Shield and Arrow
Title: Shield and Arrow
Genre: Humor/Romance
Rating: K+ now T
Disclaimer: I claim everything else except Justin Hartley -he's claimed-, Count Dracula is sadly not mine though Countess Dracula is now patent pending.
Every single international conflict essentially boils down to sexual tension - Barney Stinson.
"Esh, will you please stop stomping around?"
"It's been like 20 minutes! Who knows what they're doing up there?" Eshield raised her eyebrow suggestively.
"For the last time, Went's not gay."
"You're his girlfriend. Of course you'd say that." the brunette muttered, "I tell you, those fishing trips they took sound fishy to me. Also, Arrow's never dated anyone... I'm just saying. Boys will be boys. At one point in their lives, they'd always like their own kind a little better."
Vei gave her a look. Then again, Vei always gave her a look.
"What? You saw Oprah. The wives never suspect until it's too late."
"Oh, very funny. The five of us took those trips together, remember? You forcing us to throw all the trouts we caught back to the lake? And Arrow went out with that... Cindy girl."
"Miss I'm-so-pretty-I-don't-need-make-up Cindy?"
Vei smiled. "That's the one."
"That doesn't count." At Vei's wondering look, she continued, "That girl was practically having a relationship with herself."
"Oh, I remember alright. All that talk against using creams because 'they feel so unnatural on my flawless skin'" Vei shuddered, doing a surprisingly good impression of Miss I'm-so-full-of-myself-everyone-wonders-how-my-head-gets-past-the-door. Eshield really disliked that girl.
"Yeah, well, let's meet again in twenty years and see who benefits from sunscreen!"
Vei shrugged. "She was very pretty though."
Esh considered it for a moment. Perky, strawberry blonde, easy smile and nice legs, even she had to agree. "She must have been, like, about two doting parents and dozens of ego injections ago."
"Yep. Thanks to me, we don't have to suffer her presence anymore than we had to."
What? "What do you mean?"
"I, er, could have sent her a nasty break-up letter... Hey, stop changing the subject," Vei said, changing the subject, "Sit down like a good girl I know your parents think you are and drink your coffee before it gets cold."
"You know I can't stand caffeine," Eshield complained, though she relented and took a seat on the kitchen stool, "But I'd take the cupcake." She grabbed a quick bite of the frosting before putting it back on its plate, a habit Vei knew that Esh knew she hated. Vei let it pass though. Amidst all this week's haze of helping Arrow get packed, she had completely forgotten about Esh's self-claimed allergy.
"Oh, right. We've ran out of tea since 1993. The choice's either that or milk. Milk's gone sour."
"So, why do I still see it in the freezer?"
Vei stared at her as if she was slow. "It's gone bad. Obviously I didn't drink it."
Suppressing a smile, Esh said, "Aalright, whatever. Just water will be great."
Setting up a glass on the table, Vei said matter-of-factly, "You know, Arrow was with Jo for more than an hour this morning. They must have a lot to talk about. I mean, he will be gone to Rome for a full year. And once he's finished with his project there, who knows if he's going to come back at all. You know what they say about Italian girls..."
"...that they have both the looks and the figures?"
Without missing a beat, Vei continued, "they make the best pastas in the world."
They laughed.
"I'm just... you know, super confused about the reason I'm here," Esh broke the silence after taking two more bites of chocolate frosting and finished her glass in a single swig.
"I'll unconfuse you. Arrow's going away for a really long time and being the sweet friend he is, wants to personally bid us farewell. He's spoken to Robert, Mathias, Joanne and now Went. That leaves the two of us, and whoever he asks for next will go up there and be nice to him for a change. Which part of that is still unclear?"
"Only one. Is it just my imagination or was the last part laced with threat?"
"Honey, it's not laced. It is a threat. Is that clear?"
"Crystal."
"For someone who claims his going away has nothing to do with you, I find you suspiciously jumpy." Vei said several bites later, munching on her homebaked cupcake with gusto. "If I didn't know you, I would say that either Countess Dracula is stalking around in my kitchen for fresh blood or... you fancy Arrow."
"First of all", Eshield said, drawing her breath,"I'm flattered by the comparison."
Vei rolled her eyes.
