Clara Oswald is going the long way round (alwaysbeenthere) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-04-20 15:31:00 |
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It was a lull in Orange County insanity and Clara was grateful for it. She loved the adventures, she loved helping people… but sometimes she did need to be grounded. To feel like a normal woman and not someone who was technically dead. So a quiet night in with Bucky was just what she needed. And honestly she wouldn’t change it for the world. Because with Bucky, she never seemed to feel that itch to go out and do something completely reckless and chase the next big thing.
At present, she was curled up next to her boyfriend in one of his t-shirts on the couch as it was one of the nights she was staying at his place ever since she had decided to sublet her flat to Jemma’s friend. Between Bucky, her dad, and her TARDIS, it wasn’t as if Clara had been staying at her flat anyway.
Book in hand and Cap sitting to the side, it was just nice.
Not only was it a lull in Orange County insanity, but Bucky had hit a lull in his Dreams. Which was a relief considering his Dreams liked to make him lose his left arm multiple times. Losing the metal arm had been less traumatic than losing his real arm, but it was still an adjustment. Getting used to only having one arm was difficult, to say the least. While the metal arm may have changed his balance, it still functioned like an arm. He could still grab things and all of that. But only having one arm made doing some tasks awkward.
Which might have been one little part of the reason he had started thinking about asking Clara to move in with him. Of course, most of the reason was that he wanted her around, and liked having her there with him. But he was coming to terms with the fact he was partially disabled and having an extra pair of hands around would be helpful.
Having a nice quiet night in with Clara, he had a book himself, though he was reading it on a Kindle. It was infinitely easier for him to use a Kindle than it was to hold a book having one arm. He glanced over to Clara, smiling.
“Good book?” He asked.
If there was one thing that was brilliant about time travel (and there was a lot which was brilliant about time travel), it was the fact that Clara was able to jump to the future to get books that weren’t released yet. Perhaps it was cheating a bit, but she really didn’t care all that much. Because at the end of the day, it meant a new book for her to read.
The lull in Bucky’s dreams was a relief to Clara s well, though. Given what she knew of his Dream world (okay any Dream world really), it was one thing after the other and given the constant losing of his arm? Well, the time to readjust was a good thing for him. Sometimes it felt like a lifetime ago when she had to deal with wondering when the next dream would hit...well it was even with the repeats. Even so, she remembered the lulls and the peace they could bring.
Still, she couldn’t help but tease Bucky about the Kindle. She understood the why of it, but she’d be remiss if she didn’t poke fun at it as well.
“It is. Then again when you’re weaving together three stories in different time periods to come together and it all to make sense…” It was her sort of thing, especially since it was a historical fiction book. Nor was it the first of this particular author that she had read.
Sure, traveling to the future to get new books was sort of cheating, but Bucky wasn’t about to nay-say it. After all, he liked reading as well, and it was harmless. It wasn’t like Clara made attempts to sell the books or something in this time.
Luckily, Bucky could take the teasing about the Kindle. He of course preferred actual books to a Kindle, but when he currently only had one hand, holding a book was problematic at best, especially if he needed to turn a page. It had only taken one laughter-laced comedy of errors trying to turn a page with one hand that made him switch to a Kindle.
“That is no easy feat to draw three timelines like that together. Clearly the author is a master at crafting the tale?” It was less a question and more a statement given he hadn’t heard Clara mutter anything negative about it just yet.
Please, as if Clara would sell books before they were to be published. She wasn’t a miscreant, thank you very much! She just liked having the option there and there were plenty of books that looked promising and yet having to wait was just a horrible thing when one had a TARDIS. She didn’t use it to alter the past (no matter how often she wished she could at times).
The Kindle really did have its uses and Clara had pointed out how at least he wouldn’t have been targeted by a serial killer from a book she had read given the fact he used the Kindle and hadn’t taken it with no plan on using it, or gave it to someone while not being one to use it himself. Now that had been a ridiculous twist in the murder mystery and yet one Clara appreciated for the sheer absurdity of it.
“She is. Because you obviously have to be able to get the beats of the story, the pertinent information and find a way to make it cohesive. And seeing at how this is three timelines as opposed to the two used in The Alice Network, it’s all the more impressive. And just her grasp on history in general.”
When Clara had told him about the Kindle being at the center of a murder plot in a book she’d read, he’d also thought that was a ridiculous twist. Killing people because they didn’t use a Kindle? What kind of criteria was that for killing someone? Sure, motives for murder weren’t always logical or made sense to anyone other than the killer, but that was still ridiculous. At any rate, he was glad that he wouldn’t have been a target.
“I can definitely understand that. It wouldn’t be easy juggling two timelines and making both be as vibrant and intertwining them, let alone having three timelines. I do love when writers are skilled at their craft like that. Clearly she wanted to take her skills to the next level.”
It sounded like quite the interesting story Clara was reading at the very least. Bucky tended to have a wide range when it came to reading. Sometimes he’d read books on historical time periods or wars. Other times, he’d more than happily read something from science-fiction, sometimes even fantasy.
The story was rather interesting, with the killer being someone who used to own a family bookstore that then went out of business because of the Kindle and how people who didn’t even like Kindles giving them as gifts to someone who wouldn’t use one. It was certainly something. Still, with Bucky actually using his Kindle, he would have been safe.
“She really is.” And given Clara’s love of history and how it was so important to the story? Of course she was going through it rather quickly. Then again, like Bucky, Clara pretty much read whatever seemed to catch her interest.
