leo fights for her rights. (yeahriot) wrote in mnhttnprjct, @ 2010-05-09 18:33:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log, falcon archer, leo oakley |
LOG.
WHO: Leo Oakley and Falcon Archer
WHAT: Leo and Falcon fight over who gets to use the last vacant computer and Falcon does what he does best when it comes to Leo. Leo is unimpressed.
WHERE: The computer lab at NYU.
WHEN: Finals week during their freshman year of college.
RATING: PG, except for some swears.
FALCON: Finals. It was less of a thought and more of a grumbling irritant that had been gnawing on the corner of every thought that crossed his mind for the past two weeks, and now that he was half a week away from finishing his first year at New York University, all Falcon could think about was how much he hated finals. Textbooks and papers threatened to fall out of his arms and backpack as he pulled up a mental map of the university campus, locating and hurriedly racing to the nearest computer lab. It had been Falcon's luck that his laptop had managed to catch a Trojan virus (he should have known there were no such thing as free smileys) and was now sitting on the cluttered desk of a Geek Squad member, rendering him without access to the Last Minute Super Exciting Study Guide (not his words) his biology TA had uploaded onto the school's network. Trying to read this document, let along printing it out, had proved a far more impossible task than Falcon had anticipated because apparently, no one in this damn school had a computer of their own. Each visit to a computer lab had been met with bleak, sleep deprived eyes staring blankly at him as he desperately searched for an open unit to no avail. Now, entering his fourth computer lab in twenty minutes, Falcon's face no longer shined with hope, but rather flashed with urgency as his eyes darted about furiously. A relieved smile graced his face when he spied a single, available computer amidst the rows of cubicle-like stations. Knowing it wouldn't be available for long, Falcon rushed towards it, completely unaware that someone else had similar plans in mind. LEO: No sleep. She had had no sleep since yesterday and she was running on empty. She had a long paper due in three hours for one class, another long paper for a second due two hours later and only one of them was finished. She had emerged from her makeshift camp into the library's stacks, where Leonora Oakley had drifted off into a fitful sleep somewhere around afternoon teatime. But now she was running out of time, as she shoveled her belongings into her knapsack and hauled it over a shoulder like a particularly cantankerous toddler. She spotted a diamond in the rough: a liberated computer, almost entirely unheard of during this most vicious hunting season. She was so close but she could practically smell the competition and she glanced to her left to spot none other than Falcon Archer, that guy who her friends had come to refer to as "Leo's Nemesis." Whatever the state of their relationship, Leo was not particularly interested in letting him have that last computer. She had been here first, God damn it. "Hands off, buddy!" Leo raced over, a young woman with hair in wild disarray, her red-rimmed eyes the result of a sleepless night in the stacks, and meanness in her frown. She uncrossed her thin arms from their position across her chest and jabbed a pointed finger at the computer in question. "I saw it first, Archer." FALCON: "Oh, wow," was all Falcon could muster as a greeting when he took in the appearance of the young woman who stood in front of him, looking not entirely unlike a zombie, without being deliberately offensive. Of course, taking into consideration that this walking dead happened to be one Leo Oakley and that Falcon Archer happened to be, well, himself, chances were high that he would end up offending her anyway. If he had been confronted by any other soul who looked the state Leo currently did, Falcon would likely have attempted a quick compromise or have completely walked away altogether. But there was something about Leo Oakley that made it impossible for him to be anything other than difficult. Falcon dropped his books onto the chair defiantly while a contradicting, playful smile turned his lips upwards. "Well, I got here first and I don't see your name on it anywhere." LEO: "'Oh, wow' what?" She grumbled at him and now her hands moved to her hips as she glared up at him. Her pace now slowed to a stop before him; the suspicion-filled glare in Falcon's direction lasted barely a second before it transformed into one of wide-eyed surprise as he blatantly defied her and claimed the chair with one deliberate motion. A sudden intake of breath, disguised as a dangerous hiss, was the only audible evidence to her pissy, tempestuous mood. "Really, Archer?" She spoke to him in hissed undertones, as she had already been shushed multiple times over the last 48 hours and did not relish the idea of it at this moment. "Really? You want to play that game? You want to be a child about this?" FALCON: Falcon wasn't sure what it was about her dangerous eyes or furious tone that made him love eliciting this response from her so much, but there was an immature, juvenile part of him that was just about giddy when her eyes widened with a hiss. And he was only a little bit ashamed to admit it. His shoulders shrugged with indifference while a hint of a furrow knitted his eyebrows in a poorly acted attempt to appear clueless. "I don't know what you're talking about. But," within milliseconds, a bright, childlike grin that proved Leo right had replaced mock innocence, "I know that if I were a child, you'd let me have this computer because that's how adorable I am." Albeit far less angry and laced with far less venom, Falcon's voice matched her hushed tones. He may have been acting like a petulant child, but that didn't mean he lacked foresight like one. Being noticed, or worse, thrown out of the library was the last thing he wanted when the thing he had been searching for (an opportunity to print his study guide) was so close in sight. LEO: Oh, Lord in Heaven. That smug, arrogant, handsome bastard. He was enjoying every minute of this battle, as he watched her watch him in immense smug satisfaction. He and his smooth words could go to hell. That brilliant smirk on his handsome features made him look even more goodlooking and Leo felt her resolve weaken. Okay, even she could admit he was good to look at. Were he less insufferable, Leo might have taken to him better but, as circumstances had been and as most circumstances with Leo tend to be, she was determined to resist him. Pointedly, Leo ignored the