"And I'm not jumpy. And I do not "fancy" Arrow. It's just that sitting here, waiting for him to call each and every one of us and say ~goodbye~, I think that's silly. We're not twelve and playing houses anymore. Plus, I've spent hours waiting. You do know that some of us have lives, don't you?"
"Right. Because missing an episode of Jeopardy can really put one's social life into, well... jeopardy."
"Wordplay - Nice."
"Thanks."
Esh frowned. Turning to Vei, she smiled brightly, "You really think I have a social life?"
"I was being sarcastic." her best friend said flatly, earning an exaggerated sigh of disappointment from her.
"Ah, well. I thought as much."
One and a half minute later.
"That's it. I'm going home." Eshield grabbed her now wrinkled cardigan from over the counter and stood.
"Not this again!" Vei moaned. "You're not going anywhere."
"Oh, I'm not going anywhere. I'm going home." She raised a perfect eyebrow. Who's the slow one this time, huh?
"He is our friend, Esh."
"Aha! That's exactly why I shouldn't be here. I mean, we're not even on good terms-"
"You two are never on good terms."
"-for all we know, he's just going to use this opportunity to pull a Rachel on me and skipped me over when it's my turn to say goodbye. And let's face it, I'm not gonna be as lame as Ross. So, thanks but no thanks, I won't extend my stay here only to be subject to ridicule."
"God, you watch too much TV." Vei said to the ceiling.
Said ceiling made no response but Esh hmm-ed dismissively, looking around the immaculate kitchen, "And you don't own a TV. Do you know where I put my purse?"
"Yes, but I'm not telling."
Vei ignored her friend's indignant protests. "What? You really should see a doctor about your memory problem."
"Fine. I'll stay. Where is my purse?" Eshield asked through gritted teeth.
"Not yet. You also have to act nice up there."
"Oh yeah? And how do you suppose I do that?"
"You can start by cutting him some slack. Not throwing a knife at his every word seems to be a good start for normal people when they converse."
"Riight."
"Esh, won't his leaving affect you in some ways, any ways?" Vei was quickly getting exasperated.
"Won't affect me at all." though she felt that she had said it a bit too fast.
"He's actually going away, and you still insist on keeping this facade of yours?"
"What facade?"
"That's it. That is what I'm talking about."
"Okay. Let's say, hypothetically speaking, I go up there and I act.... nice," she shuddered,"what if he just wants to use the opportunity to blow me off, Vei? What if I don't get the goodbye like you all do?" she hated that she sounded worried even to herself.
Her best friend smiled gently. "Well, that's something you have to find out yourself, isn't it? Promise me that you will at least try."
Esh gave a non-committal shrug.
"Is that a yes? I'll take that as a yes."
"Let's see. If that's a yes, then it's also alarmingly close to a no."
"Gods! I'll have none of your cheek right now."
"Anyone say chicken?" came a deep voice from outside the kitchen. Went stepped in, curious at the sight of the two girls but was decidedly more curious about the enticing fragrance of baked goods.
"Arrow asked for you by the way," he said, planting a swift kiss on Vei's forehead. With trained reflexes, he reached for the cupcake plate but upon seeing the state of the now frostingless cupcakes, eyed Eshield disapprovingly, "Man, don't waste food!"
"Vei, how if we go in there together-" Esh started, attempting to escape yet another one of Went's food lectures, but under Vei's glare, trailed off timidly, "...saves time."
"You stay right there, young lady." Vei turned to Went, "You. Make sure she doesn't leave."
"Hey, I'm a good two months older than you!" she reminded but Vei had stepped out.
Exactly 15 minutes and thirty two seconds later (Not that she counted. Okay, she did count. In Eshield's defense, aside from food, Went wasn't much of a conversationalist), Vei finally came down the staircase. Sending a swift glance to her, Vei said calmly,"Your turn, Esh."
Eshield turned the door knob silently, pushing the door ajar. Arrow stood at the opposite end of the room, his tall figure leaning slightly against the window, his back to her. She recognised -from the fading red spots on the small of the collar- that he was wearing the dress shirt she had once said she hated, as the pristine garment did not bode well with her intention to throw tomato sauce at him one day, and which later on he had worn ridiculous amount of times precisely for the fact that she hated it.
