InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "E-MC-squared"

Aaron Jacobson {willful child} (backoff) wrote in bellumlogs,
@ 2009-12-11 22:11:00

Entry tags:

red riding hood, willful child

Who: Aaron & Boyd
What: A date for breakfast.
Where: Starts at Boyd's apartment.
When: The morning after this (the day of the anon post), which is actually immediately after this, as unlikely as that is.
Warnings: None... yet?

As he climbed slowly up the stairs (he didn't trust elevators if he could help it), Aaron wondered whether it was a good idea to leave Shiloh alone. All that calm confidence was a comfort to be around, but it also confused his senses, clouded the water, made it hard for him to be absolutely certain unless he was actually in physical contact with him. That was rare, for Aaron, extremely rare. He could feel emotions everywhere, and even the faint but detectable sense of belonging he felt while he was inside of the building seem to come off the floors and the carpet, like dust, as he walked down the tenth floor hallway. He hadn't gone more than one door before he was already flat against the wall on the opposite side, putting as much distance between himself and the door to #1002 as possible. It helped. A little. He walked quickly down the hall, past 1003, 1004, 1005, all of which he knew immediately were vacant.

He blinked and frowned at #1006, then blinked again. There was so much lust in there, it was practically leaking through the walls. Aaron sort of liked lust, usually. It was an uncomplicated emotion. It was all the other stuff that got mixed in that made it uncomfortable. He stood there a minute, lost in thought, and then finally shook himself out of it. Well, whoever was in there certainly had enough "other stuff" to complicate things, even if they had sex all the time. Aaron was glad he didn't know them.

Continuing past, Aaron looked over the door to #1007. It looked like all the other doors, of course. The first zero was a bit tarnished, but other than that, there was no discernible difference to the unpracticed eye. Aaron had more than his eyes, though. He put up one palm and ran it down the surface of the door, a full inch from any contact with the wood, just for a moment.

Fear. Lots of it. The unthinking panicky kind, the one with sharp spikes. It almost overwhelmed everything else.

Aaron dropped his hand. Everyone has stuff under the surface, he thought, trying to fight off a sigh. What sucks is that I can't just have the surface bits without dealing with the rest of it.

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ex_sanguine300
2009-12-12 06:21 am UTC (link)

Boyd was sitting at the table when she heard the knock on the door. Her eyes were red-rimmed from crying, her cheek red from Vaughn's hand, and her throat marked from Trenton's teeth. She was wearing a vintage Victorian nightgown, her feet bare, and she had a red robe wrapped around her body tightly. Her hair was damp, and her cheeks scrubbed clean, and she got to her feet at the sound.

She'd put out cookies and tea, in case Aaron showed up, but she hadn't had time to do anything more. She'd just gotten in a half hour earlier, Trenton's rejection still heavy on her mind, a resigned kind of hurt.

She smiled, a forced thing, and she opened the door.

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backoff
2009-12-12 06:33 am UTC (link)

Aaron realized how fortunate he was that he'd had the childhood his dad had given him. It meant that even though he could feel what somebody was feeling three walls away, only dad was around, and he got used to it. Ted made sure he saw other people, but only occasionally, sort of like being a pinch hitter in the minor leagues every other season. Being here, in a place so densely populated, was something Aaron never would have been able to handle without that practice.

The first thing that Aaron noticed about Boyd was that she was in bed clothes, and even though it wasn't a Victoria's Secret catalog, it wasn't a nun's habit, either. The second thing was that she was very pretty, in a girlish, classical way, and he hadn't ever seen anybody (outside of magazines, anyway) that was quite that pretty before. The third thing, obviously, was that she was really sad. And scared. And lonely.

And sad.

He tried to keep all of this off of his face, of course, but he wasn't very good at that kind of thing. "Good morning." He focused on her face. Pretty. He smiled, a little uncertain, but there.

