anotherpostcard | (no subject)

No waiting, Jade. He was home. He was tired and trying to sort of mentally come to terms with the fact he'd died. He was trying to remember those last snippets before he'd died, what things had seemed important to him when he'd been fading. So maybe he'd cried a little. Shut up. Don't judge him.

He heard the knock, glad for a distraction. Opening the door, he was surprise to see Jade, but it was a pleasant surprise. "Hey. I wasn't expecting you. You, uh, wanna come in?"

He stepped back, holding the door open.

By all reasoning, this shouldn't have bothered her so much. She'd died before herself, multiple times. She was cavalier about it, almost at least when it came to it happening to her; it seemed typical, inconsequential.

But Stiles was so normal. He didn't have powers at home, wasn't a warrior, wasn't saddled with some destiny tasking him to save humanity. He was a victim. A casualty, like the millions of people at home none of them had been or would be able to save.

She greeted him with a little huff and stepped inside.

"Sorry. Is now a bad time?"

The huff had him lifting both brows, giving her an uncertain look. She'd seemed like she'd been avoiding him lately, so he'd been trying to give her her space, but god, he'd wanted to do anything but when he'd gotten out of the castle.

"No. Why would it be?"

"I don't know. Maybe you're - tired or something. Busy celebrating your own death."

She bumped his shoulder lightly with hers as she passed him, moving to sort of flop onto her side on his bed.

"Hey, I'm not celebrating my death-- well, not like that. We're celebrating not being dead anymore. That's a good thing, right?"

The bump had him giving her another look, but he closed the door after her and followed her into his room. Like a puppy. A puppy that smelled something good and wanted a piece.

Well. She did smell extra good right then, and that was completely and absolutely intentional. She was trying to make herself as appealing as possible, alright?

"Bluh. If you say so. Sorry I couldn't go."

He moved to sit on the side of the bed, looking over at her with a small shrug. "No reason you had to be there." Just that maybe he'd wanted her to be.

Her hair looked extra shiny and he was sort of wanting to touch it. Like, a lot.

She twisted then, squirming over to adjust so that she could lift her head and rest her cheek in his lap.

"It just seemed really morbid. -- dying sucks."

He wasn't going to argue with either the comment or her moving around, hand lowering to play in her hair. It felt softer, too. His other hand moved on its own to rub at where he'd caught the axe. "Well, yeah, it does. I'd rather not do it again. I just thought... I don't know, maybe putting a positive spin on it would make it easier to laugh off?"

She'd be glad to know that he'd noticed her hair, at least. She was wearing sort short, ridiculous dress under her zipped-up jacket that she'd borrowed from Roxy, waxed and smoothed and perfumed and made vaguely uncomfortable by the entire ritual, but - there was a point to it, right? Right.

"Still. It just seems.. dumb. I don't know." Jade pulled up one hand to rest on his knee, stroking it with her thumb.

Edited 2013-08-12 04:27 (UTC)

"That's kind of the point. That it's pointless. It's just supposed to be more something to do than anything else, right?" His fingers drifted over to her ears, fascinated by them as always. He wanted to lay down with her, bury his face in her hair because she just smelled so damn good and looked all... everything. He didn't know what she was wearing under the coat, but he was guessing shorts since he couldn't see any pants.

Her ears flicked against his hand, but lightly, gently. Not discouraging - simply acknowledgment. (She appreciated that he was fascinated by her ears instead of teasing her about them; not that she was insecure, but it got old.) "I'll save you next time."

He laughed just a little at that. "You don't have to save me. I should be saving myself. Or you." So maybe he was a little tiny itsy bit old fashioned in that a guy should save the girl. Most of the time. He was okay with being saved if he actually needed it, but he was hoping that he'd never have to be the one to have to save Jade. There was too much of a possibility he'd fail.

"I'm the one that saves people, Stiles." This was said with sudden conviction as she sat up, hand remaining on his knee. "-- that's why this sucks. I should have saved you. I should have kept you safe, that is my job, that is what I'm supposed to be good at!"

"You weren't there. How are you supposed to do anything if you're not even there, Jade. You can't save everyone. I'm the dumbass that went and got himself killed, okay. Not you." He turned to look at her, a hand resting on hers over his knee.

"-- then I should have been there." Jade knew that she was being silly, being irrational, but wasn't sure in that moment what to do about it. "And I'll be there next time. I just.. need you to know that, alright?"

"Jade..." He squeezed her hand. "You're not my keeper, okay? It's not your job. It's not your job to be anything but you, okay? Just... don't worry about it. It's okay."

"But that's who I am. I have to be the strong one." She pushed forward, then, trying to shove her face close to his. "-- sorry. I know I'm being weird."

He moved back a little, just out of instinct, but he settled close again when his brain realized she wasn't trying to kill him. "You can be strong and not be there, Jade. God, you're not Superman, okay?"

"I used to be better than Superman." It was said quietly, with gravity, and she relaxed a little when he came back after leaning away. ".. are you okay now?"

His hand moved from hers up to her hair, sliding through it as he looked into her eyes. "Yeah, yeah I'm a lot better now. Probably because you're here." Okay, that last bit wasn't supposed to slip out...

She relaxed when he did that, leaning unconsciously into his hand as it stroked through her hair. ".. hehe. Smooth as fuck, Stiles." Relieved, too. She knew what it was like to die here, but that didn't soothe the irrational worry that came with things like this. "Does it still hurt at all?"

"No. I mean, I still sometimes think I can feel it..." His hand lifted to his neck again, feeling that numb tingle from where he'd been cut. "But it doesn't hurt. I'm sorry. If I freaked you out. I didn't mean to."

"It wasn't your fault." Jade lifted her hand, trying to move his out of the way to touch the spot on his neck. "I just - don't like crying over boys."

"No crying over me. I'm all good, see?" He tipped his neck to the side to let her see for herself.