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 Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2018 5:42 pm
When, or even if Ayesha happened to check her phone between the theater and the emergency room she'd have noticed a missed call from earlier in the evening, as well as a voicemail from one Adel el-Kader expressing initial disappointment in having missed her, before recalling mid-message that she was attending a play and going on to say that he would try again after the play was scheduled to be let out. He closed the message out with a sincere hope that she enjoy herself and have a good night. Had he known she had wanted to attend, had the show not been sold out, he'd have offered to take her. They could have made a date of the evening, perhaps gotten dinner before hand. Although he suspected that his quiet betrothed might have been taking the night to herself deliberately. Which he couldn't say that he blamed her for, given the precarious nature of the circumstances. Even if that were the case it wouldn't have kept him from calling around the time he'd promised he would. Personal reservations aside, they were attempting to make this work between them, and avoiding each other did very little to bring them together as their parents desired. At eleven he tried again--phone up to his ear as he settled into the corner of the beige that sat at the center of his apartment. A documentary playing on the tv across from him, but muted.
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Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2018 7:17 pm
Ayesha blew out a breath, watching a weft of teal undulate in the air, while she waited for the nurse to return with her paperwork. The wait to reach the emergency room wasn't long, surprisingly — she expected the eight hours normally paid to the lounge area of an ER before one's name was considered — but the promise that she would require an x-ray spelled a night wasted. Furthermore, it meant she couldn't dance for some weeks while it healed — if it healed enough for her to dance well again. And then there was the physical therapy to follow, retraining her body, the bone callus that would weaken the surrounding bone —
Her phone chimed, breaking the silence surrounding the distant heart monitor beeps. Her hand reached blindly to her side for her purse, and upon finding nothing but the vinyl bedding beneath her touch, searched about further for the nearby chair. She dug into the large leather bag past notebooks, foundation cakes, eyeshadow pots, a journal, and some discarded papers until she found her phone buried at the bottom next to a couple lipsticks. She wrenched it out, sending one of the lipsticks to the tile floor, before she answered the buzzing call breathlessly. "Hello?"
It was then that she lifted the phone away from her cheek, poised as she was over the visitor's chair, and looked at the caller ID: Adel El-Kader. Not who she was expecting to phone her nearing midnight.
"Adel. I didn't realize you were still awake." She sounded as exhausted as she expected him to feel — as she wanted him to feel. Sitting there in one of the poorly-divided ER waiting areas, which amounted to examination cubicles, left her feeling exhausted for a real bed. For window dressing, for an actual couch, for her own fridge with a pint of pistachio ice cream waiting for her days of indulgence. But here, among white walls and white tile and white linen and white coats and white cords, the sterility bore down on her.
"Did my mother bother you into calling me?" Maybe he just wanted the company at 11 at night, knowing that both of them run fairly early schedules. Who was she to guess?
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Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2018 5:19 pm
As the phone continued to ring the doctor wondered if perhaps he'd misjudged his estimation of time and she'd already made it home and gone to bed. That in mind, he'd pulled the phone away from his ear to hang up when the sound of a soft 'hello' cut through mid ring. Lip's twitching in a soft smile he brought the phone back up to his ear in time to hear her saying his name, voice worn. Maybe he had woken her. He sincerely hoped not. "My apologies if I happened to wake you. No, you're mother didn't influence this call." There was the faintest thread of amusement to his voice. "I'd left a message earlier, before remembering you'd mentioned you were going to the theater." Adel had filled his time with a bit of extra cataloging of artifacts at the museum. A shipment had come in from a dig near Cairo containing a number of small handheld tools needing identification, and with no other plans on his plate for the evening he'd stayed long enough to get through the first carefully packaged tray of them. After wards he'd made his way back to his apartment to make himself dinner. Ate, cleaned up again, and now here they were. He glanced up at the smart clock mounted on the wall near the kitchen. "I was hoping to catch you on your way home to see how your evening had gone."
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Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2018 9:39 am
"I was awake," she offered, as if saying so might mean something to him. He might brush it off as politeness against an infringement, and the thought of it had her suppressing a sigh. Long fingers drew absent circles on her thigh, forming white helices over her skin. "The theatre… There was an accident." Ayesha drew a breath.
