daemonized | RECOLLE IC CONTACT.

[Well, there's his answer, then. All of it. It's a bit harder to offer consolation to that, though he can at least offer commiseration instead.]

And all of it rightfully should bother you. I'll not try to convince you otherwise. But...

[He tilts his head at her.]

Know that I'm here to help you sort through these troubles, if you ever need me. There are too many uncertainties between the two of us -- we'd be fools to not utilize each to other to find some mode of comfort.

No matter how many calls at three in the morning it may take.

...Thank you. There's a great comfort even in you saying that.

[some things can't be consoled away. some things she's going to need to learn to live with, but being able to tell someone and say the words not just to the wall is a start. it makes her feel like she made the right choice to message him instead of waiting even longer, and the smile she gives is tired but soft.]

And that you came so I could say it to your face. Don't think it could have happened over the phone - some things I have to say to someone in person, otherwise it's not the same.

I'm at your beck and call. Anytime you need me in person, I'm there.

[If that sounds like an exaggeration, it isn't. He honestly does mean it.]

So that you can tell me all manner of things that might rest in your heart; for both good and ill. Time means nothing in the face of caring for someone else.

[And speaking for caring -- Ardyn briefly takes his phone out of his pocket, and the screen illuminates as he checks the time. He thinks to himself that she needs her rest; she's not like him, able to stay up into the dreadful hours of the night, and seem unaffected the next day.]

I'll stay as long as you want me to, but I would be remiss not to say this at least once -- you should get some rest, Grell. [He slips his phone back into his pocket.] Unless you think sleep will elude you for the rest of the night.

[He wouldn't blame her if it did.]

I can make the attempt, but no promises. The best case scenario is that I read until I fall asleep in the midst of a paragraph.

[and the worst is that she doesn't sleep at all, but she'll handle it somehow if that occurs. there'll be some way to pretend she'll do okay until she can dodge out at the earliest opportunity.]

And you should be getting rest as well. Even if it's your customary nap.

[selfishly, she wants to keep him with her until daybreak, but practically, it's not really an option. he has a brother, and cats, and she can't be too demanding after she's already asked for so much tonight. another time, maybe it won't feel like an impossibility.

the compromise is stepping forward to embrace him, grounding herself a touch more that way. it'll help her sleep, whenever she chooses to go back down and try for it.]

[Not the most satisfactory answer, her only maybe being able to fall asleep, but there's only so much that he can do about that. He doesn't care enough about the state of his own rest to really do more than just wave away her last statement -- both mentally, and with the gesture of a hand.]

The nap is overrated.

[He opens his mouth to say something along the lines of, "Don't worry about me not getting enough rest", because worrying about such a thing is a moot point. He'll sleep when he sleeps, limited thing that it is.

But instead, Grell embraces him, and whatever he was planning on saying dies on his tongue. He returns the sentiment, arms pulling her close, and can't help but instead comment:]

I mean it. You don't have to send me off on account of my sleep.

[What does he have to do in the morning, anyway? Summer time is upon him, and he has more free time than he often knows what to do with.]

You've got...responsibilities. Surely you must.

[not the most elegant reply, but necessary, even as she's holding on. it's summer, and it's midweek, and she could make a thousand excuses to try and detach herself. for his sake, of course. not her own.]

Don't make this so much harder than it is.

But I will.

[How easily he admits to that. Because if she is asking him to leave for his sake, not for hers, then he will make it exceedingly difficult to justify doing so.]

What responsibilities? I don't have class waiting for me in the morning. The house is tended to while I'm gone. What else should I be pulled towards, if not you?

Don't know. I simply assumed.

[there has to be something. there's always something, some reason or other. and yet he's being stubborn about this, and in all honesty she doesn't need too much convincing to give up that plan of attack.

oh, to hell with it.]

If you're serious, would you stay at least until the dawn breaks?

