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Awkward
Sept 18, 2008 0:14:07 GMT -5
Post by Jules on Sept 18, 2008 0:14:07 GMT -5
Mary froze. Vince could be cruel, she knew that very well, but she hadn't been expecting... it was like her chest had been carved into and her heart pried from the cavity, leaving her hollow. She blinked slowly and when she came back to herself she had an odd glassy look.
"I think you should leave now." She whispered and moved away from him, to the door to hold it open for him. "He was you, just so you know." Mary didn't know why she was telling him this. "Didn't you see how he looked? I didn't rid myself of anything, Vince. I was pretending he was you."
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Awkward
Sept 18, 2008 0:29:15 GMT -5
Post by Miss Jack on Sept 18, 2008 0:29:15 GMT -5
Of course he hadn't noticed how Toby looked--- he'd been too busy noticing the slime's lips on her neck. He didn't leave; we walked to the door and with one hefty push, it pried from her hand and slammed shut.
"I don't understand you," he said after a moment. Again, and again, she walked brazenly into places he had kept as holy ground, where no one else was permitted to stand. Her love had wrecked him beyond repair; he could no longer control his temper, and especially not the emotions he was so desperate to deny having.
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Awkward
Sept 18, 2008 0:38:27 GMT -5
Post by Jules on Sept 18, 2008 0:38:27 GMT -5
"I never asked you to understand me." She reminded him softly, anger gone for now. It was him who was hard to understand. Why hadn't he left? She'd thought he would've left and not looked back.
"You want to know why I love you? Because I do. I wasn't just attached to you, I love you." She wasn't going to let him leave thinking anything else. Not tonight, not when hope was such a stupid thing, she couldn't take that risk.
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Awkward
Sept 18, 2008 0:53:02 GMT -5
Post by Miss Jack on Sept 18, 2008 0:53:02 GMT -5
Oh... what was she doing to him? Hearing it, again, from her lips was freeing. It knocked something loose inside him. Love.... the word would not come easily. Yet she deserved to know the truth of how he felt.
"I've never loved anything," he said. "I don't know what it means, I don't know how it feels. But I miss you when you're away from me, and even though you irritate me, and you're an idiot the majority of the time, I wouldn't change anything about you. I notice you. I care about your well-being more than my own, and I want to protect you. I don't want anyone to have the right to touch you except me." He paused, breathing heavily. He could barely bear to look at her, but couldn't bear to look away. "If that's love.... than I do love you."
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Awkward
Sept 18, 2008 18:06:14 GMT -5
Post by Jules on Sept 18, 2008 18:06:14 GMT -5
[!!!!!!!!!!]
At first she'd almost wanted to block her ears because she'd thought he was going to go into an explanation of why he did not and could not love her. But soon enough she was shocked into silence and stillness. Not even when she'd been hoping had she even entertained the thought of Vince loving her back. The entire time she'd simply been fighting to get over him, and knowing that he cared would've just made it that much harder.
Mary opened her mouth to say something before realizing for once, she didn't know what to say. Didn't know what to do. This was Vince touch-me-and-I-kill-you Vince. This was cold, cruel, less-emotional-than-a-rock Vince Delano. Last time she'd kissed him he'd looked shocked and than amused. She'd assumed that all this time he'd been laughing at her.
But he loved her.
Because it was completely unlike her to say nothing even when she had nothing to say, Mary smiled a little doubtfully.
"Really?"
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Awkward
Sept 18, 2008 21:50:59 GMT -5
Post by Miss Jack on Sept 18, 2008 21:50:59 GMT -5
So he did love her after all. He suspected as much. Defeated, he could only manage a half-hearted glare. Really she asked him. It had nearly killed him to say what he had, and she wanted to know if he was serious. He nodded slowly, as if accepting a life-long sentence of hard time.
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Awkward
Sept 18, 2008 22:06:09 GMT -5
Post by Jules on Sept 18, 2008 22:06:09 GMT -5
Nervous, she couldn't explain it, she was nervous all of the sudden. This was Vince. One part of her was simply in shock, another telling her coldly that it was all a dream, she'd knocked her head and when she woke up she'd feel horrible, another whispered that if it was a dream, however imperfect, that she didn't want to wake up and yet another part of her told her to seize the moment because who knew when he'd retreat back into his shell.
Only Vince could fracture her like this. Slowly, tentatively, she placed a hand on his chest were his heart would beat if it was there. She didn't know how to be with Vince, not even the slightest clue. If he didn't know what love meant she didn't know what his love meant. She looked up at him after a moment and smiled.
So what, so it would be difficult, so it wasn't going to be anything from a fairy tale, so she had no idea what to do now. So what. He loved her, and even though he looked like it was a death sentence, she didn't care. Their relationship had gotten over awkward during the brief death of her legs.