Rolling her shoulders, she felt the pops and crackles of stiffness subsiding just so. The weariness settled on her like an overbearing blanket, however, and she felt smothered by her own inability to move and think. "A group of renegades ambushed the theatre in the middle of the play and started assaulting people. They locked the doors, set the theatre on fire. People were trapped for some time before another group came and let everyone out." She paused a moment as a nurse spoke to a young boy near her, and the young boy erupted in such a keening wail that Ayesha lost her train of thought. By the time she moved away from the commotion, another nurse's voice joined in soothing the kid.
Ayesha cleared her throat. "I'm at the Sunnyside emergency room right now; they took in everyone that went to the play. They told me I bruised the bones in my leg but it's nothing too serious."
She paused a moment, letting the question stew before she asked. The connotations were there, predicated by their arrangement, but practically she knew she should ask both for her own well-being and for the safety of not walking home directly after a Negaverse ambush. Especially when she may not be able to put much weight on her leg. Pursing her lips a moment, she asked the question: "Will you pick me up?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2018 6:38 pm
Whatever small relief he'd felt at the assurance that he hadn't woken her up with his call was short lived as she continued on to inform him that there'd been an accident at the theatre. The smile slipped slowly from dark features as he sat up, sliding to the edge of the couch as he listened to her recount what had happened. It should have sounded far fetched, dramatic, but not only was this Destiny City, Home of the Strange™, it sounded familiar in a way that made Adel's skin run cold, and ad nothing to do with the ongoing turf war between terrorists and vigilantes that were supposed to be running rampant throughout the city. To Adel it sounded very much like the sort of attacks he'd left behind when his family had fled Lebanon, and then later Egypt. Right on the frightening razor's edge of all out civil war. He was quiet on his end of the call as commotion on her side distracted her, and waited mostly patiently while she found a quieter spot to continue. By the time she was telling him where she was he'd already gotten up from the couch and crossed to the kitchen counter, and he wrote down the name of the hospital on a little notepad beside the landline phone. Her injuries didn't sound serious, and to anyone else they probably wouldn't have been too much of a big deal, but Ayesha's passion was dance, and bruised bones would definitely knock her off her feet for a few weeks, bare minimum. He'd actually opened his mouth to offer to come get her when she asked, after a pause, if he could come pick her up. "I'll be there in fifteen minutes."
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Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2018 8:11 am
Ayesha breathed a small sigh of relief as she ended the call. While she could walk home or catch a ride in an Uber, both options promised difficulties with navigating up stairs or through narrow hallways with newly-acquired, unfamiliar injuries. They didn't give her crutches, said she would be fine with rest and ice and elevation, of which walking was the opposite. Adel was the best choice for how he might help her navigate those spaces, gentlemanly as he was.
Perhaps she would make him a hot drink. Get him talking about his work. The mundane allure of it would detract from the evening's impossibilities replaying ad nauseam in her own head. She could quit thinking about how the endless screams caused her ears to ring, or how the ancient theatre's decorum posed such a fire hazard that the whole thing went up in short notice. He may ask about the butterfly bruising forming around her neck, but that was very much a part of the story already given. And that girl — she wouldn't meet that girl twice. Its improbability promised so.
Fifteen minutes passed, enough to suggest heavy traffic in and out of the hospital as loved ones and friends picked up their loved ones and friends, though Ayesha did not yet get restless. She remained in her waiting room seat with neither leg crossed (due to her conscious awareness of it), her attention directed at her phone, and her pain level hidden behind stoicism.
Soon a familiar pair of shoes strode into her peripherals as she finished up a text. She looked up, a reserved smile prepared. "Thank you for doing this, Adel. I know these are bad circumstances with worse timing. I appreciate you coming."