She could no longer recall the reason she had wanted to throw tomato sauce at him in the first place. Probably something silly. After all, they had fought for less important reasons: she would say or do something and he would find ways to tease her endlessly about it. Or he would do nothing at all and she would throw jibes at him.
Their war had gone way back it was hard to say who started what. Oh, who was she kidding? It wasn't like anyone was tuning on to her thoughts. Of course, she had religiously initiated every one of those fights. But she would rather eat her hat than admit she had sort of enjoyed these banters of theirs over the years.
Yet, it bugged her very much. Who could guarantee they wouldn't fight this time, too? That she wouldn't put her foot in her mouth and make some crude remarks - maybe about his hair -, only this time he would be gone forever and it would not be silly anymore? Going here was a huge mistake. What was she doing? She scurried back to the top of the staircase but she must have made some noises because Arrow called out, "Hey."
She slowly counted to five before admitting that his voice hadn't been a figment of her overactive imagination and turned around to lamely hey-ed him back. Arrow made it across the room in three long strides. Eshield suddenly found that she did not know where to look. She could not even think of making fun of him.
He gazed down at her, smiling. Like a fire alarm (she couldn't find a better metaphor at her state of heady haziness), her treacherous little heart drummed clamorously, threatening to burst out of her chest from the sheer noise.
Perfect. She was having the common case of what she had secretly dubbed as her Arrow Allergy, a distressing condition in which she could never be let under his intense scrutiny.
To top it all, she was suffering from all the symptoms simultaneously. Inexplicable fluttering on her stomach, her gut twisting in dozens of complicated knots, check. Her cheeks burning for no good reason, check. Heart seemed to be curiously lodged in unstrategic point between her neck and collarbone hence compromising ability to speech........ check.
"Before you say anything..." she began but her mind suddenly blanked and with no words to say, she was left with the miserable activity of staring at the palms of her hands.
"Yes...?" He prompted when it didn't seem like she was going to speak at all.
"I said don't say anything." she snapped, her tone murderous.
He obediently raised his right hand and mimicked the movement of zipper closing over his mouth.
It was at that moment, The Plan hatched in Eshield's mind. It was a perfect plan. Granted, she didn't have the time to bullet-proof or search for loopholes... She would lie. She would lie very smoothly. She would lie so smoothly that she herself wouldn't be able see through the lie. See, the thing was, Eshield was a pathological liar. Or that could be the lie she had told herself. It was that complicated. Anyways. Lying was a good plan. So long as her voice didn't shake or something.
She cleared her throat.
"Listen. I won't miss you... when you're away. I mean, I won't miss you when you're here too since it defeats the purpose of 'missing' when they are there with you, doesn't it? Of course, when you think about it really hard, what's the purpose of missing someone who is actually gone anyway? It's not like they are there, y'know what I mean?"
Arrow said nothing, simply staring back at her. Did the bastard actually dare to look amused?
"Say something!" Esh demanded, flustered, but then she remembered her previous command for him not to.
"Right," she nodded, "don't say anything just yet."
She heaved a sigh. It was really hard to string together coherent sentences with his very green eyes looking at her like that. She forced her puddle of mind to concentrate on the impromptu speech.
"Bottom line is, I won't miss you, like at all." she laughed nervously as if the very idea was ludicrous. "...I won't ever, ever miss you very, very much..! God forbids, I hope you will never come back home for the holidays too.
If you could just leave me in peace, that will be awesome. Stay in Italy forever and not come back like every two months or like every chance and day offs you can get... And don't tell your boss that you cannot not go back because you have to settle some important matters here. Seriously, don't."
It irritated her that Arrow was still wearing the expression of one who was going to choke for his effort not to burst into laughter.
".... and-and you can eat all that pastas your Italian girlfriend cooks!" she finished a little breathlessly.
For long seconds, there was a pregnant pause.
"Eshi," Arrow said suddenly, taking her two stiff (and to her horror, damp) hands in his.
"What?" she said, more than a little dazed by the heat exuded from their contact. "Which part of that is still unclear?"
"Only one." he said smoothly,"I'm not entirely sure if you really asked me to do the opposite of what you said not to."
She stared at him, and after tens of seconds, was aware that her mouth was hanging open. She closed her mouth. Opened it to talk. Closed again. And finally, mercifully, she regained her voice.
