Post by dexter on Sept 20, 2009 23:39:37 GMT -5
Fin:Fin began walking down the hall towards his room after the others went off on their weapon's dealer adventure. He fully planned on doing some sort of patrol to make sure the Temple stayed safe and sound, he just wanted to get his other morphing suit before he did. He'd been wearing this one for about a week and though he wasn't one of the hardcore ones that just wore a morphing suit all the time, it was still time for a switch.
He walked into his room and pushed the door closed behind him, or thought he did. He'd dragged a bunch of the mats that had been in the corner of his room and placed them into a pretty comfortable bed on the floor. He had a feeling the mats had once served the children of this school during nap time. Well now they served Fin during nap time.
He pulled off his t-shirt and threw it in a pile that he mentally thought of as dirty cloths and pulled off his biking shorts and they went the same way as the shirt. He began searching through the pile mentally designated as clean clothes though to an outsider the piles probably looked the same.
Aida:
((Just as a side note, I had to stop three times while writing this because I was laughing so hard))
The others left, just as she backed out of that adventure, now she was intent on finding Fin...they had a lot to catch up on. So much had happened since they'd both left, their parting had been one that felt almost permanent....and yet here they were together once more. She had questions, not only about their time spent apart but about where they stood, as well as other minor things that had been eating away at her. She was sure Fin was probably curious about her trip as well....though her answers to any of those questions wouldn't be so cheery.
Aida tucked a stray strand of her dark hair behind her ear, slowly making her way down the hallway in an attempt to find Fin. After a few minutes of seeing just about no one she decided to visit his room, it was shut, and there was ruffling around inside--a good sign. She took a deep breath and was moving to rap on the door when her foot felt something that was definitely not the floor, something round. THE bouncy ball.
The door came zooming towards her, or no wait..that was her body falling towards the door, she was loosing her balance. Aida's arms instinctively shot out to grasp something and ended up grabbing the knob and pushing the door wide open instead, and she stumbled through the doorway, landing on her knees. When Aida finally glanced up, her cheeks already flushed from her clumsiness...she got....a view of Fin she'd never seen before and then her face grew even more red...if that was even humanly possible--and apparently it was.
Her jaw fell open in shock, and she tried to mumble some type of apology but nothing came out, nothing at all but for a soft squeak. Aida found herself unable to look away, its kind of like watching something you know you shouldn't but being completely powerless to do anything but stare. After a few seconds she pushed herself up and quickly scurried out of the room, collapsing with her back pressed to the wall, just a few feet from his door. Aida buried her scarlet face in her hands.
Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod
Fin:Fin heard someone come in behind him and whirled around, standing up as he did so. For a moment he froze when he saw who it was. He kept waiting for that fuzzy quality to spread through the edges of reality letting him know this was just an embarrassing dream and then he could either wake up or decide where to take the dream from their though they weren't really dreams after you did that and they were always less interesting because they were predictable.
But the fuzzy quality never came. Reality was very uncomfortably real and he dropped hands that were holding a shirt down to his waist and closed his mouth since he'd realized it had been hanging open long enough for a fly to get into it.
As Aida began to mumble something and blush he began to regain his composure. It was just his way to go in the opposite direction of the mood, to try to balance things out. In this world that often meant acting ridiculous since everything was always so serious and often laced with danger but right now that meant acting like this kind of thing happened to him all the time.
"Hey Aida," he began to say before she ran out of the room. When she was gone he pulled on his morphing suit with a speed that betrayed his attempts at acting cool and then just stood in the middle of his room for a while. He felt slightly trapped. If he walked outside it would be acknowledging what had just happened and they'd have to talk about it but if he stayed in here he would just have to stay in here indefinitely.
Best to go outside then.
He walked over to his door and knocked on it. "Are you decent?" he called out as if he were entering a room from the hallway instead of the other way around.
Aida:Aida could only remember one other time that she felt this utterly embarrassed, and it had been when two random boys--Ray and Fin respectively now--had gotten one heck of a view of her in her birthday suit. There was also the whole time she'd been captured and experimented on...it hadn't exactly entailed clothing but it hadn't felt nearly as awkward then as it did now. There had been mystery before...now....she knew....all of Fin. In a way they were even, but she definitely didn't see it that way.
His voice was scarcely distinguishable from the loud thudding she heard in her ears, was that her own blood pumping that hard? Aida hadn't realized how incredibly nervous the entire thing had made her, and only now did she note how fast her heart was beating. She mumbled a response, still keeping her face buried in her hands, trying to hide how utterly red it had turned. Aida had never been good with nudity, with relationships or feelings, heck the entire male species confused her...and this had only served as an unwanted reminder of all that.
Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod. Was he going to come outside? What would she say? Pretend it hadn't happened? Why had she been looking for him in the first place? Her mind wouldn't get off the image of him standing there nude, it was like it had been seared into her thoughts forever, and no matter what she thought to make it go away, it remained.
Rainbows and unicorns and all that happy stuff....c'mon...not Fin naked...NO stop it!...morphing? Turning into a bird...soaring into the sky...the feeling of wind ruffling through your hair....Fin's hair....Fin naked...ohmygod
Fin:Fin waited for an answer from Aida but after about of minute of silence he decided she was probably dying of blushing if such a thing were possible and figured he'd better do something to cheer her up. That was his favorite thing about Aida. Most people it was easy to get them to laugh. All he had to do was do something outrageous. And he enjoyed that feeling, making other people happy.
But with Aida it had always been a challenge. She'd come out of a bad situation into a, well if not worse at least dangerous one. He didn't know how she did it. How could she come so close to dying and then turn around and sign up to be a soldier in war with a low chance of surviving.
It was the kind of courage he wished he had and maybe he hoped that by knowing her, being close to her, it might rub off on him. Crayaks knew he needed it.
He walked out into the hallway, fully clothed this time, and sat down next to her. "Oh good, well I'm glad one of us is decent," he said smiling. "I guess we're even now after your rescue."