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Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2018 5:19 pm
The drive took just a little bit longer than Adel had been anticipated. Nothing really by way of traffic, but one of the roads he'd needed to turn down had been closed for some sort of work and he'd been directed down another couple of blocks before he'd been allowed to turn and double back from the opposite direction. He'd parked close, grateful for the row of spaces reserved specifically for hospital pick up. The less Ayesha had to walk on that injured leg, the better. She was easy to spot once he stepped through the large sliding doors, sitting stoically off to one side with her attention directed down at the lit up screen of her phone. She looked up as he approached, offering a smile that he hadn't been expecting, and he couldn't help but smile back in return. "It's really no trouble at all." Even if he hadn't been, what sort of husband or man would he have been if he hadn't come when she'd asked for his help? Both hands were offered to her palm up, ready to help her feet so he could get her home. "Is there anything that needs to be settled here before you can leave?" Finding her n the waiting room suggested everything had already been taken care of, but she'd had quite a shock, and on the off chance something had slipped her mind he preferred they get it taken care of now rather than risk creating a hassle for her to have to worry about later. His hands were warm and dry as she took them, arms strong as he drew her up to her feet. "Which leg in the injured one?" He could could offer her his arm, give her something sturdy to brace against as they walked to the car. Pace slow and even.
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Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2018 6:51 pm
Ayesha accepted his hands gratefully and used them to raise herself to her feet. Mindfully she shifted to one side, like a bird in the cold, and kept as much weight as she could off her injured leg. His hands felt warm despite the chill weather outside, and he didn't sound the least bit tired. The story of what happened must have woken him up; his job sounded like one better suited to early risers, so his alertness at this time of night came as a surprise.
"Everything is taken care of. They already gave me my discharge papers." With one hand still clasped firmly in Adel's, Ayesha twisted gingerly to dig around in her purse. Lying atop her wallet were twice-folded forms, one with medication information and the rest with care instructions and further indications of a followup. Briefly she checked them for anything more, but beyond an ibuprofen prescription that could wait til tomorrow, she had no further medical concerns for the night. "The ibuprofen can wait. I've got some at home."
Home. Her mother. Ayesha sighed.
Adel had other questions, however. "It's my left that's injured. It's unfortunate, but there's nothing I could've done to prevent that. Nothing I could foresee." He kept their pace even, predictable, manageable — all without the thousand questions and concerns her mother would've broached upon receiving her. Ayesha appreciated all the ways he was perfectly behaved, even if she knew her mannerisms were less than warm. The word compromise came to mind — from late Latin compromissum, ‘a consent to arbitration,’ neuter past participle of compromittere, from com- ‘together’ and promittere 'promise'. Promise together.
"My mother will want to know everything that's happened from the moment I sat down for the play to the moment I left the hospital with you. And she'll want to know everything we did from then until now." Ayesha pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead gingerly. "And she'll want to invite you in too… I need to get my thoughts in order for this."
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Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2018 7:19 pm
"If it would be convenient, I could drop your perscription off for you on my way into the museum tomorrow morning. There's a Rite aid on the way." And perhaps peruse the braces while he was there, see if they had anything Ayesha could wear to help protect and enforce the injured ankle until it was healed enough to bear weight again. The way she'd moved, the way she held herself now, he could tell it was hurting her more than she was letting on. When she sighed he thought perhaps he'd overstepped in someway, but he made a sound of understanding as Ayesha mentioned her mother, nodding as tanned features tightened in the flicker of a grimace. As much as he liked Mrs. Kamjik, there was no denying how overbearing she could be when it came to her daughter. Ayesha turning up injured with him in toe would have resulted in hours worth of questions, and not even Adel had the patience for that at this late hour. "Or," he offered softly as the automatic doors opened for them so they could cross the emergency lane and had for his car. "I can take you back to my apartment instead, where it's quiet and you can rest without having to field a million worried questions." He looked down at her, watching her face. "Apologies if that's too forward to offer, but after what you've been through," he continued. "You must be exhausted."
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Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 7:59 pm
She considered if it's not too much trouble. She considered you don't have to do that. She considered I would appreciate it. Her lips pressed to a line of ivory, then opened. "Thank you."
Adel truly was nice, perhaps too nice, perhaps nice enough to become a target to the self-interested. Nice enough for the people at that theatre to spring a heist on him. Nice enough to attract white lies and nearly subconscious subterfuge. Good people like Adel didn't need protection — he could protect himself from any threat as well as Pavo could, she imagined — but he needed awareness. Being a normal person as she once was half a decade ago, he knew far less about the goings-on in this trap of a place.