"If by opposite, you mean, don't dare to go home all the time and I don't miss you very much, thank you, then yes, I'm asking, nay, I'm commanding you to do the opposite.... of opposite. You know. Get it?"
"Hmm, I'm not sure. You said opposite a lot."
"You're pushing it, Vane."
"Will you call me sometimes?" He blurted out, throwing the bomb that carelessly and smiled his boyish smile.
For five seconds, she froze. And then, when the meaning of his words had sunk in, she relaxed her muscles just a bit. Well, maybe she really should cut him some slack. She pulled one hand away from his grasp and punched him at the shoulder, really, really hard.
"Ouch! What was that for?"
"Well, do I look like a girl who waste money on international calls to you?"
He laughed.
She laughed, too.
Until they both stopped and the silent tension hung again between them.
And then, just as she thought the silence would never end, ever so slowly, Arrow dipped his head low towards her, making it glaringly obvious of what he was about to do, yet his hands were doing various kinds of protective measures should his advances became unwelcomed. That rendered an unladylike giggle from her.
"I'm not going to knee you."
"You always say that." He said calmly. "Forgive me if I don't buy it this time."
"That was what, fourth grade?"
"Fifth. And the memory of my agony still reverberates back to this day."
She laughed again. "Why are we still talking and not kissing?"
"... I don't know."
"Well, let's remedy that." And she closed the infinitesimal distance between them and kissed him.
As far as kisses went, theirs wasn't slow or romantic. No, that had been eight years too late. Eshield snaked up her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. She dimly wondered what would have happened had they solved their disputes years ago. She thanked the Gods that that had not been the case. She would trade any hormone-driven, sloppy kisses with *this*. This perfect first kiss.
A/N:
Before she realized that I stole her name, Vei is indeed dream-spired from a friend, Wydia Vei. I had this weird dream sequence where we were supposedly taking turn saying goodbye to our friend. I remembered thinking, "Can't this be more like Friends?" (Yes, I pulled a Chandler in said dream). Justin Hartley turned out to be said friend and it got considerably weirder, even for a dream, as I haven't seen Smallville ever since Lex and Lana broke up. This lil' story will be a two-parter, the last half of which will be posted soonish.
Xoxo,
Little Sev.
Genre: Humor/Romance
Rating: K+ now T
Disclaimer: I claim everything else except Justin Hartley -he's claimed-, Count Dracula is sadly not mine though Countess Dracula is now patent pending.
Every single international conflict essentially boils down to sexual tension - Barney Stinson.
"Esh, will you please stop stomping around?"
"It's been like 20 minutes! Who knows what they're doing up there?" Eshield raised her eyebrow suggestively.
"For the last time, Went's not gay."
"You're his girlfriend. Of course you'd say that." the brunette muttered, "I tell you, those fishing trips they took sound fishy to me. Also, Arrow's never dated anyone... I'm just saying. Boys will be boys. At one point in their lives, they'd always like their own kind a little better."
Vei gave her a look. Then again, Vei always gave her a look.
"What? You saw Oprah. The wives never suspect until it's too late."
"Oh, very funny. The five of us took those trips together, remember? You forcing us to throw all the trouts we caught back to the lake? And Arrow went out with that... Cindy girl."
"Miss I'm-so-pretty-I-don't-need-make-up Cindy?"
Vei smiled. "That's the one."
"That doesn't count." At Vei's wondering look, she continued, "That girl was practically having a relationship with herself."
"Oh, I remember alright. All that talk against using creams because 'they feel so unnatural on my flawless skin'" Vei shuddered, doing a surprisingly good impression of Miss I'm-so-full-of-myself-everyone-wonders-how-my-head-gets-past-the-door. Eshield really disliked that girl.
"Yeah, well, let's meet again in twenty years and see who benefits from sunscreen!"
Vei shrugged. "She was very pretty though."
Esh considered it for a moment. Perky, strawberry blonde, easy smile and nice legs, even she had to agree. "She must have been, like, about two doting parents and dozens of ego injections ago."
"Yep. Thanks to me, we don't have to suffer her presence anymore than we had to."
What? "What do you mean?"
"I, er, could have sent her a nasty break-up letter... Hey, stop changing the subject," Vei said, changing the subject, "Sit down like a good girl I know your parents think you are and drink your coffee before it gets cold."
