(Untitled)

[reckless_rebel]

Characters: Dash/Tommy (reckless_rebel ), Ran/Gert (nobodysheroine ), Dino/Chase (fistyguns ) and Chase/Old Lace (velociraptornot )
Date/Time: After this.
Location: The wilderness is a shoe store
Rating: TBA
Summary: Dash goes looking for the "dino thief" who "stole" Chase. The culprit turns out to be... Dino.

Ran, Dash and Dino, together with Chase make one strange set of dysfunction.

Comments

[reckless_rebel]

Dash grinned back at Ran as the girl hugged Chase, happy to see the delighted reunion, secure and warm and fuzzy in a job well done. Well, for about half a second.

Dash was observant, even if he didn't always think on or act on his observations, he noticed things. The way Dino was staring at Ran, and Chase was nudging the girl towards the blond--hadn't Chase been doing that with him earlier? Who knew what went on in the minds of dinosaurs anyway?

It was only for a moment, and he identified the feeling with surprise and displeasure, but he knew it all the same. For some reason he was, just a little, jealous. And it was entirely highly irrational and sort of uncalled for. So what if Dino was looking at Ran all flabbergasted? Anyone was free to make whatever expressions they wanted at a girl cuddling a big lizard with giant teeth. Anyway, he had no claim on Ran, and he suspected getting jealous over some sort of obvious dinosaur-buddies thing was so far on the side of lame it was exiting out the other side.

So with a good sound mental shake, Dash rocked back on his heels, hands slipping into his pockets as he watched the scene play out, moving on past the odd hiccup of emotion to the important part of this whole thing, at least from where he was standing.

"So mission accomplished? Dinosaur rescued? Everything chill?" Dash asked, half grinning as he watched Chase nuzzle at Ran. Jealousy was already fading--it had no place in his vocabulary--but there was still a lingering sense of "unbelonging" like he was intruding on something here. He ignored it.

[nobodysheroine]

Ran made a small uncomfortable face as she let Chase nudge her along. Part of her was rather annoyed. One, because usually her and Chase seemed to have an understanding and now her faithful companion seemed to be having a case of the crazies as was behaving in ways she just couldn't undertand. And two, she was suddenly experiencing what she could only explain as a weird second-hand emotion as she made her reluctant way down the aisle. Something she felt when she looked at the blonde boy, who not stood looking fairly bewildered, or rather, like he'd seen a ghost.

Eventually, Chase laid off so that Ran was standing on a few feet from the both of them. Straightening out her clothes, she looked up at Dash and said, with her eyebrows raised, "Mission accomplished. Dinosaur rescued, but whether or not we've acquired 'chill' status has yet to be determined." She smiled at him, a small private smile. "Thanks." It seemed like she meant to say something more but before she could Chase was prodding at her again, batting the end of her snout against the small of Ran's back, a few short snorts of hot air through the dinosaurs nostrils tickling at her sides. It was enough for Ran to give a small "eep!" and jump sideways, away from Dash until she almost stumbled backwards into Dino. She frowned at Chase and with one of her hands gave her a small reprimanding swat on the nose. "What is with you, girl?" she whispered and Chase merely shook her head back and forth like a finicky horse -- her expression almost sheepish as she took a step back.

Turning, Ran realized that she was standing perhaps closer to the boy Dino than she would have liked; she pulled her shoulder away from him almost defensively as she looked up at him, into his face and then she stopped. And, for some strange reason, Ran found herself easing back towards him, turning to face him properly. "So," she eventually said and she was surprised to hear that her voice had lost a lot of it's edge. Her face also felt kind of flimsy, like all of the muscles couldn't force themselves into the right configuration to look properly angry anymore. "Are you going to give me back my dinosaur or what?"

[fistyguns]

A painful twinge pulled on Dinos air way, he hadn't realize that he had stopped breathing. It wasn't until Dinorap had pushed her into him, his hand catching her elbow, that he finally started to breath again.

He watched as her face softened, mesmerized by all tiny movements in her face, the tightening of her lips, the raising of her eyebrows, the clenching and unclenching over her jaw while she talked. He wanted to reach up and touch her hair, but his arms couldn't move. He looked over at Dinorap, who he could swore rolled her eyes at him, and then looked back at Ran.

