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Post by Andy on Apr 12, 2015 21:50:57 GMT
Bev stuck her bottom lip out at his response, ready to pout. Even if this guy was in the habit of painting other girls, it seemed cruel to steal something Bev would compare to a diary she had kept when she was younger - something you didn't want just anybody to see, let alone hold for ransom, or whatever it was Kale had in mind..... But then again! Maybe, since she had helped snatch them away, she could come up with a ransom all her own! And her demands would be that the painter had to do more than just capture the girl of his dreams on a canvas. He had to capture her in his arms!
She was just fantasizing about what an amazing matchmaker she so obviously made (Why don't I just move to Valentine's? I'd make a fortune if I opened my own little... love saloon or something!) when Kale dashed to the window, before stumbling back and warning her of their impending doom. Bev practically jumped out of her scales. But more literally, she jumped off the bed, counting her lucky stars she had decided to wear flats instead of heels today as she landed in her shoes and slipped them on as they both sped out of the scene of the crime and down to the bottom floor.
The door handle was already jiggling on the front door, about to start turning and then the door would start opening, and Bev panicked. She shoved Kale, his armful of paintings, and herself all inside the nearest hiding spot, which wound up being a closet full of coats.
"Pray they don't need to check in their jackets!" She hissed under her breath, shoving a hand over Kale's mouth as he began to protest that they should just be making a run for it in another direction. From the looks of things, this looked like stuff suited for slightly colder weather, so the mermaid hoped they needn't any reason to check in here for the time being. "We'll leave when they go upstairs, or anywhere else besides right outside this door, okay?"
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Post by kryss on Apr 12, 2015 22:17:36 GMT
Kale: He nearly dropped his stack of paintings when Bev decided to shove him harder than he would have thought possible from her little doll arms with no warning whatsoever. He managed to keep hold, however, and did his best to get his bearings as she squeezed into the closet next to him. After she'd shut the door and gagged him with her hand, he rolled his eyes. Like he was stupid enough to start yelling, "Hey! We're over here!" He shook his head and began maneuvering to put his paintings down. By squishing against the door, he was able to set them sideways against the wall. They wouldn't be hard to pick up again, and now his arms wouldn't hurt from holding them. He stood back to normal after this accomplishment, and immediately noticed two things. One, it was very dark in this closet, and two, Bev was very, very close to him. With all the coats, boots, paintings, and them combined, there was little to no room left in the closet. They were pressed together, and the limited space combined with the fur from the coats was making the closet very warm as well. Or maybe that was just Bev. He couldn't help but notice exactly how much heat her arms were emitting, and her face was only about five inches from his now...
He was beginning to have an extremely hard time concentrating when a shout that could probably be heard from Halloweentown to Easter Village rang out from up the stairs.
"MON DIEU!!!!!!!" There was an awful lot of scuffling and stamping feet above them, along with much agitated chatter. They soon heard stomping rushing down the stairs over their heads, yelling, and a slamming door. Kale counted to ten before he allowed himself to let out his breath, grinning.
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Post by Andy on Apr 13, 2015 2:19:46 GMT
'Mmmmaybe this wasn't the best solution...' Bev admitted internally, having noticed their current predicament a little sooner than Kale had. She discovered just how little space there was to maneuver around in when he tried to put the paintings down, both of them unintentionally bumping into each other the entire time. When she had decided to shove them both in here, she had been thinking on her feet, and ducking into the closet had seemed perfect! But as she took a step back - which was really all the space they had to spare - it had left her with the furs pressed against her back, torturously tickling any exposed skin they came into contact with along her arms. It was quickly proving too unbearable, and she was forced to step back into Kale's personal space when he straightened up, least she burst into giggles and risk giving them away.
She was practically standing on top of the poor merman now, having nowhere else to go. Or maybe it was more accurate to say he was standing on top of her, since he was taller. With the boots taking up most of the floor space, one of her legs was shoved between his feet, and one of his feet was trapped between both of hers. And with the nefarious furs closing them in, least they both get tickled mercilessly, they had to share the space even further, their arms intertwined loosely. It left her fingers grazing the insides of his wrists, which probably wasn't much better for poor Kale, but there wasn't much Bev could do about it for now.