Aida:Her face was still buried in her hands, and she was doing her best not to think of what she had just seen, but no matter what she did it just kept re-appearing. It would only be a few more minutes until he came outside, she knew, and it was impossible to make this go away in time. Fin always had a way of making her feel comfortable, but how did one go about fixing something like this?
Aida glanced up, her face still visibly flushed red when she heard Fin, and he took a seat next to her. His smile made little butterflies well up in her tummy, but the image of him naked was still fresh in her mind. She blushed a bit more at his reference to her own rescue, something that she tried very much not to remember. "I...yeah...I..we ....err...even" she mumbled, still quite flustered. Never in her life had she seen someone naked, which seems slightly weird considering she was 18 but it had just never come up, not in movies not in real life...never. Fin was the first, and it was...definitely in a memorable way.
Aida dropped her gaze for a moment, trying to compose herself before adding, "I forgot what...I was coming to see you about now..." she mumbled quietly, sounding embarassed by this. Why had she come around anyway, definitely not to get a peep show from Fin....but it seemed after witnessing it there was little else to think of. He was acting very cool about it though, and so she quickly found herself managing to calm a bit, the red lining her cheeks fading to a pink instead.
Fin:He wasn't sure how to go on from there so of course he just started talking. "Well that's ok. We can totally talk about other things." Totally was not a word Fin used often. He found a bouncy ball on the ground and began bouncing it off the wall in front of him and catching it as it rebounded.
"Soooo," he said searching for something to cover the silence. "How about them yankees?"
Aida:Aida stared at the wall, trying to wipe the image of Fin from her mind, and not only for her sake but for his own. He was so calm now, at ease, and she was still a frazzled, flustered mess, and it definitely could not be fun to talk to someone in such a state. Breathe...calm....breathe....no nudity.... she coaxed her mind to go blank, and finally it did. Aida still couldn't bring herself to look at him though, so she kept her gaze focused on a small crack in the wall, one that kind of looked like a lightning bolt.
His sudden question caught her off guard, but suddenly she found that her lips had turned up in the faintest hint of a smile. How did he always managed to do that? "I only play cricket," she replied softly, still trying to find her voice. "But I think I'd prefer the less wealthy teams if I had to choose." It was completely random, but it kept her mind in the clear, and it kept her calmer. Now it was coming back to her, slowly but surely. Oh yeah.
"I remember now," she added, listening to the ball as it bounced against the wall. It was a bit ironic that that evil thing nearly caused her to die of embarrassment just seconds earlier and now it was helping to distract her from it. "I wanted to....well....talk about our time apart...and..." she bit her lower lip gently, "Well...where we stand now..."
Fin:"Ah," he said looking away from her and running a hand through his short hair. "That talk....the one where we sit and tell each other how we feel." He began to squirm a bit but he stayed firmly on the ground at least. For some reason the prospect of talking to Aida about his feelings made him feel more exposed and vulnerable than if he had decided to walk around naked permanently.
"Um, well, I left Vancouver and travelled a long time and then ended up here. Look, all done. What about you? How was New York? Do they still have Yankees? And can't we just skip this conversation?" He reached out a hand and laid it over hers. "The only thing that has changed is the city we live in. At least for me."
Aida:His unease over the topic was quite apparent, enough to make her regret bringing it up a bit. Aida bit down on her lower lip anxiously as he glanced away, and remained quiet. She held her hands flat on her lap now, not wanting to start fiddling with them as she often did when worried...or uncomfortable. The topic wasn't easy for her either, but it had to be done..didn't it?
Fin's brief story made her stare at him for a moment, merely blinking, almost like there should have been more. Aida's lips pressed together in a straight line, but immediately relaxed, her entire face softening at his simple touch. The corners of her mouth turned up in a faint hint of a smile as she held his gaze, "I feel the same about you too Fin, but I feel like there's...so much we missed out on while apart..."
Going back to what he had mentioned earlier, she decided to ask a question that was bothering her, "Did you travel...with the intent of winding up here?" she asked quietly. "Cassie asked me to stay in New York, Matthias left...and ran away....I stuck around and worked with the faction there for a while...." she paused, "It was so...different...I didn't fit in." Aida didn't sound sad about it, instead it was more like she was simply stating a fact. "I tried...to find out about my family but got nothing...and instead spent free time with Cassie...she helped me with...Crayak..."
Fin:Fin looked away and his hand fell back into his lap. He knew Aida hadn't meant to reject him but it felt that way a bit. Why did she had to ask what had happened? It was in the past so what did it matter right?
He was sitting with his back against the wall of the hallway and his knees half drawn up but now he let one of them drop so that his leg was lying flat on the floor and he drew the other up all the way so that he could rest his chin on it and wrapped his arms around his leg.
"No. When I left Vancouver I was going to make my way back home, to CT I guess. I mean I didn't have a definite plan or anything. Just sort of knew I had to get out of Vancouver before Matthias got me killed in his war. And you know the crap thing? For all his talk of being a soldier and fighting the yeerks and making me join because he thought it was the right thing to do the bastard abandoned his faction."
Fin glared at the opposite wall trying to burn a hole in it with anger alone. "Whatever. I was in this bar right, in Seattle, and I heard about how this animorph guy was making trouble down in Dallas. Not too much, just whispers and all that. Like most yeerks don't even know animorphs are out there fighting, did you know that? It makes me wonder what difference we are making. But anyway, there was this one guy who claimed he knew an animorph in Dallas. He was a free human too, not a controller and a pretty cool guy. So I talked him up a bit and then I headed down here. Figured I'd check it out you know?"
He was quiet for a moment. He was lying but not much and hopefully Aida wouldn't notice. Since he wasn't completely sure how to explain why he had come to Dallas he didn't want her to ask. Still, it ended up being a good thing he had come here. She'd shown up here after all.
"So what about you? How did Cassie help with Crayak?"
