Friday - 9/28/07 Who: James and Nell When: Afternoon Where: Nell's room and then outside What: Conversation and cloud watching.
There was very much the possibility that Nell was going to die a slow death of boredom at this place. She could have joined Blake in her pursuit of something of interest outside of the room, but she had found herself in a dire mood since they had arrived here. This place had heat, food, electricity, internet, everything that someone could really want. And yet she still wished she was back in her tiny, drafty apartment that barely had room for the two of them. It had been her apartment though and they had worked to get just that. Being taken away from all of that was heartbreaking in its own way.
Laying on her bed, she stared up at the ceiling. Maybe she could go find a book store later to buy a few books to read. Though maybe they had a librarian with books that were not about supernaturals. Raising her hand up, she concentrated on the ceiling until she created the image of a star filled night up above her. A few books about illusions would not be bad either, though she seemed to be doing pretty well on her own. Not really knowing what the night sky looked like on its own, she made up her own stars to make up different sorts of constellations. Maybe there would be a way to get on the roof of one of the buildings to look at the stars. It was nearly impossible to see them back at home, and she had missed that about Halcyon. Really the night sky was about the only thing she missed from there.
Playing around with the stars up in her created sky, she was at least amused for a bit. Sure she could practice for a while, or maybe even do whatever homework that her new 'teachers' had assigned. For some reason creating her own universe on the ceiling was a lot more fun. If she concentrated hard enough she might even be able to bring this universe to her. But for now she did not want to make her own planetary models. Right now she was content looking up at the meteor shower that she made play up above her.
---
Talking to Cissy the night before had led James to one stunning conclusion. Since Fisher had been in his life, he had not been a very good friend to anyone. He hadn't even bothered to check on her since she had arrived at Halcyon, wouldn't have even known anything was wrong with her at all had it not been for Ric speaking with Fisher, and he felt rather bad about that. She had been the one that had been there for him, after all, after his mother had passed on.
And then there was Nell. He had pretty much blown her off completely and hadn't even spoken to her since her arrival but.. that was for entirely different reasons. With Cissy, avoidance came because he honestly hadn't thought that much about her. They were not exactly close friends by any measure of the word, and her not reaching out to him made him assume that everything was fine when obviously it was not. With Nell, well, there were conversations that would eventually come up that he was trying to avoid having. And that meant avoiding her though it wasn't as if having the conversation later versus right now was really going to make a difference.
And it was with these things in mind that he decided to seek her out, to take that step towards having that conversation that would end in discomfort and awkwardness and possibly ruin any chance that he had ever had with her, not that he was certain he had ever actually had one. She wasn't too hard to track down, no one here ever was, and it wasn't but about twenty minutes after he set out to locate her that he found himself staring at her closed door and reaching one hand up to knock upon it in a way that was both quiet and demanding.
---
The sudden knock startled her from her concentration. The swirling universe above flickered, bits of it disappearing as her mind was suddenly drawn to the noise. Keeping an illusion going took a lot of concentration and she was lucky that a headache was not beginning to blossom from the sudden distraction. Reaching her hand back out, she watched the ceiling and straightened up the image quickly. There were less stars and it was not as complex of an illusion, but for the mean time she wanted it there. Whoever it was was likely looking for Blake anyway.
"Blake's not home." she called out lazily, her hand falling back to the bed. "It's open though." she added as an afterthought. They could be leaving Blake something, who knew. But her sister obviously did not know someone was trying to get a hold of her since otherwise she would likely be here. For all Blake knew her sister was probably off with her vampire buddy. She had told Blake he was head of security here. For some reason Nell did not feel all that much safer.
---
Admittedly, there was a part of James that probably wanted Nell to not be there. Then he could just say that he had dropped by and be done with it. The burden would have been off of him then. But that was definitely her voice, and even if he hadn't recognized it right off, the indication that Blake wasn't the one there certainly made it clear that it was her voice. She was definitely in, and now he had no choice but to strut on in there and lay it all out on the table. That is, if she even asked.
"Too bad I'm not here to see her then, huh?" James said once he opened the door and let himself in. "I'd be disappointed. And for some odd reason, I find myself in the mood to be disappointed." Was that the truth or just a line? He wasn't entirely sure. Truth of the matter was, he wasn't in the best of moods, mostly because Fisher was gone and it had gotten to that scary point where it was difficult to sleep without him. That was never a good thing.
