her as she moved and hid things from his view before averting her gaze from his. With a slow exhale, he crossed the room to stand before her chair. Fingers carefully hooked beneath her jaw to lift it up so that she'd look at him. "I need you to understand that I still haven't recovered from my time away fully and that when I say now is not a good time you need to respect that."
He paused, gaze searching her face, then leaned forward. Fingers brushed her bangs aside and he pressed his lips against her forehead. "You're the last person I want to get hurt because I can't control my instincts."
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2017 6:35 am
Her head was turned against her control, guided until she was staring back at a whiskey gaze that looked down on her.
Eyes widened when he started to speak but it was difficult to suppress a wince as he begun with words eerily similar to something her father might have said. Being chastised was never something she enjoyed; there were very few things in the world that could humble Priscilla Stratford and Chase Black happened to be one of them.
His next comment, though, a soft utterance following an equally soft kiss, caught her completely off guard. For all of the coldness that came with his serious personality, for all of the distance he had kept between them, the statement was by far the most intimate thing he had ever said to her.
Closing her eyes, the young woman offered a small smile in return.
“Chase, I…”
Her voice trailed off as her brain caught up with her heart, which was growing dangerously close to speaking a mind of its own. Words couldn't be taken back, so she needed to guard her thoughts and preserve them, keeping them close and quiet to her heart and away from her lips.
Being with Chase was unlike any relationship she'd ever been in before. It was unlike any expectation she'd ever held for her future; there was no way she could have prepared herself for such a trepid and unusual journey that came in the form of Chase Samuel Black.
And nothing, it seemed, had gone according to how she'd imagined it to.
For instance, when she was twelve, she'd decided that she would marry a man similar to her own father. Rich equated to comfort which equated to all of the make-up and clothes that she could ever desire. It made sense - when you were a socialite princess, you married a prince.
When she was fourteen, she'd added on to her list of expectations, declaring that her future beau could neither be ugly or old. Many of her friends’ fathers had young, perfect little Stepford wives and Priscilla knew she was destined for someone who would age alongside her, someone who could compliment her beauty while out and about just as she complimented his.
When she was sixteen, the figurative list had grown even longer. A man like her father was still nice in theory, but now she required a wealthy spouse who not only showered her in riches, but in attention as well. What good was marrying a handsome man if the handsome man was never home to appreciate what a catch he had in landing the one and only Priscilla Stratford? Her father was hardly home, casting her off to one school after another. Other fathers took the time to visit their princesses - as it should have been for her. No, money was no longer enough to settle her little heart’s desire.
Upon turning eighteen, another stipulation made the list. Suitors had come calling, boys and men alike who desired the hand of a heiress. Handsome or wealthy, they all lacked…charm. Manners could only take a man so far with the fairer sex, but it was obvious to the young woman now why Cinderella and all of the other fairy tale princesses sought out Prince Charming, as opposed to Prince Wealthy or Prince Handsome.
On her twenty-first birthday, Prissy thought she'd finally met a man who managed to hit every single checkmark on her bullet-pointed list. He was wealthy and handsome, with manners that had her walking out of the museum with him, arm in arm. He was cordial and attentive, inquiring after her, silently drinking up every bit of information she had to offer. And, without fail, he'd even managed to charm a kiss from her…and a promise of a second date, when the evening had ended.
If only her heart had known how much more there was to the man who she'd finally settled her affections on.
He was pressed too closely for her to rise from the chair, so she chose to follow his hand, catching his with her own as she threaded soft fingers through calloused ones responsible for taking the life - the essence - out of an innumerable amount of people. The same fingers capable of bringing her to pleasure, the same ones that had dared to strike her face.
“...thank you.”
She brought the hand up to her cheek, pressing his knuckles lightly against her pale skin. Reopening her eyes, Prissy looked up at him with quiet adoration as she finally said, “Whatever you want, it's yours.”
His words might not have been the fairytale phrases she'd dreamed of receiving as a teenager but she cherished them all the same. They were words she could tuck away in the depths of her heart, a token of what affection Chase’s humanity was still capable of harboring.
And they were all just for her.
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Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2017 1:22 pm
He waited.
Chase had gotten exceptionally good at waiting over the years. Working under his father's thumb had taught him that he was at the man's beck and call, that he had to bide his time until he could turn the tables and crawl his way to the top of the family hierarchy. But then his father had died and all of his plans had gone array.
Early in his tenure as a knight of Metallia he had been tested with patience; in the form of growth rank and even the speed at which is relationship with Kaia progressed. Patience had been tested in his dealings with Iris, especially in the aftermath of the memories that came with the not-future. He pushed and she pushed back, but he was not capable of pushing her where he wanted. He had to wait for her to consider trusting him and he waited until there was no time left for waiting.
When he had been gone, he had lost sense of time completely. Minutes passed into hours into days and into weeks and months before he knew it. He had suffered, struggled to make sense of how long it had been and how long he would remain trapped in a place that didn't care if he lived or died. Labyrinthite, and Chase by extension, knew how to be patient.