"You know I can't stand caffeine," Eshield complained, though she relented and took a seat on the kitchen stool, "But I'd take the cupcake." She grabbed a quick bite of the frosting before putting it back on its plate, a habit Vei knew that Esh knew she hated. Vei let it pass though. Amidst all this week's haze of helping Arrow get packed, she had completely forgotten about Esh's self-claimed allergy.
"Oh, right. We've ran out of tea since 1993. The choice's either that or milk. Milk's gone sour."
"So, why do I still see it in the freezer?"
Vei stared at her as if she was slow. "It's gone bad. Obviously I didn't drink it."
Suppressing a smile, Esh said, "Aalright, whatever. Just water will be great."
Setting up a glass on the table, Vei said matter-of-factly, "You know, Arrow was with Jo for more than an hour this morning. They must have a lot to talk about. I mean, he will be gone to Rome for a full year. And once he's finished with his project there, who knows if he's going to come back at all. You know what they say about Italian girls..."
"...that they have both the looks and the figures?"
Without missing a beat, Vei continued, "they make the best pastas in the world."
They laughed.
"I'm just... you know, super confused about the reason I'm here," Esh broke the silence after taking two more bites of chocolate frosting and finished her glass in a single swig.
"I'll unconfuse you. Arrow's going away for a really long time and being the sweet friend he is, wants to personally bid us farewell. He's spoken to Robert, Mathias, Joanne and now Went. That leaves the two of us, and whoever he asks for next will go up there and be nice to him for a change. Which part of that is still unclear?"
"Only one. Is it just my imagination or was the last part laced with threat?"
"Honey, it's not laced. It is a threat. Is that clear?"
"Crystal."
"For someone who claims his going away has nothing to do with you, I find you suspiciously jumpy." Vei said several bites later, munching on her homebaked cupcake with gusto. "If I didn't know you, I would say that either Countess Dracula is stalking around in my kitchen for fresh blood or... you fancy Arrow."
"First of all", Eshield said, drawing her breath,"I'm flattered by the comparison."
Vei rolled her eyes.
"And I'm not jumpy. And I do not "fancy" Arrow. It's just that sitting here, waiting for him to call each and every one of us and say ~goodbye~, I think that's silly. We're not twelve and playing houses anymore. Plus, I've spent hours waiting. You do know that some of us have lives, don't you?"
"Right. Because missing an episode of Jeopardy can really put one's social life into, well... jeopardy."
"Wordplay - Nice."
"Thanks."
Esh frowned. Turning to Vei, she smiled brightly, "You really think I have a social life?"
"I was being sarcastic." her best friend said flatly, earning an exaggerated sigh of disappointment from her.
"Ah, well. I thought as much."
One and a half minute later.
"That's it. I'm going home." Eshield grabbed her now wrinkled cardigan from over the counter and stood.
"Not this again!" Vei moaned. "You're not going anywhere."
"Oh, I'm not going anywhere. I'm going home." She raised a perfect eyebrow. Who's the slow one this time, huh?
"He is our friend, Esh."
"Aha! That's exactly why I shouldn't be here. I mean, we're not even on good terms-"
"You two are never on good terms."
"-for all we know, he's just going to use this opportunity to pull a Rachel on me and skipped me over when it's my turn to say goodbye. And let's face it, I'm not gonna be as lame as Ross. So, thanks but no thanks, I won't extend my stay here only to be subject to ridicule."
"God, you watch too much TV." Vei said to the ceiling.
Said ceiling made no response but Esh hmm-ed dismissively, looking around the immaculate kitchen, "And you don't own a TV. Do you know where I put my purse?"
"Yes, but I'm not telling."
Vei ignored her friend's indignant protests. "What? You really should see a doctor about your memory problem."
"Fine. I'll stay. Where is my purse?" Eshield asked through gritted teeth.
"Not yet. You also have to act nice up there."
"Oh yeah? And how do you suppose I do that?"
"You can start by cutting him some slack. Not throwing a knife at his every word seems to be a good start for normal people when they converse."
"Riight."
"Esh, won't his leaving affect you in some ways, any ways?" Vei was quickly getting exasperated.
"Won't affect me at all." though she felt that she had said it a bit too fast.
"He's actually going away, and you still insist on keeping this facade of yours?"
"What facade?"