---
"Oh look, no one's there." she commented mildly as she kept her eyes gazing up at fake stars and planets. It was a bitchy thing to do but really she felt it hard to care. Nell had a hard enough time getting close to people and having any emotion towards the aside from distaste that when she felt herself pushed away she had no other feeling to fall back on. They had not seen each other in months, a damn long time in most people's minds. And yet he had brushed her off as if she was just some sort of bother. Most people would have a problem with that, so the way she saw it she was hardly overreacting at all. Whatever it was that he decided was more important dug at her. If she was too rude he likely would just go and head right back to whatever it was.
But she wanted to see him. Despite the fact that she was annoyed and hurt that he had decided for some prick reason to ignore her, Nell was not the type to really have friends. He had been her first friend in a long time. Sure it hurt but she knew she would get over it because of that. That would be if he did not decide to just give up and walk away. Neither of them had the best of tempers either. But despite all that, Nell kept coming back that the ass deserved it, if just for a little while.
---
Oh, so she was going to be that way. It caused a slight smirk to form upon James' lips as he came to one singular realization... Nell had not changed at all. And she was angry with him. How cute? Did she feel neglected? Well of course. He hadn't seen her for months and then he had simply blown her off. He felt bad about it, but he had had a lot going on. And his mood was still not what it should be really. He had yet to hear back from that bitch, Adora, about the money. And James without money was like peanut butter without jelly. Dry and bland.
"Looks like someone's got their undies in a twist." He smirked as he spoke, strolling into the room with his usual swagger, the door closed behind him as he crossed over to the bed where she lay. He was prepared to get hit, slapped, shoved, kneed, or kicked for this, but that was a risk he was willing to take. "Since I'm no one, you won't notice or mind if I do this..." He flung himself onto the bed, practically on top of her, making it impossible for her to ignore him. "Damn this bed is lumpy."
---
Kneed would have been the proper assessment to take. Nell was not at all used to sudden movements against her person and more out of instinct than anything else her knee pulled up hard. She knew it would hurt, but she also knew the wuss could take the pain. And if he really expected to get away with that then he was in a bit of a delusion himself. Her night sky disappeared completely as she had to deal with the current issue at hand.
Reaching out, she pushed pushed him off of her, frowning. "It's not polite to assault people in their rooms. You never know what could happen." she nearly hissed out. He thought he was being cute likely. Well probably not anymore since he had just had her knee in his crotch in a not so pleasant fashion. But she felt even more of a reason to be pissed off with him now. He had no right to try to be cute when apparently it only mattered when he wanted to see her, not the other way around.
---
Right. So he had been expecting something, but probably not quite that and not quite that hard. And the knee hit him like a ton of bricks and made him groan, naturally causing him to curl into himself as she shoved him off of her, rolling onto his back on the bed next to her.
"Alright." He said, once he had managed to find his voice again. "I get it. You're pissed. That's no reason to destroy my future children." Not that he would really have any if he continued down his current relationship path, but that was neither here nor there at the moment. "Damn..." His hand moved down to rub his nuts.
---
"You're fucking right that I'm pissed." Eyes narrowed, she sat up and turned to kick him off the bed. She did not want him near her right now. Because for once she wanted to see him on her terms, not his. That seemed to be a hard thing for him to understand.
Leaning back against the wall, she folded her arms and waited for him to get up. There was a possibility that he would storm off or that he would stay here and yell at her. Then was the slim possibility that maybe he would try to reason with her. She did not really know, cause before she would have never thought he would just blow her off, he never had before. "What are you even doing here?"
---
So he had expected her to be a little perturbed with him perhaps, but not quite as angry as she was turning out to be. First there was the knee, and then she was trying to kick him off of her bed all together? Well fuck that. She didn't have to kick him. He would have moved if she had asked. Maybe. And he did move now, but not before he reached over and gave her a hard shove. She was really starting to test his fucking temper.
"What the fuck do you think I'm doing here?" He asked, his arms crossing over his chest now that he stood up and the throbbing in his balls had finally ceased. "I came by to fucking see you but if you would prefer that I forget about you, that could be arranged as well." Not that he really would. Or could, even.
