So far, the night had been going fairly well. In spite of the small ounce of nerves Rebecca had felt at the start of the night, she and Cappie soon fell into normal rhythm with one another once they’d arrived to the dance. Parties and the occasional dance were par for the course at Cyprus Rhodes, and they both had plenty of experience with the good, bad, and the ugly when it came to parties. She was ready to have a good time, and it was easy to see that Cappie was ready for one too. No matter what his place in her life he took, Cappie had always been able to bring out her more carefree side. The side that didn’t mind letting down her hair and having fun in the moment.
They danced a few dances, including one that seriously left her out of breath. After one last spin, she laughed as the song ended and excused herself to the ladies room. She took the chance to check her hair and makeup and reapplied a bit of lip gloss. With a smile in the mirror, she smoothed out her dress and went back to the dance. Cappie was around talking to a few people, so she did the same over by the food and drinks. Atlantis parties were notorious for giving a little extra ‘umf’ to their refreshments, but you never knew what was going to happen until it happened. Besides, she was thirsty, and the strong cider was too tempting to pass up.
Rebecca was chatting with one of the other diplomats when Cappie strolled over to her side of the room. After catching his eye, she said goodbye to Lissa and walked over to join him. She was just finishing up her own drink as Cappie was still about only halfway through his.
“Come on, hurry up with that,” she said with a typical Rebecca smile. A slower song that she liked began playing over the speakers. “Let’s dance.”
Having been released from his date duties for a while, Cappie had made his way around the party, picking up various items of food and drink on his way, and was just in the middle of drinking a cider and chatting to Emily, when Rebecca showed up at his side again.
“Yes, ma’am,” Cappie replied, acknowledging Emily’s nod of goodbye as she excused herself. He lifted his glass to his lips and finished what was left of his cider in three, large gulps. Placing the glass aside, he offered Rebecca an arm and walked with her out onto the crowded dance floor.
“I hope you appreciate all this dancing I’m doing tonight,” he said jokingly, his hands finding an appropriate and respectable place on her waist. He had been on his best behaviour all night long. Their conversation at the Brew the other night really hadn’t made it at all clear whether this was supposed to be a date date or not so Cappie had been careful to keep everything entirely ambiguous and gentile. It wasn’t helping solve his own sense of confusion or resolve any of the weird, electric tension between them (in fact, it was probably making that worse) but, after Breck and everything he’d been through with Octavia during the last month, he didn’t fancy putting another of his friendships in the proverbial firing line.
"You've been a very good sport," she acknowledged and situated her arms loosely around his neck. Rebecca knew that dressing up and going to one of these dances was more her thing than his, but she didn't think that he minded it too much. "Besides, you clean up nicely, and it's up to me to take advantage of it while it lasts, right?" She gave him a smile that was slightly teasing.
While the song played and they swayed back and forth to the music, Rebecca started to feel this urge to ask Cappie some questions that would probably be better left alone. Whether it was the moment or something literally in the drink she'd had a moment ago, she didn't know, but she regardless of what it was, she felt compelled to ask.
"Cap...," She started slowly and raised her eyes to look up at him. "The other night at the Brew when you mentioned how this, us coming here together, was a little masochistic, what did you mean?" She wanted to shut herself up and concentrate on the music and the fun of the dance, but her mouth didn't want to listen. Even though she had an idea of what he meant, she didn’t want to keep second-guessing herself or him.
Cappie smiled smugly at her acknowledgement, casting an eye downwards at his suit. He knew Rebecca liked his new look, even if it wasn’t strictly him and, if he was going to have to look like a preppy asshole for a few months, while he waited for his hair to grow back, at least he had the perk of knowing it was winning him a few brownie points with her.
As they danced, Cappie could feel the honesty bubbling up inside him even before Rebecca had asked her question. It was Atlantis magic, he was sure. He’d come to recognise the unique sensation of being about to say something he really shouldn’t say but knowing he was powerless to stop it. If she hadn’t interrupted his thoughts, he felt sure he would have asked her why she’d asked him here, or something else that he really wanted to know the answer to but never would have risked asking.
“We’ve dated, what, two and a half times now, if you include Breck... which somehow I do,” he began, looking down at her as they swayed in time to the music. His face had taken on a serious, almost nostalgic expression. Usually, Cappie had a way of making the truth work for him (not lying but being creative with the way he used facts) but Atlantis magic always made short work of his self-control and, as a result, he found himself answering Rebecca entirely honestly.
“Each time, neither of us have exactly walked away without a few extra emotional scars. So, coming here tonight together, stirring up all of those memories… I figured maybe we’re both just suckers for the pain. Especially because this...” He shrugged, indicating the way her arms felt on his shoulders. “This is really nice and way, way too easy to fall back into.”
“But you must have thought of all that when you asked me,” he carried on, raising one eyebrow in question. “So what made you wanna take the risk?”
Rebecca wasn't sure if she was surprised or not by the tone that Cappie set as he answered her question. A real, straight to the point, honest answer without humor or bullshit. He definitely had her full attention in that moment. She listened and felt the weight of his words because, for the most part, she agreed with them. Did she still care about him? Yes. Was she worried that the emotional scar he spoke about would cut deeper if they did this again and failed? Double yes. Did she want to go for round three? That right there was the magic question.
Now he was asking her questions, and this earnest honesty thing must have been going around because now it was her turn. "Because this is really nice," she said, mirroring his words and adjusted her arms a bit. "And way, way easy to fall back into." Rebecca smiled a little up at him but briefly. "After Breck, those memories didn't just go away. They were still there and brought back a lot of old ones. Ones that I missed more than I realized initially."
