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Tweak says, "ow! my stomach lining!"

tess graham. (openminded) wrote in oceancove,
@ 2011-05-29 11:41:00

Entry tags:

c: kirk alden, c: tess graham

Who: Tess Graham & Kirk Alden.
What: After considering everything Kirk has told her, Tess shows up at his house with an interesting request.
When: Evening of May 29.
Rating: R (and most definitely not safe for work).
Status: Incomplete and in progress.

Tess had spent the better part of the week thinking, almost in a daze - to the point where she'd moved from her apartment to work and back again in something resembling a trance, going through the motions on such a detached level that Mr. Ferguson had pulled her aside on more than one occasion to ask her what was wrong.

Nothing, she'd answered, forcing a smile on her lips that she hoped looked convincing enough. The answer was simple at best, but the truth was anything but - and, really, how could she even get into sharing it? She could tell by his face that he didn't believe her for a minute, but he didn't pry for the details, and he wouldn't, not unless she was willing to offer them.

Almost five days had gone by before she made a decision. She could either sit around, allowing herself to stew things over in her mind for yet another twenty-four hours, or she could take the first step towards closure. Kirk had shared everything with her, laid the truth of his past out in the open without any lies or withholding, and that alone was proof that she could trust him, regardless of what had happened years before he'd come here. She knew the feelings she had for him, and she knew how real they were becoming, and while a part of her was scared by how quickly she'd come to care for him, there wasn't a doubt in her mind that she was doing the right thing by going to see him.

After work, Tess closed up in a rush and drove over to his place. Before she could convince herself to turn around, she was there, parked in the driveway, wringing her hands up until the moment she turned the key in the ignition and shut the car off. She marched up to the front door and squared her shoulders, her face determined as she lifted her hand to knock. There were a million greetings she'd practiced in the car on the way over, favoring some over others, but none of them came out by the time he opened the front door.

"I want to see it," she blurted out, and immediately flushed. "Okay, wait, no, that didn't come out quite right."

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mountainwolf
2011-05-29 05:02 pm UTC (link)

Kirk had spent the majority of the week trying not to think about Tess, which was much harder than he had thought that it might be. Since he'd met her, she'd held a sway over him, but it was even more apparent when he couldn't see her. Well, it wasn't that he couldn't see her, it was simply that he had put the ball in her court, wanting her to take her time and think about the things that he had told her. Although, he'd be the first to admit that every day he didn't hear from her was a certain kind of agony.

He'd been avoiding the coffee shop, which in itself was causing him to be a little cranky. Phil suggested just going to a different coffee shop or making it himself, to which Kirk merely grumbled. It was turning into a bad week.

Sitting at his kitchen table with some old textbooks open, Kirk lifted his head upon hearing a knock at the front door. He still didn't know many people in town, so it was likely Phil ... or Tess. He didn't want to get his hopes up, though.

Upon opening the door, Kirk was absolutely delighted to see Tess standing on his doorstep, although he didn't have an opportunity to say anything before she spoke, and what she had blurted out made him raise an eyebrow.

"You, um ... I'm sorry?"

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openminded
2011-05-29 05:11 pm UTC (link)

It was already difficult for Tess not to fumble her words around Kirk, especially when he looked at her with those eyes that somehow managed to both see her and see straight through her graceless attempt at coherent conversation all at once. That, and then there was the whole part where she had stopped herself just mere moments away from jumping his bones the last time they'd seen each other, so those memories were currently on replay in her brain.

"Um - " She paused, closing her eyes, giving herself a minute to think clearly, and then began again. "Sorry, that wasn't what I meant to say - I mean, I did mean it, just not the way it came out, because there's clearly a better way of asking what I want to ask - "

Tess drew in a deep breath, taking advantage of the pause it allowed her for another do-over, breaking into a chuckle at her own babbling.

"Okay, one more time. Hi."

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mountainwolf
2011-05-29 05:28 pm UTC (link)

Kirk already found Tess' ability to fumble over words and and ramble to be incredibly endearing, and watching her standing there trying to right what she had said was damn near heartwarming. He leaned across the doorframe, letting her stumble over her words, smiling fondly at her.

He couldn't deny that he was thrilled to see her again. The night that she had come over for dinner, he truly hadn't wanted her to leave, and not that she was standing in front of him it took every ounce of strength to not just pull her into his arms and kiss her until he was breathless.

Once she had finished speaking, he laughed a little and bit his bottom lip. "Hi," he said, grinning.

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openminded
2011-05-29 05:35 pm UTC (link)

There was a better way to do this, Tess realized, to ask him for something that had been on her mind since even after the first time they'd spoken, when she'd discovered the first of many truths about him. Now, she'd learned even more and the desire to see that other side of him was ever stronger. In some ways, she supposed it was her need to witness the part of him that had supposedly been responsible for all those horrible things before, even if he couldn't remember any of it.

It might have been the wolf, but it was still him too, and she cared enough about him to want to see every part of him.

"How are you? You're good?" she asked, swaying from one foot to the other in the doorway, her expression brightening from a twisting squint into a broad smile, emboldened by his reaction upon seeing her on his doorstep.