Was it just her, or was it beginning to feel a bit suffocating in here? At least, that's what she would blame it on, as she felt her face growing hot and her breaths becoming a little shallower. It really did feel decidedly warmer with the winter coats surrounding them, and their breath mingling from how close their faces were in proximity to each other. At first, Bev had tried to focus on the floor, but they were standing too close to facilitate that. Looking to one side had the furs brushing against her face, and while she supposed she could've stared at the door, she caught herself staring at Kale instead. Hoping that it was equally too dark for him to make out much of her face, just as it was hard for her to make out most of his, she listened to their breathing in the dark as the footsteps outside the door faded away and up the stairs.
If ever asked about it, Bev would blame her elevated heart rate on the moment of sheer terror as someone shouted upstairs. Waiting for the great clamoring to come travelling down the stairs and out the door again, the pair of aquatic thieves waited until it seemed safe to breathe again, both of them reaching for the door handle at the same time. Bev yanked her hand back, pretending to be busy with fixing her hair as Kale let them both out. Luckily for her sake, Kale was busy with pulling the paintings back out of their hiding spot, and she had a moment to compose herself. She would never live it down if he decided to start teasing her about this, but for now, their primary objective was getting out of this forsaken pink trap of a frat house.
"Back door?" She asked, cursing herself when her voice was still a little breathier than it normally sounded.
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Post by kryss on Apr 13, 2015 2:52:18 GMT
After spilling them out into the hallway, Kale took a half second to breathe in the fresh air and regulate his circulation before turning back and quickly grabbing the paintings. He noticed Bev's face was flushed. He knew in reality it was probably just from adrenaline and the stuffiness of the closet, but he wasn't one to let an opportunity pass.
"C'mon goldfish, I know you're dazzled by me, but we can't waste any time." Unable to grab her wrist with an armload of paintings, he instead bumped her back, forcing her along the hallway. Fortunately there absolutely was a backdoor, tucked past like three parlors and a sun room and dear Poseidon was that some sort of arborarium??? Kale stood awkwardly to the side when they reached the end, forced to let Bev swing open the door. He darted out, the paintings still weighing him down. Unfortunately, there were no accommodating cloud stairs leading off the back porch, as Kale discovered when he nearly flew off the edge. He wheeled back, one knee drawn up, as his hands were occupied. He paused for a moment, waiting for stairs to appear like they did in the front. Nothing happened. He stomped on the top step, still nothing. Seeing no alternative, as time was a very precious commodity right now, he set the paintings down on the porch. He backed up, took a moment to wink at Bev, then ran and jumped off, sailing the eight feet through the air, hitting the ground hard. He crumpled with it as well as he could, doing a not-terrible side roll to absorb the impact. His shin kind of hurt, but he could shake that off easily.
"Alright, toss them down!" He said softly. "Then I'll catch you last!"
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Post by Andy on Apr 13, 2015 3:44:56 GMT
'Kelp.'
It seems she hadn't composed herself well enough, as Kale couldn't help himself but to comment on her reddened cheeks, which only served to get her started on blushing all over again. At least they were on their way out of here now, as they scurried down the hallway and both of them were equally taken aback by the ridiculousness of this frat house. Whatever guilt she might've felt for stealing this guy's paintings was evaporating as they made it to the back door. Bev yanked it open, watching Kale dash ahead of her, and swore she almost had a heart attack when she watched him almost go sailing right over the edge. A hand was clutching the space on her chest over her heart as she closed the door behind her, rushing onto the porch before he tried anything stupid.
'Too late.' Her brain pointed out, as Kale did his best impression of a bird before disappearing from her line of sight.
She ran to the edge, almost sliding off herself in her haste, heart in her throat until she could see Kale recovering from the fall on the ground below.
"Are you INSANE?!" Bev wanted to shriek, but managed to keep her voice down to a noticeably agitated tone. "NEVER do that again!"
Still, with no other alternatives, she obediently picked up the first painting, checking to make sure he was ready and waiting before throwing it to him. He caught it deftly, of course, as he did the next one, and the one after that, and so on and so forth. When her hands hit the surface of the deck instead of another painting, Bev gulped, not quite brave enough to stand up yet. She had kind of been hoping there were a few more paintings to toss before it was her turn to take the leap of faith, so to speak.