"I did think about it all - the risk. I've thought about it for a while now. I just figured that I'd see what happened and if how open you were to it too." She paused for a moment and looked at him. "And I am, you know. Open."
Cappie nodded along with her words in agreement, shifting his hands a little on her waist to pull her ever so slightly closer, making the intimate moment that they were sharing feel even more cozy. He couldn’t proclaim that he’d spent the time thinking about Rebecca as she seemed to have spent on him but, since she’d asked him to the dance and he’d remembered the way she’d looked at him the day his hair had grown back, he’d started to allow himself to wonder what it would be like to go there again with her. The thought had been exciting, certainly, - hot, even, especially when he thought about the amazing sex they’d used to have - but it was undoubtedly tinged with a sense of danger, like they were playing with fire just to be thinking about it. Still, Cappie wasn’t one to let a little bit of danger put him off. That would be far too sensible. He’d always rather give in the to the excitement.
“You know I’m still the same, old Cappie, with all the same stupid, annoying foibles, right?” He asked, a tone of warning in his voice. “I may have a crap, new look and a few extra majors under my belt but, if anything, I’m even more confused and messed up now than I was at home…” What was he doing? He could practically hear his penis telling him to shut the fuck up. But he couldn’t seem to help the questioning. He felt an insatiable need to probe her and find out all the deep, dark, personal things she was thinking and feeling. “Can you handle knowing that I still can’t promise you I’m over Casey?”
"You're more different than you might think," she said with a soft smile. "Still you, but different too." Her arms around his neck tightened a little and the tips of her fingers lightly began playing with the edge of his hair just above the collar of his jacket.
Rebecca wasn't going to be the first to bring up She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, so it was probably a good thing that he was the one to do it. It had been months since she'd seen her former housemate and even longer for Cappie, but somehow she was still here in some capacity. Rebecca wasn't stupid enough to think that just because they were thinking about things again that the idea of Casey would disappear.
"I don't expect you to promise me that," she told him. It was the truth, and she had no misconceptions about the torch he still carried for her. She didn't like it, but she wasn't pretending it wasn't there or fooling herself this time around. "What do you feel about her?" She asked. It was a dangerous question like all the others they'd probed each other with, but she couldn't help but ask it. A part of her needed to know.
Cappie gave a contented sigh as he enjoyed the feel of her fingers playing against the nape of his neck, an inadvertent smile mirroring hers. However, it faded a little at the prospect of having to explain his feelings surrounding Casey. He wasn’t sure he even knew. Still, Atlantis seemed to think he had a good enough idea because he found himself replying almost immediately.
“I feel like I’ve lost her,” he said, surprising himself with the truth of the statement. That wasn’t what he had expected to come out of his mouth but he realised that had been the overwhelming sense he’d gotten after he’d chosen not to leave with her in March. One of the reasons he’d been so devastated to see her go was because he’d felt a terrifying finality to it. They had both made a choice and they’d chosen to take their lives in different directions. Cappie swallowed, a little frown wrinkling his brow.
“I mean, I miss her but I’m not sure I can forgive her for leaving me,” he carried on, wanting to try to articulate what he meant whilst simultaneously wishing he could just stop talking.
“Does that make any sense?”
Rebecca nodded to answer his question. It made sense, but she wasn’t so sure if he’d lost her. She’d be there when and if he ever went back home. But neither of them were home. She’d chosen to leave, and Cappie had chosen to stay. Part of that was a puzzle to her, but it wasn’t one she was going to try to put together right then.
“It does. Having complicated feelings about someone you care about… I understand that.” Sometimes Rebecca even found herself missing Evan, or at least the Evan she first fell for, but anytime she thought about who he'd started to become and some of the hurtful things he'd said to her, that anger towards him would start to rear its head.
“What do you want now?” she asked him after a pause. Looking up and into his eyes that could usually read her better than most, she felt like her stomach might hit the floor any second. “Can you handle knowing you might be over Casey? Because I can.” She thought that she could at least.
Cappie didn’t need to ask Rebecca to know who she was talking about. That was the thing about knowing someone as well as he knew Rebecca: sometimes you just for each other.
He met her gaze steadily and was about to reply to her question when she hit him with another which made him pause.
“I’ve never thought about it that way,” he admitted, raising his eyebrows and lifting his eyes to gaze off into the distance. How would he handle knowing he was over Casey? Thinking about it now felt strangely freeing.
A small smile spread across Cappie’s face as he focused, once again, on Rebecca.
“What do I want now?” he said, repeating her question back to her. “I wanna stop thinking about Casey and get back to focusing on the pretty awesome, smoking hot girl in front of me. Word on the grapevine is that she kinda likes me.” He grinned. “You think I’m in with a shot?”
Rebecca watched his expression turn almost puzzled once he contemplated a world where wasn't weighed down by his feelings for Casey Cartwright. She might have had complicated feelings for Evan, but the history wasn't the same for her as it was for Cappie.
The change of tone made her smirk a bit at the answer of her question. She adjusted her arms around his neck again, helping herself to stand closer to him. “Good answer.”
Whatever feeling she’d had that caused her to ask and answer a few hard questions was beginning to lift away now. Questions that weren't so scary now that she was on the other side of them.
“I think,” she started, leaning in a little closer. “That there's a chance you might get lucky tonight if you keep playing your cards right. I'd say that's a pretty good shot, don't you?”
Cappie felt a little shiver of excitement run through him when Rebecca lifted her chin to speak into his ear in that soft, seductive voice she did so well. He let his eyes flutter closed for a moment, while his imagination did all the heavy lifting, before looking down to lock gazes with her again.