(Untitled)
Someone stalks and tears through the corridors of Castle Salazar in an inconsolable, howling rage. He screeches curses and roars in useless anger as walls are beaten and scratched and furniture is knocked aside or thrown.
Ramon Salazar is on the war path.
Deadpool can do that to a person.
Ramon Salazar is on the war path.
Deadpool can do that to a person.
He sobers eventually, adding, "You may be right, though. Maybe we even spend too much time around one another? Familiarity breeds contempt or whatever the case is." A shrug. "And we just need to talk to other people. Outside opinions or something. I don't know so much about professional help, though, sans anything S can offer us. Our case is just a little too exceptional for just any old marriage councilor to tackle."
His foot bumps into hers, gently, since she's barefoot and he's shoeclad. "I don't know, though. I just wish I knew why this was happening at all. Why there's so much tension between us now, how everything feels like it's hanging by fraying threads, and it's only so long before they snap. Why are we always so angry at one another now? I mean, really, why? I don't dislike or resent you in any way, and I hope the same can be said vice verca. I love you! But for some reason, we seem so eager to lash out, or our patience is so thin.
"I know that your disappearance is sort of what acted as the catalyst, as well as my...delicate state due to it. But just like that time during it, I still don't know what we need to fix this! I don't know what's wrong, and I don't know what to do."
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She bumps his foot back, and twiddles the ring in her palm with her right thumb and forefinger. It shines and flashes and glitters, almost hypnotic.
"I don't think it's 'familiarity breeding contempt', though. I mean, the last three months, we've barely been in the same house together at nights. It's like we're in this horrible long-distance relationship, and only see each other once in a while. And it's just not getting better."
She's quiet for a moment, then plunges on.
"I think it's happening because, well, we don't have any common goals right now. Before, we did. We were together against everything, hiding out and trying to stay alive and safe and together. And now that all that smeg has been solved...we're sort of at loose ends. We don't have much in the way of a project, a goal. You have your pets and your missions, and I have my pub and our business stuff, and never the twain shall meet."
Spin spin spin goes the ring.
"I lash out when I'm frustrated. And I'm incredibly frustrated right now. I need to do something important with you. Otherwise it just feels...wrong. I do love you. So much. But I don't feel very connected with you right now. Not like before."
There's another dark laugh, and she reaches out and takes his hand, finally, leaving the ring resting in her left palm.
"I guess this is my way of saying that we need excitement again. Boredom is killing us."
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"While it's not nearly as exciting as, well, much of anything, one idea kind of ties in nicely with this whole fiasco. And that being furthering that research you'd started on my family tree and history." He smiles a little more when he thinks of the library, and the fact that there's a new bookkeeper there too. He'd been intending to introduce her to him ages ago, but that got derailed momentarily by how she had, you know, been suddenly and unexpectedly struck ill by something in the Nexus.
He'll bring that up later, though, and at least make sure he's with Hips the next time she wanders to the library. No need to unpleasantly surprise both of them with the arrival of a stranger. No, right now? Now is the time they talk only about them.
"Maybe we should at least plan some kind of adventure. Vacation. I don't know. A time where we can do something together, and sort of...get to know one another again."
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The grip on his hand suddenly gets tighter, and then she surges forward toward him. The blanket falls off her shoulders, leaving her totally nude again, and she hugs him fiercely and tightly.
"More than a vacation, Ramon. More than just library work. We need something ongoing and permanent and beautiful and fantastic and us. Building a fortune together. Going sky-diving alternate Tuesdays. Dedicating our lives to Buddhism."
She leans in to his ear, her lips brushing the lobe delicately. "Protecting what's ours. Being married. Raising a family. A goal. A lifetime goal, just for you and me. Something more than just aimless wandering and promises of forever."
Finally, she sits back slightly, puts the ring back on her finger and holds it up in between their faces.
"Ramon, will you marry me? Elope with me? Tonight?"
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"E-Elope? How do you mean? What is it exactly-...? Oh my. Dare I even ask what entirely you have gestating in that blonde head of yours? Or more frightful still, you're still forming it as I speak!"
Ramon's smiling again as he kisses her fingers, then pulls her hand down so he can follow it up with a kiss to her lips as well. It lingers, grows momentarily more fierce, and then he sits back once more. He's feeling as though a fire's been rekindled, both inside him and between them. There's light dancing in his eyes.
"Tell me what you think you have planned, mi amor." It's only after he says those words does he realize how long it's actually been since they've called one or the other by that pet name. So he says it again. "Mi amor, my beloved."
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She kisses his face, below his eyes, the tip of his nose, his cheeks, his forehead, his chin. Her hand interlaces with his again, then her left hand joins in, placing itself crosswise over his chest. Others might place a hand over their lover's heart. Hips, instead, places it over his parasite, and sings.