[Something about his expression softens when she asks him to stay. She might even feel the way his shoulders relax; not because of undue tension, but merely because he's glad that she's asked him.]

Yes, I will.

[A chuckle.]

Do you plan on staying out here the entire time, though? [Surely not.]

Yes, I plan to stay out here and let us slowly become uncomfortable for hours on end.

[he agreed. there's a lightness in her heart for it, for deciding to ask and for hearing that answer.]

No, we can go inside.

[even when she has to let go so they can begin making their way down, she's going to hold onto his hand, refusing to let the connection be lost for now.]

[Oh, he knows she's teasing him for having asked that question, and yet don't underestimate the things he would do for her, if she actually required it of him.

And so he doesn't say anything yet, only smiling, gladly taking her hand as she leads him back down. Despite how calm and pleased he seems, there's something rather exciting about this, and he's once again glad that she can't feel his pulse so readily from entwined fingers alone.

He's an adult, he's just keeping her company in the night, there's no need to feel like a giddy teenaged boy. He wonders to himself how many times he's told himself that while in her presence. Far too many.]

And what shall we do to pass the time?

Whatever we like. I'm sure something will come to mind.

[sometimes it's fine to feel that little thrill, like they aren't adults perfectly capable of making their own decision and instead that they stole this time out to be together. there's something about being at this point that gives it that extra edge. if she wasn't as good at controlling some level of her expression, she'd probably be smiling a little more like a fool as they make their way down the stairs with her hand secure in his.

keys to the door she can manage one handed, the same with the lights in the apartment. motions so practiced as to be automatic. which is helpful, when most of her attention is on her companion and not fine motor skills. just until daybreak, she had asked, but she hopes the time decides to run slow.]

Whatever we like?

[He echoes, entering her apartment, his eyes adjusting to the lights flickering on. Hand still in hers, Ardyn circles around in front of Grell, his free hand gesturing (only a little dramatically) at their surroundings.]

So then the night is ours, and therefore the possibilities are endless. [He does allow himself to grin a little like a fool -- though he'd tell you that it was merely one of mirth.]

Entertain ourselves with a movie? Or a quiet night, filled with idle chatter? Or perhaps you'll soon find sleep wanting to visit you earlier than you intended, and I can join you in your bed -- as we once talked about before.

[And for once, despite his track record, Ardyn doesn't say the last bit to embarrass her. It is, frankly, a legitimate option and he's too enthralled with that spark of a thrill to really try to make her blush.]

I'm not tired, you know. But...that doesn't mean it's a bad call to combine ideas.

[she doesn't elaborate further, but leads him instead further in before he has to wait outside a door - "it's only proper", she says, like that's actually an issue here. but her bedroom is her own, and a lady has the right to change in peace before she says it's fine to enter.

her room is as carefully put together as the rest of the house, but still very much hers. the two bookshelves she keeps in here are stuffed with fiction, the nightstand red because of course it is. she's sitting on her bed crosslegged, glasses set to the side as she's working the pins out of her hair - you need a lot, she's found, to keep everything up during summer.]

I figured if we want to talk, I can say I made the passing attempt at sleep if we were sitting in bed. Two birds, one careful application of effort.

[Only proper, indeed. Ardyn looks mildly amused by that, but he'll humor her by waiting patiently on the other side of the closed door, entering only when she announces that she's ready.

He isn't surprised to see that her room is as well put together as the rest of the apartment. (Different than his own inclinations, he thinks; a neat house, with bedroom that perpetually needed a straightening up.) He notes the bookshelves and the books that line them, but in the end, of course his gaze is pulled to her.]

All for the sake of efficiency, hm?

[He crosses just to the other side of the bed, and while he certainly didn't come prepared with clothes suitable for sleeping, he can at least shrug off his extra layers. Which isn't too much, considering it's summer now. The scarf, the jacket, the shoes and socks. All put neatly to the side, leaving him only in dark pants and a loose, button-up shirt.

He'll settle next to her, mattress shifting a bit under his weight.]

