Gargoyle (stone__heart) wrote in summerview, @ 2019-02-23 00:11:00 |
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Entry tags: | complete, lily holloway, zcallum casca |
It changes you
20th Feb
Callum Casca & Lily Holloway
Summerview town • Evening Low• Complete • Warning: Compulsion power used |
She’d been watching him. He carried anger and grief around him like a cloak. He left in the evenings to go to Atlantic City, presumably for work, but she had seen him more than a few times walking out of the liquor store alone, and heading back to wherever he was staying, alone. There had been one meeting with someone else, another man - though she wasn’t sure what species they were it was obvious that they weren’t human. And the energy that rolled off him was intoxicating. If nothing else, he’d be a good meal. The itch that sat under Lily’s skin had been a little sated since Nissa came back, and when Noah found her - when he was done with his personal business - she would have her meals back on tap as and when she needed them. Danny, too, she was sure, could be coerced into helping her out when she desperately needed him.
It had been well manufactured, the timing perfect (if she did say so herself). She’d weakened the heel of her shoe just enough that all she had to do was catch it on the edge of the kerb and it would snap. He - Callum, was his name as she’d been asking around - had a bag in one hand and just as he moved past her, she subtly twisted her foot, making the heel snap and causing her to wobble dangerously on the spot. She’d have been able to catch herself if he didn’t reach out for her, but she did let out a small shriek of surprise as her body began tilting away, toppling over towards the road. Callum was unaware that he was being watched but then he had no reason to think anyone would be paying that much attention to him. It wasn’t like he was anything special in a town full of supernaturals. He was lonely that wasn’t a lie. He knew he had his cousins and Nerissa had extended a very kind offer but he didn’t feel right accepting it. He was... well, he was so used to being on his own now that sometimes he wondered if he’d forgotten how to be around other people. Sometimes he didn’t want to. Honestly it was so stupid. On one hand he craved company and on the other he actively went out of his way to avoid it. Only himself to blame. Not so lost in his own world Callum missed the sound of distress from the young woman looking to topple into the road. His bag was immediately dropped and Callum reached out, closing his hands around her upper arms and pulling her back into safe ground. “Are you alright?” That was all the in she needed; the moment Callum's fingers mad contact with her bare skin - doubling down as his other hand clasped around her other arm - her powers kicked in. Her eyes flashed, but only briefly, ability thrumming underneath her skin, first compelling him to keep a hold of her for a little longer, to brush his thumbs over the curve of her arm, and then to tug on a curiosity, that loneliness he wore like a blanket. He didn't really want to be alone. In actual fact, specific company might be nice. It was subtle, but then all the best moves were. If she went in too hard, too fast, it was obvious. Easier to break. Light-headed from her power use, it played easily into why she had fallen. "Y-yes, quite alright, thank you. I- my heel seems to have broken." She looked up at met his eyes, knowing that his hands were still on her was quite the thrill. "Thank you for saving me from a rather unpleasant injury. Since I'm just recovering from a broken arm, I'd rather not go through that trauma all over again." Callum didn’t consider himself a stupid man or a man prone to crazy flights of fancy but the moment his hands made contact with her skin he felt as though he was being pulled along by an ocean tide. He wanted to keep touching her, brush his thumbs over the curve of her arm and he did just that. It was a compulsion, something outside of his control and he just wanted to and so he did. “You’re more than welcome,” he assured her before seemingly getting a grip on himself and realising rather belatedly that holding onto the stranger might not be appreciated he finally release her. “Do you need anything else?” He really should have just left her be but he didn’t. "A new pair of shoes?" Lily joked with a weak laugh, bending at the waist to pluck the offending heel off her foot. It meant that she dropped a couple of inches in height, especially when she took the other one off, too. She held them with two fingers and clicked her tongue disappointedly. "No, you've already done enough..." she trailed off expectantly, waiting for him to fill the pause with a name, her eyebrows lifted in curiosity. She already knew, of course, she never went into anything unprepared if she could miss it. Her lips curled upwards into a soft smile, not like the brash, unfriendly ones she usually wore. "I do believe I owe you a drink or two," she added, "since you seem to have dropped yours." She reached out, fingertips brushing his arm. “Callum,” he supplied when promoted. He would have declined her offer, insisted that it was nothing and she didn’t have to feel obligated but then her finger brushed his arm and all previous nobility went right out of the window. “Honestly I wouldn’t say no.” He offered her a smile in return. “What should I call you?” Mena the MagnificentLast