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[He leans in to kiss her. One long slow kiss before he hugs her tightly. Pulling away, he takes her hand - staring at himself - shirtless wearing those armbands.]

We shop, then we go back to my apartment.

[He should give a reason.]

I want my kitchen.

Well, I mean it's definitely loads better than trying to do it in mine.

[The one failing of her nest apartment: the ability to actually do anything more than make coffee in it. Or heat something with any sort of actual microwave or whatever. So, she's just going to agree as she leans up and kisses him once more.]

Alright. Shopping. Hopefully now that...

[Nope, Alex isn't going to say mated. No way in hell.]

That we're taken the people will leave us alone about that.

[One benefit to whatever physical thing he'd been exposed to was that he's comforting. And she fits in the crook of his arm. Snuggling against her, he gestures for her to follow him out the door, growling at people looking in their direction.

He holds her even tighter when they're outside, eyes watching everyone else.]

I don't like this.

I don’t like it either.

[But Alex moves up onto her toes and kisses his jawline gently.]

Calm, my Hades. No one can take me away from you. No one ever will.

[Leading her down to the market takes far too long for his liking. At least the place is lit up and it's pretty. He bares his teeth at someone for getting too close before they find a booth with that same gorgeous body decor.

He begins to collect flowers and trinkets for her - without her permission.]

[Normally Alex would have frowned at the flowers and trinkets. She's not really someone who wears a lot of jewelry most ever, and only starting wearing makeup within the last few months as her dark circles and looking so tired had gotten to the point of strangers commenting on it. Even then, Alex kept it basic most times: nude eyes and lips to match so that the foundation and concealer didn't make her look washed out. Her only jewelry was her watch or earrings.

But right now, Alex doesn't mind this. This is what he's supposed to do as her alpha and mate.]

[All of this is too flowery and too...hippie for him. He likes maturity. He likes Alex's wild attitude and weird Seattle chic.

Now she's covered in flowers and pearls and she looks beautiful but rifling through these things and growling occasionally at the stall owner, he stops short.

There's a neat little necklace. Picking it up, he buys it and passes it to her.]

This is you.

You. For you.

Please stop growling at people.

[Alex just says the words softly, and she gives him a quick frown but doesn't protest the pearls and flowers that definitely feel too hippie for her too. She's definitely not this--this is way more Nic's department than her own. But it also feels right in some ways and that's frustrating as hell. She's too damned told to have her tastes being changed by whatever the hell this is.

And Alex Reagan had never been a hippie. Not even as a kid.

But the smile that she gives him is her normal Alex smile, one shared over coffees and tapes back home, the soft kind that means that she's really touched by something.]

You remembered I like dogs.

...sorry.

[But then he smiles a little shyly before nodding mutely. The stall stand owner incites a glare as he puts one arm in front of her.]

Take my money and don't look at either of us.

[Later he may apologize but for now the stall stand owner just smirks at him.]

[Alex shifts her weight on her feet and she just gives Richard another frown. When they walk away from the shop order, she pauses. The pause turns into a stop and she just moves onto her toes and kisses him demandingly, passionate. The kiss is a statement in and of itself: this one is mine.

And when she pulls away, she looks more herself than she has during all of this and gives him the look she gives him when he's about to get punched.]

Listen to me, Richard. My Richard. My Hades

[Through their bond there's a calming insistent feeling.]

I know that you can control yourself more than this. The man I love who believes in reason above all else can control this. When we get home, you don't have to control it. I don't want you too. But you can't keep growling at people. You can't keep letting this thing turn you into something that you're not. I'm yours, Richard. If nothing else, you can feel safe in that. No one is going to take me away from you. Ever. Just like no one is going to take me away from you. So please, use all of your stubborn ass skills to try.

[When she kisses him he could take her here and now and she looks so beautiful and she is a perfect match for him, for this pack they could build. Then she speaks.

I know that you can control yourself more than this. The man I love who believes in reason above all else...

Howard was more passionate. His son approached reason because his father had corrupted it. He was determined to be what Howard hadn't been, pursuing reason at the expense of others. He'd only fought against him like this.

Every time he tried to think of a reason for this he got a headache as he wraps his arms around her.]

Persephone.

[He moves to hold her close besides him.]

I know. I know this isn't me. This is more Howard if you ever wanted to get an idea of what my father was like.

[his voice is soft.]

Thank you for being here for me.

God I hope your parents weren't like this. They raised you to be so ...strong. And ...funny and smart.