Aida:This whole topic was on the past, what they had both been going through, how their time apart had been spent so Aida thought it no foul to ask a more detailed question. When Fin looked away however she could tell something was wrong, even the way he seemed to hug his leg...it was almost a comforting position, one a person might take when they felt attacked even. Aida's eyebrows creased a bit in worry, but she said nothing as he spoke.
The harsh words against Matthias made her squirm a bit inside, she'd always had some odd connection with their leader, following him blindly. If there were two people she had to thank for being alive, and staying alive it was Fin and Matthias, both of whom would hold a special place in her heart.
When his story was done she nodded again, not catching the lie because she was too focused on what had transpired before he began speaking. "They don't know we're fighting at all?" she asked, sounding a bit disappointed. All they were working for and some Controllers didn't even know about them....it did make it all seem very trivial...and yet it wasn't like they could just stop fighting. You either fought, died, or became a Controller.
Aida reluctantly answered his question, her gaze at that crack in the wall again, the one that looked like a lightning bolt. "She told me some stories...about the Originals...her encounters with Crayak...made me feel less crazy," she replied quietly. "When I left with Matthias to go to New York I felt like my mind was being ripped apart....and now it's just a dull throb of a memory." Aida hadn't really reiterated to him how badly Crayak's mind game had affected her, but now he knew.
"I don't know...what I'd do if I encountered him again....." she shuddered. Wanting to change the topics she quickly added something else instead, "Theres some very interesting people in the New York Faction....that Zane fellow...he's a persistent bugger," she added, flushing a bit at the memory of her encounter with him. "I think he's the one that travels around to visit all the factions." Aida was purposely avoiding the topic of Crayak now, and it was quite obvious.
Fin:"Persistant?" Fin asked, glad of the change of topic. "Persistent how exactly." He had a fake highly suspicious look on his face. He stood up and offered Aida his hand so that she could do the same while he made an impassioned speech.
"If he hath offended my lady I shall beat him. The scoundrel shall not escape the wrath of Sir Glorfindle Kinglytre Moringuard Larson, Ranger of the Far Reaches" he said making up new middle names than the ones he had used her first night in Dallas and drawing on his Tolkien background. He really did have a passion for Tolkien's world. He had given himself an elf name after all. It always surprised him that no one asked him where he had gotten such a name. He guessed it just wasn't the most important thing on people's minds with all the other problems they had to deal with.
Aida:Aida was glad he latched onto the new topic, and took his hand with a half-smile spread across her lips at his expression. She nodded her head once at his question before laughing a bit, unable to help herself, "Flirtatious," she responded, glancing up at his face again. He seemed to be ready to launch into something, so she remained quiet as his speech commenced.
It was hard to keep laughter down at his words, and not only them but how he phrased them. Aida had her free hand covering her mouth as laughter bubbled in her throat. When it seemed to be under control she let her hand slip, a smile still on her face, "He hath not my dearest Sir Glorfindle Kinglytre Moringuard Larson," she paused, "Uh Ranger of the Far Reaches." He had changed it a bit, at least from what she could remember, which only made her smile grow more pronounced.
"Did that change up a bit?" she asked after another moments thought, seeming almost unable to stop from grinning by this point. "I think Aida Kaylee Williams....is a bit plain...." she raised up an eyebrow suggestively. They had started out talking about their relationship, where they stood, and it had taken only a few seconds of interaction to cement that. Was it odd that they both seemed more eager to go to another conversation than stay at the one at hand?
One question did come to mind, they loved each other...but what was their relationship status? What were the boundaries? Those few thoughts started to weight heavily on her mind, and her smile slowly faded. What was his real last name? Would anyone ever get married again? Would they wind up together 20 years down the line, and would things be any different from now?
"Fin...what...is our relationship status?" she asked suddenly, not even realizing how ADD she probably sounded.
Fin:"Well I would go look on Facebook but I think the yeerks broke it," Fin said miming seriousness. He had always found it ridiculous that relationships weren't considered official until they were declared on facebook and when they were called off that wasn't official until facebook said so either.
He understood it to a point. Relationships weren't just about the two people in them, they were also a bit about their society. So declaring your relationship to all the people you supposedly cared about and who cared about you was an important step. But on an internet site? And the fact that so many people had taken it so seriously had always made him laugh.
Fin had enjoyed changing his facebook status from single to nothing at all every couple of weeks or so. The change generated a little, "Fin's relationship status has changed" message and for a couple of hours he would constantly be getting questions from his friends.
He would always tell them the same thing. If he had really gotten a girlfriend wouldn't he have called or text them first instead of letting them find out via a 5 word standard message? After a while his friends had stopped falling for it though his mother never did (yup his mom had been on facebook). She checked in every time and after a while Fin had started to feel bad because she had seemed so hopeful. He didn't get that. Why did she care if he had a girlfriend? And if she had cared either way shouldn't she be upset about it or something?
He wondered what he would tell her now? Hey mom, finally have a girlfriend. It only took the world ending to make it happen. "What do you consider us?" he asked Aida.
Aida:Fin didn't seem surprised by the random turn her question had taken, something she only had now realized. People couldn't hear your thoughts, or thought processes, something she should probably keep in mind, though in all fairness Fin always seemed to just go with the flow. Aida like that about him, he never made her feel...weird, or odd.
Facebook was something that she wasn't too into, Aida had always been more of a social butterfly with people in person, the internet was so informal. You could definitely say she was the type to still mail letter rather than send emails, how fun was it to get hand written things in the mail, so much more personal. This was all in the past though, it felt like ages ago, and she was no longer that girl.
Aida's smile returned and she laughed softly, "Just one more thing to add to our list of grievances against the Yeerk."
When Fin turned the question on her Aida was caught off guard and she stared at him blankly for a few seconds. "I...well..." she held his gaze and her cheeks flushed a bit, but there was a shy smile on her lips. "I guess I just took it that we were....kind of dating...you know boyfriend girlfriend..." she replied, trying not to stumble over her words.