Tuesday at 12:33 "Lily," she all but purred, holding her hand out. "I'm glad to have a name for my saviour." Tipping her head, she glanced past him towards the shop. "Should we go back inside to replace what was damaged, or would you rather we head somewhere else for a drink? I'd just need to swing home and get some shoes, but that shouldn't be a problem, should it?" Callum took hold of her hand and gave it a firm shake totally unaware of the impact that might have on him. “Let’s go somewhere else. I think they already think I have a drinking problem without going in their again in such a short amount of time.” He shook his head. “No, not a problem. Do you need any help?” Seeing as she was basically without shoes. Lily's lips twitched up a little, though when she turned her head to look back up at Callum she shrugged her shoulders, dropping his hand once the shake was over, needing to take a small break and wishing powerfully that Noah was already here. Perhaps, later, she would message Danny. "I should be okay, but the ground is dreadfully cold." And she was in tights which would get damaged the more they walked through the streets. "I live on the other side of town, so we might need to make a brief detour for shoes, but... you don't have anywhere better to be, do you?" It was a sad realisation in that moment that actually he didn’t have anywhere better to be than helping out a random stranger on the street. Still it wouldn’t hurt to act otherwise. “I was actually on my way somewhere but I can’t really leave you like this. My mother would turn in her grave if she found out that I’d walked away when I could have helped.” Though granted he was less helpful than he used to be and with good reason. He frowned when she admitted the ground was cold and promptly scooped her up into his arms like she did in fact weigh nothing at all. “Just point me in the right direction.” As she was scooped up, Lily's arm looped around Callum's broad shoulders. The security of being held in such a firm grip was quite delightful, and she rested her shoes against her stomach so that she didn't have to hold them, since the action was making her still-healing arm ache. She waved her hand in the direction of where she had purchased herself a home, intending on giving directions as and when required. But Callum's long legs were making quick work of the walk. "Such a gentleman," she murmured, pleased. "Are your plans so set in stone I can't take you out for that drink?" she asked, only briefly resisting the urge to play with the shorter hairs at the back of his head, fingers moving idly. "I do feel so very dreadful that you ended up losing what you'd purchased." Set in stone? Did she know more than she was letting on? No, couldn't be. He was clearly just being paranoid. Not a bad thing to be, not after what had happened, but perhaps he shouldn't extend it to the residents of Summerview. "You probably did me a favour in all honesty," Callum confessed as he crossed the road that Lily indicated he needed to cross and he was apparently completely unbothered by the strange looks being given to the pair of them. "I probably shouldn't have bought more alcohol." "There's nothing wrong with enjoying a drink or two," Lily told him with a small smile. "But if you're deciding that repaying your kindness with alcohol is a bad idea, then perhaps dinner? After all, you're - take a left here - going quite out of your way to help me." Her fingertips brushed over the nape of his neck again, a touch that could have been perceived as idle though it was anything but. "How long have you lived here?" Declining her offer of dinner was quite literally on the tip of his tongue but it seemed to melt away like a snowflake the moment her fingertips brushed over his skin. "Dinner would probably be better." He already knew he spent too much time in the liquor store. Way too much time, but sometimes it was the only way he could get to sleep. "Not long," he supplied readily. "A few weeks at most." He took the left as instructed and then tipped his head to look at her. "What about you?" "Dinner it is, then," Lily agreed. She hummed, watching the world go past for a moment, quite comfortable in his arms before she replied, letting silence hang between them for a few minutes as they walked. "Only a few days," she shared. "I needed somewhere safe to hide and heal after an unpleasant experience with some humans. And I've heard such wonderful things about the Sanctuary cities, I had to see for myself if they were all they're cracked up to be." At the mention of humans it was clear how Callum's expression darkened and tension lined his form. He'd never hated humans before but now? Now he hated them. Actively and fervently. They'd taken his family from him with no regard for who they were as people as all they saw were monsters. "Humans leave much to be desired," he agreed with a shake of his head. Lily caught that in a heartbeat and suppressed her initial reaction. Wonderful. "You're not wrong." As they moved, she lfited her arm to show Callum the underside where the bruising was still visible from where the dragon had broken her arm before she'd managed to compell him to leave her along long enough for her to escape. "It isn't often I get overpowered, but it is difficult - next road on the right and then we're there - to fight a large crowd, and I'm not much of a figher. Much more of a lover." Callum frowned when he observed