---
Falling over slightly at the shove, she braced herself on the bed and pushed herself back up. Looking up at him, she felt the need to stand too, but it was not as if it would really help the height difference any. So she stayed put, glaring up at him. Had to hand it to his bloodline, he sure did recover from a shot to the nuts quickly. Or maybe he just had loads of practice of people hitting him there.
"You did an awful nice impression of having just forgotten about me when I was bothering your precious time." She was hurt. More hurt than she really had expected. Nell did not make friends, she never had been good at it. For once she thought she had actually had one, maybe even something that could have. No, that was stupid. "So why are you here now? Your busy busy schedule finally let you?"
---
Truth be told, it was probably a little bit of both. He had taken more than one swift knee to the balls in his lifetime. But being a demon, or part demon anyway, did help a lot in recovering from things like knees to the nuts. That didn't help any in recovering from an issue with his temper, and she was only fanning the flames with the shit she was saying, so to speak.
"Oh, like you did an awful damn good job of, let's see, taking off, first of all, and then not being around when my mother fucking died?" A brow arched sharply as he turned the tables around. She wanted to be pissed at him? Really? If anyone had the right to be pissed off, it was him. It wasn't like she was even here to be there for him. She was just here by accident. It didn't have shit to do with him. If it was up to her, he might never have even seen her again.
---
"Like I had a fucking clue on how to find you!" she countered, climbing off the bed and finally standing up, glaring at him. Yeah she had not been there when his mother had died, but did he really expect her to be able to find him. People like her got kicked out of places when they tried to ask about people in his part of town. She had taken off though. But she could not just have left Blake to go home on her own. Nell never left her sister and when Blake decided to leave Nell did not have much of a choice but to go as well.
Fire was rising up in her veins and she did not really like the feeling. They were both in the wrong, really. But fuck if she was going to back down. "What did you want me to do, James? Go up to each doorman and ask after you? Look you up in the fucking phone book?" She stood right in front of him, looking up at him with a sharp glare. Fucking hell, she didn't want to say sorry.
---
And now he had her attention. He could tell she was getting fired up when she too pushed herself up to her feet. And he even took a step back from her, just to give her a little more room. He didn't want to burn her, after all, if his temper flared up even more, which was more than a little possible if not entirely probable as well.
"Bullshit, Nell." He had to call her out on that one. "You knew I was at Halcyon. It wasn't like you didn't know who I knew there. You could have fucking called and found out how to reach me if you really wanted to, but you didn't, did you?" He scoffed and shook his head. "Don't even try to play it off like you were too fucking stupid to think to do that."
---
"Who could I have talked to at Halcyon, eh? You're the only person I knew there you idiot!" she fumed. "Wanted me to call up some of Blake's friends? People who didn't give a fuck about you and so damned well wouldn't know where you would be. And the administration has this nice policy about not giving out personal information about students you ass." She could have tried harder, she knew that. But damn it it was not like she had not tried at all.
Reaching up she grabbed at her hair and tugged at it hard to resist the urge to hit him. Sure she was angry, but she was not stupid enough to think that hitting him would end well. In fact that would likely end up with her hurt and she really was not in the mood for that. "You're just so. Fuck I don't even know." she swore, angry with herself. "I fucking missed you."
---
"I dunno, let's see, my ex maybe? Or Cecilia? You know, some of my friends? That would have made sense." Saying that she didn't know anyone or that there was no one for her to get the information from was just another excuse. She could have easily tracked him down. It wouldn't have been that hard. But she didn't. She had barely even kept in touch after she took off. And it wasn't like she had to follow her sister around. When was she going to decide to live her own life and leave Blake to fuck up hers of her own accord?
"I'm what?" He asked her, about ready to turn and walk out the fucking door. This was not how he wanted to spend his time while Fisher was gone, fighting with fucking Nell. They were damn good at it though, that much was for sure. And then she said it, and while he would have liked to have smirked about it, he was just too relieved to hear about it to get too cocky. "Well I fucking missed you too." And he would have hugged her, but she might knee him in the nuts again if he tried.