"I mean that tonight, we go someplace quiet, no questions asked by the locals, apply for a license, find a judge who'll marry us, and we make it official. Tonight, now, as soon as we can PINpoint there. We can have a big shindig ceremony later, with the dress and the flowers and the tux and the nineteen story cake. But tonight we get married."
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"I-...I don't know! I mean, who or what or where could we find such a thing? Someone who wouldn't think twice about who or what we are, would allow outsiders of their world to marry in theirs...A-Assuming, of course, if we do take this to another world entirely. Are you thinking back in London?"
It's exciting; scary, but exciting. He just doesn't hope that, if he agrees to this, it doesn't wind up anti-climactic.
"I mean...You don't want to steal the thunder from our actual wedding day, do you? With the ceremony, et al? Not that I don't disapprove of this notion, and part of me feels like we should stop waiting so long..." He smiles, takes his free hand to run his fingers through her hair, his Plaga singing strongly back to her own.
"How many consummations of our togetherness will we go through, hmm? First those vows we exchanged all those many months ago in the darkness of our bed, now this. Oh, Hippolyta, you marvelous, flighty thing."
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But she can sense his reluctance, and a wry smile plays across her face. She pulls back a bit.
"If you'd rather wait, we can. I just...I'm desperate, Ramon! I'm desperate for something that'll get us back to...balance. Equilibrium, if not happiness. We need to get a goal. Something. Anything. We can't go on like this, and I'm not letting you go. We gotta change this. Now. We know we can, we've done it before. Let's keep going, Ramon. Let's make it happen. Let's have an adventure. Let's go exploring."
She touches his face with her left hand. The platinum ring is already warming up to her skin temperature, even though she's starting to shiver a bit in the cold gallery.
"You heard me. You know what I'm scared of. Don't let me be scared anymore, mi amor."
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"I'll never let you be scared, mi amor. I'll never let this take us again. I love you; no matter what." There's another pause as he leans closer, cupping the side of her face in one hand, kissing her softly.
{We'll go forth, then. Find us a goal, give us a renewed sense of purpose. Our life will never stagnate again, nor will our love. I swear this to you.}
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She curls in even closer, still shivering but not even noticing.
{I love you. I love your family and everything it means to you. I love our life together. I'm sorry Deadpool was a complete jackass, and I won't let it happen again. I love you. Forever and ever.}
Then she sneezes, loudly and shuddering and echoing. Heh.
{...And I'm getting cold. Let's go back to the bedroom and finish this there? In front of a nice fire?}
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{I'd say something about this being what you get for running around the castle naked, but it's not as though I would ever fault you for going nude. And, er, not like the clothes you wore here aren't a little worse for wear after our...er, yes.} He coughs into his fist, looking away in mock innocence.
Then he stands, offering his hand to help her up as well.
{Si, let's take this to my bed. Either to further the discussion of what we do with ourselves from here, or just find solace in one another's company. Either works splendidly for me.}
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A weight seems to lift off her shoulders, and she sighs heavily. Then gasps. And the next thing you know, she's crying again. With deep, gulping sobs, shaking against his legs, as he's standing and she's still seated on the floor.
{Don't ever leave me. Not physically, not emotionally, not any way. Please. I need you, Ramon. I need my friend back. I need my husband back.}
This is the last spasm of her fear, for now. The last gasp of the thought of losing him to stupid, petty bickering and frustration with their boredom. This is, and always has been, her deepest, nastiest fear. Abandonment. Indifference. Hate and anger coming from somebody she loves. And the last few months of putting a lid on that fear has finally broken, leaving her a mess on the floor, in full sight of his ancestors. She almost imagines that they're looking at her with scorn.
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Ramon bends himself to cradle her shoulders and head, his face buried against her hair. Holding her tight to stop her sobs' lurches, cease her trembling.
{I know. I know. I know how much that scares you, mi amor. I won't. I won't ever leave, not of my own accord, and never will I leave forever.} His 'words' are warmer now, pouring his love and comfort into Hippolyta, making the air around them vibrate with the tender emotions he has for her. After so long of either shutting off or ignoring the link forged by their Plaga, it only seems right to renew this bond with nothing but affection.
{I will never forsake you, mi amor. You are mine, and I'll always be here to protect and cherish you. I swear it.}
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Not the fear, just the sorrow at these last, lost few months. Because for her, it's felt like half a year. She was gone for three months, her time, on the Dwarf, and then another three months after that...
Half a year without her darling husband, without the solace and comfort and companionship of the man she near-worships with love. Even though she doesn't show it very well, sometimes.
So she's not very coherent in her answer back. Her voice is gone entirely, and her parasite is trembling and crooning in healing pain. But the emotions flowing off of her now are relief, happiness, satisfaction. And Ramon should be getting an 'earful.'
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{I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry we've been hurting this long and we've never tried to really fix it until now. You're so precious to me; nothing is more valuable than you, Hippolyta. To see you so hurt, so frightened, it hurts me as well. Oh my heart, how you ache and cry. My love, my love, don't cry. I'm here...}
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