exeggutorhead | IC Contact

No, I didn't. I would never.

[He pretends to look affronted at the thought for about two seconds before launching back into the story.]

What happened was that we were traveling, and I showed up when it was cold out and I'd never even been cold before. But we didn't have any money for a lot of warm clothes, so I just had to wrap up as best I could. I kept my hair tucked down the back of my jacket to stop the wind better.

But we were on the road, so it was never warm enough that I wanted to take the jacket off for more than I absolutely needed to. And homunculi don't need to brush their hair, it's just fine. Especially for me, because shapeshifting is the best special power, except for when you suddenly don't have it anymore.

So. Three days later, we get to town, we get inside the Pokemon Center. The jacket comes off, and I realize my mistake. I think someone nearby may have fainted, screams of horror, all that kind of stuff.

Oh my god.

_{[Imagining the horrible tangle that must have emerged from that coat is possibly the best mental image she's had in awhile-- mostly because thinking of what Envy's expression must have been is incredible.]}

I'm surprised you didn't faint!

It was a close call. And you know, that was before I had anyone around to help. So I had to get it undone all by myself. It took ages.

[He laughs again, quietly. This was so long ago that it's funny now; at the time, wild horses couldn't have dragged an embarrassing story like that out of him. But he doesn't mind laughing about it with her now. He holds up a finger for emphasis, grinning.]

And now I always make sure I have a hairbrush with me when I leave town, because I learned my damn lesson about how to keep my hair looking pretty and not like a disaster.

[He jokingly flips the hand back through his hair once, then it goes back down onto the bed beside him. He thinks it's probably a good thing that she's got her own hands up around her knees, because he probably would have chickened out of holding one of them if they'd been down where he could.]

Ahahahaww, oh nooo!

_{[She can picture it CLEARLY in her head-- friendless brand-new Envy sitting in one of the Pokemon Center bathrooms furiously attempting to get his hair back to its former state.]}

See, this's why I keep mine short.

I basically never have to brush it.

_{[Not that she's suggesting he do the same with his (although she can't help but be curious to see what he'd look like), because he clearly likes it that way or he'd have chopped it all off long ago.]}

Ha, see, yours looks good short though.

[It's another thing that's just slipped out, but he doesn't mind that it did.]

Aw, come on. I'm sure yours would look fine, too. You can make anything work, for real.

_{[Hey, if he gets to let stuff slip out, so does she!]

[Now they're both more at ease. Somehow, the fact that they're just sitting here chatting and laughing like normal drives home the new reality more than before.]}

[IT WAS A GOOD SLIP. Clearly, because he makes a really pleased face while he sips some more of his hot chocolate.]

Heh. Well, tell you what, next time I can shapeshift, I'll try some short hair on and we'll see how it looks.

[Not to keep, obviously, but he does enjoy playing around with his appearance while he has the opportunity.]

[It's such a relief, how normal everything still feels even with the new layer to their relationship. Nothing had been ruined or gotten weird at all.]

--oh man, that's right!

I keep forgetting you go back to being a magical zombie whenever one of those weekends rolls around!

Do I get to demand a dragon-ride or is that a Henry-only privilege?

Hell yeah I go back to being a magical zombie, it's great.

[He snorts, before shrugging dramatically.]

I dunno, I mean, you might have to ask Henry if he's okay with no longer being the one true dragonrider.

[OF COURSE SHE GETS DRAGON RIDES.]

--haha.

Dragonrider.

_{[No filters means NO filters.]}

[Envy comes this close to choking on his drink. WELCOME TO MIDDLE SCHOOL.]

[He just keeps talking in a completely casual tone.]

Yep. Just riding that dragon, all over town.

_{[THIS WAY TO THE PIT OF TWELVE-YEAR-OLDS]

[Heather puts her drink DOWN before she spills it. Because she can already tell this is leading nowhere good.]}

Whoa.

All over town?

That's some stamina.

All over town, from one end to the other.

Through the streets, in the park, up on top of the radio tower for the view...

[He gestures grandly with one hand, and follows her lead in setting down his mug on the bedside table. He really doesn't want to get hot chocolate everywhere because they were too busy being stupid. WHO WILL LAUGH FIRST?]

_{[It's Heather. She will laugh first.]

[As soon as he gets to the part about the radio tower, she bursts out, doubling over. Maybe it's nerves, maybe it's the fact that it's late as hell, but she just can't stop.]

[Tilting a little, her forehead bumps his shoulder.]}

N-news at eleven, population of Goldenrod scandalized by extremely longwinded dragon's-- haha-- adventures--!

Well, it is a very long dragon.

[Yeah okay no, between her losing it and this whole conversation, he's done for too, and starts snickering himself rather than continuing on with the joke. His own head tilts so he can bump his forehead and nose against the top of hers. The motion itself is almost automatic, but of course moments later he realizes what he's doing and hesitates, caught between wanting to keep his face right where it is and not really being sure that he should.]

[Is nuzzling his face into her hair an appropriate affectionate gesture yet?? HE'S JUST NOT SURE.]

[So he uses the fact that he's still chuckling anyway to hide the unsureness he pulls his head back up to a normal upright position. But once the laughter has died down a little more, he does find himself with something else that wants to come out of his mouth.]

I like hearing you laugh. And...

[A thought strikes him and he glances at the clock.]

It's about five minutes to midnight, so if there's anything else we wanna say while we have an excuse for being dumb...

[Is inviting anything else wise? Maybe not. But wise decisions just aren't his thing, especially not right now.]