---
It might have seemed like an excuse to some people, but Nell lived in a very secluded world where very few people were considered. His ex hated him and she had no clue who Cecilia was, though Blake probably did. And saying that she did not have to follow Blake was ridiculous. But that was another thing that most people would never understand. Blake drove her mad but Nell was pretty sure she would actually go mad if she ever did not have her sister. Taking care of Blake was how she knew how to take care of herself.
Looking up at him, she had no idea what to do with herself for a few moments. It had not been in her plans that the first time she would get to see him again would be them yelling at each other. With that as a reality, she really just had no idea what to do and she never liked being caught in that sort of situation. After those few silent moments her brain seemed to switch to a strange setting for a moment. Closing what little distance there was between them, she grabbed his shirt and pulled him down to her height. "You're such a fucking ass." she swore under her breath before kissing him, quickly letting go and pulling away after she did.
---
James knew it was ridiculous to tell her that she didn't have to go with Blake. Where Blake went, Nell went also. That's the way it was, always had been, always would be, but that didn't mean that he had to like it. He was just angry, annoyed, mostly because she was being such a bitch to him, even if he did know that he deserved it. He just didn't like being called on it. She had caught him in a shitty mood that day, though, and he hadn't felt like leaving his room. Maybe he should have just invited her to come hang out with him there but... He wasn't sure how Fisher would feel about that.
The last thing he had expected was for her to grab him and kiss him. If anything, he had thought she was going to punch him or kick him again when she moved towards him, and he had, as a natural response, sort of bent his body a bit to shield his nuts. But then he found her arms around his neck and her lips against his and she was pulling away before he even had a chance to respond to it.
James blinked as she took a step back, taking a moment to digest what had just happened and trying to calculate how he felt about that exactly. The only thing he could really think though was that he wasn't going to let her just kiss him like that and not even given him a chance to kiss her back, like really kiss her back. So he reached out and grabbed her, pulling her back towards him, his hands moving to cup her face as his lips pressed against hers once more. If she was going to kiss him, it needed to be a proper, mutual kiss.
---
Shit. Just, shit. She had not been thinking and whenever she stopped thinking bad things had a tendency to happen. Not that she thought he would be upset by that, but the fact of the matter was she was not really sure what she thought. Over the past few months she had started to calm down about certain things but at the same time it was still a bit terrifying. In the few seconds that she had pulled away it seemed like an eternity of horror in her mind.
Usually if someone had grabbed her like that she would have hit them, hard. But there really was not much time for thinking right now, her brain seemed to have shut off for the time being. In a weird sort of not within her own mind sense, she felt herself snaking her arms around his neck as she found herself kissing him back. It had been, what, two years almost since she had kissed anyone really? Even longer since she had kissed someone because she wanted to. While it was terrifying on one hand it gave it almost more of a thrill than she had expected. Not that she had really been expecting much of anything.
---
It was a nice kiss, but it was wrong. He was involved with someone, after all, and even if Fisher had told him that he didn't care what he did and with whom he did it, he had told Fisher that he was the only one that he wanted. Of course that was before Nell came back into the picture. When he had said that, he hadn't been expecting this, not that he would have been expecting this even if she had been in the picture at that point in time. How many times had he wanted to kiss her before? How many times had he asked to but been turned down? He had given up on it ever happening and now, now when he was content elsewhere... Well wasn't that just the way things went?
James pulled away after a long moment, his hands dropping from her face down to his waist. And now what? He wasn't sure exactly what to say. Or do. James wasn't used to being speechless. So instead of getting all sentimental or honest or the million and one other ways that he could become at this moment in time, he simply smirked and took on his usual stance. "Guess I should have pissed you off a lot sooner." It was hardly funny, but at least it would lighten the mood.
---
Of course, a snide remark. Though really she did not expect much more from him. Or that she could have really expected anything. Maybe she should have just gone with whatever that fucking angel had wanted to do besides send them back to school. Nell hated being vulnerable and it was just the sort of situation that she had just set herself up into. And worst of all she was vulnerable to a person that she knew was not the best of people to be vulnerable to. Not that she thought that James would go out of his way to do something to her, but at the same time she really was not sure how well she knew him anymore.