"Is that....what you think too?" she asked, now a bit anxious to hear his response. "I mean...if you don't...that's okay...I guess..." she forced her mouth closed before she babbled any more.
Fin:"Yup," he said and kissed her quickly before ducking back into his room. "I'm glad we agree."
He went into his room and pulled on some real clothing. He had planned on doing some sort of patrol or maybe a fly over of the city and all that but it would have been just a precaution anyway and he'd rather spend the afternoon with Aida. He put on some jeans and pulled on a t-shirt with the molecular structure for chocolate shown on it.
He walked back out into the hallway. "Um, well we can't leave the Temple until the others get back I guess but what about heading to the kitchen. I'm not the best cook but I'm not bad, I can cook something for us?" He had never really had a girlfriend. He didn't know how the whole dating thing worked or if this counted as a date. He hoped not since that would be nerve racking and he'd rather go out anyway so hopefully it would just be a friendly lunch/dinner.
Aida:It was not often they interchanged romantic gestures, at least not yet, but everytime they did she felt a bit bubbly, and light headed. The brief kiss he gave her made Aida's entire face light up, a smile gracing her lips as she awaited his return. One of her hands roamed absently through her dark locks of hair, twirling bits of hair between her nimble fingers. She kept her gaze on the wall, following a long crack in it all the way to one of the windows, which she now moved towards, perching her hands on the ledge.
She turned back at his voice and nodded, "That would be fun," she replied with a slightly nervous laugh. "Just as a warning, I have no cooking skills whatsoever...my mere presence might cause some type of food disaster..." she smiled a bit, though that was the complete truth. Physically she was very graceful, but on the kitchen she ended up being a klutz.
Aida slipped her hand into his, her fingers twining with his as she moved towards the kitchen, following a few steps behind him. "Do we even have ingredients? I know I found some Twinkies a while ago...but I don't think that constitutes a solid meal..." she laughed softly. Aida had an idea for after food, well, one idea that still involved staying in the Temple, and it involved morphs.
Fin:"Can't possibly qualify since Twinkies are not a solid. They are not a gas or a liquid either. They are, in fact, a scientific oddity. I, myself, has spent many long hours experimenting on twinkies trying to determine their genetic make up but have never figured it out. I think the secret died with Hostess."
Fin had slipped his hand into Aida's without much reserve though a small part of him was still nervous about the whole thing. He had never dated anyone before and he had to wonder if this was a good time to start. They were both in a pretty dangerous profession and was it right to get involved with someone else when one of them might die? Was he really worried about what was right or was he just making excuses for himself because he was scared?
Right now the questions didn't matter because he just enjoyed spending time with her. "And I know how to cook. I even know how to cook over a fire. My family liked to hunt some. I can even shoot a bow. I brought one with me even though it probably wouldn't do much good against a hork-bajir, a taxxon maybe, but not one of the big greenies."
Aida:Aida muffled laughter, her hand still in his own. "Well....at least you seem to know the genetic makeup of chocolate," her eyes swept over to his shirt, lingering on the molecular makeup of the yummy desert. It had been a while since she'd been able to enjoy a rare luxury such as that, her stomach grumbled a bit at the thought. She glanced up to see if he had heard the growl, could it have possibly been as loud as it sounded to her? Aida's cheeks flushed lightly and she glanced back up at the kitchen.
"Shoot a bow, really?" Aida's face lit up with curiosity, and genuine interest. "Any other unique talents I don't know about?" she asked, smiling shyly at him. She had skipped over the talk of Taxxon, the things creeped her out, especially after New York which seemed to be crawling with them. "We should play the question game, or something to pass time as you create a masterpiece in the kitchen," she flashed him a grin before releasing his hand and hopping up onto the counter. Her feet dangled lightly as she watched him, eyes bright with excitement.
"So I should start, what's one thing about you that no one else knows, and I don't know already?" she asked, a coy smile tugging at her lips now.
Fin:Fin got into the kitchen and began to wash his hands. He thought for a moment about how to answer her question. I'm going crazy? But, shhh, don't tell anyone ok. Nope, probably not the best response.
"I wore a Barney costume on my 5th birthday and, get this, I picked it out. It wasn't even forced on me by my parents." He dried his hands on a towel next to the sink and then held them up in a what-can-you-do position. "I just loved that purple dinosaur. And he loved me. Told me so at the end of every show."
He walked over to the cabinets and began looking through what they had trying to decide what to make. "What about you? What's one thing that no one else knows?"
Aida:Fin's response wasn't exactly what she had expected, but that tended to be the case, and she attempted to keep the soft laughter from escaping her lips. It was pretty cute, she could picture a younger Fin all clad in purple and green. Her lips slowly curved up into one of the biggest smiles yet, something she was still getting used to do. Slowly but surely Fin was pulling out the old Aida, the one that had the confidence...and the entire world to explore. Her drastic change was reversible, but did she want it to be? Funny how a life threatening disease and a Yeerk takeover can change a girl, huh?
"He did have catchy songs," she replied, nodding slowly. The smile had slowly faded from her lips as she began to think of something to share. There were two options, go the silly route like Fin, or go a more serious one. Since Aida was in no hurry to delve into the deeper stuff yet, she opted for something light and fairly comical.
"Well...back in highschool..." she paused, "Okay well I should just add as a side note...I was more...outgoing then, but anyway..I was the President of my class...and we needed to find a singer for the big Cricket game between a rival school...and since we couldn't find anyone...I ended up singing it...but I forgot the lyrics for our school song halfway through..." she made a face and then laughed at her own story.
Thinking about the past had her remembering quite a bit...one person in particular...Allister. He had been her highschool love interest that never added up to anything, he was too shy and Aida had never been involved with a guy before. Right before she was diagnosed and prepared to leave England....he proposed, and she denied him. The two had never dated, she was dying, and Aida couldn't agree to something so foolish, even if it still was the most romantic event in her life. Shaking these thoughts from her head she glanced up.