"That's it. That is what I'm talking about."
"Okay. Let's say, hypothetically speaking, I go up there and I act.... nice," she shuddered,"what if he just wants to use the opportunity to blow me off, Vei? What if I don't get the goodbye like you all do?" she hated that she sounded worried even to herself.
Her best friend smiled gently. "Well, that's something you have to find out yourself, isn't it? Promise me that you will at least try."
Esh gave a non-committal shrug.
"Is that a yes? I'll take that as a yes."
"Let's see. If that's a yes, then it's also alarmingly close to a no."
"Gods! I'll have none of your cheek right now."
"Anyone say chicken?" came a deep voice from outside the kitchen. Went stepped in, curious at the sight of the two girls but was decidedly more curious about the enticing fragrance of baked goods.
"Arrow asked for you by the way," he said, planting a swift kiss on Vei's forehead. With trained reflexes, he reached for the cupcake plate but upon seeing the state of the now frostingless cupcakes, eyed Eshield disapprovingly, "Man, don't waste food!"
"Vei, how if we go in there together-" Esh started, attempting to escape yet another one of Went's food lectures, but under Vei's glare, trailed off timidly, "...saves time."
"You stay right there, young lady." Vei turned to Went, "You. Make sure she doesn't leave."
"Hey, I'm a good two months older than you!" she reminded but Vei had stepped out.
Exactly 15 minutes and thirty two seconds later (Not that she counted. Okay, she did count. In Eshield's defense, aside from food, Went wasn't much of a conversationalist), Vei finally came down the staircase. Sending a swift glance to her, Vei said calmly,"Your turn, Esh."
Eshield turned the door knob silently, pushing the door ajar. Arrow stood at the opposite end of the room, his tall figure leaning slightly against the window, his back to her. She recognised -from the fading red spots on the small of the collar- that he was wearing the dress shirt she had once said she hated, as the pristine garment did not bode well with her intention to throw tomato sauce at him one day, and which later on he had worn ridiculous amount of times precisely for the fact that she hated it.
She could no longer recall the reason she had wanted to throw tomato sauce at him in the first place. Probably something silly. After all, they had fought for less important reasons: she would say or do something and he would find ways to tease her endlessly about it. Or he would do nothing at all and she would throw jibes at him.
Their war had gone way back it was hard to say who started what. Oh, who was she kidding? It wasn't like anyone was tuning on to her thoughts. Of course, she had religiously initiated every one of those fights. But she would rather eat her hat than admit she had sort of enjoyed these banters of theirs over the years.
Yet, it bugged her very much. Who could guarantee they wouldn't fight this time, too? That she wouldn't put her foot in her mouth and make some crude remarks - maybe about his hair -, only this time he would be gone forever and it would not be silly anymore? Going here was a huge mistake. What was she doing? She scurried back to the top of the staircase but she must have made some noises because Arrow called out, "Hey."
She slowly counted to five before admitting that his voice hadn't been a figment of her overactive imagination and turned around to lamely hey-ed him back. Arrow made it across the room in three long strides. Eshield suddenly found that she did not know where to look. She could not even think of making fun of him.
He gazed down at her, smiling. Like a fire alarm (she couldn't find a better metaphor at her state of heady haziness), her treacherous little heart drummed clamorously, threatening to burst out of her chest from the sheer noise.
Perfect. She was having the common case of what she had secretly dubbed as her Arrow Allergy, a distressing condition in which she could never be let under his intense scrutiny.
To top it all, she was suffering from all the symptoms simultaneously. Inexplicable fluttering on her stomach, her gut twisting in dozens of complicated knots, check. Her cheeks burning for no good reason, check. Heart seemed to be curiously lodged in unstrategic point between her neck and collarbone hence compromising ability to speech........ check.
"Before you say anything..." she began but her mind suddenly blanked and with no words to say, she was left with the miserable activity of staring at the palms of her hands.
"Yes...?" He prompted when it didn't seem like she was going to speak at all.
"I said don't say anything." she snapped, her tone murderous.
He obediently raised his right hand and mimicked the movement of zipper closing over his mouth.
