John "Harley" Villetta III (breaksomehearts) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2010-02-17 14:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2009-07-04 |
Hold your head high, heavy heart and save your strength for the morning after
Who: Harley Villetta and Bren Wilson
Where: Phonelines, eventually Bren's place
When: Late evening
Bren eventually made it home from Dagmar's, and the whole day had just served to make her shakier with each passing hour. Swearing softly, she pulled out her phone as she walked in her door, dialing. "Hey, Harley? It's Bren. What's up, are you busy?" She knew she sounded stressed as she shut the door, locking it and doing the chain she almost never did, dropping her keys on the table and surveying her living room. Neil had pointed out that all her furniture was against the wall that didn't have any pipes in it, and she supposed he was right. She hadn't grown up working in a hardware store without absorbing a little, including which type of PVC pipe resonated the best. But that wasn't really relevant to the fae blood thing, which she guessed had some credence. Well, it had to, didn't it? If Mosiah was using glamours, that kinda took the guesswork out, they had fae blood, period.
"Sit down. Like, if you're not sitting, be sitting." She went into her bedroom, flopping down on the bed with a sigh and putting a hand over her face. "Mosiah's in town? Like, super creepy Peter Wiggin older brother psycho Mosiah. He's in Ann Arbor, he got me to meet him today and I'm just totally like wigging the fuck out, okay so I know it's kinda late and whatever and you're probably busy or something but could you maybe come over?" Her voice was sortof shrinking for that entire sentence, so she was saying the last words like a timid little girl, biting her lip when she was finished. She sat up again, cradling her phone in her shoulder as she fumbled at the buckles on her shoes.
Harley was just getting back from the fireworks when his cell phone went off in his pocket. The house was dark, meaning his father was likely already asleep or out drinking. Seeing as Bubba Villetta's motorcycle wasn't in the garage, Harley was going to bet on the latter. Whatever, he'd be doing the same if his friend's parents hadn't crashed their party. What a lame way to end his Fourth of July, home by himself.
Looking down at the phone, he saw that it was Bren calling. "Hey, what's up? I just got home." He cradled the phone between his head and shoulder as he went over to his fridge, looking over its contents. Harley never ate much, but even he wanted a snack right now. Bren sounded - well, freaked out was a massive understatement. Grabbing a bottle of water instead, Harley sat down at his kitchen table, propping his long legs up on the chair beside him.
From the sound of her voice, he could tell that whatever this was, it was big. Not that it took much to excite the girl sometimes, but this was something different. "I'm sitting, don't you worry about - WHAT? Mosiah?" Thankfully the bottle of water was still capped when Harley dropped it on the floor. "No fucking way. I mean, you're okay right? He didn't hurt you?" Once the words were out of his mouth, Harley started digging his car keys out of his pocket. "Yeah, I can be over in a few, not a problem."
"No, he didn't hurt me. Bogart wouldn't let him get close," she said with a little laugh. "God, why now? Like, I'm doing really well, and everything's just, like, fucking peachy, and he shows up now with this bullshit about I just wanna protect you Brenna and God will forgive us both Brenna, and-" Her voice continued, but distant, and there was a loud clatter, before she was back a second later. "Sorry, I dropped my phone. And like, I just missed my Brennybear and it's not wrong for me to miss my little sister. He fucking called me Brennybear, no one has called me that in, like...well, since I left Vegas. I wanted to like, burn him alive. And get Dagmar to drown him at the same time. And this fucking shoe will not come off!" Bren flopped back on her bed, looking helpless. She was getting frantic, and she needed to calm down.
"Stay on the phone until you get here, okay? I'm afraid I'll like, I don't know, throw myself out the window or something by accident. God, he is such an asshole, and he's just gotten more creepy if that's even possible, since last time I saw him. I wanna rip his dick off and feed it to Bogart."
Oh god, ew! I would not eat that, that's barbaric!
Bren just rolled her eyes. "Except my dog is apparently suddenly picky about his food."
"Good. Don't think I wouldn't kick his ass for you." Just because his were form was a cute, small bird didn't mean Harley wouldn't try to defend Bren, anyway. He was still a tall guy and height had to give him some advantage... right? "Because Mosiah is a doucherocket and he's just trying to fuck up your life. And you don't have to let him, okay?" He made a clicking noise under his breath at the idea of a grown man still calling his sister Brennybear. Harley understood about childhood nicknames, he still went by his, but there was something creepy about hearing about Mosiah saying it like that.