"Whats one quality about yourself that you really really love, and what's one that bugs you?" she asked, her fingers tracing over the counter top.
He walked into his room and pushed the door closed behind him, or thought he did. He'd dragged a bunch of the mats that had been in the corner of his room and placed them into a pretty comfortable bed on the floor. He had a feeling the mats had once served the children of this school during nap time. Well now they served Fin during nap time.
He pulled off his t-shirt and threw it in a pile that he mentally thought of as dirty cloths and pulled off his biking shorts and they went the same way as the shirt. He began searching through the pile mentally designated as clean clothes though to an outsider the piles probably looked the same.
Aida:
((Just as a side note, I had to stop three times while writing this because I was laughing so hard))
The others left, just as she backed out of that adventure, now she was intent on finding Fin...they had a lot to catch up on. So much had happened since they'd both left, their parting had been one that felt almost permanent....and yet here they were together once more. She had questions, not only about their time spent apart but about where they stood, as well as other minor things that had been eating away at her. She was sure Fin was probably curious about her trip as well....though her answers to any of those questions wouldn't be so cheery.
Aida tucked a stray strand of her dark hair behind her ear, slowly making her way down the hallway in an attempt to find Fin. After a few minutes of seeing just about no one she decided to visit his room, it was shut, and there was ruffling around inside--a good sign. She took a deep breath and was moving to rap on the door when her foot felt something that was definitely not the floor, something round. THE bouncy ball.
The door came zooming towards her, or no wait..that was her body falling towards the door, she was loosing her balance. Aida's arms instinctively shot out to grasp something and ended up grabbing the knob and pushing the door wide open instead, and she stumbled through the doorway, landing on her knees. When Aida finally glanced up, her cheeks already flushed from her clumsiness...she got....a view of Fin she'd never seen before and then her face grew even more red...if that was even humanly possible--and apparently it was.
Her jaw fell open in shock, and she tried to mumble some type of apology but nothing came out, nothing at all but for a soft squeak. Aida found herself unable to look away, its kind of like watching something you know you shouldn't but being completely powerless to do anything but stare. After a few seconds she pushed herself up and quickly scurried out of the room, collapsing with her back pressed to the wall, just a few feet from his door. Aida buried her scarlet face in her hands.
Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod
Fin:Fin heard someone come in behind him and whirled around, standing up as he did so. For a moment he froze when he saw who it was. He kept waiting for that fuzzy quality to spread through the edges of reality letting him know this was just an embarrassing dream and then he could either wake up or decide where to take the dream from their though they weren't really dreams after you did that and they were always less interesting because they were predictable.
But the fuzzy quality never came. Reality was very uncomfortably real and he dropped hands that were holding a shirt down to his waist and closed his mouth since he'd realized it had been hanging open long enough for a fly to get into it.
As Aida began to mumble something and blush he began to regain his composure. It was just his way to go in the opposite direction of the mood, to try to balance things out. In this world that often meant acting ridiculous since everything was always so serious and often laced with danger but right now that meant acting like this kind of thing happened to him all the time.
"Hey Aida," he began to say before she ran out of the room. When she was gone he pulled on his morphing suit with a speed that betrayed his attempts at acting cool and then just stood in the middle of his room for a while. He felt slightly trapped. If he walked outside it would be acknowledging what had just happened and they'd have to talk about it but if he stayed in here he would just have to stay in here indefinitely.
Best to go outside then.
He walked over to his door and knocked on it. "Are you decent?" he called out as if he were entering a room from the hallway instead of the other way around.
Aida:Aida could only remember one other time that she felt this utterly embarrassed, and it had been when two random boys--Ray and Fin respectively now--had gotten one heck of a view of her in her birthday suit. There was also the whole time she'd been captured and experimented on...it hadn't exactly entailed clothing but it hadn't felt nearly as awkward then as it did now. There had been mystery before...now....she knew....all of Fin. In a way they were even, but she definitely didn't see it that way.
His voice was scarcely distinguishable from the loud thudding she heard in her ears, was that her own blood pumping that hard? Aida hadn't realized how incredibly nervous the entire thing had made her, and only now did she note how fast her heart was beating. She mumbled a response, still keeping her face buried in her hands, trying to hide how utterly red it had turned. Aida had never been good with nudity, with relationships or feelings, heck the entire male species confused her...and this had only served as an unwanted reminder of all that.
Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod. Was he going to come outside? What would she say? Pretend it hadn't happened? Why had she been looking for him in the first place? Her mind wouldn't get off the image of him standing there nude, it was like it had been seared into her thoughts forever, and no matter what she thought to make it go away, it remained.
Rainbows and unicorns and all that happy stuff....c'mon...not Fin naked...NO stop it!...morphing? Turning into a bird...soaring into the sky...the feeling of wind ruffling through your hair....Fin's hair....Fin naked...ohmygod
Fin:Fin waited for an answer from Aida but after about of minute of silence he decided she was probably dying of blushing if such a thing were possible and figured he'd better do something to cheer her up. That was his favorite thing about Aida. Most people it was easy to get them to laugh. All he had to do was do something outrageous. And he enjoyed that feeling, making other people happy.
But with Aida it had always been a challenge. She'd come out of a bad situation into a, well if not worse at least dangerous one. He didn't know how she did it. How could she come so close to dying and then turn around and sign up to be a soldier in war with a low chance of surviving.
It was the kind of courage he wished he had and maybe he hoped that by knowing her, being close to her, it might rub off on him. Crayaks knew he needed it.
He walked out into the hallway, fully clothed this time, and sat down next to her. "Oh good, well I'm glad one of us is decent," he said smiling. "I guess we're even now after your rescue."
Aida:Her face was still buried in her hands, and she was doing her best not to think of what she had just seen, but no matter what she did it just kept re-appearing. It would only be a few more minutes until he came outside, she knew, and it was impossible to make this go away in time. Fin always had a way of making her feel comfortable, but how did one go about fixing something like this?