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	ex_sanguine300 2009-12-12 06:38 am UTC (link)
	He was young, which she expected; Boyd never thought anyone her own age looked, well, like they were her age. But he had a sweet face, and even if he did look her over very first thing, it wasn't lascivious, and it made her relax a little. "Hi, sugar. Wanna come in?" she asked, a smile hiding her uncertainty. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

backoff
2009-12-12 06:50 am UTC (link)

That accent sort of turned his bones to water, so his smile got a little stronger. However, he didn't stride forward at the invitation. "Uhm..." he said, as if trying to decide, edging a little forward across the threshold without actually getting physically closer to her. He leaned in a little, as if looking in, and, finally, though he put his hand back into his jacket pocket, he nodded. "Yeah, okay. If you don't mind." He looked at her, her eyes this time, and smiled into them with increasing warmth and sincerity. He was getting accustomed to the feel of the place. It was sort of like when you put on a lead coat for the first time. Eventually you get used to the weight on your shoulders.

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ex_sanguine300
2009-12-12 06:57 am UTC (link)

The indecisiveness made her smile a true smile, and she moved aside to let him in. Boyd wasn't accustomed to people her own age, and she wasn't exactly sure how to act around him, but it wasn't a bad thing. It was just... different.

"I'm sorry I'm not dressed for the day yet," she said, motioning apologetically to the tea and cookies on the table. "I haven't managed to sleep none." She didn't say it in a way that required or requested pity; it was just a truth. "But I'm real glad you came." She didn't add that being alone right now was the last thing she wanted, but she really didn't need to. It was written all over her face, and it hung heavy on the robe she was wearing.

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backoff
2009-12-12 07:06 am UTC (link)

Aaron was young, naive, very trusting. He was more occupied with looking around the strange, frilly, totally alien dwelling of a woman than worrying about showing her his back, or being concerned about his bag when he put it down, or revealing how sensitive he was to almost everything, from the furniture to the curtains. When he did look at her, it was to admire her hair of the way her skin stretched over her collarbones under the fabric. He was very... surface. Or seemed so, anyway.

Looking up from the admiring, his expression clouded up a little. "Why?" Subtlety? No. Not much in the way of manners, either.

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ex_sanguine300
2009-12-12 07:11 am UTC (link)

She watched him with curiosity. It wasn't the normal reaction she was used to from men, so it intrigued her. She sat on the foot of the bed, hugging the bedpost, feet propped on the bench in front of her. "Look different than what you're used to?" she asked, then tipped her head to the side when he asked the question. "Why am I glad you came? Or why ain't I dressed?"

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	backoff 2009-12-12 07:24 am UTC (link)
	The bed seemed to dominate Aaron's attention for a second or two. "Uhm," he said. Then he cleared his throat as he edged around the open curving arch that was all that separated the 'bedroom' from the rest of it. "I mean why didn't you get enough sleep," he clarified, absently using his heel to nudge his bag against the wall so nobody would trip on it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

ex_sanguine300
2009-12-12 07:28 am UTC (link)

She considered how to answer him. There was the standard, which was lying. Almost truths also worked really well, as a rule. But he seemed so sweet, even if he couldn't keep his eyes off the bed. It made her giggle a little, a small and girlish sound, which made her feel a little better, even with everything going on.

"'Cause I was hurting, and it made me do something real stupid," she admitted. "Why don't you sit on down and explain to me why boys do the things they do," she suggested, hugging her knees.

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backoff
2009-12-12 07:37 am UTC (link)

The giggle made Aaron break into a sweat on the back of his neck. He shook his head at himself, since he was old enough to be exasperated about it, though not quite old enough to dismiss the experience. She was still hurting, anyway, and it sort of rained cold water on his mood. It was hard to keep thinking about sex when this black despair kept edging into his senses. "Uhm... okay. As long as there's not a written test or anything. I'm not good at multiple choice." He smiled. It was a bad joke, but he tried real hard at it.

He decided to be brave about the whole thing, and so he moved into the bedroom, passing her and shifting out of the reach of the bedskirt. He stopped at the chair, and shrugged out of his outer jacket. Still a bit warm in his oversized hoodie, but that was definitely staying on. Fingers just free of the sleeves to the first joint, he ran his hand quickly over the back of the chair. His brows flicked upward, twice, and then he dropped the jacket on it before sitting down as suggested. He didn't quite dare to look up, since he knew she must be watching, and he didn't know whether he should be embarassed.