I'll always be there for you, Richard. Always, okay? And you are not your father. You're you. And I'd really like it if you could be you. I know it's hard, I know the whole biology of it and things you can't help. But I'm your pack, Richard. I'm your family now. And I don't love Howard, I love Richard. The Richard who makes that surprised huffy laugh when I make a joke, and the Richard who rolls his eyes so hard you can hear it, and the Richard who is like scarily smart. That is who I love. That is who I want as my mate. I don't want someone who frightens people.

[Her voice is soft, and she just snuggles in closer to him, slotting together against his chest like it feels like she's always meant to.]

I don't want the Richard that frightened me like today. I want you.

And yeah, my parents weren't like this. At least my adopted ones weren't. I don't remember much about my biological mother.

But I do know that you're funny and strong and smart too despite Howard and what he tried to do and make you.

[Another one of those laughs is her reward. He can do this. Ride this mysterious thing out and stay beside her.

And what then? He has to think as he walks about how engaging she has been and how the two of them have been pulled together. How she has always kept him from sliding into the darkness.

Going back to the apartment, standing in the elevator he finally speaks.]

Alex...I love you.

[He has to be in control when he says this.]

It's...it's important I try to say that when I'm not under the influence of this thing. But you should know. I love you. I think I've been falling in love with you ever since you walked into that interview with your podcast.

It's your eyes and your laugh and your smile and your intelligence and I...

[And he could take her here and now in this hallway and he pulls back.]

...Be kind to me until I can say it without wanting to fuck your brains out like some kind of animal. Please my Persephone.

[He has no hesitation to stand in front of his apartment however, looking at her and looking lost.

[There are certain things that Alex Reagan has never in her life expected to hear, at least not from him. And one of those is definitely 'I love you.' Alex just beams up at him, practically glowing in relation to those words, and not because of her omeganess. To her, right now none of that has any hold on the two of them. There's no piece of it that it touches, not really.

He loves her.

He's been falling in love with her since she walked into his office.

She's in love with him too.

Those are the things that matter.

Without saying anything, Alex just reaches out and takes his keys from his hand and lets them both into what is for the next while, their apartment. Once they are inside, Alex kisses him. It's a gentle kiss, light and lingering. It's soft and yielding and holding all of the pieces that love him at once and then giving them to him.

Through the bond between them, Alex's love is light a beacon, bright and there to guide him in like a ship lost in the storm.]

I'll be kind, my Hades. I will. And I think a hell of a lot of that kindness is going to help pull you back to remind you to be you, my love. Because I am deeply in love with you and have been for a long time.

[He wants to take her the moment she kisses him, but confessing that - that has brought him back by several degrees. So he pulls her close and holds her but he is shy. Painfully ridiculously shy. He's always been shy.

He doesn't say anything. Instead he moves to lift her in his arms and hold her close. His bed is done in black and white but there's a very soft gray comforter on top that he'll wrap her in before he moves to lay down beside her. Just quiet. Still shy.]

[When he acts so shyly, Alex can’t help but think of what Wayne Coats had said of Richie, the boy that he’d know. There’s been moments, small ones and mostly the night that Coralee had left that had left Wayne’s words ringing in her head. When they had dinner, when they were more themselves, Alex had seen them too. It’s easy for her to see them now.

So, she just moves against him, pressing her hand to his cheek softly and gently, she cups it and then traces her thumb over the line of his bottom lip before she kisses him in the same way that she had done before.

Her other hand rests against his chest. Not what the pack shift had done to his body, but to the place just above his heart. Her fingers splay, and she rubs against it in slow circles, as if she was almost casting it within a circle of protection.

Then she spoke, soft against his lips.]

My Richard. My Hades. My love.

[I don't deserve this. I don't deserve this. He doesn't deserve her whispering against him. Not after what he did. Not after Coralee. Not after Charlie. Not after his father tried to prepare him for a destiny he didn't understand.

Setting her down, he lets her touch him before wrapping her in his blanket and holding her close.]

I'm going to make sure you get so much sleep here.

[He inhales her scent.]

Do you feel...safe?

[Without any sort of preamble, Alex just moves even closer to him, looking up into his face. She can feel his self recrimination through the bond that they share, even if she can't feel what the actual words are. A frown spreads over her face, and a tiny bit of sadness seeps in from her end as well.

Alex Reagan doesn't hate people easily. It's a very small list. Coralee Strand has been on it for a year, and Howard Strand has been on it for months since she'd first spoken with Cheryl. She hates him all the more for the way that Richard has been so open about the abuse that he'd received. Even if it just feels like an open wound through the bond that they share.