Aida glanced up, her face still visibly flushed red when she heard Fin, and he took a seat next to her. His smile made little butterflies well up in her tummy, but the image of him naked was still fresh in her mind. She blushed a bit more at his reference to her own rescue, something that she tried very much not to remember. "I...yeah...I..we ....err...even" she mumbled, still quite flustered. Never in her life had she seen someone naked, which seems slightly weird considering she was 18 but it had just never come up, not in movies not in real life...never. Fin was the first, and it was...definitely in a memorable way.
Aida dropped her gaze for a moment, trying to compose herself before adding, "I forgot what...I was coming to see you about now..." she mumbled quietly, sounding embarassed by this. Why had she come around anyway, definitely not to get a peep show from Fin....but it seemed after witnessing it there was little else to think of. He was acting very cool about it though, and so she quickly found herself managing to calm a bit, the red lining her cheeks fading to a pink instead.
Fin:He wasn't sure how to go on from there so of course he just started talking. "Well that's ok. We can totally talk about other things." Totally was not a word Fin used often. He found a bouncy ball on the ground and began bouncing it off the wall in front of him and catching it as it rebounded.
"Soooo," he said searching for something to cover the silence. "How about them yankees?"
Aida:Aida stared at the wall, trying to wipe the image of Fin from her mind, and not only for her sake but for his own. He was so calm now, at ease, and she was still a frazzled, flustered mess, and it definitely could not be fun to talk to someone in such a state. Breathe...calm....breathe....no nudity.... she coaxed her mind to go blank, and finally it did. Aida still couldn't bring herself to look at him though, so she kept her gaze focused on a small crack in the wall, one that kind of looked like a lightning bolt.
His sudden question caught her off guard, but suddenly she found that her lips had turned up in the faintest hint of a smile. How did he always managed to do that? "I only play cricket," she replied softly, still trying to find her voice. "But I think I'd prefer the less wealthy teams if I had to choose." It was completely random, but it kept her mind in the clear, and it kept her calmer. Now it was coming back to her, slowly but surely. Oh yeah.
"I remember now," she added, listening to the ball as it bounced against the wall. It was a bit ironic that that evil thing nearly caused her to die of embarrassment just seconds earlier and now it was helping to distract her from it. "I wanted to....well....talk about our time apart...and..." she bit her lower lip gently, "Well...where we stand now..."
Fin:"Ah," he said looking away from her and running a hand through his short hair. "That talk....the one where we sit and tell each other how we feel." He began to squirm a bit but he stayed firmly on the ground at least. For some reason the prospect of talking to Aida about his feelings made him feel more exposed and vulnerable than if he had decided to walk around naked permanently.
"Um, well, I left Vancouver and travelled a long time and then ended up here. Look, all done. What about you? How was New York? Do they still have Yankees? And can't we just skip this conversation?" He reached out a hand and laid it over hers. "The only thing that has changed is the city we live in. At least for me."
Aida:His unease over the topic was quite apparent, enough to make her regret bringing it up a bit. Aida bit down on her lower lip anxiously as he glanced away, and remained quiet. She held her hands flat on her lap now, not wanting to start fiddling with them as she often did when worried...or uncomfortable. The topic wasn't easy for her either, but it had to be done..didn't it?
Fin's brief story made her stare at him for a moment, merely blinking, almost like there should have been more. Aida's lips pressed together in a straight line, but immediately relaxed, her entire face softening at his simple touch. The corners of her mouth turned up in a faint hint of a smile as she held his gaze, "I feel the same about you too Fin, but I feel like there's...so much we missed out on while apart..."
Going back to what he had mentioned earlier, she decided to ask a question that was bothering her, "Did you travel...with the intent of winding up here?" she asked quietly. "Cassie asked me to stay in New York, Matthias left...and ran away....I stuck around and worked with the faction there for a while...." she paused, "It was so...different...I didn't fit in." Aida didn't sound sad about it, instead it was more like she was simply stating a fact. "I tried...to find out about my family but got nothing...and instead spent free time with Cassie...she helped me with...Crayak..."
Fin:Fin looked away and his hand fell back into his lap. He knew Aida hadn't meant to reject him but it felt that way a bit. Why did she had to ask what had happened? It was in the past so what did it matter right?
He was sitting with his back against the wall of the hallway and his knees half drawn up but now he let one of them drop so that his leg was lying flat on the floor and he drew the other up all the way so that he could rest his chin on it and wrapped his arms around his leg.
"No. When I left Vancouver I was going to make my way back home, to CT I guess. I mean I didn't have a definite plan or anything. Just sort of knew I had to get out of Vancouver before Matthias got me killed in his war. And you know the crap thing? For all his talk of being a soldier and fighting the yeerks and making me join because he thought it was the right thing to do the bastard abandoned his faction."
Fin glared at the opposite wall trying to burn a hole in it with anger alone. "Whatever. I was in this bar right, in Seattle, and I heard about how this animorph guy was making trouble down in Dallas. Not too much, just whispers and all that. Like most yeerks don't even know animorphs are out there fighting, did you know that? It makes me wonder what difference we are making. But anyway, there was this one guy who claimed he knew an animorph in Dallas. He was a free human too, not a controller and a pretty cool guy. So I talked him up a bit and then I headed down here. Figured I'd check it out you know?"
He was quiet for a moment. He was lying but not much and hopefully Aida wouldn't notice. Since he wasn't completely sure how to explain why he had come to Dallas he didn't want her to ask. Still, it ended up being a good thing he had come here. She'd shown up here after all.
"So what about you? How did Cassie help with Crayak?"
Aida:This whole topic was on the past, what they had both been going through, how their time apart had been spent so Aida thought it no foul to ask a more detailed question. When Fin looked away however she could tell something was wrong, even the way he seemed to hug his leg...it was almost a comforting position, one a person might take when they felt attacked even. Aida's eyebrows creased a bit in worry, but she said nothing as he spoke.
