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Post by Shade on Mar 25, 2012 16:00:48 GMT -5
Shade was still breathing hard, panting when he kissed her and she leant her forehead against his, hands now losely draped across his shoulders, allowing herself a moment to relax. The thought occured to her that it had been a good idea to buy a whole stack of books instead of just one and that nearly made her chuckle. A thought that mostly resulted from her current giddiness.
She glanced around the room, groceries still piled on the table nearby, kitchen pots luckily untouched so far, the knife on the floor somewhere near the patches of cloth that had once been a dark red shirt and a bra. She smirked at that, before giving Gambit a soft kiss on the corner of his lips, drasing back a little to be able to look at him. "I think that made up for the lack of cuddles from yesterday." she said.
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Post by Gambit on Mar 26, 2012 13:50:01 GMT -5
"Oh good," Gambit replied. He zipped his jeans and let Shade get herself together on the counter. "I wonder what the kid's been up to," he said, glancing in the general direction of Connie's room. "She been quiet."
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Post by Shade on Mar 26, 2012 13:56:51 GMT -5
Truth be told, not that Shade was egoistic, but in this particular case she preferred a quiet Connie to one barging into the kitchen. What they had been doing had been rather risky after all. "True that," she said, getting off the counter and getting dressed. "You think we should maybe check on her?"
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Post by Gambit on Mar 26, 2012 14:37:53 GMT -5
"I'll check on 'er," Remy said, pointing at himself. "I wonder what's goin' on." In his understanding, children were supposed to be active and curious little things. Connie was sort of offline - he thought it was strange.
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Post by Shade on Mar 26, 2012 14:43:07 GMT -5
"All right," Shade said, letting a hand run through her hair to straighten it a little. "I guess I could start sorting stuff here, she probably thinks there´ll be food soon." She had no idea whether kids had a fixed concept of that, but Connie seemed to be a girl that seemed very used to certain patterns.
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Post by Gambit on Mar 26, 2012 15:07:25 GMT -5
Gambit nodded and left the kitchen.
Connie was lying in bed, curled up under the blanket. She looked at Gambit when he came into the room and then returned her glance to a blank point in front of her. He crouched down next to the bed. "Ya awright, chere?" he asked with concern. She didn't respond.
He looked around. The stuff that Shade had brought had not made it to this room; it had remained in the living room, untouched, except for one book. And Connie, it seemed, was still wearing her only set of clothes. "Shade bought some PJ's for ya, chere," he said, without reproach, but more like informing the girl of an option she may have overlooked.
Connie didn't react. "Ya hungry? We're gonna 'ave some-" what was it?.. "dinner soon, what are ya feelin' like eatin'?"
None of his baits were accepted. She was withdrawn and blank, and he had no idea how he was supposed to react. Force her into communication? Leave her be? Coerce her into sharing her emotions? Show sympathy, concern, act neutral? He had no idea.
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Post by Shade on Mar 26, 2012 15:19:02 GMT -5
Of the two of them when it came to Cajun food which Gambit had clearly had in mind judging from the items in the grocery bags, Gambit was clearly the better cook, but Shade decided she could try for something else, a desert maybe. Kids liked desert, right?
However, unpacking the groceries, she caught herself unvoluntarily listening for whifs of conversation, not hearing anything. She sighed inwardly. What did this poor kid have to go through, she thought, for a moment even feeling bad for having given herself to some simple, phsyical joy while in the other room there was this tiny, vulnerable girl probably stuck in her own, terrible thoughts. She wished there was something that she could do, but could not come up with anything.
Not to spy but out of curiosity, she stepped into the living room, pausing in the door way and noticing that all the things were still there, so apparently Connie was not in a mood to be distracted. Who could even blame her? She walked into the room, barefoot since she had kicked off her sneakers when coming in earlier, thinking that there were still things in the car but deciding she could always get them later. Instead, she picked the clothes bag and unpacked it, apparently eager on giving her hands something to do she almost tore off the price tags, then reminded herself the girl had not even tried the clothes on yet,.
