Stephen Dedalus has Lost his Wings (stephendedalus) wrote in thedoorway, @ 2013-04-27 20:46:00 |
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Stephen sighed the second he saw her on the stairs. It wasn't relief so much as it was the act of letting out the rebellious aghast breath that lay trapped behind a tongue firmly pressed against the rough of his mouth. He hadn't expected to see her again so soon and it made his palms itch in a cool way that he decided was excitement. Or honesty, perhaps, or the excitement at being able to be honest with someone conceivably. Either way, when his dark eyes focused on her his lungs emptied and it took three times telling himself to breathe before he damn-well went and obeyed it. And then it was all right except for the tingle on the pads of his fingers. He wasn't nervous the way he'd always been when a woman came towards him before. He'd never known what to say. He was a poet, after all, a writer. That meant reaching down past the place where that breath was held and wringing out his heart for words, not merely calling her pretty. She wasn't beautiful, not to him. Beauty was her. She did not fit or lean towards some notion of attractiveness or charm, in that very moment at three minutes past nine on the 27th of April, 2013 -- Beauty was Peggy Carter. And so he didn't say anything, just offered her a smile that pulled loop-sided across one of his cheeks and glanced down to admire the shine of their shoes. It wasn't shyness, not completely, just a casual little duck of his head. "I found a place" He said at last. "It seemed appropriate and -- it's a surprise. There's a cab." |