IC Continuations

[maidmalapert]

[for out-of-comm threads with Jill!]

Comments

[debossy]

W-well, I, nnn--!

[sitting down! is an action that is not making coherent sentences! HENCE IT IS GREAT AND IT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW]

[maidmalapert]

[sitting down and staring at her lap seems like an excellent plan on all counts]

[debossy]

I-I-I'd wondered if you realized! . . . However, if you had not, I couldn't be surprised. I am not human. People assume certain things about me because of that.

[maidmalapert]

What do you mean...?

[debossy]

[flushing more violently, but okay this subject can be skirted around mostly innocently to the same effect and point]

--It isn't uncommon, at home! It is not particularly taboo for such relationships to occur! Of course, my father would never approve of a thing like that, but that isn't a concern for most birds. It . . . things are as they are. But that is not how things are for the rest of you.

[maidmalapert]

Well, I-I don't think... I'm sure in Narnia we knew different sorts of Talking Animals who lived together, although... not families, you know--! Since of course they couldn't have children. So I doubt anyone would have minded it...

[debossy]

. . . That's so; it would be different for you. Most people here come from worlds where only human-shaped creatures are intelligent, and if anything else is, it is only attracted to its own kind. But we don't--myself, Ryouta, and Yuuya. I've been questioned and met with surprise before. "Does that happen, where you come from?" . . . And so, I assumed my feelings might go unnoticed, no matter the target of them.

[which they apparently did, but that's beside the point. crossing his legs and arms, leaning back in his chair, thoughtfully]

[maidmalapert]

[faintly, mortified]

It -- it wasn't that I didn't notice because it was you. I told you, I-I never... I never thought of wanting to kiss anyone. I never thought of-- romance. At all. That anyone would want-- or that I would...

...and I kept sort of coming over shy with you all the time and I couldn't think why...

[actually facepalming at this point]

[debossy]

I--had wondered, a bit, but I thought--surely not! And yet for some time now, not too terribly long, but long enough to begin to madden me, there has been something I couldn't think how to address, some feeling . . .

[looking down at his hands, and then hers, and then reaching to take hers in his]

[maidmalapert]

[squeezes his fingers, and looks up again, not speaking]

[debossy]

[still looking down at her hand, slightly fascinated]

You were not the first person here I found myself with an attraction to. But it is so entirely different between you that you may as well have been.

[maidmalapert]

[watching him, intent and serious]

How... how is it different?

[debossy]

[laughs a little, quiet and scoffing, self-deprecating; when he continues, his tone is honest and serious, but somewhat flippant]

In every possible way. To begin with, you have never attempted to murder me! But that is not quite what I was referring to, either. . . . She does not reciprocate my feelings. More than that, I don't believe she even likes me personally. I am attracted to her, but it is a foolish, uncomfortable feeling.

[after a brief pause, a little less self-mockingly:]

. . . I dislike myself slightly more for it.

[maidmalapert]

. . .

[withdraws her hand]

Slightly more than what, exactly?

[debossy]

[looking up at her face, worried]

Than I would if I did not have foolish feelings on occasion.

I--are you unhappy with me?

[maidmalapert]

N-no--!

...well... I don't know...

[looks down at her hands again]


...is... is that all...? It's just different with me because it's hopeless with the girl you liked first?

[it is totally possible to ask this question in a way that sounds casual, right?]

[debossy]

That was not at all my meaning!

[he sounds pretty aghast and horrified, and puts a hand on her shoulder all frettingly]

[maidmalapert]

[looks up suddenly, searching his face, hopeful]

Then what did you mean?

[debossy]

[bristling a little, but intensely earnest, watching her without embarrassment this time]

To start, I will have you know I've already kissed her this evening, and it definitively did not "count" for anything! Second, I am not an idiot who can be persuaded so easily by lust! She and I are absolutely unsuited to one another, and even if she were to come to me with some unlikely, out-of-character confession in the morning, I would certainly not subject myself to the misery and self-loathing that would follow from pursuing her! The essential difference is that you make me feel--happy! Splendidly happy!

[ . . . now he's a little embarrassed, though, pink again]

[maidmalapert]

Oh.

[debossy]

O--oh?!

[now that he's gotten emotional he doesn't seem to be un-emotioning just yet.]

[maidmalapert]

[tentatively reaches up and touches his cheek]

I'm glad.

I'm so very glad.

[debossy]

[it probably actually feels warm that's how much he's blushing now. he looks like he might have kept being blindly emotional if he weren't too stunned for the moment]

Ah--um . . . what do you mean by . . . saying that? To me, right now--?

[maidmalapert]

I... I...

[brushes her thumb along his jaw, searching for words]

I want to make you happy. I'm glad I do. I want to make you as happy as I can.

[debossy]

[trying to watch the progression of her thumb with his eyes without moving his head; it might look a little silly. finally he reaches to take her hand in his]

I-I--I also . . . I would like that. You do. You will for as long as you are by my side, and I--would like it very much if you'd remain there, for however long it will be possible.

. . . If you would like!