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ex_sanguine300
2009-12-12 07:43 am UTC (link)

She was watching him, but had he looked up, he would have realized it wasn't anything to be embarrassed over. She looked curious and interested, and it made her sit forward a tiny bit, toes peeking under the edge of her nightgown as she leaned. She watched him go through his entire process, then she slipped off the bed wordlessly and leaned past him, without touching him at all, and opened the window. He must be warm in those clothes, but he must have a reason for keeping them on.

She moved to the kitchen, robe trailing behind her, and she came back with a teacup and saucer, tiny cookie on the saucer, leaning against the dainty cup. The set had belonged to her mother, and Boyd had nothing but good memories around it.

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backoff
2009-12-12 07:48 am UTC (link)

The rustle of the material as she left the bed made him look up with a near-comical mixture of hope and apprehension, yet when she leaned past him, he had already half-risen out of the chair to back away from any accidental contact. He didn't actually say anything when this happened, he just sat back down as if he hadn't even considered moving, and pulled his hands back into the overlong sleeves to hide his fingers curling anxiously into his palms. Awkward the moment she was out of sight, Aaron stared at the wall to try to avoid staring at the bed.

He noticed the china as she brought it nearer to him, since it had so little negative emotional residue on it that he couldn't help but contrast it with everything else.

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ex_sanguine300
2009-12-12 07:54 am UTC (link)

She noticed the way he edged away when she neared, of course, and she carried that spike of rejection with her all the way to the kitchen and back. She gave him a little smile, and she raised one finger, letting him know to wait, and she ducked into her closet.

A few minutes later, she came back out, dressed in a knee length, pleated skirt and a soft sweater. She climbed onto the bed, crossed her legs, and she looked at him. "Well, sugar, why don't you tell me what's wrong with me, for starters? From a boy's perspective, I mean," she asked, motioning to the window, to indicate the fact that he'd shied away from her.

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backoff
2009-12-12 06:16 pm UTC (link)

She was taking it really personally, and he felt bad about it. While she was changing, he turned the nice teacup on the saucer, enjoying the soft waves of motherly affection that came off of it, and tried to think of something appropriate to say that would make her feel better without making him sound like a freak. Nothing was coming to mind.

He was trying to decide if the skirt was better than the nightgown, and decided that seeing the occasional flash of white calf was just fine, thanks very much, when she spoke. He looked utterly surprised. "There's nothing wrong with you!"

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ex_sanguine300
2009-12-12 09:57 pm UTC (link)

She gave him a little, disbelieving look. "Darlin, I may not know what I'm lacking, but I know when a boy shies away from me," she explained, idly twirling a long lock of red hair around her fingers. She glanced at his fingers on the teacup, and she smiled. "You like that? It's my favorite set." It was an idle comment, more a conversation filler than anything else, really, and she smiled after. "I'm doing a real bad job of this with you," she admitted. "Why don't you tell me 'bout you and what you like?"

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backoff
2009-12-12 11:25 pm UTC (link)

Aaron blushed. It was such an antique word, but really it just meant that he tried to ignore the heat crawling up his neck into his face. It made his mouth twist stubbornly.

He nodded truthfully at her idle question about the teaset, and, suddenly feeling self-conscious, he took his fingers off the rim of the cup and had a very awkward drink, since he usually drank out of mugs, not teacups. "What... I like?" he asked, a little squeakily. He was hopeful that it was a come on, really, but his other senses deprived him of that notion pretty quickly. All he could tell so far was that she liked him, for some reason, but it was verging on "isn't that a cute fuzzy bunny" kind of a like rather than a "wow, I want in that guy's pants" kind of like. Aaron wasn't sure how he felt about that. "I... don't know. I like you," he added, looking stubborn again, "I'm just..." he trailed off. "It's not personal."

This was completely embarrassing. Maybe he should pack his bag and head back to the woods now.