_{[Sitting up hurts when you're laughing this hard, so after giving his head a return-bump, like an affectionate cat, she flops backwards with her arms crossed over her stomach and her legs hanging off the edge of the bed. Her laughter is punctuated with a couple of 'ows' in the process, but she's still grinning broadly.]

[Her face is already flushed just from laughing so hard, so it doesn't get much redder at the comment, but she does lift one hand to lightly thwap him on the side, unaware of his brief internal dilemma.]}

Haha, well, good, 'cause I sure do plenty of it.

_{[It's the best medicine, after all. On that note--]}

N'I'm gonna make sure you do plenty of it, too. Not that smug forced kind. The kind you were doing just now. The real kind. _{[She's gotten used to him having his guard more or less down around her, but she's known him long enough to know that he tends towards presenting a wholly controlled, deliberate image to the world. Not that he always succeeds, but, you know, it speaks for itself.]

[Honest laughter from Envy makes him look completely different.]

[His second observation has her sitting up slightly, squinting at the clock, herself. Shit, already?]}

--huh.

Well...

_{[There's a LOT to say. Most of it IS dumb.]}

--haha, shit, I dunno.

You go first.

Two-point-five minutes to get anything else juicy off your chest.

[He hadn't been laughing quite as hard as she was, so he stays sitting up...and it's also more noticeable when what she says about him laughing gets his cheeks to redden.]

[As a distraction, he shoves lightly at her closest shoulder to him and grins, teasing but genuine.]

We'll see about that, I'll be a smug cackler until the day I die.

But maybe you'll get some of the other kind, too. I guess.

[As he quietly resolves to try doing it extra.]

[And of course now that she's asked him, he can't think of a damn thing for a good long moment. Until something finally does pop into his head, probably one of the things he least wanted to, but it's too late now. Out tumble the words.]

You know, I liked you for a while but I didn't know when it really started. I know when I figured it out.

It was when you got home and tackled me onto the couch, yelling about that Mightyena guy.

[HIS TEETH CLICK SHUT. His face goes into his hand. He's red again.]

_{[She lets herself flop back down after a moment-- all that laughing combined with the running-around she'd done earlier that's now catching up with her makes her back ache. But she turns a little to prop her head up in Envy's direction when he goes on, a big smile still tugging at the edges of her mouth.]}

--Seriously?

Holy shit, that wasn't long ago at all!

_{[And he's BLUSHING oh look at him. Guys blushing has always been cute to Heather, but it's ten times cuter when it's someone like Envy who could make a career out of being a background dancer in some sullen goth band's music videos.]}

I've been bottlin' this up for--

... God, I don't know!

I forget when I realized.

It was after the whole shitstorm last summer, that's all I know, but... I've known it for awhile. I think it was a slow kind of thing. I noticed that I was calling you more than anybody else, and that you're the one who knows me better than almost anyone at this point... I was just gonna-- gonna ride it out. I mean-- ... you know me, I get crushes a lot. And like-- _{[A pause, as she replays what just came out of her mouth in her head, and her smile fades a bit.]} ... oh, shit, that sounds bad, doesn't it.

I mean-- I don't mean they just come and go, or anything, I-- I'm just... you know. I'm not used to anybody feeling the same way... you know. About... me.

[It's okay, he figured out what she meant. And those five minutes aren't up, so he says as much.]

Hey, don't worry about it--I get it. Well...not as much with the crushes, I've only ever had two of those, heh.

But...I didn't think you'd feel that way about me, either. I wasn't ever even really sure why France did, really, even though he told me why all the time-- [he hadn't meant to bring up France again, but, well...it was relevant to the line of thought.]

I mean, we're both pretty screwed up, we're really just hopeless. But even so...you're pretty great. If there's nothing really obvious stopping them [like with, say, Lust or that Phoenix guy, who are the only two of her crushes he actually knows about] then I don't know why anyone you liked wouldn't.

[Her worst and all, as far as he's concerned. He stops then, embarrassed again, and hesitates before biting the bullet and flopping down to lie next to her and muttering a quieter admission.]

I should've realized what it was sooner, with how much I was missing you being around.

_{[It's weirdly exciting to hear that she's the only other person Envy's ever felt this way about besides France. Not that she really had any expectations otherwise, given... well, everything about Envy. But still. ... And what he says next, well.]

[She smiles crookedly at him, sideways.]}

... Y'know, Envy?

We're definitely both screwed up and hopeless, but...

If you're not proof that people like us can do okay anyway, I don't know who is.

_{[After a second's hesitation, she reaches out to tentatively twine a finger or two with his.]}

[He doesn't even know what to say to that, how to put into words the warm little flutters that it sends through his middle. He suspects he wouldn't know even if he didn't feel whatever force had been making them all talk all day fading away.]

[He's in control of his words again, but at this point it's almost...disappointing?]

[And there are her fingers too, and his eyes go a little surprised for a moment there, but then he grins, warm and just a little unsure, and curls his fingers around hers back. And, slowly, leans his forehead forward to rest against hers.]

Heh, you come to mind.

Edited (ryslig envy get out of this thread immediately) 2016-02-13 17:05 (UTC)

--yeah, well.

_{[THAT'S UP FOR DEBATE.]

[But she can't really complain, can she?]}

... We're gonna do okay.

_{[She shuts her eyes briefly and leans back, letting their noses brush. Lying here on the bed next to her best friend-- boyfriend-- and listening to the sleet patter on the windows is the only place she wants to be right now.]}

We'll be okay.

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