"Yo-, uh, I...um, uh." He stuttered several times before actually figuring out what he wanted to say. He closed his eyes and shoke his head, trying to clear his head of confusion. But that was a feat he doubted he'd ever be able to accomplish now. He ran a hand through his blonde hair and opened his eyes again, hearing question replied with the only thing he could think of that was just a plain "No."

"So you final going to say what you've been waiting to tell me?" he said and then added, "Pumpkin-eyes." The words just fell out of his mouth like drool.

[reckless_rebel]

Okay. This? This was officially awkward. With Ran and Dino staring at each other like that Dash's eyebrows just hiked towards his hairline. Pumpkin-eyes had to have sent them up into the air, cartoon style.

Well. That was interesting.

Dash looked away, giving the two a moment's privacy to sort out... Whatever the heck was going on there. His gaze landed on Chase and he gave her a stern look, mouthing "thanks a lot". He was fairly sure she smirked at him, but then it could have been a case of anthropomorphizing.

Dash folded his arms and looked sideways and up, away from Ran and Dino, firmly telling himself that he was in no way jealous and had no reason to be in the first place, and besides all that; were they ever going to stop gazing into each other's eyes?

Okay, they'd had enough time to sort out whatever it was.

With another glare at Chase, Dash coughed a few times into his fist, reminding them that hey, yeah, he was still here.

"Sooo." Yep, smooth ice breaker that one.

[nobodysheroine]

Ran blinked at Dino.

And then blinked again.

She wasn't quite sure which was more baffling, the way the blond boy was staring at her, the way that she was -- why was this happening -- staring back, or the fact that he had just called her 'Pumpkin-eyes' and she had the oddest inkling to say something back about his lips. His lips, which she now found herself suddenly focusing on instead, much to her own frustration. She was still vaguely aware of Dash standing off to one side and slightly behind her, and as much as she wanted to say something, to turn towards him and acknowledge him, Ran found herself physically incapable of doing so, as if every muscle in her body had gone on vacation or perhaps lead a revolt and had forgotten to leave her a friendly reminder. What it felt like -- and this was the strange part -- was as if her body was remembering something her brain clearly didn't and instead of cluing her in had taken it upon itself to just force her into immobility, like it was trying to say very loudly, you're not paying close enough attention, focus, this is important.

"That. That is the--" Ran struggled to find a proper snipe to say to Dino, but instead of anger all that came out was a rambling mess. "I'm not exactly sure what kind of imagery or allusion you're trying to make with the whole 'Pumpkin-eyes' business, but I think your association between orange squash evocative of autumn and a person's eyes is flawed at best if not completely obtuse." She blinked at herself now and shut her mouth, asking herself, did I just say that? "Anyways," she added, trying her best to recover. "I don't know what it is you expect me to say or expect me to want to say other than, give me my dinosaur, buddy. Again."

Ran made an irritated noise in her throat and somewhere behind her, she could hear Chase snap her mouth open and closed several times before letting out a long, drawn out "rrrrr" of annoyance. The dinosaur stalked back and forth for a moment in an oddly indecisive manner before she growled again, this time with more force and then batted her snout against Dash's side, pushing him forward towards the both of them as if to say, you too.

[fistyguns]

Dino glanced at Dash from the corner of his eye, a brief sneer returned to his face, what are trying to do Dinorap? he thought while watching her nudge Dash towards them, he's a douche. Once again he swore Dinorap just rolled her eyes at him.

"No, clearly," he said not entirely sure of where he was going with this. "I'm referring to fact that you've come to tell you'll admit to Dinorap being my dinosaur and not yours." Dino secretly wanted to smack himself in the head, this Ran chick had not only accomplished confusing herself; as far as he could tell, but also was confusing him with this evocative talk.

The tension that was filling up in that short space between was--if you wanted to describe the feeling between Dino and Ran, the appropriate word would be, thick. Emotions that neither realized nor would have understood were forcing themselves into that two feet of space, and if left to long would start to verge on the point of bursting.

It took all his force to pull away from where he stood, his body fighting an inner struggle with himself.