Mary could learn to be content if this was all she ever got from him. It was Vince, things wouldn't be like they would be with anyone else. But it was what she wanted, and she didn't have to explain it to anyone.
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Awkward
Sept 18, 2008 22:17:46 GMT -5
Post by Miss Jack on Sept 18, 2008 22:17:46 GMT -5
He covered her hand with his own and thought maybe this wouldn't be as bad as he'd imagined. So this was love? Her eyes looked like she loved him. He liked it on her, but he hoped his own expression wasn't half as mushy.
"Now will you move back?" he asked.
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Awkward
Sept 18, 2008 22:27:52 GMT -5
Post by Jules on Sept 18, 2008 22:27:52 GMT -5
Mary laughed and nodded happily. She'd missed the circus almost as much as she'd missed him. Feeling his hand over hers settled something inside, and there were no longer a bunch of different parts of herself saying different things. She wouldn't kiss him, since the last time she'd tried that it hadn't gone so smoothly. Vince wasn't so good at the being touched thing, although he'd certainly eased up about it a great deal around her. But she was unsure were his boundaries lay (since she was so good at getting him to make newer, smaller ones).
Mary closed the distance between them and laid her head on his shoulder, tilting her body so he could still take away his hand if he wanted. She didn't want to make him feel trapped.
"Take me home."
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Awkward
Sept 18, 2008 22:50:51 GMT -5
Post by Miss Jack on Sept 18, 2008 22:50:51 GMT -5
He stroked her hair between his fingers, gently setting it behind her ear. This was new to him, as few things after centuries of living were. She'd somehow wiggled under his boundary line, and now not only did he not mind, he liked extending the privilege to her; only her. His touch was light-- cautious, but sure.
Home. Their home. He had to share it now, whether he wanted to or not, because it wasn't home without her. He finally broke their contact and opened the door, unable to get there soon enough to satisfy.
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Awkward
Sept 18, 2008 23:09:46 GMT -5
Post by Jules on Sept 18, 2008 23:09:46 GMT -5
This whole place could burn to the ground for all she cared about it. But she couldn't quite leave like this. She hadn't even unpacked the duffel she'd brought with her, slightly unwilling to admit this was where she was going to settle down for the rest of her life. So it only took a moment to gather her things and throw the bag over her shoulder before rejoining Vince and closing the door behind them.
"I hated this place." She said, locking the door just the same and then turning to the mummy (her mummy). "I'm sorry about him." He didn't need to know his name. "And I never....with James, or Delfonz. Delfonz is gay and I haven't seen James in over a century. I was trying to make you...jealous, I guess."
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Awkward
Sept 18, 2008 23:18:42 GMT -5
Post by Miss Jack on Sept 18, 2008 23:18:42 GMT -5
Well, if they were going to be honest...
"It worked," he said gruffly. He'd gotten the oddest feeling of unease when she'd left to grab her bag, and now he walked as close as possible to her without actually stepping on her.
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Awkward
Sept 18, 2008 23:31:23 GMT -5
Post by Jules on Sept 18, 2008 23:31:23 GMT -5
Mary looked over at him wonderingly because of how close he was insisting on walking to her, his shoulder pressed up against hers. Not that she minded. She kept one hand bracing the shoulder strap of the duffel and the other hung near his, but she'd never been a hand-holding kind of girl and she couldn't really picture Vince walking down the way holding hands with anyone anyways.
"I'm sorry." She repeated, although secretly it was a bit pleasing to know. "I honestly thought you were laughing at me the whole time."
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Awkward
Sept 19, 2008 20:16:48 GMT -5
Post by Miss Jack on Sept 19, 2008 20:16:48 GMT -5
He opted against calling her an idiot again, though the urge was tempting. "Laughing at you..." he muttered under his breath.
The rest of the walk passed quietly, but comfortably. He felt uncertain and cautious, but... happy, was that it? He supposed it was. It was close to how he felt on their good days in the circus, but made strangely better because he knew she loved him. Loving her didn't seem to make that much of a difference, and he supposed he'd loved her a lot longer than he'd realized.
At last, the tops of the tents and broken ferris wheel appeared on the horizon, and he sighed.
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Awkward
Sept 19, 2008 20:24:20 GMT -5
Post by Jules on Sept 19, 2008 20:24:20 GMT -5
Mary smiled as they walked onto the comforting and familiar turf of the Circus. She almost, almost bent down to kiss the ground, but instead stopped in front of her tent as they came up to it. This was what worried her. Would things just be the same? Mary had been thinking about it on the walk home. She was worried Vince would be completely okay letting things slide back to the way they had been. What differences she was expecting, she wasn't even sure, but she was hoping for some change.
She did not go through all this pain and upheaval for things to revert to how they'd been before she told him.
"Guess this is me." She set her bag down by the entrance flap.
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