Participants:
| Scene Title | Shades of Blue |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Aap kay liye meri muhabbat ko alfaaz byan nahin kar sakte. |
| Date | February 14, 2018 |
Resistance Camp
There is silence in the small, battered tent occupied by the couple, brief murmurs can be heard and the brunette laying curled up next to her partner, eyelids flutter as Izzy cries out softly and squeezes closed eyes tight. "No.."
Easy like a Sunday
But it's, it's real like a Monday
You make peace from all these pieces ah
I don't need to overthink things
A fist curls with the fabric of a light blanket, they don't usually have one or need one with Izzy's body heat. The air in the tent had been a comfortable warmth for most of the time but with the restlessness from the sleeping pyrokinetic it slowly tics up. Uncurling from Shaw's side with a sigh, her back arches and she shudders, "No.. mom.. no. Please.." tears leak from the corners of closed eyes and steam rises to the top of the tent.
Everything's gonna be alright
You're cool and warm like a summer night
You pull me in like some kind of tide
We fall asleep staring at the view
Her left hand that's closer to the tent flap, sparks at first with a brief orange flame until it flickers to life, the faint orange glow illuminating their sleeping forms. "Plea..please.." Izzy begs in her sleep. A burst of light as the tiny flame hovering above her palm flashes and shifts to an electric blue, the flame crackles lightly and slowly sweeps up her arm.. to her shoulder. The tent isn't flameproof and the fabric at the tent flap begins to burn and black smoke begins to fill the small space.
You're holding me while I'm holding you
This moonlights filling up the room, up the room, up the room
"No!!" She roars, stuck in some horrible nightmare.
Years of having slept by Isa’s side have acclimated Shaw to the warmth that naturally radiates from the woman. And it took only weeks apart to solidify the cold pit of alarm that feels like getting punched in the gut, the kind that comes when he’s roused from sleep by abrupt, loud noises and sudden danger. Like the kind that he opens his eyes to, then immediately has to squint at the brightness of the flames and stinging smoke billowing from oiled canvas catching fire.
Shaw gasps, then he coughs after inhaling the smoke. Rolling over and seeing the fire engulfing her hand, he tugs the blanket off of the woman and himself and beats at the end of it to put out the singed end. “Eanqa’! Wake up!” he calls to her, reaching for her shoulder, but then pulling his hand back as it lights with flames. Scrambling back, Shaw looks around wildly.
First at the tent flap that has caught fire, then Isa, then back to their exit. “Izzy, please wake up!” Shaw yelps again, this time using the blanket as a protective barrier when he dives for the dreaming pyrokinetic and roughly shakes her.
She doesn't hear him at first, the flames growing in intensity as her nightmare does the same, there's a flash of her mother's face in her mind's eye, she's looks like her… before the face darkens and cracks and sizzles with smoke. The horrific image coupled with Shaw's rough shaking have Izzy's eyes snapping open and she sits up with a gasp as the blue fire takes over her body and she looks at Shaw with fear in her eyes, "NO!" Mustering what control she can, the right arm goes out and she uses it to grab her man and shove him out of the tent, the flap's flames going out as he sails through. The effort causes Izzy to grit her teeth before she throws her head back and closes her eyes, steadying her breath.
Kaito's training and stick he used to beat her with is not easily forgotten and though it takes a few minutes the blue flames slowly flicker out, the tent all but ruined. Isa has insisted that they keep their packs with Ruiz and Lynette, she almost killed Shaw.
There's a look of horror on her face as she peeks out before coming to stand outside of the tent, holding one arm up and looking down at the ground. People's heads duck out of tents and the yelling of someone can be heard in the distance, telling everyone not to worry. There was a fire drill.
"I'm so.." her shoulders shake as she sobs.
Immediately as flames consume the pyro-woman’s form, Shaw lets go of her to avoid getting burnt. The heat is already intensified to a harsh degree, but he remains there at her side and when she finally wakes from her nightmare to turn and meet his eyes, he looks back with a silent plea. There’s barely any resistance when she grabs him; he’s too surprised.
Thus, flung out from the tent, Shaw barely has the presence of mind to have clung on to the light sheet that he’d been sleeping under. It’s all that protects his modesty from the exposure of the outdoors. But even that, he has to dance and stomp on the edge of sheet which caught sometime in the blaze. He shivers, not with cold but with the rush of adrenaline that comes from a near burnt-to-death experience.
The tent is reduced to a leaning, singed and smoking mess. The shelter is no longer usable as one. But Shaw doesn’t look upset at all. Not when Izzy’s sobs break him out of a distanced spell of thought, and he turns to her. “No, no, shh, it’s okay Eanqa’,” he utters as he opens up the sheet and wraps it along with his arm around her shaking shoulders. “It’s okay, don’t cry. I’m here.” After a little bit, she might note it’s not only her shoulders that are shaking, but his too. Because Shaw is trying very hard not to laugh.
"What.. Shahid that's not funny!!" Izzy looks over at Shaw and swats him in the shoulder hard, "I could have killed you!" Tears glitter in hazel eyes and she holds that horrified expression while Shaw laughs until slowly she starts to smile and look away. He doesn't understand what he's gotten into.