Dino pratically fell to the side, stumbling away from where he stood. He casually ran his fingers through his blonde hair, his eyes closed for a couple of minutes before opening again. He glanced at Ran, she didn't know him, but he knew her. A twinge pulled in his heart, which burshed off as being Chase's feelings. Maybe she had heartburn.

If a person could be telepathically bonked on the head, Dino just was-- by Chase/Dinorap. He glared at Dinorap. "So Dash, I guess you'll be wanting time to fog up this girls glasses," he said turning his body to face Dash. "I guess me and Dinorap will be on our way." He was moving slow as molasses, Dino was well aware he wasn't going to runaway that easy.

[reckless_rebel]

"Oh now you love me?" Dash muttered out of the side of his mouth as Chase nudged him towards Dino and Ran. "Fickle."

"Hi guys." Dash said, cheerfully raising his hand in a silly little wave as Chase gave him one last shove and he was deposited more or less right next to Ran. He grinned, wide and sort of dorky, trying to break whatever the hell mood was weighing on everything. "Fancy meeting you here." He glanced at Ran out of the corners of his eyes, arched an eyebrow questioningly, head tilting just a bit as if to ask are you okay?

It was certainly a weird situation. Ran and Dino had been gazing at each other like that one scene in every movie where the hero and heroine are just about to kiss, and Dash had practically felt the tension from where he had been standing. But nothing had come of it. And Ran's vague rambling had sounded confused, not lovestruck, and Dino sure as heck looked like the situation was baffling him a bit too, the way he nearly fell over pulling away.

Dash had been about to add something else, either witty or dorky, but then Dino had to go and say that. Not that he minded the idea of fogging Ran's glasses, but he and Ran had their understanding for now, and it was the way Dino said it that bugged the hell out of him.

"Dude." Dash's voice went from friendly to hostile in nanoseconds. "Don't be an asshole." He crossed his arms, green eyes narrowing coldly. "Give the girl her dinosaur and we'll leave you and your wheelies to your lonesome."

[nobodysheroine]

Ran was getting tired of this strange buzzing sensation she was experiencing in the empty spaces of her brain and in the bottom of her belly; it was like emotional white noise, and Ran was starting to have trouble keeping it separate from what she was experiencing in the moment. It was already bleeding all over her body language, making her anger sluggish and reluctant; but now it was making her feel guilty and almost sorry as Dino sort of stumbled away from her, like reeling in slow motion. She was about to say something, something like stop or I don't think so or maybe even please, when Dino sniped and Dash sniped back and all Ran could think in response was, Okay, now this is just getting stupid.

Reflexively, she moved one hand to press her fingers into the side of Dash's forearm, urging him back firmly with a slow push that seemed to say, stop it. With her other hand she brandished a finger at Dino, reaching out across the space between them to point it forcefully at his face. "If either of you," and she turned to look at Dash once over her glasses, her brow furrowed and her mouth twisted in a scowling pout, "try to go all alpha male on me right now, I swear to god I'll have her take you to town," her gaze shifted back to Dino, "whether she likes you or not."

She looked at them both, pale eyes moving back and forth between them before turning to Dino, the sharp spike of her anger dissipating as she took another step towards him. "Listen," she said, her voice as even as she could make it. "She's not really my dinosaur and she's not really yours either. She's a dinosaur who just happens to find herself locked in some strange custody battle between two random people." Ran shook her head and threw up her hands for a moment, giving a small sigh. She thought for a moment, thought long and hard, listening for the suggestion of a voice that she seemed to always hear whispering beneath her own inner monologue. It spoke to her and then she looked up again, up into Dino's eyes and the voice inside her seemed to say something important but couldn't manage to understand the words.

"And okay," she eventually continued, her voice and her expression not hard but not really soft either, "so you said that you dreamed about her. And okay, I'll admit it, I didn't. But if she talks to you like you say she does then you should already know that she dreamed about me. And that's got to count for something." She shook her head. "You can't just take her from me, just like..." and Ran hesitated "...just like I can't take her from you."

[fistyguns]

He had been staring at his wheelie shoes for most of her speech, acting like he wasn't listening, when in reality every word and every sound she spoke resounded in his head.