By this time Harley was up and moving, heading back out to his car. It was a beat up Pontiac Firebird - he'd wanted to get a custom sign for it to replace "Firebird" with "Riflebird" but alas, no dice - and he loved the thing, even when his father had looked at him funny and asked why he didn't want to ride a motorcycle. Besides, if he rode a bike, then he wouldn't be able to talk to Bren at the same time. "Take a few deep breaths, Bren, I'm on my way. And I'm not going to hang up the phone until I see you in person." His dark chuckle was mostly hidden with the sound of the car starting up. "I have no problem with him losing said dick. Tell Bogart he's taking one for the team?"
"Harley says you're taking one for the team," Bren said, lifting her head up to look down at Bogart. "He just says 'bite me,'" she said, laying her head back down. "Ugh. So, basically, I get a text last night from a blocked number," she said, sitting up and working at her shoes again, doing better with it now that she was slightly calmer. "I was like okay whatever, people have blocked numbers, and it's saying 'meet me.' So we agree and pick a place and person on the other end says noon and mocks my textspeak. I show up, I sit there awhile, and he comes out from behind a tree and sits next to me. Like, what the fuck, was he hiding?" There were two thumps as she finally got her shoes off, kicking them to the ground.
"Hang on, I'm putting you on speaker," she said, hitting the button to do so and setting the phone down, standing up to get her shirt off. "So then, he's like clicking this pen and doing all this weird creepy twitchy sociopathic stuff I remember him doing. Do you know what glamours are?" she asked him, getting her shorts off and moving her phone to the dresser as she dug for pajamas.
Taking off, Harley wasn't paying as much attention to the road as much as he probably should have been. He just hoped that the cops were elsewhere, knowing there had to be plenty on the road looking for drunk drivers, on account of the holiday. Well, Harley wasn't drunk. For once. And he usually didn't bother with cars after he'd had a few, because why would he want to leave the party then? "Wait, wait, you actually met up with someone who sent you text messages from a blocked number?" he asked. "And you went alone? Bren, seriously! I wish you would've told me, because I would have gone with you. Regardless of whether or not it was Mosiah or not, that's just dangerous." And if Harley was saying no to something, that was a big deal. Usually he wasn't so much concerned with things like consequences.
If he had a hand free, he would have rubbed at his eyes. "Okay, so you meet him in the park, he's a freakin' sociopath, which we knew already." He shook his head, and then remembered that Bren couldn't see it. "Glamours? Sounds familiar, but I don't know much about it." Somehow he doubted it involved a bunch of make up and Mosiah looking just fabulous.
"Well, I had Bogart with me, and it was in public so I figured nothing bad could really happen. I didn't even remember I had agreed until like 11:30 this morning and it takes me twenty minutes to get there. Besides, like, I can defend myself, if you didn't notice."
She finally got pajamas on, along with her glasses, and flopped back on the bed, holding the phone but with Harley still on speaker. "Glamours are this thing people with fae blood can do. Basically you can change your appearance. Like, the demonstration I saw from a guy I met last night, he made his eyes green and his hair obnoxiously blonde, and like put tattoos up his neck and earrings in, but they weren't really there and when I tried to touch I could feel that like, his ear was actually normal. I guess it works on other things too, like you can glamour someone else but I don't know. Well, Mosiah's got these burn scars on part of his back and all down his arm? Yeah, he had a glamour on them. Like I made him take it off but what the fuck, not only does he show up, he has to show up suddenly doing magic when he's been calling me a freak as long as he's known what I am? That's fucked up, son, I'm sorry."
"Didn't say you couldn't defend yourself," Harley pointed out, taking a sharp left corner and not caring that he probably should have slowed down for it. He was a were, he'd heal fast if anything really bad happened to him, but it was probably better if he didn't wreck the car in the process of driving to her place. "You know it wasn't smart to go by yourself, even if you've got Bogart with you. Hell, I was off all day, you could have called me sooner."
