i_lovereo (i_lovereo) wrote in reality_crisis, @ 2012-07-08 11:52:00 |
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Entry tags: | !status: complete, peter parker, plot: worlds collide |
Well, I Got You These... (Ted, Jo, OPEN)
Ted wasn’t sure what happened. One minute he was on his way to give Jo the flowers he’d gotten her, and the next thing he knew, he was in some... well, he could only really call it a wasteland. He knew in his gut that he wasn’t in the City anymore, but he still turned around to look for the sidewalk he’d just been on, or the street lamp he’d just passed. When he didn’t see them, he kept turning until he was right back to the direction that he’d started in.
His head drooped and he covered his eyes with his hand.
This couldn’t be happening. Really, it couldn’t. He’d already been taken from his own world once, it just wasn’t fair for it to happen again. He’d gotten so comfortable with the way things had been in the City. He’d actually been happy there. He had his best friend. The horse. A woman he liked. A really good job. Now where was he?
Silently, he kept hoping that when he took his hand away, he’d be on the couch in the house, waking up from a nap with the worst nightmare he’d ever had. Because of that, he didn’t want to move at all.
----
Jo had been in the bar, just cleaning up before the dinner rush, when suddenly the ground seemed to open up underneath her. Now she was in a forest... at night.
“What?” she mouthed, tilting her head and looking around.
She had been feeling strange ever since the encounter with the blond vampire. Aside from the anger and the fruitless search for more information about the vampire so she could hunt it down, Jo had been having some truly bizarre and suggestive dreams. While awake, she seemed to be attracting more attention than usual and some of the patrons at the Roadhouse had been downright grabby. Not that she let them get away with it and in fact, she’d accidentally broken someone’s hand while making her point. Now that had been disturbing-she seemed to be stronger.
Despite her fears, she hadn’t turned into a vampire. And she sure as hell didn’t want anything to do with blood. But the blood seemed to have changed her in certain ways all the same. Jo just hoped that it wore off soon.
She heard a rustling sound in the trees nearby. She pulled out her knife and went to investigate.
As she found the source of the noise, she lowered the knife. Her eyes flickered down to the flowers clutched in the man’s hand.
“Ted?”
----
Ted looked up, dismayed to see that his fears were true and he was actually in this new place, and more brought down by the fact that it appeared Jo was here too. It was one thing to be here alone, and quite another for anybody he cared about to be here as well.
“I was hoping it was a nightmare.” He said, his hand finally dropping back to his side.
He had to smile though, just a teeny little bit, because of Jo’s knife. He supposed that if he had to choose somebody to be in a strange place with, Jo was a good one. She was always ready for the worst, it seemed to him. Capable of fighting and he felt sure that the knife wasn’t the only weapon she had on her.
“You seem... different. Did you change your hair?” But that wasn’t quite it, was it? There was something more than just hair going on there. He felt bad thinking that she was even prettier than she had been, that felt like some kind of insult, it seemed true though.
---
Even Ted seemed to notice whatever change had come over her. Jo wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but she did know that she was glad she’d found him. She glanced around the forest and then back to Ted. She shook her head.
“Not exactly.”
She heard footsteps nearby. On instinct, Jo stepped closer to Ted. While the gesture was mostly protective, there was definitely a hint of attraction there. The dreams she’d been having lately and just how she’d been feeling overall had certainly kicked her sexuality into overdrive. It didn’t help that it had been an awfully long time since she’d been close to anyone in that way.
“So, I think we can agree that this is not a nightmare. Unless it’s a really bizarre shared dreamspace,” Jo said in a voice that was low enough to hopefully avoid detection of whatever was out there.
----
Ted was a pretty nervous kind of guy, but he didn’t take the noise as a threat when maybe he should have. Considering where they were. He took it as an animal moving through the trees or some such. But when she jumped forward in her half-protective stance, he tensed. Maybe he should learn that it wasn’t always people that were out to get you, but animals too.
“It feels too real to be a dream. Or nightmare. I’ve never really had vivid dreams, so if it is one, it’s yours. If it is one, and it’s yours, you’re really good at this.”
Now he was wondering what kind of horrible things might be waiting out in the wilds to snack on them.
---
“My dreams aren’t like this,” Jo said quietly.
The sounds came closer. She put her hand on his arm momentarily, trying to reassure herself that he was still right behind her and still breathing. The knife was still held at the ready, just waiting for whatever threat might present itself. Jo really wished that she had her shotgun.
Then again, the confrontation with Pam had proven that sometimes weapons-even the best weapons-didn’t do a damn thing.
Jo’s entire body tensed, prepared to defend the two of them. She was still tensed when the source of the noise made itself known. A small white rabbit appeared from the brush. It looked up and locked eyes with Jo before it turned tail and dashed away.
The petite blonde relaxed and let out a laugh as she willed her heartrate to return to normal. She turned around and looked at Ted, trying to gauge how he was doing with all of this.
----
He was laughing too, though he’d been in a moment of sheer panic just seconds prior. Maybe it was the relief from that causing the laughter. Maybe it was more. He didn’t know. But the sound was surely coming from him.
A bunny. All the tension and her readiness, all for a bunny.
“I’m glad you’re here to protect me.” He teased. Likely, it would be her doing the protecting anyway, if anything big and bad did pop up. But he thought they could both use a moment of jesting. The bunny being so scared of them and running off immediately had been the comic relief that he needed to start feeling better about this situation.
He held the flowers out. “I got you these. I was on my way to see you, actually.”
---
Jo looked at the flowers, surprised. Not that she had assumed they were for anyone else when she’d seen them in his hands, but... she wasn’t sure if she could remember ever getting flowers. Her first boyfriend had been a hunter and while he was sweet, hunters just weren’t the flower-giving type. Since losing him, it had been awhile before Jo had had the heart to date again and then, well... dating simply hadn’t happened. Since then, she’d gone on the road which really didn’t lend itself to romance.
She smiled at Ted and stepped closer to take the flowers.
“That was really sweet. Thanks, Ted. And I’m glad I’m around to protect you too.”
She rocked up on her toes so she could stand tall enough to place a light kiss on his lips. It was a bit bolder than she might have been ordinarily, but it wasn’t entirely influenced by the vampire blood that had been forced on her.
----
Ted was surprised at the kiss, but he wasn’t going to complain about it. Not even a little bit. He returned it as well as he could through the smile that appeared. He supposed this meant that they were both headed in the same direction when it came to what was between them.
“I was also going to ask you out on a second date, but that might have to be stalled for a little bit until we discover if there’s any places to eat out here, or just more trees.” He shrugged. “But I could ask anyway, and you could raincheck it.”
He put a hand softly on the small of Jo’s back, keeping her close for a little bit longer. Despite being in the middle of a strange forest, it was a pretty nice moment.
---
It was a nice moment. Which was why, of course, it wasn’t going to last. Jo would have happily stayed right there and kissed him more, but the sound of something moving through the leaves interrupted her concentration. She half-expected another bunny, but those expectations were dashed as she heard a low growl. Jo stepped out of the embrace and took out her knife, though she realized that it wouldn’t do much good against the gigantic rodents that were currently surrounding them.