He looked from his shoes, just barely bring his head up and straight at Ran as she said the words "...I can't take her from you." His eyes flicked to Dash's forearm where Ran's hand was resting. If one looked close enough they could have seen a fire flash across Dino's eyes. Dino said nothing, instead he looked up at Dinorap. Silent words passing between them, eventually he nodded and sighed conceding his defeat.

Dino's slumped shoulders straightened themselves out, he raised himself to his full height and looked both Ran and Dash straight in the eye. "Don't worry, it's fine," he said, his tightened to a straight line. He nodded to Dinorap signaling her to come over to him. Her long legs had looming over Dino in mere seconds.

Dino reached one hand up along her shoulder, petting her gently. Dinorap nuzzled her snout into his shoulder, purring as non-menacingly as, well, a velociraptor could. Dino's eye sparkled the way 5 years old might visiting a dinosaur museum for the first time. And like the way a 5 year old playing with his new puppy might, Dino gently laid his own cheek against her scaly one, then gave her the lightest, little kiss he could.

His hands dropped from where they were patting Dinorap, and he turned back to Dash and Ran, "Chase is all your now."

[reckless_rebel]

Dash subsided as Ran touched his arm. He stepped back with the pressure, a sort of symbolic, silent all yours, I concede. He rolled his shoulders in another shrug, stared at Dino over the top of Ran's head and then just... Let it go. The anger had been there, now it was gone, and Dash moved on.

Dash still wasn't sure what the hell was going on, but it seemed to be resolved. Sort of. He got the feeling Dino didn't like him, even though the guy was focusing mainly on Ran and Chase. That didn't really bug Dash, he didn't feel animosity towards Dino, but he didn't exactly need the guy's approval either.

It was sort of interesting to watch Dino treat Chase with similar affection to how Ran treated her. Weird, a little unnerving when put on top of the fact they both shared some connection to the same dinosaur, and especially considering what that scene had been just now. There was definitely something going on there, but now was not the time to ask about it. Especially considering that Dash got the feeling neither of them really knew what it was anyway.

To sum up the situation, Dash would definitely use the word complicated. He expected Ran would probably have another word for it, one he might not even be able to pronounce, because she would of course have a word for everything.

Dash managed to hold his tongue and not comment when Dino turned to them and sort of, relinquished ownership. Anything he might say couldn't really help the situation, and at the moment trying to lighten the mood would probably just be taken as trying to incite something. So he shoved his hands in his pockets and looked away, pretending to be really interested in a pair or ugly rubber boots.

[nobodysheroine]

Ran could feel her mouth frown, small at first, and then deeper as she watched Dino turn away from them. Another strange painful flutter of something rustled inside her, like a skipped heartbeat, as he nodded -- just the smallest of gestures -- and was able to call Chase to him without hesitation. She recognized it, she knew what that was like, because Ran did it all the time herself, almost without having to think about it. It was strange, seeing Dino interact with Chase in a way so familiar and so much like what she saw in herself if she merely too a minute to replay some of their moments together, that Ran couldn't help but shake her head no the minute Dino said the words, "Chase is all yours now."

It felt wrong and terribly unfair and there was something else also, that whisper that followed her everywhere seemed to say something that felt like sadness immediately followed by the sentiment, don't let him. So Ran quickly closed the distance between her and Dino, moving away from Dash's side, still shaking her head -- her expression somewhere between confusion and irritation and disbelief.

And without thinking, once she was close enough, Ran reached out and touched Dino on the arm, almost in a perfect echo of how she'd touched Dash, her fingers reaching for his forearm, sliding against the curve of it inwards until she had a solid grasp on him. And instead of pushing, she tugged -- a firm motion to pull him back towards her as she looked up him with an almost annoyed distress in her eyes. "Why are you being so difficult?" she asked pointedly. "You're not going to fight for her, you're just going to roll over now? She doesn't want that." With one arm she gestured back towards Chase who was no standing a small distance behind them, her head bowed and the ridge of her brow low against the bright red rounds of her eyes.