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ex_sanguine300
2009-12-12 11:34 pm UTC (link)

She noticed the blush, and it made her smile and feel warm inside. He was adorable, she thought- inexperienced in a way she could never remember being, not even as a child. "I'm not offended, Aaron," she assured him, sliding to the end of the bed, closer to him. "I really want to know. You're a boy - what do you like in a girl? When you meet a new one, I mean. What makes you want to stick around after..." she let the question trail. She wasn't sure Aaron had ever had sex, but he was a boy, and she knew that no matter how embarrassed he was around her, he thought about sex.

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backoff
2009-12-12 11:39 pm UTC (link)

Increasingly feeling as if he was losing control of the situation, Aaron gave her a sidelong look as she got nearer. He was doing an admirable job of keeping his eyes on her face, and not the material of her skirt. "I... don't know. I haven't met very many." He could of lied, but it didn't feel just right in this situation, and the conflicting signals he was getting from his body, who was all for contact in every way shape and form, and his other senses, which really could do without more personalities and emotions floating around confusing things, thanks very much, sort of made it difficult to think. She didn't have to worry about him understanding exactly what she meant. "Maybe you're not meeting the right men," he said, with a good bit of honesty and no small amount of smugness.

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ex_sanguine300
2009-12-12 11:52 pm UTC (link)

The smugness made her grin immediately. "God, but you're cute." She meant it when she said it. He was adorable, and she really was glad he'd come by that morning. She was accustomed to being seductive with men, but Aaron seemed to want her to stay on her side of the room, which was something she didn't know what to do with. The first thing Boyd did when she met someone of the opposite sex was touch them. It was her grounding in a situation that involved sexual interest, and here she had no grounding point, nothing to cling to and maintain her well-cultivated facade. It meant she was more her than she could remember being in a very long time. "Why don't you tell me 'bout the right kind of men."

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backoff
2009-12-12 11:56 pm UTC (link)

Aaron grinned. He liked being "cute." He didn't like it quite as much as he might of liked being irresistibly attractive, but he liked it just fine, all the same. "Well," he began, starting to munch on his cookie and very well aware that this was a minefield of a question, "the kind that stick around after, I guess. Which means... they like you for you even if it wasn't about--" and he coughed, to fill in for the actual word.

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	ex_sanguine300 2009-12-13 12:01 am UTC (link)
	She liked his grin; it suited him. She curled her legs beneath her and wrapped a hand around the headboard again, clearly very interested in this topic of conversation. "That takes us right back to the beginning, don't it? What do you like about a girl? Not about what she looks like. That stuff don't keep no one, I've learned. I mean inside, what do you like?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

backoff
2009-12-13 12:22 am UTC (link)

Did they have to have this conversation in the bedroom? Seriously? "I don't know," he said, nervously, to fill time before answering. "Everybody has things inside. I can't make people into what I like. They're too complicated." He put his teacup down on the saucer and looked around for someplace to put it down. "So I guess... I have to like people all the way through."

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	ex_sanguine300 2009-12-13 12:29 am UTC (link)
	She smiled at that answer, because, in her experience, everyone wanted everyone else to be exactly how they thought they should be. "How is it you realize people are complicated, darlin? Aren't boys supposed to stop at the surface?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

backoff
2009-12-13 12:42 am UTC (link)

Aaron chewed on his lower lip for a little while, looking into her face for a little while more. Then he took a really deep breath, looked at the ceiling, then gave her the chance to the question he already knew the answer to. "If... if you really want to know." Because she would figure it out eventually, and he already had realized he wasn't likely to be able to enjoy himself in that frilly bed of hers anyway.

He stood up and crossed the room until he was right next to her. Swallowing self-consciously, he took a breath and said, "Just... don't move, for a minute. Okay?"

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	ex_sanguine300 2009-12-13 12:46 am UTC (link)
	She had no idea what he was up to, but she didn't fear him in the slightest. So, she didn't move, just as he asked. In fact, she closed her eyes trustingly, and she tilted her face up to him. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)