“What about your book? How is it?”
“My book is good, though a little dry since it’s more biographical and not a work of fiction. But it’s still interesting to read. It’s about the Arab Revolt that began in 1916.” It was a bit relevant to things going on in this day and age with events in the Middle East. It was also perhaps an outlier for topics to read about regarding World War I and its aftermath, but Bucky found it to be interesting.
“Perhaps I’ll choose something a little less dry to read next. Perhaps another reading of The Lord of the Rings?” He said with some amusement. After all, Tolkien could be a little dry to read in some parts, but that tended to be based on someone’s personal preference.
“Nothing wrong with that! I love a good history book.” Okay so Clara loved all books really. Thanks to having been an AP English teacher and the like, she did often gravitate towards fiction but she was also known to read history books and current event books as well. It really just depended on her mood.
As for Tolkien? Clara just laughed some. She loved the books, truly she did. But he had his moments. Though the same could be said of Victor Hugo or Tolstoy, yet she still read them.
“I mean, who am I to stop you?”
In this day and age, reading history books was a good thing that Bucky would suggest a lot of people do more often. But that was besides the point.
“I don’t think you’d stop me from reading anything. Unless it was something terrible like Twilight or 50 Shades of Gray and I intended to read seriously read them instead of making fun of them all.” Which would be the only reason he’d read them. But even that wasn’t enough to make him actually do it. He’d stick the the endless memes online and running jokes in pop culture about them, thanks.
This sort of activity, both relaxing and reading with Clara, as well as talking about books in this manner were becoming rather more common of late. It had been something he’d been noticing and it made him ponder asking her to move in with him. He liked having her around, especially if he had a bad day or PTSD-associated nightmares, it was good to have a friendly face to wake up to.
Aside from Cap’s, of course. While a dog was good, sometimes a human touch was needed to help bring him out of his head and his past.
Was it really besides the point though? Clara thought a lot of good could be had if people just had a basic grasp of actual history and civics.
“Okay yes, you have a point there.” Because really now. Some books just required being mocked. But who needed to read it when there were memes online? And who said the internet was only crap and nothing good came from it?
The commonplace nature of these sorts of conversations and activities was nice. With her dad travelling out of the solar system more, it didn’t give her as many options on where to go. And honestly no matter what she said, Clara needed to be grounded. Otherwise the immortality of it all, the worries about watching her loved ones die or just...not caring anymore might be a thing. So spending time with Bucky? Getting out of her head from those thoughts or trauma from the Dreams and here? Always a good thing.
It was domestic and that wasn’t a bad thing.
“I do enjoy having a point sometimes,” he teased with a grin. This was one of the reasons he enjoyed living in the age of the internet. Memes were a gift that kept giving. Especially on things that were absolutely terrible.
It was definitely domestic, and Bucky hadn’t thought about having such a turn in his life. Not that he was against dating, romance just hadn’t been on his mind when he’d initially moved here. It had been a need of change that had led him here. But now, after everything they both had been through, he really couldn’t imagine his life without Clara in it. If he didn’t have her, he’d probably rarely leave his home because of his PTSD and other issues stemming from the Dreams.
After a few moments of comfortable silence, he looked at Clara. “I’ve been thinking lately about us. What would you say to moving in with me?” It was blunt and possibly more than a little unexpected considering it wasn’t related to what they’d been talking about. But it was related to what they were doing.
“Mm, and it is nice when you do.” Yes, she was teasing as well. Bucky wasn’t nearly as bad at enabling Clara’s more reckless behavior as Jim was (though she also enabled him so it was a win/win enabling friendship) but still. Clara Oswald liked to have the last word and so she would gladly tease her boyfriend about such matters.
After Samuel had died, Clara had essentially shut herself down to the thought of romance or domesticity or anything like that. So many ghosts for such a young age. Add in everything that had happened in the Dreams with Danny…. Well, it hadn’t seemed a thing that would happen. Especially once she herself had died and was stuck between one heartbeat and the last. But here she was and Clara couldn’t see her life any different.
As they fell into a comfortable silence, Clara had been about to go back to reading when Bucky started talking and so she looked up at him. And...okay that was definitely unexpected. But it also didn’t require any thinking of what her answer would be.
So shifting so that she was now straddling her boyfriend’s lap, arms over his shoulders, Clara just smiled.
“I think I’d like that very much.”
Bucky had long since realized that Clara liked to have the last word at times. So now that he’d made his point, he let her have the final word on that. Because he could keep it going all night with trying to get the last word for himself. But he wasn’t wanting to actually do that.
He looked at Clara as she shifted position, setting his Kindle aside, he slid his arm around her back as a grin spread across his face. Of course, he hadn’t exactly expected a no, but it was still good to hear her answer.
“Great! I do like having you around.” Which was obvious by this point, but whatever.
Oh, Clara would have kept it going all night long if possible. She’d win eventually, she always did. It was just one of those undisputed facts of life. Best to just accept it and move on really.
A no would have been quite unexpected. Perhaps if she were in a state of mind where she was stressing about the future and watching everyone die and pushing away but that wasn’t the case right now. No, right now, she was happy and content and the only answer was yes to moving in with him.
“I should hope so.” And just to show him that she enjoyed being around him as well and that she was quite content with moving in and being all domestic? Clara kissed Bucky. It seemed an appropriate response to the decision after all.