Chapter Two: The Movie

[backinthsaddle]

Today was the last day of finals for Cole, and it's with a silent sigh of relief that he heads home, ready to ditch the books for the summer. Not that he'll stop studying altogether, but a break is welcome after the week long cramming session.

Liam doesn't appear to be home once he gets back to the apartment, but he's slowly been getting used to there being someone else living there, and she isn't really the going-out-and-about type, at least not right now. So he makes a little noise on his way in, so he doesn't startle her.

Comments

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"And the expressions thereof, yeah. Like kissing and stuff. I mean, I've kissed guys on purpose before." Heaven knows what 'not on purpose' means in this scenario. "It's just, I dunno."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

He considers that. "More the feeling than the doing?" he asks, uncertainly.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Yeah! That's it, exactly. I feel very strongly, but I'm... not so good at expression. And that was even before... uh. Before you-know-who."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"There's got to be some way to do the whole emotional expression thing... do you write? Draw?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"I do both of those things," she says, with a shy smile. "Not since...." Not since the most recent abduction.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"...because you don't feel like it, or because you don't have any supplies?" He doesn't want to make her uncomfortable, but he's getting it into his head to get her some art stuff if it's the latter.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Both. I haven't been able to go back to where I was living and get any of my stuff. I was living at a few places at the time, switching around, never sleeping in the same spot for over a couple months. And... and I just look at a blank page and wanna crawl back into bed. Into couch, rather."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

He's not sure what to say to that, worried about saying the wrong thing and making things worse. "Anything I can get for you?" he offers.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

With Victor, you rarely have to worry about saying the wrong thing. "Gosh, no. No, I'm just fine. It's weird. So much of my life has been about creation and now I just feel hollowed out. Put on pause, you know?"

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"I could at least give you a notebook, if that might help. I've got plenty to spare." He has a theory that creating again might count as therapeutic, although it might take a bit to get there.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"If it isn't any trouble. I'll try. I just feel like... the only thing inside of me right now is very ugly. I don't want to create something very ugly." She has the same idea, about it maybe being therapeutic, but she's scared.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"Maybe you need to get rid of the ugliness before you can create something beautiful again? You could just write out all that ugliness and then tear it out and burn it." It won't actually get rid of it, but maybe it could help?

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. Yeah, that's a good idea. Guess I'm sorta scared of it. What happened back there was really bad. I thought I was stronger than all that, but it was really bad."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

He hasn't asked for explicit details, and he's not sure he wants to know. But it doesn't stop him from being supportive. "That's why I think this is so important... you can show that you really are that strong. It takes guts to get through something like this. And you've got them."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

She pauses, scrutinizing his face with that scientist look of hers she sometimes get. Detached. Distractable. "I'll do it."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"I'll get you a notebook, pronto," he promises.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"I don't wanna put you through any trouble."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"It's no trouble. Really. I bought a bunch of them at the beginning of the semester because they were on sale. I've got enough for a couple years."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Okay. Okay, cool. Thank you." A shy, scared little smile. Her heart feels like it's trying to escape through her sternum.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

He doesn't want to get up now to get one; it feels like it'd be breaking the moment, or something. "You're welcome."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

Victor doesn't know what to say so she starts scratching at her arm again, under her sweater, subtle little scratches, not even really noticable unless you've seen her do it before.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"Do you want to watch something else?" he suggests. "Since we've still got popcorn left and all. We've got all the Star Trek movies."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"I'd love that," she says, with a shy curl of a smile, scratching right by that knobby wrist bone of hers.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"Old Trek, or new Trek?" he asks, getting up only to switch out the DVDs. "Or we could marathon them all. No one can stop us, right?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Gosh, any." She hugs onto her knees, resting her chin between them.