"Fuck." was all she could say, hands going up to her face. Rubbing her face to try and sort out her thoughts, she found that there really was not any sorting to be done. At least not any that she could get a hold of right now. "just...fuck." Wasn't she the eloquent little poet today.
---
James had anticipated some sort of snide remark in return but instead she looked absolutely upset with herself. "Well it wasn't that bad, was it?" He asked her, and then frowned a little as she didn't seem to be so easily removed from this bout of self-reprimanding that she was doing. "Come here." He said, and attempted to pull her towards him so he could put his arms around her in a hug. "I'm sorry I was such a dick. It's just... been a crazy couple of months." A lot had happened since she had been gone. He wasn't even sure where to start, and not even sure that he wanted to right now.
"Let's just fucking sit down. You can fill me in on what's been up with you and then I'll like.. bore you to death with telling you that I've been here, or at Halcyon, pretty much the whole time." Not that there wasn't much more than that to it, but he would rather gloss over that shit for a while at least.
---
When he actually went to hug her, Nell was really not sure what to think about that. For a moment she just let him have his arms around her. But after a few moments she pushed him away, wrapping her arms around herself. A crazy couple of months, he was tellin her. Of course he had decided to stay at these ridiculous schools. "Thought you'd have come to visit at least once." she said, not really to him directly. It was more of a thought spoken aloud. She had no idea why he felt the need to be at these schools all the time.
Shaking her head, she sat on her bed and leaned back against the wall. "Doubt you'll really want to hear what I've been up to. Not much to really tell."
---
Okay, so apparently not much had changed. She was just as frustrating as she ever was. And she still didn't seem to like to be touched unless it was under her terms. He respected that, but he didn't like it, obviously. It was entirely too frustrating. Granted, like most men he craved a challenge now and again, but only if that challenge actually paid off from time to time. He sighed as she walked over to the bed to have a seat, not moving from the spot that he was in to join her.
"Well I've been a little busy. And I didn't exactly have a disposable income to be traveling to New York on." And still he wasn't sure what was going on with that. He had yet to hear back from Adora in regards to the promise that she had made him, the deal they had brokered. Not that he was sad to not have to deal with her, quite the contrary, he was simply annoyed that things weren't moving a bit quicker in that regard.
"And I don't really care to talk about what's been up with me so..." He gave a small shrug of his shoulders. "Not sure what there is to talk about at the moment."
---
Things had changed, which was the sad thing in all this. She had been steadily getting better. Hell, she even had people that she got along with back at the diner. People that liked her. She had even gone on a date with someone, not that it had gone anywhere. But James was something different and at the moment she was sure that somehow she had fucked up something that she could not even quantify. The idea of that scared the shit out of her more than she was really willing to admit.
Pulling her knee up, she rested her chin on it and looked up at him. So he was not on some trust fund anymore, he had neglected to tell her that in the few conversations she had managed to have with him online while she was in New York. "Sucks. You could have come see me at the diner. Always thought you'd get a kick out of my uniform there. It's pink. Looks like something out of leave it to beaver." she commented, not really sure why she felt the need to tell him about it. But it was important to her, she had actually been able to create somewhat of a life. A life she had been happy with.
"Don't have to talk, I guess." she said, not really trying to hint at anything, but just saying that it was an option. "Could, I dunno, play cards or something else mindless?"
---
Everything changed and everything evolved. Maybe things could have been great between them once upon a time but things were complicated now. He loved someone. That wasn't to say that he didn't still care for her, it just made things tricky. And the bad part of it was that he didn't feel like he could even tell her, which was probably worse for her, probably left her feeling like it was her fault when really, it wasn't exactly her fault. She had left and he had been alone. Then he met Fisher and he wasn't alone anymore. Again, it was all just very complicated.
The remark about her uniform made him smirk a little, especially when she started to describe it. "I bet you looked really cute in it." And he didn't even sound condescending when he said it though he was certain she may take it that way. It was cool that she told him, not that he understood why she did either but, whatever.
The proposition of cards made him frown a little. That sounded incredibly dull and not like something that he wanted to do at all. He did consider it for a moment, but just a moment, before something more brilliant came to mind and he offered his hand to her. "Come on. Come with me." Most people would think that the activity he had in mind was completely lame, but Nell would appreciate it and he knew that. Cloud watching wasn't exactly for everyone, however.
