WHO: Blaze and Eliza WHEN: The Bellowes Inn Party. WHERE: Bellowes Inn Courtyard SUMMARY: Blaze and Eliza attempt to small talk. It's a roller coaster of success and failure. WARNINGS: It's tame.
The inn was crowded and Blaze had gone outside for a few minutes to get some air. He saw Eliza and she seemed to have the opposite idea, but the assistant director, Lauren, had just left and she was alone. Blaze could still hear the music, but it was a little quieter out here. He went to stand by her.
“So how are you liking it here?” he asked.
There was someone at her side before she even fully parsed through her conversation with Lauren. Don’t poison Rhett. But that left a lot of things on the table. And she hadn’t said not to poison Moira. Technically. But then Blaze was there, familiar enough for her to know his voice if not the cadence of his footsteps.
The music was a little too much for that anyway.
“It’s warm enough to not need a sweater.” she answered as she looked over at him.
He smiled. “Do you feel that passionately about the town at large, or just this spot?”
“I don’t know, I have not been to the town at large at this exact moment.”
“How do you feel about it in general right now? Do you like living at the Bellowes and working on the film crew in Fall City?”
Eliza watched him carefully as she went silent after his questions. His face flickered in the electric lights that were scattered throughout the courtyard, the shadows playing on it to hide some things that would be easier to read in sunlight. “Why?”
Blaze watched her too. “It sounds hard. So I wondered.” It wasn't just the pregnancy, though Blaze imagined that would make it harder. He looked out across the courtyard.
“What does?” she asked, because she wasn’t entirely sure what it was that he was referring to. The town or the film? Or both, somehow.
“Moving to a new place that's really different. Living at an inn. Being an intern. They all sound like they could be good but also like they could be hard.”
Moving to Fall City hadn’t been the culture shock of crossing an ocean. But she supposed he had a point. “I guess I never really thought of it that way.”
Blaze thought that was fair. He didn’t know, so he was asking. “So you’re doing okay?” he asked. “You’re liking all of it?”
“You seem very concerned with how I am.” she gave a hint of a smirk. “Maybe I am some.”
That wasn’t what she expected. “Why?”
“Sometimes I care about the welfare of certain people.” Blaze liked Eliza. For some reason, he still liked Harrison. They were doing stuff that Blaze would be scared to do. Eliza especially. He looked at her. “Are you doing okay?”
Her arms crossed, trying to process through this concern as she frowned slightly. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Blaze felt like he'd already answered that. “I'm not saying you aren't. I'm just asking how you are. Because I don't know.”
“I'm fine. I'm not some.” She searched for the word, not sure what would be best. “I'm not fragile. Everything's fine.”
“Okay.” Fine was her answer and that was fine, but a beat later, Blaze gave her a look. “I don’t think you’re fragile,” he said. “After the Mill and the March House, how could I?” She’d taken him hostage. Fragile was about the last word Blaze associated with Eliza at this point. “I would have asked if you looked like Danny.”
He looked out over the courtyard, before he looked at Eliza for a moment and shrugged. His tone softened. “I just think people are people, you know?”
There was a quick tut through her teeth at that. Danny seemed to be easier to press than his height might suggest. She'd watched, on the network, at the party. Size had nothing to do with anything.
She watch out into the dim light of the courtyard. “Maybe I'm not people.” She mused, her tone softened.
Blaze looked at her as if he was considering her in a new light. “What are you?”
“That'd be telling.” She answered with an easy shrug. “Where's the fun in that?”
Blaze looked at her closer. He pressed his lips together. “You’re definitely not a yak or a coyote…” He was confident in that. “You’re definitely at least people-like…”
“Some cultures believe animals can shift into people.” She pointed out as she looked back at him, meeting his eyes for a moment.
“I could see you as a bear or a jaguar maybe,” Blaze said. “But not a yak or a coyote.” He stood by his assessment. “I’d count a bear or a jaguar-person as a person.”
“Are they a bear or a person first. Or are they something else?” She asked, looking up towards what could be seen of the night sky with the courtyard lights. “Maybe Harrison has my hide. Or maybe I'll turn him into something like me.”
"So like a selkie but with a bear?..That would be cool," Blaze said. Maybe there was a fairy story with a bear-hide, but Blaze didn't remember it. "I think you've already turned him."