He was getting close now, so Harley finally tapped the brakes a little, slowing down. "Wait, so he can change what he looks like?" he asked, perplexed like that. Dude, all he did was change into a bird, which could be considered changing your looks, kind of, but you didn't look anything like what you did before. Maybe it was one of those things he'd have to see to believe, but if weres and vampires and magic were real, then it shouldn't surprise him that glamours were, too. Shaking his head, Harley found a parking spot and killed the engine. "First off, he's the freak, both of us have known that for how long now? He's just trying anything he can to fuck with your head, and you can't listen to anything he says." On second thought, maybe it was a good thing Harley wasn't there, because even though he was a scrawny thing, he wasn't scared to defend her if he needed to. "Hey, I'm here. You wanna let me up?"
"Yeah, I know. I had work though, and then this party with Dagmar, like I haven't even been home since I left to see him until I called you just now, except for like twenty minutes to change for the party. Ugh, I wanna punch myself for what I wore, I was all like, conservative and shit and it's cause he rattled me, I know it is. God, I hate letting him win like that!"
"Yeah, I'll head down. I know the building looks like shit but I promise you won't get shanked walking up the stairs," she teased. She kicked on a pair of flip-flops that were sitting by the door and unlocked it, heading down the multiple flights of steps -- when your rent was $100 a week, you didn't rate an elevator. "I guess he probably can look like anyone. But his voice seems like it would be the same, I mean, the only sense this works on is vision, not touch or sound or anything. Like someone can be glamoured to look like a tree but if you bump into them you should know you bumped into a person. That's what I got out of the conversation I had." She came out the front door and looked around for Harley, waving an arm over her head when she spotted his car. "I don't know. I have to tell you about that, too, by the way, I met a master of fire who has fae blood and I managed to set him on fire and walk around in front of him topless in the same night."
"Bren, honey, you need to take a few minutes and relax, all right?" She picked out a conservative outfit for a party? Really? Just one more sign that Mosiah had shaken her, apparently. No wonder she was starting to freak out more now, her brain seemed to be finally catching up to her. At least, that was how Harley saw it and if he could get her to chill out - ha! what a turn of phrase to use with a fire elemental - even if just for a while, that would probably be a good thing.
"Come on, now, you don't think I'd be able to handle myself if someone decided to jump me?" Okay, so his were form wasn't the biggest bird in the world, but he did get a bonus to his strength. That had to count for something, right? "I'm still trying to imagine how someone can change their looks so easily. Like a metamorphagus in Harry Potter or something." Somehow, Mosiah would never be as cool as Nymphadora Tonks, he only wished he would be. Seeing Bren appear, waving frantically at him, Harley grinned and started to make his way over to her. Rather than keep talking in the phone, he snapped it shut and gave her a hug instead. Harley had wanted to do that since he heard Mosiah was back in town. Harley gave her a sheepish grin as he let her go. "Just had to do that. You were saying something about a master elemental with fae-blood... and being topless?"
"Relaxation is for the weak," was her kneejerk response, but she knew he was right. "Not like really conservative, but like, I actually wore long shorts with a t-shirt, instead of short shorts. Ugh. Tomorrow I'm dressing extra-slutty just to like, flout him. Does that even make sense? Whatever."
Bren hung up her phone when Harley got close enough, hugging him back tightly. "Come on, let's go inside," she said, taking his hand and leading the way in, noting for the umpteenth time that he sortof towered over her when she wasn't wearing heels. "Anyway, yeah, this dude, I was in that abandoned parking lot, you know the one down the road by that hotel? And I was just, like, messing around trying to make fire or whatever, just experimenting, because Bogart thinks I'm really close to fire accepting me. So he notices and I guess he felt me because he's fire too so he walks over and I guess I'm not, like, focused enough or whatever, that's what he said, and I believe it, cause I was trying to light a bunch of sticks on fire and instead he goes up in flames. He wasn't hurt, and his clothes didn't burn or anything, but yeah, we met when I lit his ass on fire," she said, tramping up the steps this whole time. "And so he gets me to try again except that time I was even less focused, and I basically nuked the parking lot, including myself, and I managed to burn my shirt off so he gave me his coat until we could get back here and I could put a shirt on. So yeah, I covered the gamut from fire to topless in under ten minutes."