exaggerated sighs of others nearby who were undoubtedly becoming more and more discontented by the couple. She rolled her eyes with characteristically dramatic flair. "You may have tons of dim girls wrapped around your finger, Archer, but I am completely immune to your adorableness." She flushed red at the slight slip-up and averted her gaze so that she could avoid seeing his reaction to her inadvertent admission. She could feel herself starting to crack under the pressure of stress, exhaustion, and crumbling willpower, all of which signalled pending defeat. She sighed. "Fine. Whatever. Have the stupid computer." Was that a hint of a sulk in her voice? Why, yes. Yes it was. "I don't care." Why, yes. Yes she did. FALCON: As the fire blazing in her eyes subdued, Falcon felt a slight swell of pride and the tiniest bit of loss. As much as the idea of winning an argument with her was one he probably enjoyed too much, their brief moments of banter was something he found equally (possibly more) enjoyable in a playground, pigtail-pulling sort of way. Eyebrows raised slightly and a quiet laugh escaped the back of Falcon's throat at the unexpected and likely unintended compliment. He could have prodded the subject more, but the slight color in her cheeks and the fact that she suddenly tore her eyes away from his seemed to do more than he could. "Yeah, because they're not as smart as you," he said instead, wholeheartedly meaning every syllable of the sentence. "Stay," he said when Leo allowed him permission to use the computer, half as an invitation and half as a demand. "I'm only going to be a few minutes anyway, you can use it when I'm done." LEO: She fought back the flare of temper that rose at the sound of his laugh (He was laughing at her!) as she heard his next words, which were probably the nicest he'd ever uttered to her. Leo's brow furrowed in puzzled confusion as she digested them and tried to discern their meaning. Not that meaning; she knew she was clever. But the way he said it left Leo feeling puzzled. No sooner had she started to overanalyze the words he'd spoken and the way he'd spoken them that he was speaking again, and this time to invite her to stay with him. Frankly, she was alarmed, and she could not quite figure out what made her reach for a chair in an automatic movement before she had even decided what to do or what to say. "Ugh, fine." Her voice feigned further irritation but the ease with which she pulled the chair closer beside him showed her tone for the liar that it was. Leo cast her backpack away from her shoulder and let it collapse to the floor on the other side of her with a muted thud. She sighed and peered over at Falcon Archer like a nosy neighbor, though she opted to remain silent. FALCON: He could feel her looking over his shoulder, which he thought was adorable in an overbearing sort of way. "I can't put in my password if you're looking, you know," he said, his voice toying with just a hint of a smile while his fingers moved deftly over the keyboard anyway, bringing a nine stars to the flashing input box under his username. Completely aware of Leo's presence, Falcon quickly redirected the web page to download his study guide which, after a quick run-through, didn't seem at all that helpful for the trouble he went through. Giving the computer the command to print, Falcon turned to face Leo. If he was taken aback by her close proximity, he didn't show it and instead flashed a smile and lifted a single eyebrow. "I'm done. Are you going to miss me?" He knew what the answer would be, and yet still felt compelled to ask. The corners of his mouth twitched, inviting her to say anything other than what he was expecting. LEO: The searching look he offered her gave Leo pause and she bit back the spiteful 'no' that was on the tip of her tongue. She stared at him for what seemed a few minutes but, in all true likelihood, only amounted up to a few seconds. He was so fucking insufferable. All the same, she met Falcon's smile with a hesitant one of her own and a half-hearted shove of his shoulder for his pains. "You took forever. Now get the hell outta my seat." It wasn't a direct answer for him, but that was Leo. Only direct when she wanted to be, and callously evasive when she felt vulnerable. She tucked her hair back behind an ear with one hand while she bent down to retrieve her backpack, filled to bursting with dog-eared textbooks and highlighted xerox handouts and weathered notebooks. Her knee bounched up and down as she jiggled her leg and glanced at Falcon once again. "So when're you done finals?" Ugh. Small talk. This is what he had reduced her to. FALCON: Biting back a laugh, Falcon grabbed his backpack and stood, obliging to Leo's demands. He wasn't sure if that was a yes, but at least it wasn't a no and the fact that it wasn't made him grin like a damn loon. "Wednesday," he answered as he pulled his textbooks out of his bag to rearrange them in a manner that would actually allow his zipper to close. It amazed him how many pounds he must have been carrying around on his back and how many trees must have died in order to allow him his education. He suspected his mother wouldn't be pleased if she saw how many printed pages he had amassed during a single year of school. "How about you?" he asked as he zipped up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. LEO: "Wednesday for me, too," She said in a wistful voice as she watched him toss the bag over his shoulder. This was the nicest they had ever spoken to one another. It felt nice. She blamed the lack of sleep for it, and forced her mind to turn to the end of term. It was so close and yet so far; her freshman year away at university was almost at its close. She had few hopes for a wonderfully uneventful summer; if living in the city had taught her anything, it was that life was never uneventful. All she could ever hope for was a day just short of catastrophe or mishap. And maybe an entire summer without seeing much of either of her parents. She sighed. "So--Good luck with your shit. Try not to piss off any more people before you leave." FALCON: It wasn't until he actually said and heard when the school year ended for the both of them that it actually occurred to Falcon that it was actually, truly over. He had successfully survived his first year of college. For as much as Falcon hated finals, he would be sad to see it end and close a chapter of his life. But he was glad of the way it turned out; new friends, new experiences, and pretty nemeses. He allowed himself a smirk in Leo's direction before leaving to retrieve his printout. "I wouldn't dream of it. I only save that for you." |