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Tweak says, "No. Just no."

Axel King {likes random nudity} (nomoreclothes) wrote in reduxpitch,
@ 2016-05-14 09:46:00

Entry tags:

!thread, character: axel king, location: limbic alley, retired character: ashleigh spinnet

WHO: Axel King and Ashleigh Spinnet
WHAT: ~~FEELINGS~~ Home improvements and Axel embarrassing himself
WHEN: Saturday, May 14; mid-morning
WHERE: Ashleigh's flat
RATING|STATUS: KISSING (Axel is shirtless because of course he is) | Complete!

Truth be told, Axel felt a little awkward with Ashleigh. Ever since he'd admitted his feelings to himself (only out of necessity, really), he wasn't quite sure what to do with himself. Should he continue to flirt with her? Continue to annoy her? She'd assured him that she liked it, but sometimes, like the other day, he got the impression that she really didn't think much of him, and that stung. It was his reaction to that that made him come to grips with that fact that he might be a little in love with her. But just a little. Because it didn't make any sense at all. They were just so opposite. When it came to everything. He was loud and inappropriate and fueled by emotion, and she was responsible and logical.

But she didn't take any crap from him, and she called him on his shit. And despite everything, if he really needed something, she was there. Axel knew that it didn't make much sense, and that probably no one else would understand, but they didn't have to. All that mattered was if he and Ashleigh could understand it. And therein lay the problem. They both didn't understand it. Or anything, apparently. They were always getting their wires crossed, and until this last...incident, he hadn't known why. It was because he had real feelings for her, and either she knew it, or she had them too and just wasn't ready to admit it. Because they didn't really talk about their feelings, they just sort of talked around them, sometimes hinting, but mostly ignoring.

Axel knew he couldn't tell her how he felt, either, even if he was ready, because she wasn't ready. He had never actually been in love before, regardless of how much he liked to pretend he was always in love with the girl of the month, which was partly why he didn't know what to do with himself. And Ashleigh...well, she'd already made it perfectly clear how she felt about changing the nature of relationships. No, telling her was flat out of the question.

Maybe he could show her, though. Or at least force her to consider the possibility that he could be more for her. She said she didn't need help with her flat, and he believed her, but he wanted to prove he was good for something more than just getting on her nerves, so he insisted. Now, Axel didn't actually know anything about renovating, but that was beside the point. He could learn! Research was what Ravenclaws did best, wasn't it? So he found himself a muggle bookstore (because using magic for everything was just too easy) and bought a couple books he thought might help. He'd intended to read them, he really did, but they were boring and he ended up just skimming for things that looked interesting and/or important, and called that good.

Saturday morning, he woke up bright and early, had himself a super healthy breakfast of sugary cereal, and stuck the books in his music bag before heading over and knocking on her door.

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demipointe
2016-05-26 07:33 pm UTC (link)

Ashleigh honestly didn't know why she'd felt the need to undermine the kiss with her comment. She didn't object to Axel's hand on her, and in truth wouldn't have minded even if they had been dancing and in public. It wasn't as if they were competition-standard or what he was doing was truly inappropriate. She was aware, too, that Axel had been far more forthcoming about his feelings than she had. She'd taken the initial risk, and that probably counted for something, but all she'd actually said was that she wanted more than sex - nothing about how she liked him, or why. If called on, she didn't know what she would have said. Words were hard, and kissing him was much easier.

Serious or not, an hour ago she would have assumed there was a grain of truth in his words. Now, she knew he was in this for something else - for her, feelings and hand-holding and all, as Aisling had once theorised. "There's a time and a place," she said, doing her best to look stern. As far as Ashleigh was concerned, that place was a bedroom with a warded door. Axel, she was fairly certain, had very different ideas. She frowned slightly, still very aware of the way her hands spanned his sides. There hadn't been a moment since she first touched his arm that she hadn't been aware of his skin under her fingertips. So perhaps she could bend her strict bedroom-only policy at least this far. As if testing the theory she slid one hand around to his back, settling comparatively higher than where he was touching her.

She did still believe that they shouldn't just jump into bed. There were things she still wanted to spell out quite clearly before they did that. Perhaps the most important of which was, "So no more Amber?" She'd remembered the girl's real name, which just proved that she really did pay entirely too much attention to Axel's journals. Of course, what she really meant was not Amber specifically but other women in general.

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nomoreclothes
2016-05-30 07:05 am UTC (link)

Axel didn't really need to hear the words, because he could tell that she cared about him, in more than just a friendly fashion, just from her actions and behavior. She'd said many times that she didn't like change, and she'd told him specifically that she didn't want to change the nature of their relationship. Obviously something had changed in order for her to suddenly decide to initiate the change between them, but that told him that it must have been something huge. Her feelings for him had to have been strong enough to make her think that the change would be worth it.

And if that meant she was asking him about other women, then he had nothing to be concerned about yet. Axel almost made a joke about going steady, but for once, he chose not to. Ashleigh deserved a more serious, definitive response, and he was going to give her that, just so there would be no confusion. It was an easy consideration, too; if it meant he got to date and kiss the girl he really wanted, he didn't need anyone else.

"No more Amber. Or Steph, or Chloe, or anyone. I assume you're also going to break up with all your other boyfriends too?" Alright, so maybe one joke.

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demipointe
2016-05-30 10:40 am UTC (link)

Ashleigh, on the other hand, did need to have it spelled out explicitly. Just because she had a certain idea of what a relationship should be didn't mean everyone else agreed with her, and 'more than sex' was vague enough that it could have left the door open for Axel to date, or sleep with, other people. She breathed easier when he confirmed that there wouldn't be anyone else. Perhaps, anxious as she was about the potential mismatch in their needs for sex, she should have been willing to overlook it, but she wasn't. If she wanted Axel, she wanted him exclusively.

"I have to break up with Terrence?" she asked. Though she didn't show it with a lot of people, Ashleigh was capable of joking. Asher saw it in her continued pretence not to know which quidditch team he played for, and Axel had definitely seen it before (albeit, not lately, not with how strained things had been between them). "Hmm. This changes things." She splayed her fingers against Axel's spine, subconsciously offering physical contradiction to her words. "If I go out with you, will the gossip pages still list me as The Other Spinnet Sister, or do you think they might learn my actual name? You are more famous."

Her other hand was still on his side, until she trailed it slowly up his body, as if giving the matter a great deal of thought. Finally, she curved her fingers around the back of his neck and drew him down so she could kiss him again without having to reach up. "No one else," she promised him quietly.

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