Eventually they made it to Bren's apartment and she let Harley in, whereupon Bogart bounded over, jumping on him and barking excitedly, talking over that. Hi Harley! Hi! What's up! I haven't seen you! We should hang! He continued to babble, basically an excited, hyperactive dog who just happened to be able to use human words.
Harley lifted Bren up as soon as he could, hugging her back just as tightly. Though he wasn't a big guy, it wasn't hard to pick the smaller girl up, enough so her feet swung back and forth. "If you're dressing extra slutty tomorrow, does that mean I get to see it?" he asked, only mostly kidding. Bren knew Harley thought she was attractive, though it was part of his were nature to be such a flirt. Setting her back down, Harley ran a hand over his hair, noting that no amount of fixing could ever make it look "right" by most people's standards, he followed her back up to into her apartment. "You are the only person I know who can light someone you've just met on fire and have it turn out to be okay," he said, laughing a little. "You're the first elemental I've ever met, or at least who I've known is an elemental, and you seem to find them everywhere. And I'm jealous that guy got to see you topless." What? He couldn't help pointing that out, following it up with a little wink. "So, is this guy like helping you with your powers?"
Sometimes animals' reactions to him could be weird, on account that he was a were and his scent broadcasted that, or at least that he wasn't entirely human. Bogart didn't seem to mind, running right up to him. Harley kneeled down so he was closer to the dog's height, scratching behind his ears. "Hey there, Bogart! Glad to see you've been taking care of Bren for me."
Bren squeaked and giggled when Harley lifted her off the ground, glad she'd called him -- he just had a way of making her smile again. "Well, if you sleep over tonight, which you totally should, you might get to see me dress slutty and see me topless," she said, poking him as she locked the door behind him, jiggling to make sure it was locked properly, then doing up the chain. She tugged her shirt down where it was starting to ride up and kicked her shoes off, laughing a little at Bogart being all excitable.
Oh yeah, totally. There will be no shenanigans on my watch, at all. I am the anti-shenaniganizer. Did she tell you about Neil? He walked up when she was concentrating on something else like a creeper, I totally would have bit him if he'd touched a hair on her head. I mean, before the lighting on fire happened.
"Oh my god, you are so ridiculous!" she told the dog, scratching at the bandaid on her chin.
Yeah, she had a spaz moment yesterday too, that's why there's bandaids everywhere.
"Bogart, oh my god! Shut up, you mutt!"
"Oooh, a chance for a sluttily dressed Bren and maybe even topless? I'm totally in." Harley laughed, only mostly kidding. He enjoyed the girl's company far too much to take it for granted, and by now he hoped Bren knew that. If she wanted him to stay, then of course he'd stay. It had been a while since he'd had some one-on-one time with Bren, anyway, and that should be remedied.
He did, however, chuckle at the thought of the little dog before him being the anti-shenaniganizer. Really, was that even a word? And was that even possible with Bren around? "Come on, Bogart, where's the fun in not getting into trouble?" he said, shaking his head. "I happen to like most shenanigans, thank you very much. And she was telling me about the fire elemental she met, is that Neil?" Harley honestly couldn't remember if she'd said his name or not. "It's very sweet of you, to be so protective of her, though."
It was only then that Harley caught sight of the bandaid, and he turned Bren's head a little so he could look at it. "Oh my god, Bren, what did you do?"
Bren let Harley inspect her, sighing. "Yes, Neil is the master I met. And I just fell, I was running across the field in the park and pretty much went flying. I scraped up my hand and knee, too. It's just scrapes though, I'll be okay," she insisted, pulling away to get him to let go, pushing her glasses up and wandering into her room, flopping down on one side of the bed, leaving the other open for her friend. Bogart trotted over to his dog bed, where there was an old shampoo bottle that had been appropriate for a chew toy, and began amusing himself with that.
"Let's watch a movie or something," Bren said, standing back up and going over to the shelf full of movies, poking listlessly at them to try to pick.
It was times like this when Harley wished he could pass on a bit of his fast healing were abilities to someone like Bren. If he'd gotten scraped up like that, chances were he'd be mostly if not entirely healed by now. "I know you'll be okay, but for once, can you try to be careful? For me?" He shot her his best sad puppy dog look, even though he was a bird and not a dog, but really no one could deny that pouty lip. He followed her over the bed, taking a moment to pry off his combat boots before climbing in next to her.