But beyond that, Ayesha Kamjik seemed more socially cognizant in her off hours than the anthropologist who worked himself cross-eyed when examining the lives of people several cultures away. In his off hours, he wasn't Dr. el-Kader. He put his mind to rest, let his nature take over.
A nature that had him offering his apartment to her, dropping her prescriptions off for her. Small tokens for some, she was certain, but an easy target for more. Were she less scrupulous, were she someone else, she could rob him blind or drain his energy or sabotage his academic career. But he trusted her this much when they were strangers before — when they were names tied together before they knew each other's faces.
"We'll go to your place." The decision was not quick, but what it lacked in timeliness it compensated in assertiveness. "I could use some time away from my studies. No use getting the mind going when I'm supposed to rest." And exhausted she was, though she feared if she laid down and glanced at her computer, her mind would produce the familiar threads she'd been following for the past three months. Better that she spared them both the headache.
"And thank you again."
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Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2019 5:02 pm
It would have been a simple thing to scoop the dancer up into his arms for the walk back to his car, but she was a capable, proud woman and he didn't want to insinuate in anyway that he thought otherwise. So instead he kept his arm steady for her, adjusting his pace to match her's so they could pick their way slowly across the parking lot to his car. Thankfully, this late in the evening, there had been a number of optimal spaces to choose from, so the walk would be a short one. He'd remained quiet as he waited patiently for her to reach a decision, content to accept whatever decision she came to. When she accepted it was admittedly a little shocking, but Adel was pleased, a happy little smile playing over dark lips. It was a little slow going, but it was begging to feel to him as though their betrothal would indeed work. "It's no trouble. You're my intended, and I'm happy to help and support you in whatever way you may need, Ayesha." The car they stopped at was a sleek, dark colored SUV with a layer of dust clinging to the paint job, but the interior was immaculately tidy, right down to the equipment stowed away in storage tote in the back seat. He waited at the passenger side door, offering whatever help she might need in order to climb inside, and then went around to slid in behind the wheel. "I live close, we'll be home soon."
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 10:42 am
Stepping into an SUV was never a trouble before, but as Ayesha reached out for the runner with a tentatively poised leg, she caught herself unwittingly bracing for pain. She accepted Adel's hand, raised herself with less pressure on an injured leg, and reached smooth interior without further injury. It seemed small affairs would be a challenge — instances taken for granted like stairs, and putting pants on, and kneeling to tie her shoe that would suddenly rise to the fore of her thoughts. Injury inconvenienced her so.
"Thank you." A thanks wasn't enough of an expression to justify all the ways Adel had been a help — she never expected to have a partner in life at any relationship capacity, nor did she expect anyone to offer her help to such an extent as he — but it was a start. She could show her gratitude in other ways, the least of which through their terms together.
Sitting back in her seat, Ayesha raised her leg to run tentative fingers over the skin. In some places, it felt hot to the touch — like her body blazed where it mended the most. Other areas felt cool, less swollen, the skin less tight. She still disdained these facts, these holdovers from years ago when she took to being a senshi more readily. How naïve she was; how smart the Mauvians were for recruiting impressionable kids in their teens and twenties. They wouldn't find better soldiers, certainly, until those kids woke up to adulthood.
But she was safe from that with Adel. She looked to him as he drove, studied his face, the way his beard established itself on a developed jawline. He wasn't young enough for senshihood. No cat would notice him and call him to power. It relieved her to know that she could return to Destiny City and remain so far removed from senshi life.
Ayesha watched lights pass as they slowed, their car full of companionable silence. Her nails massaged into the grooves of her seatbelt. "And thanks for being you," she added. Thanks for being no one else but Adel.
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Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 7:15 pm
Buckled in, finger poised over the ignition Adel paused, distracted by the run of her fingers along the length of her own calf. Bruises were already blooming around her ankle, there were scrapes and scratches scattered about her person, but the bright turquoise of her nails stood out against the dark mocha of her skin. When he realize he'd been staring, even if only for a moment, he dipped his head, eyes flicking back out the windshield. "You're welcome," he answered softly, shifting the car into gear and easing it out of the parking spot and onto the road. A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, features thoughtful. The silence that closed in around them as he drove was peaceful, companionable, and Adel felt no need to break it. Ayesha had been through a lot, and after the theater, the stress of being injured and being at the hospital, surely a little quiet would be appreciated. And if not, he trusted the woman to fill it to her satisfaction or request the radio be turned on. When she broke it he was glad they were pulling into his place in the parking garage situated beneath his apartment complex. It pulled his attention back to her, dark eyes widening a touch as his easy smile brightened. "Where'd that come from?" As he asked he unbuckled his seat belt, but made no move yet to get out of the car.