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Post by Gambit on Mar 26, 2012 15:44:10 GMT -5
Gambit caught the sound of a muffled sniffle and, taking a more attentive look, found that Connie was crying and trying hard not to be noticed at that. He didn't know what to do, but didn't want to leave yet, so he sat down with his back against the bed, and fell silent, lost in his thoughts.
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Post by Shade on Mar 28, 2012 11:55:49 GMT -5
There was something that was very essential to Shade´s character and that was wanting to help people, wanting other people to feel good. And even though she knew that there was probably nothing that she could do right now to make this little girl feel good after what had happened to her, she still felt the urge to try and make it easier. Or, knowing this was not possible, to at least give her the feeling that she was not alone. Probably, Connie felt very alone right now, with two people in this place only one of whom she knew very little of.
She approached the door, Gambit had left the door open, standing in the door frame and looking lost, the expression on her face mirroring her inner conflight between wanting to give them space and wanting to help, her eyes flickering over to Gambit who was sitting next to the bed, on the floor. Maybe it would be better to leave, to give her some space, but her gutt feeling told her different. She would not impose, that felt inappropriate, but maybe it would help at least a little if the girl had the feeling that she was not alone, that these two adults were not just awkward around her but that they genuinely cared. But how the hell did one get that across to a child who had just lost her mother and the home she had grown up in.
Wordlessly, slowly, she walked into the room, sitting down next to Gambit on the floor, crossing her legs, her hand brushing his as she did. It was a gesture that could be interpreted in many ways. As ´I´m here.´ or as ´Tell me if you think I should not be in this room´, but what she genuinely felt in this moment was the need to help this little girl.
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Post by Gambit on Mar 28, 2012 13:17:24 GMT -5
Gambit felt that, in that moment, it was best that he and Connie were left alone. She didn't need extra cheerleading teams in her privacy. With a short shake of his head, he let Shade know they wanted to be left by themselves for now.
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Post by Shade on Mar 28, 2012 13:23:59 GMT -5
Very alert to catch a reaction from any of the two, Shade noticed his shake of the head and nodded, letting her hand slide off his not before giving Gambit´s hand a short squeeze and leaving the room. She didn´t feel a grudge or anything negative for him denying her to help right now, mostly because she herself wasn´t even sure if she could help. Probably not. It was just ... Shade had never been good at feeling helpless.
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Post by Gambit on Mar 28, 2012 14:33:37 GMT -5
Gambit was grateful that she understood. In this situation, she has already done and was doing more than he could have asked of any woman. He knew he was lucky in this respect.
Again, he had to wait until Connie quieted down and, curled up in her blanket, fell asleep. Following more of an instinct than any actual experience, he picked a teddy-bear from one of the untouched bags and put it carefully next to Connie. She could find its company welcome, he thought. Then he stood up and left the room, half-closing the door.
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Post by Shade on Mar 28, 2012 14:41:26 GMT -5
Out of a lack of something to do, Shade had not returned to the kitchen but guessing that Connie was not hungry right now had left the rest of the groceries untouched, abandoning her original plan to prepare some desert and instead was sitting in the living room, her back against the sofa, toes clawed into the fluffy carpet, a book on her legs that she was not really reading.
When he exited the room, she looked up, regarding him a few seconds. "I didn´t want to intrude," she said, keeping her voice low.
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Post by Gambit on Mar 29, 2012 14:38:53 GMT -5
"It's awright," he waved her apology off. "Dese things are pretty unpredictable... never know what is intrudin' an' what isn't." He sighed. "Let's go get somethin' to eat, I'm starved."
He was certain that Connie was, too, but she wouldn't speak up about it, that was for sure.
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Post by Shade on Mar 29, 2012 15:06:21 GMT -5
Shade placed the book aside, not bothering to put it on the table, but just placed it, open pages on the floor, getting up and making her way to the kitchen. "You know it´s just...." she said, raising her hands in a somewhat helpless gesture. "...that I wish there was something I could do, that´s all. I mean.. this has to be so awful for her."
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