"Sure, a movie sounds good," Harley said, resting one hand behind his head. "What are you in the mood for?" Anything to keep Bren distracted from who she'd run into earlier today would likely be a good idea.
Bren let her head flop to the side again, rifling through movies vaguely. "Jesus, half these movies I have to be high for and I don't have any pot. And the rest of them are from before I was born or no one has heard of. Okay, ummmmm...pick between...Gangs of New York, An American Crime, orrrrrr...The Lion King." She showed no awareness that the last was rather out of place in that list. Whatever, she liked Disney, that was not wrong.
She came back with the movie he chose out of the three and picked up her computer to put the disc in. "Should we have food? I haven't eaten since...um..." She looked nonplussed. "I might not have eaten today. Wait, I had a sandwich on the way to work. I don't know if I have any food in this house. Ugh, and no one is gonna deliver on the fourth of July if I don't! Harley why does my life suck?" she asked, flopping back down and cuddling up dramatically to Harley's side, demanding cuddles and affection like she always did.
Harley snorted. Yeah, he was out of pot too, a habit he didn't indulge in often, and never by himself, but hey, if it was being passed around at a party, he usually wasn't in a state to say no. Giving the choices she listed off, she was right, there wasn't much to pick from. "Lion King," he said. What, he was secure in his masculinity. He just wasn't in the mood for Leonardo DiCaprio trying to take out Daniel Day Lewis right now. Seeing Bren in a good mood would totally be worth getting "Hakuna Matata" stuck in his head.
And she hadn't eaten? Harley was the kind to only pick and food here and there, and he wasn't really hungry, but he woudn't let Bren starve just because there was nothing here. "It's not that late, there's got to be a pizza place still open," he said, taking out his phone and scrolling through lists. iPhones really were a great invention. "Hah! There's a Domino's that delievers until like 2 in the morning on Saturday night. You want a pizza or something?" As he spoke, he wrapped an arm around Bren and held her against him, not intending to let her go any time soon. "I'll even buy."
"Yeah but it's a holiday, they're bound to be like, backed up to hell. I mean you can try it but I bet they're gonna tell you they can't take an order right now." She dragged her computer closer and grabbed the DVD case as well, without pulling away from Harley's arm around her, fumbling with the case and eventually getting the disc in. She sighed, rubbing a hand over her face. "You can if you want but it's whatever. I'm fat anyway. Maybe if I get like crazy unattractive skinny Mosiah will lose interest and fuck right off." That would be nice, but she was sure the chance was slim. The menu for the movie popped up and Bren tilted her head to watch, because there was a whole thing with Zazu before you got the actual options.
"Oh ye of little faith," he teased back, dialing the number to Domino's. She had one of his arms, yes, but the other was still free to play with his phone. "Hi, I'd like to place an order for delivery... oh hey, Brian! I didn't know you worked at Domino's! It's Harley... yeah, I know it's kind of late to put in an order, but it's kind of a special situation... yeah. Just a ham and pineapple pizza and maybe some breadsticks? Promise I'll make the tip worth it." He nudged Bren's shoulder with his other hand, breaking her out of her trance induced by Zazu on screen. "You want anything else?" he asked, pulling the phone away from his mouth for a second. "Also, you aren't fat by any stretch of the imagination."
"I am fat, you're just, like, obliged to make me feel good or something. Ummmmmmmmm. Get a bottle of soda too, I don't think I have anything but water." It occurred to her too late she should have gotten Harley to bring alcohol. Was he even 21? She wasn't sure. Whatever. "Otherwise we're good. Also I love you for remembering my pizza." She laid her head back down and reached down to select 'play movie,' then immediately hit pause to stop it until Harley was off the phone. She pushed her glasses up where they were sliding down her nose again and rubbed at an eye. She wore her contacts so often, leaving them in to sleep more often than not, that it felt weird not to have them in.
"You're not fat, and I'll keep telling you that until you believe it." Harley leaned over to kiss her on the forehead before turning back to the phone. "Throw a two-liter of Coke in there for me, will you?... Thanks, man, I know I owe you one. And yes, don't you worry, I'll tip the driver well." This sounded like the perfect night for alcohol, if only he'd had the forethought to stop for something beforehand. Just because Harley wasn't technically 21 yet didn't mean that's what his fake ID said, he'd been buying booze for years, though he had to go out of Scarlet Oak to do it, usually. Everyone here knew who he was. "Says it should be here in about half an hour," he said as he hung up, stuffing his cell back into his pocket. "Let's watch a bit until then."
