Participants:
| Scene Title | Green and Violet |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Magnes puts the important decision in Elaine's hands, because he's sick of being ruled by blue and yellow. |
| Date | May 26 2010 |
Magnes' Apartment (Dorchester Towers)
On this particular day, after feeding the children breakfast, Magnes left later in the morning with Elaine, mostly because electricity is on in some places, and it's been forever since they've had any real privacy. Upon learning that the electricity isn't back on at his place, he's filled with a bit of disappointment, but may as well sit back and enjoy being home for a few hours anyway. "It's dark, and sucks that I can't turn anything on." He's wearing his white winter clothing, all he's taken off are his goggles and scarf, but the building isn't completely freezing, since people are keeping warm in their own way. "But at least we're alone."
"I like the dark anyways." Elaine smiles, simply glad to be 'home'. "But it's really great to be back here. I think I missed it, a lot… I love the Lighthouse and all, but there are people around /all the time/. Kinda stresses me out a little bit after a while."
"Don't worry, we'll be back and living here soon." Magnes sighs, shedding his heavy winter clothing so he's down to just his long leather coat and blue jeans, then sits back on the couch. "So, everything's alright with you? I mean, nothing you wanna talk about?"
Elaine follows suit, settling on the couch with a soft sigh. "Yeah… things are alright, I guess. I'm sorry about the whole.. emotional stuff back there, though. I usually keep stuff like that in. I promise you won't have to deal with an outburst like that again."
"You don't have to promise that sort of thing to me, if you're feeling something then you should tell me. I'd rather see an outburst than you hiding it all." Magnes slips an arm around her shoulders. "Can I ask you a question? What's the difference between what we're doing and being a couple?"
Elaine raises an eyebrow, but nods. "If that's how you want it, I'm okay with that. I'm just used to keeping that sort of thing out of view." She leans her head in against his shoulder. "Well, I suppose a couple goes on more dates, for one. There's a level of commitment that basically says you're really interested in the person and you don't want them seeing someone else… other than that, I guess we're pretty couple-ish."
"I spoke to Sable, and I really gave this a lot of thought. I realized that this is different, I mean, different from when I've liked other girls after Claire. I was always mostly afraid of them hurting me, and, I didn't realize how different this is, we are." Magnes rubs her a few times as if trying to keep her warm in the slightly chilled apartment, then continues. "I realized that in the weeks I've known you, I haven't been worrying about you hurting me, I've been worried about hurting you. I've been avoiding commitment because I'm afraid of failing at keeping that commitment. I'm genuinely afraid that Claire will walk through the door and everything changes. I'm letting fear and anxiety control me."
He raises his other hand to turn her gaze to him, and finally says, "Tell me what you want me to do, what you want me to say right now, and I'll ignore my fears and anxieties and make that choice."
Elaine purses her lips, looking at him for a long moment, her expression fairly neutral. Which, of course, means it's hard to tell quite what she's thinking. "Okay, before I answer, I have one question… do you like what we have?"
"I love what we have, I just don't trust myself to take the next step, to take a risk, because they're your feelings, that's why I'm giving you the choice." Magnes himself has a slight look of worry, though it's hard to tell why… perhaps just a bit of anxiety.
"I figured that was what you'd say." Elaine nods, looking down for a brief second, as if composing herself, before she looks back up at him. "When I met you.. it wasn't at all what I expected. You saved my life in more than one way that day and I'm honestly going to be forever grateful to you for that. But all that shit gave me the opportunity to meet you, and when we did meet, there was something there. I don't even want to say it was a spark, cause when people start talking all romantic and stuff and they always talk about sparks and chemistry, it's always so /explosive/. And that's not what this is. It was.. sort of natural, you know? It /felt/ like home. Like I had somewhere that I could be me and someone I could be me around."
She pauses, her lips curving into a bit of a smile. "I dunno that I'd say love at first sight, cause I don't believe love's like that. It's something that develops and grows. Eventually it works its roots into you until you're surprised to find that you can't uproot it without a freakin' crane." Another grin, though the serious look in her eyes brings back the reality of her words. "You might not trust yourself, and that's okay, but if you stay back from everything dangerous because you might get hurt, then you never get to do anything fun. I love that you're worried that I'll be the one hurt, cause the idea of you trying to protect me from all that is cute, but it's my choice to open myself up to be hurt. If I am, well, that's my fault."
"It's a two-person thing, hurt is. I'm willing to let you hurt me, cause I'd like to see where things go. I'm not expecting anything, no engagement, marriage, white picket fence… cause I don't want to put pressure or expectations on anything. It's a weird, wonderful thing we have… and I like waking up every day wondering what'll happen between us. I love it."
"The Violet Lanterns would be proud." Magnes slides both arms around her waist, then pulls her into his lap so he can be face to face with her without constantly keeping his head turned. Though with her height, she's a bit taller in his lap. "I've had trouble putting what we have in words. I'm not ready to say love, that's opening up a whole can of worms I'm not ready for, but I think I agree with a lot of what you say. Though I guess when we first met was a bit different with me. I saved you, I save people, I guess I don't think about what happens or how they feel after I save them, I didn't really think that it would mean so much to you. And I'm gonna outright admit that I really wanted to sleep with you when we got home, considering I'd hit rock bottom emotionally again, but it was the morning…"
A hand brushes her hair away, letting out a light sigh. "It was the morning I realized you weren't just another girl, when we started talking and getting to know eachother. That's when I started to feel like I wanted to see where I could possibly go with you."
"We did it backwards. And I don't mind that, y'know? It's not like I slept with you out of gratitude for the help or anything, so I don't want to give you that impression. I wanted to sleep with you. Cute guy takes you to his apartment… c'mon, that's /exactly/ what'll end up happening." Elaine offers a half smile. "In any case, you're right.. soon as we started talking, things changed. I had no idea any of this would happen. And all of this is unpredictable and not at all like anything I might have thought it would be…" She leans in a little closer so she can give him a good look in the eyes. "I wanna see where things go. And if you're still hung up on Claire? That's okay. You can stay that way as long as you need… just make sure you let me know when you're over her. A girl likes to know these things."
"I noticed you didn't say 'if' I'm over her." Magnes can't help but grin at that, starting to unzip his long leather coat. "You're confident, I like that…" He leans in, lightly pecking her on the lips before slowly pulling back, then looking her in the eyes. "Alright, I'll be the Hal Jordan to your Carol Ferris and we'll see where this goes."
"You'll get over her eventually." Elaine grins back at him. "And I'm cool with the whole Hal-Carol thing. I just hope we don't have to go through half the crazy stuff they do, hmm? Not that I don't mind a little excitement or anything…"
"Speaking of excitement…" Magnes gets a good grip around her waist, then suddenly they fly from the couch, heading for his room door which flies open so they can enter straight through. "It's been far too long since we've had any privacy."