Kale waved up at her, reminding her of the time and place and that they didn't really have time to be arguing about the fundamentals of working up in scale during trust exercises right now. Taking a few deep breaths, Bev walked towards the back door, gearing up to charge towards the edge.
'Just don't stare at the ground.' She reminded herself as she took off, feet carrying her forward. 'And watch where you're falling.'
She was out of surface sooner than she would of liked, bracing herself for the feeling of weightlessness before she jumped off and started falling down. Her stomach switched places with her heart, her hair streaming behind her in a long trail of green as she did exactly what she told herself not to do and peeked at the rapidly approaching ground beneath her.
"Please catch me!" She squeaked, voice so high-pitched it made her throat ache as she covered her eyes with her hands at the last second.
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Post by kryss on Apr 13, 2015 3:58:13 GMT
Kale: He stacked the paintings neatly as she handed them down. When an extended pause came, he realized they must be out. He backed up, waiting for her to jump. And waited. And waited? He was just about to call up to her when he saw her breathe deep, getting ready. Okay, that was fair, as long as she did it soo-SWEET SARDINES!! His heart nearly leapt into his throat when, instead of lowering herself down or at least attempting to gently hop down, instead she took a FLYING LEAP AT HIM. He backed up, trying to calculate very quickly where she was going to land. He raised his arms and she collided hard into his chest.
He went backwards, his breath getting knocked out of him from both an entire mermaid slamming into his chest and landing so hard on the ground. His head knocked against the grass, and he saw stars for a moment. He lay there, with her collapsed on top of him. When he finally got his breath back, he gasped,
"I'm insane? I didn't think you were a flying fish, 'kip." he said, possibly very slightly insulting her. He was the one with a throbbing head and chest and back though! He sat up slowly, groaning and rubbing his head, but making sure she wasn't hurt either. He may have fractured something, but he would genuinely feel terrible if she had so much as a bruise. He was the one who dragged her along on this adventure, after all!
Once he was sitting, he painfully stood, still rubbing his head, offering her his free hand.
"C'mon, I don't think we have a lot of time."
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Post by Andy on Apr 13, 2015 5:53:00 GMT
'That... could've gone a little better...' Bev thought with a wince, not daring to move as her wits came back to her.
She rested for a moment, sprawled on top of Kale as both of them caught their breath again after she had so rudely slammed into him with enough force to take him out. This grass had looked a lot softer from up there.
"I'm so sorry..." She wheezed, wincing as she climbed off of him. Oh cod, was he okay? He was standing up on his own, but he looked like he was in pain. She hesitated before taking his hand, keeping an eye on the fact that he was still rubbing his head and their impact, both with each other and then with the ground, had sounded pretty intense.
"I'm so, so, so sorry!" She repeated, trying to handle him with care as she hugged him around the neck. "Are you okay?"
Lowering herself from her tiptoes (she had to stand on them to reach for that hug), she lifted up a portion of the stack of paintings, not wanting him to carry all of them now that he was possibly wounded.
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Post by kryss on Apr 13, 2015 6:13:01 GMT
"Yeah, sure, just uh... let me practice next time before you do the aerial acrobatics, okay?" He tried not to wince when she hugged him. He was sore there, but then again, he would never dare to turn down a hug from the hottest girl he knew??? Even if she did apparently eat coral as a steady diet. He picked up the remaining paintings and started off. He still had enough of his wits about him to be sneaky. They ran around the borders of the housing, crouching slightly and moving as fast as they could, moving between lawn decorations, large, properly landbound buildings, and sculpted hedges. They made it back to the icthys house without being spotted, and Kale hurriedly opened the door. He carried the paintings into his room and plopped them on the ground, slightly less careful than he had been before. He flopped onto his bed, supporting his sitting position with one hand, and still rubbing his neck with the other.
"I'd count our mission as a success!" he said, watching Bev deposit her armful of paintings as well. "Even if I did accumulate some war wounds." Not that that was anything new.
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Post by Andy on Apr 13, 2015 6:48:16 GMT
Bev deposited her own smaller stack of paintings on top of his own, taking more care with it than he did. She spared a moment to look them over, double-checking to see if any of them were in terrible shape after the journey from the walls of their proper home to their new, temporary one. She was no expert on paintings though, but as far as she could tell, they looked fine? Hopefully??