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 10:23 am
Ayesha wasn't certain how many minutes she spent absently massaging her leg while thinking about what happened that night. The crowd's roar turning from approval to terror, the way the theater heated up so quickly when the curtains lit, how everyone fought for their own lives to the exclusion of others. The Negaverse was there, and senshi responded to that, and knights responded to that, but what had they accomplished? Would the people have been better off if senshi never interfered? The Negaverse would reap their energy and starseeds and leave, but the less people struggled, the less motivation there was to extract more harm from them. Or was that just a logical fallacy?
Ayesha couldn't decide, not in that tired moment. And certainly not when Adel pulled her back to reality with a simple question. She looked back to him, sitting there with both hands on the wheel. he looked back to the neatly-tucked clothes and the hair just gently mussed from a full day of activity. She paused a moment, waited for the words to come back to her. Waited to remember the question she asked.
Then she did, and she dipped her head for a moment. It's nothing, she could say, but that would do Adel a disservice. Especially after all he'd done to pick her up and make her comfortable. To not pry. To respect her space and her autonomy. "Sometimes," she started, and she waited a moment longer. Tasted the statement before it left her mouth. "People aren't who they seem. I saw a lot of that tonight. I just wanted to thank you for being honest with me."
She thought, then, about the dishonesty of her second life. Marginal as it was, she still spent a few minutes to an hour of some of her days as Pavo, this creature of which Adel never knew. This vehicle in which Ayesha could get hurt — killed, even — and Adel would never understand the how of that death.
But relationships were complex, living things, and Ayesha had enough wisdom in herself to know that she couldn't bare all her secrets at once. That trust was better exercised in measure, tempered, and cooled before she added upon it with more strain.
When they parked, Ayesha moved to unclasp her belt. With it came a loud grumble from her stomach — a reminder that she was still human despite all that senshi glamour. She smiled at him coyly, half apology and half question. If Adel hadn't eaten, now would be a good time. "It's been a while," she admitted. "You said you were good at cooking, right? If you cook, I'll make tea." Teamwork, she supposed, started with the basics.
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Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2019 5:07 pm
Honesty was something his parents had been sure to instill in him. It, along with duty to his family, were preached above all else. That Ayesha saw it, appreciated that side of him left him smiling softly back at her, and there was a warmth there in dark eyes that couldn't be mistaken for anything other than what it was. Fondness. However unexpected and unconventional their betrothal may have been at the start, through long conversations and mutual understanding this was beginning to be more than simply a union of opportunity for Adel. This was the woman that'd been chosen for him, and the more he got to know her, the closer they became, the more content he was with the arrangement he'd been placed in. The rumble of her stomach prompted a lofting of dark brows but it was that coy smile that made him chuckle. "I think that's a fine agreement." He unbuckled his own seat belt and let himself out of the SUV so he could walk around to her side, offer an arm to her so she didn't have to bear much weight on her injured ankle. "What are you in the mood for, my dear?" Something quick he'd imagine, but even within those parameters there were options. Keys in his free hand, he'd keep his pace carefully measured to match her's as they made their way from the parking garage to the elevator and up to the fifth floor. Beyond was a long hallway, and they'd walk to the very end of it before Adel inserted his key into the lock to let them into the corner apartment. It was large, with an open floor plan. The kitchen was directly to the right of the door and counter space and appliances formed a horseshoe shape. Stools sat on one side, and behind them a more formal dining room table. Past that a sunken living room with a TV and a modern looking fireplace. A wall of windows lay past that with large bed beside that. Bookshelves were abundant, the shelves themselves filled with books, field journals, artifacts, fossils, minerals, and other odds and ends. "Please, make yourself at home," he told her as he hit a switch on the wall beside the door to bring the lights up.
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