fandom_clinic | FTEC -- August 17 -- Sunday.

Current Mood: gloomy

Entry tags:

FTEC -- August 17 -- Sunday.

Well, she was no longer a bird. That was a good thing, Adah supposed, if it weren't for the fact that it was all terribly disorientating, this switching between different bodies with different balance points, not to mention the change in height and having to reacquaint herself with the possession of opposable thumbs, which, really, she'd never realized how much she'd taken them for granted.

But she was still mad, still irritated, since the only thing she was able to do to let the Eel know she was incredibly annoyed with him was peck at him.

And, in the long run, that was a whole week wasted on being a bird when she should have been using it to get the most out of being here before she had to leave.

Soon. Too soon, way too damn soon, which was why she made sure to come into the clinic that afternoon. Her classes started at Emory next week, so this might actually be her last shift. Her stomach clenched with both nervousness and excitement; she felt a little sick, but she wasn't sure if that had to do with the fact that it seemed to rush in quicker than the current of flooding waters after the rainy season or if it was just that she'd eaten way too many grubs last week.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Majority of the time," he decided. "I'm good company. I'm entertaining, at least. And cute. And sometimes I have good ideas."

"You have your moments," Adah agreed with a nod of her head. "Unfortunately," she added, "they're moments on both ends of the spectrum."

"Yeah, well..." He shrugged a little uncomfortably. "I know I'm stupid. It's been beaten into my head. I just need a break from hearing it constantly."

"You'll only have to deal with a barrage of it from me for a week longer," Adah assured him. "But just because you're sick of hearing it doesn't mean I'm going to let up. Not this time. I maintain that if you want a break from hearing it, then stop doing stupid things. Simple cause and effect, really."

"No, I didn't think you'd let up," he said, shaking his head. "And that isn't what I meant, not exactly. It's more that it's getting hard to hear in lieu of everything else. Yeah, I was dumb last week but I had someone decide to call me stupid before even asking if I was okay. It's the focus on that rather than anything else I might do."

Adah shifted her eyes slightly at that, a bit downward, thinking on it. Her own reaction had been fairly similar, after all, and it wasn't in the least bit flattering to realize it.

"The focus," she finally said, "is on that in the hopes to prevent another occasion when we'd have to ask if you're okay. Or prevent an occasion when we can't ask because you're not."

"This isn't just about this one time," Lee said, shrugging. "It's happened before, it's going to happen again. I know it. I've accepted it, that doesn't mean I'm going to really like it."

"And you can't really expect anyone else to like it, either," Adah added, looking at him steadily. Anyone except whoever it was that had seemingly caused this whole recent debacle, obviously, but, whoever she was, especially if she was who Adah thought it was, Adah had decided that she couldn't give a rat's ass about what she might like if it included this.

"No, that's not---" He stopped talking and shook his head. "I know that. That's fine. Like I said, I've accepted it and it's not going to change so I won't talk about it anymore."

Adah drew in a little bit of a breath, but she nodded. Not talking about it was a good idea, she supposed, but she knew that it would always be there between them. There, but unspoken, not talked about. The offense wasn't nearly as great, but it was just like with Orleanna. But, unlike Orleanna, Adah was hoping she might actually be able to forgive the Eel this one. She shook her head.

"And you call me stubborn."

"I just don't..." He trailed off. "I don't want people to remember me as the stupid kid. I think my father already thinks of me that way. And I like it here a lot more than there."

"If it helps any," Adah told him, "I don't think of you as stupid. Just as a smart guy who does a lot of stupid things." She sighed, an exhale heavy with a sort of reluctance. "But you do a lot of good things, too, despite all that. You knew I was upset with you last week, but instead of just avoiding me, you took care of me in my altered state. So it's not just that. It's just that when you do something stupid, it tends to resonate and settle and piss people off."

"I didn't set out to get hurt," he said quietly. "I was...in town. And it happened. I thought of how you'd react. It was the first and one of the only things on my mind. I didn't continue on despite that. I continued on because I was trying to help in some stupid way."

He took a breath and just...kept going. "But, just like you and trust, you have to have a little understanding with me here. I've never been with anyone like I am with you. I've never wanted to be with anyone like I am with you. Before you, I did this stuff all the time. I'm making adjustments, I'm being more careful, I've changed things because I want to be with you. And that want hasn't changed. I'm trying. And I'm frakking dreading when you leave because I don't want to go back to who I was before all that."

Throat tight, Adah still forced down a swallow as she settled her crooked back against the chair again and stared at the Eel. She blinked, but that didn't seem to shake her out of it. That certainly wasn't what she expected and, at first, she found herself building up the fact that it wasn't like she'd ever been with anyone like this, either, and she sure as hell never thought she'd want to, but then he had to throw in that last part that sent all those thoughts retreating back from the quick but lingering flash of not knowing what to say.

She managed to get her mouth open and force sound through the lump, but all it produced was his name, softly, as her forehead creased with a frown. "Lee..."

He held up both hands, almost deflated after all that. "It's okay, you don't have to say anything, I said too much. I didn't mean to put it on you."

Adah's head shook a little. "It..it isn't that at all," she said. "I...I don't know quite what it is, but..." The reverse of her earlier sigh, she drew in a breath. "We'll be okay. If we both want it."

"I want to say something right now," he said, smiling sadly, "but I won't because it won't be good for either of us to here. It'll make things harder."

Adah stared at the Eel blankly for a moment again, her eyes a little uncertain and her jaw a little tight, enough that it ached, but she ignored it.

"And telling me that is any better," she muttered, but the fact that she wasn't sure she'd want to hear something like that, anyway, kept the edge out of her voice over the fact that she knew curiosity would pull at her consciousness until he did. If he did.

"I can say it," he said, coming a little closer to the desk. "Do you want me to?"

The tension started to creep down her good side from her jaw, spreading to her shoulder and the first few links of vertebrae as the Eel came a little closer, and she looked at him worriedly. "I don't know," she said, because she really didn't, her brain struggling to weigh out the possibilities. "Do you want to?"

"Yes," he said. "Because I want you to know. It just might hurt a little."

The stiffness traveled even further down her spine, pulling it slightly rigid, as tight as it could, which, for her crooked body, wasn't much. "Tell me, then," she decided. It couldn't be that bad; even if it was, she'd only have to deal with it for a week, and then she could forget it, losing it intentionally in the jumble of the new life that started next week.

He smiled a little and leaned against the desk, quiet for a moment.

"I love you," he said, looking at her steadily, "and I don't want you to go. I want you to stay. I'm not going stop you from going but I don't want you to go."

Adah felt a twitch in her leg as the stiffness reached the bottom of her spine and tried to pull at her hip, but she smiled a little back, keeping his gaze. She almost wanted to hit him, peck at him, but even if she didn't have the beak anymore, she couldn't really move much anyway. That wasn't so bad at all, but he was right. It did hurt a little, the pull now in her chest.

"I knew that already," she said quietly. "But I'm still going. If you can be stubborn about doing stupid things, I can be stubborn about going to school."

"I know you're going," he said and smiled at her. "I didn't think that would change your mind at all and it wasn't meant to either. If it did, we'd be arguing some more but I wanted you to know that you'll be missed. Again and again, if I have to."

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.