“If I'm a bear.” She corrected but smiled, soft and private at the thought of being something other with Harrison. “I know I have.”
“If you’re a bear.” Blaze nodded. But he could really see her as a bear. He’d peg Harrison as more of a raccoon or a dingo, but Blaze could see Eliza turning Harrison into a bear. Dash was a lemur. There was no helping him.
“Exactly.” She switched topics. “Are you having fun at the party?”
Blaze shrugged. “Big parties aren’t my thing and this one feels especially shady. I got some good pictures though. Are you?”
“I usually end up outside at big parties.” She motioned vaguely around them. “So as expected. Usually I try to get on the roof.”
“You don’t want to this time because of the baby?” Blaze asked.
Eliza frowned as she looked at him, curious. “Who said I didn't want to?” She asked, her voice still calm.
“Just wondering why you haven’t yet. I don’t know what the rules are,” Blaze said and frowned. He’d never had any reason to look up the pregnancy rules. He knew smoking was bad and that Eliza was still doing that, but he didn’t know what anything was on the scale of bad. “Is there a height one?”
“Not that I know of.” Not that Eliza knew all that much other than what the doctor had briefly gone over with her. “I saw someone out here. I just haven't made it to the roof.”
Blaze nodded. “I like heights too. The inn roof doesn’t have a good vantage point for the inn, but the buildings around it do. I’ve been on some of those roofs.”
“I haven't gotten to explore them much.” Originally she would have had the whole shoot. But it was going to get harder to do sooner rather than later. “I like being closer to the sky.”
“That must be one of the advantages of living in a big city,” Blaze said. “How long did you live in LA?”
“Two years.” she answered. “And yeah, lots of rooftops, lots of tall buildings.”
“Oh,” Blaze said. “Why’d you move?”
“School.”
“Is that where you met Harrison?”
“No I met him at a party when I threatened to stab him.” Eliza answered the question as if it was as ordinary as meeting at a coffee shop.
From Eliza, at this point, after being on the receiving end of her knife himself, Blaze wasn’t as shocked as he could have been at that. “A party like this?”
“Sure. Too many people, too loud, and anything bad will get whispered about till the next one.”
Blaze laughed. He couldn’t argue with that. “That about sums them all up. Besides the awkwardness.”
Eliza's eyes fell on the inn itself for now, looking up the building. Inevitably the party would be awkward. Technically it was work. “Yeah. I guess the trick is to not be so awkward you're part of the whispers.”
Blaze nodded. “I strive to be just barely memorable enough that people don’t ask me why I didn’t go. But not so memorable that I leave an impression. I have rules.”
“That's a tightrope to walk.” She sighed. “I'm supposed to talk to people tonight.”
“Always bring a camera. Don’t get drunk. Stay far away from Melanie. Talk to whoever you want but avoid any kind of physical contact with people outside your sphere unless you decide it’s worth the consequences.” There were a couple more, but those were the basic ones. He shrugged. “Why? Because you’re in the film crew?”
“Cause of a game. But what's wrong with Melanie?” Eliza frowned reflexively.
“She’s my ex.” Blaze said. But since just being his ex wasn’t actually Blaze’s issue with Melanie, he sighed. “We were friends. We dated senior year. She cheated with one of our mutual friends. We broke up. People were angry about it then and still remember now. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t have to see each other again, but…” His eyes cut away. “Hazards of dating anyone in a small town.” He shrugged. Blaze didn’t really want to talk about it.
“I guess so.” Eliza answered though she didn't really understand it. High school already seemed so long ago. Then again she had left that town and Blaze hadn't. “I like her. She's attempting to dethrone my immortal sea witch status.”
Blaze stared at her, unblinking, for a beat. “..Cool. I guess.” When you told someone about that time your girlfriend cheated on you and trampled your hea..whatever and their response was to tell you how much they liked her, what was there to say?
She looked back at him, as unblinking. What was the correct thing to say in this situation? “I’ll try and not bring her around you.” Was her attempt at a correct answer.
Blaze would have inhaled deeper, but he liked to hike. He was looking at some far-off point in the distance. “I’d appreciate that.” It was a neutral, empty, response and Blaze didn’t look at her. Really, he just wished it hadn’t come up. He shrugged, before he looked back. “See you around.”
She shrugged back, because she wasn’t sure where to go from there. “Yeah. Guess so.” There was still the whole rest of the night ahead.