---
Nell was tired of change. She wanted the world to just stop, for once. After all that she had gone through with her life she just wanted maybe one thing that would not change, that would stay constant and unchanged. There was Blake, people would probably point out. But Blake was change. In and off herself, her sister would never stay still and Nell knew that. Maybe one day Nell would retreat into a world completely controlled and manipulated with her gift, but right now she was just stuck picking up the pieces of something that had never been fully put together to begin with.
"I got compliments. Even went out with a guy once. Didn't go very well, but yeah. Would have brought it with me but had to return it when I quit to come here." The diner. It was such a silly thing to focus on really, but that horrible minimum wage life had made her happy. It was so fucking ridiculously normal that for once she had felt really like herself.
Cards was dull, especially when you could make the cards say whatever you wanted them too. She still needed to go to Vegas one day and test it out. Maybe he would come with her. But that was really neither here nor there. Reaching out, she took his hand and pulled herself up off the bed. Looking up at him, she had no clue what he had in mind. But hey, she trusted him, and that fact still kind of terrified her.
---
"Oh yeah? I bet he loved that little uniform." James was probably teasing her about it a bit now, which was better than the mood he had previously displayed for certain. "You take any pictures in it?" He asked, and then he laughed a little as he looked away from her. He really shouldn't be allowing his mind to trail off in that direction at all. It definitely wasn't right. Granted, he had pretty much been given lease to do as he wanted as long as he was forthcoming about it, that still didn't mean that he was okay with it.
He was glad that she took his hand, and he made quick business of leading her to the nearest exit and out onto the grounds where the weather wasn't terribly bad today. It was cloudy, which was good, considering. He took her off in the direction of the water tower, where he had found the grounds were more secluded, heading up a small hill that was free of trees and would give them an unobstructed view. James took a seat upon the ground and pulled her down with him.
Nodding towards the sky, the clouds, he posed the question, just to clue her in on what they were here for, "What do you see?" If she made fun of him for this, he would kick her ass. Well, not really, but he would brood and storm off because, well, that's just the way that he was. He would wait for her to answer before he lay back upon the ground.
---
"Don't need pictures." she said, shrugging. Holding her hand up, she concentrated for a moment and an image of herself appeared. A pink and black waitress uniform showed up on the image of her. It was a simple enough illusion, she had been practicing at it. People had been a hard jump to make, but once she had made one others were just slight alterations. And her own form had been the easiest of all, especially since she saw Blake so often.
She followed him outside and to where ever he seemed bent on going. This whole place was still a bit of a mystery to her but he apparently knew exactly where he was going. It made her feel guilty, for some reason. For some reason she felt that she should have been here with him, even if she knew it was pointless for her to be in this school in the first place. All that she had learned about herself she had done on her own, schools were not going to help her at all. But for some reason he felt the need to be at these places.
Looking up at the sky, she watched the clouds slowly pass along the sky. "You never really get to see the clouds back at home." she said softly as she flopped down next to him on the ground. Watching the clouds, she smiled slightly. "I see a rabbit. Strange thing to see in the sky. Don't even like rabbits all that much."
---
He had not been expecting that, and he was a little stunned at first and had no idea what to say. But after a moment, a wide grin spread out upon his lips and he finally commented with a small shrug of his shoulders, "I'd tap that." She might slap him for it. He might like it. But it was honest, regardless of whether or not it should be the case. He was still attracted to her, for whatever the reason, even though he had never fully understood it from the start. There was just something there. It didn't have to make sense. That was one thing he was really starting to figure out these days.
When she flopped onto the ground and didn't make a smart ass remark at all, he allowed himself to lay back and look up at the sky as well. "I know. It's kind of nice." In New York, there was no sky. There were buildings and more buildings and nowhere you could really go to get any sort of view like this. "Where's a rabbit?" He asked, shifting his head a bit closer so that he could see more so from her vantage point. "I don't really like them either." They had some beady fucking eyes and made weird movements with their mouths. Not cool.
They would spend most of the day just comparing clouds and avoiding all other topics of conversation. Sometimes it was just easier that way and, with Nell, there were never really any demands for something more.