I've never seen you without your glasses on.

Because I can barely see you without them. My vision's terrible, I don't mind admitting that. Something has to be quite close before I can find the details, if I don't have these.

[it's only when close that he isn't hazy, known by colors and shapes and sound. she could have contacts, she supposes, but they always seemed unnecessary when she had glasses to serve the same purpose. easier to keep track of, easier to care for.

she pulls another three pins from her hair, feeling for more. there are more she's missing, she knows, there's always the ones that hide.]

So I'm just a talking blur to you now?

[He jokes, even if it might be true. Still, Ardyn looks at her face fondly, having appreciation of getting to see a different side of her that others might not be privy to.

He scoots a little closer, hands reaching up to her hair. From his angle, he can see where a few pins are still left, easily accessed from where he's sitting.]

Here. Let me help you.

[Fingers through her hair, deftly removing stray pins one by one as he finds them.]

A little more than a talking blur, if that consoles you.

[she's still as he takes the remainder of the pins out, knowing when they're gone when her hair falls all the way down out of the bun. there. much better.]

Thank you...sometimes it's such a hassle I think about not putting it up at all. Which do you think is better? Up or down?

[He reaches over to set aside the stray pins on the nightstand, after her hair releases from its bun. As always, he appreciates both the color and the way it falls across her shoulders, obvious by how he reaches out again to lightly run his fingers through a lock or two.]

Both ways suit you. Such is the advantage of being remarkably beautiful.

[He leans forward just enough to catch her in a one-armed embrace, smiling.]

Though if you want my opinion, I think it's particularly attractive when you let it down.

Maybe I'll let it down more often. Just for you, if you wanted that.

[there's something so easy about slipping into this kind of banter. refreshing, after everything heavy that was unloaded, and comforting in a way that has her leaning more into his embrace, caught up in the simplicity of it. the tension bled out earlier, and now they're just...here.]

Do you want to know a secret? A good secret, not the sort sending you running to the hills.

You don't have to do it just for me, but... I'd like that.

[He is at just the right position to rest his chin on her shoulder, contemplating what she could possibly mean, speaking of secrets and the like. A faint lift of an eyebrow, a small little hm at the back of his throat.]

I do. I'll even keep it between the two of us. [As all good secrets should be treated.]

[and then whispered, like it really is all that big a secret:]

I don't hate your hat as much as I pretend to. It's more...habit at this point. But if you got rid of it for good, it'd be weird. Like you made some sacrifice to yourself as a person.

[there. that's the big secret. that's the one he can't breathe to a soul.]

[She doesn't mind the hat? She doesn't actually find it all that offensive, simply because it was basically a part of him, at this point? It's a humorous concession, but also causes something like fondness to swell in his chest. The arm around her draws her even closer into a hug, brief but warm.]

It would be not unlike losing a limb. Or a portion of my very soul.

[And then he releases her, just so he can shift a little to make himself comfortable. Ardyn takes it upon himself to lay on his side, facing her direction, head on one of her pillows.]

So... does that mean I've permission to wear it more often? [He sounds cheeky.]

[his limbs. she laughs at such a statement, and then moves so she can lay facing him, finding it much more comfortable than sitting up.]

I don't think you need my permission to wear it...I'll complain, but now you know. It's all out of habit, with no real emotion.

[idly, she reaches to lay one hand on his face, thumb slowly stroking his cheekbone.]

Your soul can remain intact.

Edited 2017-07-15 23:28 (UTC)

[His grin widens, simply being glad at having made her laugh. Ardyn looks contented, just lying here next to her. He exhales a bit as her hand comes up to his face, and he feels fairly certain that his heart might've skipped a beat -- blasted cliche that he's starting to become in the name of this continually growing affection.]

...This is all very domestic, you know. [In turn, a hand comes up to lightly brush at her wrist. At times, there's something utterly electrifying about her touch.] And I don't mean that in a bad way.

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