Bren nodded and hit the pause/play button on her laptop, causing the picture to move again, the little opening Disney title thing. She squirmed up so her head was turned down against Harley's neck, pretty much molded up to his side, but she could still see the screen. Despite everything, she smiled at the first few seconds of the movie, always loving this part. She squirmed a little to get comfortable and, within moments, was rapt on the movie, nudging her glasses so she could see the screen properly through them, instead of looking over one lens and under the other. The Lion King had some of the few compositions she could just listen to without analyzing, and it was a nice feeling to turn her brain off and listen to the pretty for a bit.
No matter how old you were, The Lion King was still a classic and as far as Harley was concerned, he could watch it over and over again. It wasn't one that he owned, though, so the fact that Bren had it in her collection was definitely a bonus. As she snuggled up into his side, he shifted to accommodate her, even while his feet were working on kicking off his combat boots. Sure, he could have made it easier by unlacing them, but where was the fun in that? Soon his boots were somewhere under her bed, where he could grab them later, and the movie had both of their attention. He was absorbed in the movie to the point where, when his phone went off, it startled him a little.
"Oh! That must be our food." He untangled himself from Bren and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "I'll be right back."
"Okay," Bren said, voice quiet, and let him get up. She took the laptop from him and paused the movie, then sighed, grabbing a pillow and curling herself around it. She'd been running around all day and even though it wasn't even 11:30 yet, she was tired. Bogart climbed up onto the bed and laid down, the small, lean body warm and moving with his breath against her back. He didn't say anything, just settled there as a comfort, which Bren was grateful for, so she didn't say anything back. She just sighed and relaxed against him a little, but when Harley returned, he lifted his head and then jumped back down, leaving her to the company of her own kind.
When Harley returned after chatting with the delivery guy for a miinute, and giving him a decent tip - hey, he'd promised! - he just looked down at Bren for a second, curled up on the bed. He didn't really want to disturb her, seeing as she looked comfy and he knew the day had been a lot for her to handle. Setting the pizza and breadsticks down on the nearby table, he went to go get a couple cups for the soda. "Food's here," he said, taking a seat next to her as he poured her a glass. Might have been better if they had some, say, rum to add to it too, but that was a thought for another day. "You should have a little something before you fall asleep on me." Harley would eat too, but he was more concerned with her, if he was being honest. He could pick at something and he'd be fine.
Bren lifted her head when he spoke and put the pillow back, shifting to sit up against the wall. She dragged a hand through her hair and managed a smile, folding her legs up and pushing the laptop away a little, so they could still see it from the head of the bed but there was room to put the pizza in front of them. She took the cup he was handing her and shifted over when he sat back down, leaning into his side just a little, needing closeness. She unpaused the movie again, tucking the cup between her legs as she reached for the boxes of yum.
Harley never minded being close to Bren. While she got herself some food, he grabbed a couple breadsticks and put them on a plate in front of him. He wasn't all that hungry, but he'd pick at something while she ate. That was habit, for him; he took the phrase "eat like a bird" to entirely new extremes. With one hand lazily breaking off pieces of the breadstick to eat, his other hand played with hair, mostly looking for something to do. "How is it?" he asked.
Bren, on the other hand, had that whole "haven't eaten all day" thing catching up to her, and she was mostly done with one slice of pizza by the time Harley asked, watching the movie as she ate. She nodded and mumbled something incomprehensible around a mouthful, managing to chew and swallow, then trying again. "It's good. I definitely, definitely have to actually get to the grocery store tomorrow though." She pushed her glasses up her nose and picked up her second piece. Awhile later, she'd eaten three pieces, debating one more but mostly satisfied, and she was leaning into Harley's side again, head laying on his shoulder as she watched the shenanigans happening in the ravaged pridelands. "Stupid Scar," she murmured, frowning deeply, and she actually felt her eyes sting, tears pricking at the corners.