the bruising on Lily's pale skin and shook his head, disgusted that once again another supernatural creature had fallen foul of human and their stupidity and complete ignorance. "They're bad enough on their own but in a large crowd like that? Even worse." He took the next road on the right and waited for her to indicate when he should stop. "I barely remember leaving, but, irrationally, I'm quite afraid to go into a big city on my own again." Her fingers brushed the nape of his neck again, she needed protection, after all. Since no one else will do it for her. She indicated the house when they arrived, a large and expensive looking thing, a little gothic in nature but it matched the houses in this area. She would, of course, be rennovating it. Modernising it. Making it much nicer. But it did for now as it was. "Here we are, Callum. Would you like to wait inside while I get my shoes?" He didn't fully understand it or why he felt as strongly as he did but Callum definitely had a sense that Lily needed protection and had nobody to provide that to her. It tapped right into a part of Callum he long thought dead after the attack on his family. That inherent and instinctual need which was bred into every Gargoyle to look after and protect. "Probably would look a little less odd if I did," Callum said with a small smirk as he shifted to place Lily down. Lily snorted, once she was placed down on her feet with her heels back in her hand she leaned up and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Isn't that the truth." She didn't need a key; the locks of the door responded to her the moment she reached out and touched the handle. Pushing it open, she stepped inside, looking over her shoulder and beckoning him in. "Come on in, Callum." Callum arched an eyebrow at the display of what could only be described as magic as the door reacted to Lily’s touch. That was a new way of securing your home but it made sense. More so than a lock and key. In that moment as she stepped into the house and beckoned him in Callum got a slight sense of a spider inviting the fly into its parlour. That alone should have been enough to send him running in the opposite direction, to the familiar and the known, and yet he didn’t. He did in fact accept her offer and stepped inside. Lily turned away to hide her smile as he stepped over the threshold. “I won’t me a minute, sit yourself down in the lounge- just on your left there, I’m just going to grab some shoes.” She disappeared down the hall and tossed the broken ones onto the kitchen floor. She hummed to herself, picking out another pair - boots this time - and quickly heading upstairs to change into something more fitting for dinner, a pair of fitted jeans that hugged her curves and a loose fitting, low cut top. “You ready?” Callum strayed into the lounge and with hands now in the pockets of his jeans he acquainted himself with the room and by extension the mysterious Lily that there was something about that he couldn’t put his finger on. He was currently looking at the back of a book from a nearby bookcase when Lily returned looking very differently. Still attractive. He’d noticed that, would have to be blind not to. “Definitely,” He replied as the book was put back. Her lips curled up into a smile and she tipped her head. “That’s a good book, if you’d like to borrow it another time you’re more than welcome to.” But for now, food. And then later, for her, food. Holding her hand out, she wiggled her fingers. “Do you happen to have any good suggestions as to where I can take you?” Callum regarded her hand as he wondered if she was this tactile with everybody. He wasn’t. It was mostly family and friends that benefited from that kind of behaviour from him and yet something kept tugging at the back of his mind. She needed protecting and that tapped into a unconscious need of his own. He was a Gargoyle after all. Couldn’t really deny his own nature. “I do actually.” Callum stepped closer and resisted the hand though the unconscious tug and good British manners had him taking it. “Oh?” Lily asked, using the momentum when he caught her hand to step on beside him. “And where’s that?” She squeezed his fingers and then let go, looping her arm around his instead, fingers resting on the crook of his elbow instead. Callum began in the direction of the door and glanced at Lily as he didn't know if it would open for him or if she needed to do something. "I think my normal place wouldn't exactly be your kind of thing so I think it's better if we go to In Vino Veritas." Definitely seemed more classy than The Long Way Down Pub. "Well, let's go there this time," Lily suggested, waving her hand for Callum to open the door. Following him out, she tugged it closed and she heard the latch clicking. Once they were outside, she looped her arm through his again, her hand resting gently against his forearm, like a gentleman escorting his lady on an evening out. "And then, perhaps, next time we can visit your normal place?" "I'm really not sure it's your kind of place," Callum admitted with a slight laugh as he reached up to scrub through his hair as he cast his gaze over at Lily. "It's a little rough around the edges and I may not know you very well but I don't think that's your aesthetic." Just something about Lily made Callum think twice about taking her to The Long Way Down Pub. It had been a while since he'd last gone out for dinner, too long really. |