☤ twenty-nine

[as_damaged]

[Openest Action that Ever Actioned]

[Cameron is an atheist, but in some ways she's all for the holidays. They're an excuse to be happy. Sometimes you need one. So she doesn't think anything of the Christmas decorations everywhere, on buildings and lampposts, garlands around doorways and lights in the trees. How she makes it into work without being assaulted by smooches is anyone's guess. But she does.

Her luck? Her luck is bound to change, at work, after work, on her way home, wherever you might like to imagine you might encounter her.]

[ooc; SCREAM please. imagine this was hours ago ;_; we've company from out of town so my computer access has not been optimal today |D ilu all. um. open for EVERYONE, srsly, the more the merrier imo >D backdating is likely sob sorry ILOVEYOUPOLY

ETA; 3 am where did you come from. more when i'm awake ;.; <333]

Comments

[as_damaged]

[This isn't entirely unexpected, but she's somehow incredulous anyway, looking up at him. It's funny. She wants him. He wants her. And the idea of giving it another go still makes her heart freeze for just a moment, an irrational, internal paroxysm of terror. She doubts he has any comprehension of it, the way it scares her, everything he represents.

She's afraid of breaking him, too, especially right now.]

Chase...

[Which might be enough to infer that she's not going to leap into his arms. It would be so nice if there was an answer that was neither yes nor no. Because she wants him. She does, unquestionably. That ought to be enough, but it never has been.]

I care about you. [Has she said it, even, in such plain terms? He knows she does. But there's a difference between knowing it and hearing it. It's a mark of the gravity of her answer that she does put it so blatantly.] But... You just ended something.

[Something that wasn't casual, something that Cameron has always worried is more important than whatever is between the two of them. Of course, she won't say any of that. She reaches up, uncertain, to rest one hand on his arm. This is always the point at which things fall apart for them, when she tries to tell him something and he hears something else entirely, and Cameron isn't sure she can make him understand what she needs him to know.]

I don't want to question us, if there is an us. I need to know you aren't just with me because you want to be with someone. And... I'm not sure if I can be. Yet.

[worksmart.livejournal.com]

I've spent more than two thirds of the three years you've known me not in a relationship. I'd think that suggests I can handle being alone.

[Handle it? Chase has made it a near art form, if not initially through any choice of his own. Two foreign countries. Fifteen years with no family worth speaking about. Twenty before the prospect of dating someone had existed at all. Truthfully the prospect of being with someone, seriously being with them is almost as terrifying to him as it is for her, but also something that a part of him craves on a level he could never express. He thinks he could make a good job of it, though, that he's seen enough mistakes to be able to learn from them.

For all that, he's not as stung as he could be by what isn't quite a rejection but is, ultimately, a no. He wouldn't have complained about the leaping into his arms, had that happened, but he can't deny he'd have been suspicious of it. Of anything he earned without putting the work in.

So he nods, just a little stiffly, brow knitting as he considers this less a denial than a prospect. There's at least potential in what she's given him.]

You want me to give you better reasons we should be together. [He nods, and meets her eyes. Phrase it as a challenge and there's not much he won't do to prove himself right.]

Okay.

[as_damaged]

[It's a no. But only because she's too serious about this to risk either of them getting hurt for something stupid. Habitual loner or not, he wouldn't be the first person to make a mess of things with a hasty relationship on the rebound; and, admittedly, she hasn't wholly recovered her wounded pride.

She doesn't know what's made her bold enough to come this far.]

I'm not leading you on. I promise. It's just... I'm not ready, yet.

[Closing the distance between them briefly, she reaches up to brush her lips against his cheek-- chaste and childlike compared to a few moments past, but given wholly freely. When she steps back again she's oddly awkward, not quite certain how to hold herself, too much bared to recover her composure while meeting his eyes.]

I should get home.

[worksmart.livejournal.com]

Cameron, it's okay, [he promises earnestly, unable to attribute the slight flush across the apex of his cheeks to the cold, or anything other than the momentary press of her lips. Arms loosening from their awkward grip across his chest, he tucks hands into the oversized pockets of his winter coat, watching her even if she won't look back.] I like you. As long as you can deal with me reminding you of that once in a while, then I'm willing to wait.

[It's like something has fallen away with telling her, or even with just making up his mind. Things are rarely perfect, but if they're not impossible then they have to be worth a shot. It's Christmas. Sometimes miracles happen.]

Come on, it's only three blocks. If we walk a few paces apart we'll be good. And there's this display, with candles, it's only one street out of your way if you want to take a look.

[He's already stepping out ahead, still in her direction and lighter on his feet than he's been in a while. Only pausing to throw a glance, and a smile, back at her.]

Very pretty.