He laughed, not understanding a word she said at first, smirking behind a sip of his soda. "Yeah, I know what you mean. My fridge looked pretty empty too the last time I checked... but that probably means I can push it off for a few days." One, because if his dad wanted something he could get it his damn self, and two, Harley didn't need as much food as most people. Probably why he managed to stay the way he was. He managed to finish two breadsticks to her three pieces of pizza, though, and as the movie continued, Harley was leaning back in the bed, hand idly moving up and down Bren's arm as they watched. "I remember getting so mad at Scar when I saw this as a kid," he said. "Losing Mufasa was pretty devastating, at the time." It might have been the first movie he watched where an important character died, something that didn't happen in Disney movies. He'd watched The Lion King before he saw Bambi, and he always liked The Lion King better anyway.
Bren nodded a little, looking miserable, and sniffed lightly, trying to pretend she wasn't upset, or maybe at least pretend she was upset over the movie and not anything else. In reality, though, she was too shaken to even try to hold back. The perfect little actress, Bradley had called her. Well, she'd been the perfect little actress most of the day, and she was too drained for it now. "Scar should just go find his own pridelands and get away from Simba's." Bren's voice was croaking and that sentence probably actually translated to something like Mosiah should go away. She blinked and reached up to brush at her cheek, sniffing again and hoping she wasn't being totally obvious.
It was Bren's voice, and not her words, that were Harley's first indication that something was wrong. She just didn't sound right and he looked down, watching as she brushed something away from her cheek. She never needed to hide things for him, because by now she hoped she knew that Harley was here for her if she needed a friend. And tonight, yes, Bren needed a friend. Unable to tell if she wanted to talk about it nor not, Harley stayed uncharacteristically silent, pulling her closer to him, his cheek resting against her hair. Finally, murmured low enough for him to wonder if she could hear him, he said, "Simba gets his pridelands back in the end, and Scar gets what's coming to him." And so would Mosiah, in the end. Sooner, if Harley had anything to say about it.
Bren nodded, sniffling again, and turned towards Harley a little, leaning into his side. She wasn't even trying to pretend she was watching the movie anymore, face half-buried in his shoulder. "Simba has to be like Scar for that, though," she said miserably. The metaphor brought thoughts she didn't need -- fighting fire with fire somehow. What would that even mean? Giving him what he wanted? Yeah, out of the fucking question, forever. She felt sortof sick at herself for letting the thought even happen and felt the need to cleanse her brain with fire or something. She lifted her head and several candles scattered around lit, one at a time. It was a bit of a comfort, just to have fire near. She felt a little better about life now. Even Mosiah couldn't keep her down for long, she wouldn't let him, and she made a deal with herself that she could stress and feel sorry for herself tonight, but come morning she was done.
"Yeah, Simba has to go and fight," Harley agreed, "but that doesn't make him like Scar. He's fighting for the right reasons, for something he believes in. Scar - Scar only cares about himself. No one will step in to defend him when he needs the help. Simba has friends, people who love and care about him." He brushed her hair back from her face, looking up as the candles lit around them. Though he'd seen her do that before, it was still a pretty cool trick, and he wondered if maybe that was helping keep her calm. "And so do you. Have friends who care about you, I mean." At the very least she had Harley and he'd stay as long as she needed him to. He never liked to see his friends so upset.
There was a sigh, and she moved so her head rested in Harley's lap, tired. "Will you stay over tonight?" she asked, squirming around so she could look up at him, big brown eyes wide and entreating. She wanted someone in bed with her, wanted to feel safe and protected. Just tonight, she told herself. You'll feel this way just for tonight. Tomorrow you'll be fine again. He's not gonna win. Bogart jumped back up on the bed again, settling down near Bren's feet.
"Of course I'll stay tonight," he murmured, the look in her eyes sealing the deal for him. Sure, Harley had to work tomorrow, but he could always run back to his house and change before he had to be at the bookstore. Tonight Bren needed him and he'd always be there for his friends. "You won't have to worry about a thing with me here." He'd like to see Mosiah try to take on a pissed off were bird. Harley might not look like much, but he'd take the other man down in a heartbeat if he tried to get near Bren.
Bren took a deep breath and nodded, laying her head against Harley's shoulder again, looking back at the movie. "Ugh, this shit is depressing," she said, slamming the top of the laptop down. "Let's watch something where no one dies."