It was at that moment, The Plan hatched in Eshield's mind. It was a perfect plan. Granted, she didn't have the time to bullet-proof or search for loopholes... She would lie. She would lie very smoothly. She would lie so smoothly that she herself wouldn't be able see through the lie. See, the thing was, Eshield was a pathological liar. Or that could be the lie she had told herself. It was that complicated. Anyways. Lying was a good plan. So long as her voice didn't shake or something.
She cleared her throat.
"Listen. I won't miss you... when you're away. I mean, I won't miss you when you're here too since it defeats the purpose of 'missing' when they are there with you, doesn't it? Of course, when you think about it really hard, what's the purpose of missing someone who is actually gone anyway? It's not like they are there, y'know what I mean?"
Arrow said nothing, simply staring back at her. Did the bastard actually dare to look amused?
"Say something!" Esh demanded, flustered, but then she remembered her previous command for him not to.
"Right," she nodded, "don't say anything just yet."
She heaved a sigh. It was really hard to string together coherent sentences with his very green eyes looking at her like that. She forced her puddle of mind to concentrate on the impromptu speech.
"Bottom line is, I won't miss you, like at all." she laughed nervously as if the very idea was ludicrous. "...I won't ever, ever miss you very, very much..! God forbids, I hope you will never come back home for the holidays too.
If you could just leave me in peace, that will be awesome. Stay in Italy forever and not come back like every two months or like every chance and day offs you can get... And don't tell your boss that you cannot not go back because you have to settle some important matters here. Seriously, don't."
It irritated her that Arrow was still wearing the expression of one who was going to choke for his effort not to burst into laughter.
".... and-and you can eat all that pastas your Italian girlfriend cooks!" she finished a little breathlessly.
For long seconds, there was a pregnant pause.
"Eshi," Arrow said suddenly, taking her two stiff (and to her horror, damp) hands in his.
"What?" she said, more than a little dazed by the heat exuded from their contact. "Which part of that is still unclear?"
"Only one." he said smoothly,"I'm not entirely sure if you really asked me to do the opposite of what you said not to."
She stared at him, and after tens of seconds, was aware that her mouth was hanging open. She closed her mouth. Opened it to talk. Closed again. And finally, mercifully, she regained her voice.
"If by opposite, you mean, don't dare to go home all the time and I don't miss you very much, thank you, then yes, I'm asking, nay, I'm commanding you to do the opposite.... of opposite. You know. Get it?"
"Hmm, I'm not sure. You said opposite a lot."
"You're pushing it, Vane."
"Will you call me sometimes?" He blurted out, throwing the bomb that carelessly and smiled his boyish smile.
For five seconds, she froze. And then, when the meaning of his words had sunk in, she relaxed her muscles just a bit. Well, maybe she really should cut him some slack. She pulled one hand away from his grasp and punched him at the shoulder, really, really hard.
"Ouch! What was that for?"
"Well, do I look like a girl who waste money on international calls to you?"
He laughed.
She laughed, too.
Until they both stopped and the silent tension hung again between them.
And then, just as she thought the silence would never end, ever so slowly, Arrow dipped his head low towards her, making it glaringly obvious of what he was about to do, yet his hands were doing various kinds of protective measures should his advances became unwelcomed. That rendered an unladylike giggle from her.
"I'm not going to knee you."
"You always say that." He said calmly. "Forgive me if I don't buy it this time."
"That was what, fourth grade?"
"Fifth. And the memory of my agony still reverberates back to this day."
She laughed again. "Why are we still talking and not kissing?"
"... I don't know."
"Well, let's remedy that." And she closed the infinitesimal distance between them and kissed him.
As far as kisses went, theirs wasn't slow or romantic. No, that had been eight years too late. Eshield snaked up her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. She dimly wondered what would have happened had they solved their disputes years ago. She thanked the Gods that that had not been the case. She would trade any hormone-driven, sloppy kisses with *this*. This perfect first kiss.
A/N:
Before she realized that I stole her name, Vei is indeed dream-spired from a friend, Wydia Vei. I had this weird dream sequence where we were supposedly taking turn saying goodbye to our friend. I remembered thinking, "Can't this be more like Friends?" (Yes, I pulled a Chandler in said dream). Justin Hartley turned out to be said friend and it got considerably weirder, even for a dream, as I haven't seen Smallville ever since Lex and Lana broke up. This lil' story will be a two-parter, the last half of which will be posted soonish.
Xoxo,
Little Sev.