In the end, being patient with Prissy proved to be worth it. Still the woman looked at him with the same adoration as the day they had met and the several dates that transpired between then and his leave.
Pleased with her answer, he created enough space to coax her out of the chair and into his arms, hands moving to wrap her legs around his waist as he supported her weight against him. "That's my girl," he cooed, leaning in to kiss her. "I need you, kitten, you know that."
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Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 2:39 am
He lifted her up with ease, a habit she'd quickly grown accustomed to when they'd initially gotten together as a couple. It was comforting in its own way, a small reminder of how things used to be, even if most everything else had been called into question since that point in time.
The kiss was sweet and brief, arms wrapping around his neck as fingers toyed idly in his hair.
“Yeah, I know,” she lied, keeping the appearance of confidence in her answer. Her forehead leaned in, pressing against his as she allowed the tip of her nose to brush his. “It's still nice to hear, though.”
Whether or not he'd actually reach out to her for help…that was another question entirely. In the meantime, though, she'd take his word for it and find contentment in knowing that her usefulness had yet to run out for the Negaverse General.
The hand in his hair moved forward, playfully brushing through the wave of pink as her head pulled back. “I need you too, handsome.”
Priscilla’s face tilted and she offered a half smile before hands moved to straighten his shirt collar, as if it were a casual, everyday conversation instead of her straining in an attempt to watch her words. “I mean, we all need you. I just...”
She shrugged. “I dunno what I'd do without you.”
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Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 8:30 am
Thumbs rubbed her sides when their foreheads pressed together. It was a mostly serene moment that helped the retain the calmness within him that he sought to preserve.
Carrying her to the bed was easy and he didn't release her until he had settled upon it with his back pressed against the headboard. When he did, it was so that he could draw her head down for a kiss.
One that was long and languid and when he drew back, he pressed the line of his nose against her neck. "It will get better, manageable," he promised, because that was all he could do at the moment.
Chase didn't know if he'd ever fully be over the issues that ailed him, but he was going to do his damnest to try. "We are stronger together," he said, slipping a hand beneath her top to press a calloused hand against her soft skin. Reforging the bonds that had been strained by his disappearance and the side-effects of it was difficult, but he was nothing if not determined.
They would be a strong team together, he knew it.
"It'll just take time for things to settle, you can be patient can't you kitten?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 1:01 am
As rough fingertips found her naked side, her back instinctively arched as she wiggled herself into a comfortable spot in his lap. While her legs tightened around his waist, hands moved to toy with the collar of his dress shirt, turning the fabric upwards before smoothing it back down, fingertips grazing the nape of his neck.
“Together,” she echoed, emphasizing the word. Her spirits had lifted significantly since Chase’s arrival and while not all of her worries had been alleviated, most of them had been placated by his unusually tender words. Fingers moved on to toy with the edge of his vest, her head tilting as waves of cotton candy curls spilled over her own shoulder. “As long as we're together, I can wait as long as it takes.”
Offering a coy smile, eyebrows rose and her fingertips began to trace small, meaningless designs on the back of his neck.
“So…tell me how much you missed me, last night.”
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Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 12:26 pm
It wasn't long before Chase's hands were sliding along her back, blunt nails gently scratching at her spine in slow, soothing patterns. When her waves of hair fell over her shoulder he leaned forward and pressed his lips against her exposed throat.
"Do you want me to tell you or should I show you?" He offered instead, whiskey eyes flicking up beneath dark lashes to gauge her expression as lips parted and teeth grazed her soft skin.
He left a mark by the time he made himself pull back completely and he removed his hands from beneath her shirt. "I've grown accustomed to sleeping beside you." Her body weight against his own helped soothe his restlessness and the insomnia that often plagued him.
"It's difficult, without you," he admitted, shifting to give her a kiss.
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Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 2:31 pm
Warm breath against her neck had her murmuring happy little noises, his question sending excited little shivers down her backside, the feeling chasing the tingles left by his fingernails.
His confession had her smile growing. The disheveled state of the bed was hard to notice with them laying on it, but she'd shared similar feelings when it came to her ability to sleep (or lack thereof). It was nice, in a way, to learn that he was still human enough to share the same difficulties she did at being without the partner she'd spent the last several months nestled alongside.
It was reassuring, almost.
The kiss he followed with was earnest, sweet. It took willpower to drag herself away from it, but his admission had her heart swelling. For such a horrific evening that led into an equally crummy day... that morning and certainly given way to far more happiness than Prissy could have ever expected. Chase needed her. He needed her.
"Then you won't be without me."
One finger gently poked the tip of his nose, her finger sliding down across his lips before pressing forward to seal the promise with her own kiss.
With that and a small giggle, she fell towards the bed, pulling her handsome boyfriend down with her. As far as she was concerned, the rest of the morning could end just as happily as their conversation had.
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