Alex wants to help him close that wound, she wants to get rid of all of the infection that they'd left inside of him that makes him hate himself and feel like he's not worthy of her love.

So, she just kisses him again, holding onto him very tightly.]

I always feel safe when you're you, you know.

[Her voice is softer now, but it's more certain.]

When I was in the cabin, waiting for the counter on the unsound to run down, I would fall asleep when I could listening to the sound of your voice, you know. When you were in Chicago I did the same. I would call your phone even though I knew you sent it to voicemail as soon as you saw it was me because I wanted to hear your voice. Because it made me feel safe even with everything else around me, even when I couldn't sleep, it made me feel safer to have you in my ears.

That's why you kept calling me?

[She has fallen hard for him. He's genuinely stunned. The last time he...He's never felt like that about anyone.

There was listening to the podcast. There was Ruby putting the podcast in his phone (along with several others that he had ignored). There was the sheer frustration at Alex's constant disclosure of his personal life.

There was being worried when Nic called him telling him that Alex had stopped sleeping.

The fear that he had dragged her down somehow.

Like Persephone.

He had thought Coralee loved him like this. But Alex - he can tell through this strange bond - that she truly did care. Coralee...

Damn. Coralee.]

We'll be back to...ourselves soon. It feels more real with you here.

[He chuckles and runs a hand over her thigh.] I'll miss these curves.

[No he won't.] But you're prettier when you're more you.

Well... [Alex says with a little laugh.] I also kind of hoped you'd pick up too.

[Even if she'd known that he wouldn't have done it. Even if she'd known that it wasn't going to be something as simple as a call. Apologies between them never had been. He'd started it by showing up with a black tape like a bouquet of flowers, she'd done it in return with Simon's case and they'd gone on like that until the fight where he'd left for good.

In the end Alex didn't have any more tapes or info on Coralee or anything else. All she'd had was herself. Granted, the part of herself that he wanted at the time was the reporter to do the work, but Alex had agreed. She'd always agree. Because she loves him.

But she does laugh.]

I will definitely not miss these curves. I don't know how women with big breasts do it. My back hurts alright.

...Nobody's ever done anything like that to me. Usually I'm the one...

[Forget it. Forget it. He kisses her cheek and holds her close.]

I'll rub your back tomorrow. But like I said. You're more beautiful when you're you. Spunky and fun.

[His fingers trace through her hair.]

...You make being here better Alex. You make everything in my life better. I think you always have since I met you.

And even when this is done I'll...we'll be together.

Yes. [It’s very easy for Alex to agree with him in that. Easier than most things were.

She wraps her arms around him more tightly and looks up into his face.]

I think. I think we’ve kind of always been heading there, haven’t we? Even with everything else that happened, there was always us and this at the center of it.

[There’s a little pause, and Alex speaks softly almost in a way that seems kind of like confession.]

I actually almost thought you were going to kiss me that night after Coralee. When we were drinking and talking.

[That day when Coralee had tried to take his hand. She'd tried to convince her to come with him. He hadn't told Alex that. He hadn't told her that she had told him that Alex - sitting in the house - was a liability. Maybe that had been what ignited something in his chest. The honest knowledge that he was ready to hit his wife.

Ex wife.

That had been terrifying. He made the decision to be a gentle man and turn away, bury his rage. And Alex had looked so sad. Running his thumb over her cheek he holds her tighter.]

I've kissed you now. All that matters is now.

Yes. [Alex just agrees softly and leans up to press her lips against his own, giving him the kiss that she’d wanted to give him that night as the two of them had sat on their sides of Ruby’s reclaimed sofa and looked at one another over increasingly tall glasses of Howard’s best whiskey.

Alex had said in the show that it was hard to see him pulled apart like that. And it was true. It had been true and continued to be true as the two of them were here in this weird place with the connection between them made manifest in whatever way this place had to do it.

It’s funny. Even with that connection and how it wants to write the narrative of them being something they weren’t even at the base of it. They were still them. Just then with a bonus.

Maybe that was something that was good about this place, other than the fact that they were here with each other.]

And I’m going to keep kissing you, Dr. Strand. I hope you’re aware of that.

[The was Alex, teasing him gently. This was Alex being herself.]

I'm not the easiest person to date.

[He offered her his familiar chuckle, loosening his grip to gently cradle her against him.]

Or seduce. So I have to give you credit where credit is due.

[His wicked tone softens into something unsure. Something gentle.]

But we are living next to each other. It's not going to be hard to be together. In this...dream space.

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11calls - 2020-04-23 06:47 (UTC) - Expand