The harsh words against Matthias made her squirm a bit inside, she'd always had some odd connection with their leader, following him blindly. If there were two people she had to thank for being alive, and staying alive it was Fin and Matthias, both of whom would hold a special place in her heart.
When his story was done she nodded again, not catching the lie because she was too focused on what had transpired before he began speaking. "They don't know we're fighting at all?" she asked, sounding a bit disappointed. All they were working for and some Controllers didn't even know about them....it did make it all seem very trivial...and yet it wasn't like they could just stop fighting. You either fought, died, or became a Controller.
Aida reluctantly answered his question, her gaze at that crack in the wall again, the one that looked like a lightning bolt. "She told me some stories...about the Originals...her encounters with Crayak...made me feel less crazy," she replied quietly. "When I left with Matthias to go to New York I felt like my mind was being ripped apart....and now it's just a dull throb of a memory." Aida hadn't really reiterated to him how badly Crayak's mind game had affected her, but now he knew.
"I don't know...what I'd do if I encountered him again....." she shuddered. Wanting to change the topics she quickly added something else instead, "Theres some very interesting people in the New York Faction....that Zane fellow...he's a persistent bugger," she added, flushing a bit at the memory of her encounter with him. "I think he's the one that travels around to visit all the factions." Aida was purposely avoiding the topic of Crayak now, and it was quite obvious.
Fin:"Persistant?" Fin asked, glad of the change of topic. "Persistent how exactly." He had a fake highly suspicious look on his face. He stood up and offered Aida his hand so that she could do the same while he made an impassioned speech.
"If he hath offended my lady I shall beat him. The scoundrel shall not escape the wrath of Sir Glorfindle Kinglytre Moringuard Larson, Ranger of the Far Reaches" he said making up new middle names than the ones he had used her first night in Dallas and drawing on his Tolkien background. He really did have a passion for Tolkien's world. He had given himself an elf name after all. It always surprised him that no one asked him where he had gotten such a name. He guessed it just wasn't the most important thing on people's minds with all the other problems they had to deal with.
Aida:Aida was glad he latched onto the new topic, and took his hand with a half-smile spread across her lips at his expression. She nodded her head once at his question before laughing a bit, unable to help herself, "Flirtatious," she responded, glancing up at his face again. He seemed to be ready to launch into something, so she remained quiet as his speech commenced.
It was hard to keep laughter down at his words, and not only them but how he phrased them. Aida had her free hand covering her mouth as laughter bubbled in her throat. When it seemed to be under control she let her hand slip, a smile still on her face, "He hath not my dearest Sir Glorfindle Kinglytre Moringuard Larson," she paused, "Uh Ranger of the Far Reaches." He had changed it a bit, at least from what she could remember, which only made her smile grow more pronounced.
"Did that change up a bit?" she asked after another moments thought, seeming almost unable to stop from grinning by this point. "I think Aida Kaylee Williams....is a bit plain...." she raised up an eyebrow suggestively. They had started out talking about their relationship, where they stood, and it had taken only a few seconds of interaction to cement that. Was it odd that they both seemed more eager to go to another conversation than stay at the one at hand?
One question did come to mind, they loved each other...but what was their relationship status? What were the boundaries? Those few thoughts started to weight heavily on her mind, and her smile slowly faded. What was his real last name? Would anyone ever get married again? Would they wind up together 20 years down the line, and would things be any different from now?
"Fin...what...is our relationship status?" she asked suddenly, not even realizing how ADD she probably sounded.
Fin:"Well I would go look on Facebook but I think the yeerks broke it," Fin said miming seriousness. He had always found it ridiculous that relationships weren't considered official until they were declared on facebook and when they were called off that wasn't official until facebook said so either.
He understood it to a point. Relationships weren't just about the two people in them, they were also a bit about their society. So declaring your relationship to all the people you supposedly cared about and who cared about you was an important step. But on an internet site? And the fact that so many people had taken it so seriously had always made him laugh.
Fin had enjoyed changing his facebook status from single to nothing at all every couple of weeks or so. The change generated a little, "Fin's relationship status has changed" message and for a couple of hours he would constantly be getting questions from his friends.
He would always tell them the same thing. If he had really gotten a girlfriend wouldn't he have called or text them first instead of letting them find out via a 5 word standard message? After a while his friends had stopped falling for it though his mother never did (yup his mom had been on facebook). She checked in every time and after a while Fin had started to feel bad because she had seemed so hopeful. He didn't get that. Why did she care if he had a girlfriend? And if she had cared either way shouldn't she be upset about it or something?
He wondered what he would tell her now? Hey mom, finally have a girlfriend. It only took the world ending to make it happen. "What do you consider us?" he asked Aida.
Aida:Fin didn't seem surprised by the random turn her question had taken, something she only had now realized. People couldn't hear your thoughts, or thought processes, something she should probably keep in mind, though in all fairness Fin always seemed to just go with the flow. Aida like that about him, he never made her feel...weird, or odd.
Facebook was something that she wasn't too into, Aida had always been more of a social butterfly with people in person, the internet was so informal. You could definitely say she was the type to still mail letter rather than send emails, how fun was it to get hand written things in the mail, so much more personal. This was all in the past though, it felt like ages ago, and she was no longer that girl.
Aida's smile returned and she laughed softly, "Just one more thing to add to our list of grievances against the Yeerk."
When Fin turned the question on her Aida was caught off guard and she stared at him blankly for a few seconds. "I...well..." she held his gaze and her cheeks flushed a bit, but there was a shy smile on her lips. "I guess I just took it that we were....kind of dating...you know boyfriend girlfriend..." she replied, trying not to stumble over her words.
"Is that....what you think too?" she asked, now a bit anxious to hear his response. "I mean...if you don't...that's okay...I guess..." she forced her mouth closed before she babbled any more.