Sighing at the reminder of her less than stellar floundering fall earlier, Bev flopped down on his bed next to him, her hair pooling out like a green halo around her head. She covered her face with her hands in embarrassment.
"Msrry." She mumbled through her hands, before lifting her arms up and flopping them dramatically beside her. After a moment she rolled over, mindful not to lay on her own hair as she raised herself up on one elbow.
"Are you sure you're okay? I didn't exactly... drift down like a graceful little feather back there."
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Post by kryss on Apr 13, 2015 7:23:09 GMT
Kale: "Don't be sorry," he said. "It's not like there was a lot of time to plan. We had to act on instinct." He looked down at her, tracing the curve created from her current position. Would he ever stop checking her out? Probably not. But as mercilessly as she may flirt with him (no, really, where was her sister when you needed her?) he still wanted to make sure what she wanted before they moved forward, since he had initiated things last time. That certainly didn't mean he wouldn't encourage her, though.
"It hurts the worst right here," he said, pointing to the point where his neck his met his shoulder. To be honest the top of his head was pretty sore too, he was pretty sure he'd gotten some sort of whiplash from the landing. But it would heal, eventually. A prank successfully pulled was enough reward for him.
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Post by Andy on Apr 14, 2015 2:03:53 GMT
Seeing him take care of observing her current position, Bev smirked. The fall hadn't proved fatal to certain parts of him, it would seem.
"Oh, really?" She clicked her tongue, lifting herself up further until she was on her hands and knees. She crawled towards him slowly, seeing his eyes widen minutely but a grin matching hers spread across his face as she got closer.
"I should probably take a better look at it. It might need special attention in order to heal, you know."
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Post by kryss on Apr 14, 2015 2:53:40 GMT
As she crawled over to him, Kale felt his heart speed up. At her suggestive statement, he turned his head away, completely revealing the hurt area. There was in fact a slightly green patch on his neck where he pointed. He sat, neck fully exposed, excited and scared about whatever she was going to do.
Why was he never anything but excited and scared around her?
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Post by Andy on Apr 14, 2015 3:43:33 GMT
Bev almost faltered at the sight of the bruise on his neck, not having expected there to actually be anything wrong. He had obviously just been messing with her, but if there was really a mark there...
Her slow pace continued, until she reached his side and stopped. She lifted her hand to barely skim her fingers up the side of his neck - mindful not to apply any pressure to the bruise.
"I have some bad news, Mr. Thalass," she cooed, pursing her lips, "This definitely requires special attention in order to heal properly."
She ghosted her fingers back down his neck, lingering at the collar of his shirt as though she needed to move it out of the way. She lowered her mouth to his neck, placing her lips over the bruise and granting it a quick kiss.
"Mwah." She whispered into his ear before leaning back, settling on top of her heels tucked underneath her. "There. Feel any better?"
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Post by kryss on Apr 14, 2015 6:17:27 GMT
A tingle shot all the way up to his ear and down to his shoulder, emanating from the point where she'd touched him. Goose bumps ripple outwards as well as she kept teasing. This girl was ruthless, ruthless he said! He tried not to shiver as she slipped her fingers to his collar. Surely that wasn't necessary to move, was it? She finally granted him relief, simply kissing him, the pressure soft and warm and brief.
"Much better," he said sincerely, nodding his head. "But it hurts right here, too." He pointed to the crown of his head, looking at her out of the corner of his eye.
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Post by Andy on Apr 15, 2015 2:07:39 GMT
With a shake of her head and an affectionate roll of her eyes, Bev didn't know what she had expected. Something told her this wouldn't be the last hurt spot, either, but she HAD been the one to collide with him... Besides, she was never one to turn down the chance to bother the ever-loving kelp out of him.
She traced her fingers back up his neck again, following the familiar path upwards from his shirt collar. Her other hand came up as well, traveling up the other side of his neck at the same time. She manipulated his head slightly, making him face her again, but chin down, so she could reach the top of his head as she leaned forward. With her hands bracing either side of his jaw, she kissed the top of his head like she had kissed his neck, mouthing a 'mwah' against his hair.
Leaning back again, she tilted his chin up, a grin on her face.
"Any other sore spots I should know about, while we're at it?"
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