These shades of me
Mixed with shades of you
Bring shades of blue, shades of blue
Where my ocean meets
"How much longer do you think you can deal with my messy ass? Huh?" She's serious as she puts a hand on his chest to push away, regret written all over her face. "What if you don't wake up in time next time?" Folding her arms and looking off to the distance Izzy sets her jaw and cocks her hip to the side, she couldn't be the reason he wasn't well alive anymore.
With the skies of you
Bring shades of blue, shades of blue
"How much longer before I really hurt you too?"
Shaw flinches at the shoulder swat, but he can’t really stop the laugh that escapes him. “But, I…” In Izzy’s mind, he nearly died, but in his, he’s just been tossed out in the night’s cold with naught but a holey bedsheet. And that’s somehow funny.
He’s busy schooling his expression down as she turns and pushes away. He releases her. Fingers play at the edges of the singed sheet covering him at the moment, and he states perfectly steadily, “You won’t.” He sounds incredibly confident in that, as if this were fact rather than possibility.
He takes a small step forward to her, hunching so he can look around and up at her turned face. “You won’t, because I know. You are in control of the fire.” Letting go of the sheet edges, Shaw reaches a hand up to rest on her shoulder, fingers rubbing gently on what might be an invisible patch of dirt. “You are my fire, Eanqa’. Without you, the world is cold.” He shuffles a little closer, hoping her mood improves.
Shahid's words awaken more tears in Isabelle and she tries not to look back at him but as he touches her shoulder she turns and stares down to the ground as well. "I don't feel the same I.. something is awake inside me." Shaw wasn't a precog, none of them could know how badly things could get with Isabelle but did that mean she didn't deserve happiness? The heat in the surrounding air rises and dips to match her emotional rollercoaster and before long she's leaning into Shaw's body and laying her head on his shoulder. "I don't know if it's me controlling the fire or the fucking flames controlling me."
Closing her eyes she breathes him in, beneath the constant smell of smoke and burning was his, it grounded Isa usually and it does again now.
"So what, are we doing this forever?" She whispers.
Bare arms curled around her waist, Shaw sounds unafraid of the woman’s statement that something was awake inside her. Maybe it’s simply a lack of understanding. Maybe it’s acceptance of whatever obstacles are ahead, he has blind faith and confidence of their ability to overcome. But he draws her in tighter as she confides in him. The feeling of lacking control is a familiar one.
As he lays his cheek on her hair, looking at the smoldering ruins of their former tent, he sighs softly, breath wisping against her ear. “Fire is not something you control,” he utters after a moment of silence. “You can only choose… whether or not you give it something to burn.” After that thought, he pulls back slightly, a hand moving to her shoulder and the other reaching to brush the tears from her cheeks.
Her whisper is answered with another sentence that comes to Shaw’s mind, one that flows from him in a deeper, heartfelt sincerity. “Aap kay liye meri muhabbat ko alfaaz byan nahin kar sakte. I will be with you until you grow tired of me, or until we are old as ash.” With that he smiles, a small, shy expression quite typical of the man she knew since their time in the Hub, back in their time.
That thoughtful insight, necessary for Isabelle's day to day life she had begun to notice as their seven years together went by. Closing her eyes to his touch she nods faintly, when he speaks it makes sense to her always even when it didn't really. She knew him, she felt him.
His words make her stop and she grimaces at the ashes comment before the full weight of the statement hits her she looks up at him with widening hazel eyes. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Isabelle can't help but grin slowly and shake her head.
"I'll never grow tired of you." Moving in closer to Shahid it feels like it's decided. "And you'll never be ash." Not because of Isa or her fire, a promise she swears to herself to keep though lingering doubts cloud her mind on if she's even capable of that.
“Words cannot describe my love for you,” translates the man in a soft tone just above a whisper, quiet enough to be meant only for her. Slowly nodding to confirm her realization what he’s proposed, Shaw keeps his dark eyes looking into hers as he leans in to kiss her, a tender but long and lingering expression of what he means to say.
A short distance away, a sharp wolf-whistle cuts the moment as one of the Resistance patrols, having come to investigate the fire, watches the exchange from afar.
“Get a room, you two!” calls one of the men. “Or get some clothes on! It’s fuckin’ cold as balls out here, isn’t it?!”
Shaw breaks off the kiss for a breath. When he notes the whistle and commentary, he sounds more embarrassed as he concurs with the patrolmen. “Maybe, we’ll have to wake up Ruiz and Lynette to get our stuff.” Sorry, fam.
The kiss is held and Isabelle leans into it, vapor and smoke encircling them from the tears freely flowing from her eyes. She could stand in that embrace, enveloped by him forever. She allows herself to fiddle with that notion, "Not for us!" An eternity being warm with him, keeping him warm.
"Not for us." She says more softly just for him.
A wicked smile crosses her lips as she tugs on Shaw's hand, nudging him in the direction beyond the camp. "We can get clothes later." She's been naked this whole time now as well, "Let me show you something."