Fin:"Yup," he said and kissed her quickly before ducking back into his room. "I'm glad we agree."
He went into his room and pulled on some real clothing. He had planned on doing some sort of patrol or maybe a fly over of the city and all that but it would have been just a precaution anyway and he'd rather spend the afternoon with Aida. He put on some jeans and pulled on a t-shirt with the molecular structure for chocolate shown on it.
He walked back out into the hallway. "Um, well we can't leave the Temple until the others get back I guess but what about heading to the kitchen. I'm not the best cook but I'm not bad, I can cook something for us?" He had never really had a girlfriend. He didn't know how the whole dating thing worked or if this counted as a date. He hoped not since that would be nerve racking and he'd rather go out anyway so hopefully it would just be a friendly lunch/dinner.
Aida:It was not often they interchanged romantic gestures, at least not yet, but everytime they did she felt a bit bubbly, and light headed. The brief kiss he gave her made Aida's entire face light up, a smile gracing her lips as she awaited his return. One of her hands roamed absently through her dark locks of hair, twirling bits of hair between her nimble fingers. She kept her gaze on the wall, following a long crack in it all the way to one of the windows, which she now moved towards, perching her hands on the ledge.
She turned back at his voice and nodded, "That would be fun," she replied with a slightly nervous laugh. "Just as a warning, I have no cooking skills whatsoever...my mere presence might cause some type of food disaster..." she smiled a bit, though that was the complete truth. Physically she was very graceful, but on the kitchen she ended up being a klutz.
Aida slipped her hand into his, her fingers twining with his as she moved towards the kitchen, following a few steps behind him. "Do we even have ingredients? I know I found some Twinkies a while ago...but I don't think that constitutes a solid meal..." she laughed softly. Aida had an idea for after food, well, one idea that still involved staying in the Temple, and it involved morphs.
Fin:"Can't possibly qualify since Twinkies are not a solid. They are not a gas or a liquid either. They are, in fact, a scientific oddity. I, myself, has spent many long hours experimenting on twinkies trying to determine their genetic make up but have never figured it out. I think the secret died with Hostess."
Fin had slipped his hand into Aida's without much reserve though a small part of him was still nervous about the whole thing. He had never dated anyone before and he had to wonder if this was a good time to start. They were both in a pretty dangerous profession and was it right to get involved with someone else when one of them might die? Was he really worried about what was right or was he just making excuses for himself because he was scared?
Right now the questions didn't matter because he just enjoyed spending time with her. "And I know how to cook. I even know how to cook over a fire. My family liked to hunt some. I can even shoot a bow. I brought one with me even though it probably wouldn't do much good against a hork-bajir, a taxxon maybe, but not one of the big greenies."
Aida:Aida muffled laughter, her hand still in his own. "Well....at least you seem to know the genetic makeup of chocolate," her eyes swept over to his shirt, lingering on the molecular makeup of the yummy desert. It had been a while since she'd been able to enjoy a rare luxury such as that, her stomach grumbled a bit at the thought. She glanced up to see if he had heard the growl, could it have possibly been as loud as it sounded to her? Aida's cheeks flushed lightly and she glanced back up at the kitchen.
"Shoot a bow, really?" Aida's face lit up with curiosity, and genuine interest. "Any other unique talents I don't know about?" she asked, smiling shyly at him. She had skipped over the talk of Taxxon, the things creeped her out, especially after New York which seemed to be crawling with them. "We should play the question game, or something to pass time as you create a masterpiece in the kitchen," she flashed him a grin before releasing his hand and hopping up onto the counter. Her feet dangled lightly as she watched him, eyes bright with excitement.
"So I should start, what's one thing about you that no one else knows, and I don't know already?" she asked, a coy smile tugging at her lips now.
Fin:Fin got into the kitchen and began to wash his hands. He thought for a moment about how to answer her question. I'm going crazy? But, shhh, don't tell anyone ok. Nope, probably not the best response.
"I wore a Barney costume on my 5th birthday and, get this, I picked it out. It wasn't even forced on me by my parents." He dried his hands on a towel next to the sink and then held them up in a what-can-you-do position. "I just loved that purple dinosaur. And he loved me. Told me so at the end of every show."
He walked over to the cabinets and began looking through what they had trying to decide what to make. "What about you? What's one thing that no one else knows?"
Aida:Fin's response wasn't exactly what she had expected, but that tended to be the case, and she attempted to keep the soft laughter from escaping her lips. It was pretty cute, she could picture a younger Fin all clad in purple and green. Her lips slowly curved up into one of the biggest smiles yet, something she was still getting used to do. Slowly but surely Fin was pulling out the old Aida, the one that had the confidence...and the entire world to explore. Her drastic change was reversible, but did she want it to be? Funny how a life threatening disease and a Yeerk takeover can change a girl, huh?
"He did have catchy songs," she replied, nodding slowly. The smile had slowly faded from her lips as she began to think of something to share. There were two options, go the silly route like Fin, or go a more serious one. Since Aida was in no hurry to delve into the deeper stuff yet, she opted for something light and fairly comical.
"Well...back in highschool..." she paused, "Okay well I should just add as a side note...I was more...outgoing then, but anyway..I was the President of my class...and we needed to find a singer for the big Cricket game between a rival school...and since we couldn't find anyone...I ended up singing it...but I forgot the lyrics for our school song halfway through..." she made a face and then laughed at her own story.
Thinking about the past had her remembering quite a bit...one person in particular...Allister. He had been her highschool love interest that never added up to anything, he was too shy and Aida had never been involved with a guy before. Right before she was diagnosed and prepared to leave England....he proposed, and she denied him. The two had never dated, she was dying, and Aida couldn't agree to something so foolish, even if it still was the most romantic event in her life. Shaking these thoughts from her head she glanced up.
"Whats one quality about yourself that you really really love, and what's one that bugs you?" she asked, her fingers tracing over the counter top.