[fistyguns]

Heat rushed through his body, spreading from the point of contact where Ran and he connected. Dino spun back on his heel as she pulled him. Dino peered down at Ran, who was glowering up at him over her glasses. His eyebrows squeezed together partly in confusion over her sudden gesture and partly over why she was suddenly telling not to back down.

Dino hopped to god he wasn't turning red. He looked at Dash, Dinorap and then back down at Ran, "I thought this was what you wanted?" He wasn't sure how much longer he could stand without pulling away. Her touch made him feel serene but insane, he felt relaxed and agitated, everything all at the same time. But more and more he became antsy, like he would jump out of his skin at any moment.

"I did fight for her, I fought hard." Dino shrugged still confused, he spoke defensively. "But you and your posse didn't listen to what I was saying, you all hounded on me."

"But that's not the point," he said pausing, looking at his shoes "She knows I'm not abandoning her, she knows I'll see her again. And besides, if you're unhappy, she'd be unhappy." He briefly looked at Dash and Dinorap again then back to Ran once again and smirked, "and we wouldn't want that now?"

Awkwardly Dino attempt to slide his arm out of her hands, his elbow hit her cheek.

[reckless_rebel]

Yep. Ugly rubber boots sure were miiiiighty interesting. Dash eavesdropped shamelessly even as he kept himself turned away from the whole scene, arms still crossed in a 'don't mind me' sort of stance.

Still not a point he could interrupt on. Ran was confusing, one minute coming to Dash's side, the next going to Dino's. It was, Dash decided, something he'd ask about later, because obviously there was something going on there, but he sort of felt like a third wheel at the moment. And he'd tacitly, if not explicitly, given Ran a sort of I will not go alpha male here promise by backing off earlier.

Chase made a disgruntled sort of "rrr" that caused Dash to glance over at the two, frowning a little when he noted the proximity and the way they both moved; he'd obviously missed something.

He wanted to comment, but instead he just caught Dino's eye over the top of Ran's head, raised an eyebrow as if to ask Okay, what did I miss buddy?

[nobodysheroine]

"Ow."

Ran clutched at her cheek with a small wince, the soft round above her cheekbone throbbing lightly beneath her fingertips. Her skin felt hot from where Dino's elbow had made blunt and awkward contact, but Ran could tell that her hand did too, as if her brain was suddenly playing catch up with her body again and she was only just starting to realize that she had touched Dino with that hand and, for some reason, her fingers were tingling. Like her hand had inexplicably fallen asleep, only warmer, more concentrated, and not nearly as unpleasant.

"No," she eventually said, her voice disgruntled, pressing her glasses up the bridge of her nose with her free hand and looking at Dino again. "We wouldn't want that." Her bottom lip slid out from under her top in a pouting scowl. "But I don't you wandering off into the sunset thinking you can be a martyr about all this either." Ran paused and dropping her hand away from her face now, exposing the red mark that had blossomed on her cheek. "And I'm sorry if I gave you such a hard time, but thinking that she's running around with somebody else in her head is not the easiest thing to be 'oh okay' over. I mean, it's not like you believed me either, but," and Ran shook her head, "whatever, it's done and I've said I'm sorry and so..."

Ran looked at Dino, somewhat helplessly, as if she wasn't quite sure how to finish her sentence and thought maybe he'd know what came next. There was a nagging feeling she was experiencing now, a strange sense of is that all? that she couldn't quite put to rest. As if their meeting was proving itself to be unsatisfying, but the details -- the hows and the whys and the whos -- were still lost to her.

[fistyguns]

Dino's eyes winced as he say the red mark he had left on her face, "So-sorry." He said, reaching his hand out to her cheek and then quickly bring it back to himself.

"Yeah, I was being a moron. But I didn't know it was you...uh, I mean. I thought, I mean, I thought she was suppose to be with me," he stuttered.

"It's my fault," his voice changed, suddenly more steady and sure. He let his hand fall, purposefully brushing his the back of his fingers across her hand.

He moved away and brought his hand to his face, running his fingers through his hair. "She's yours, she's here to keep you safe." He knew what he was saying and how crazy he probably sounded. But Dinorap should be with her and Dinorap knew that too. Right now seemed, like Ran needed her more than Dino did and it wasn't like Dino and Dinorap were separating forever.

"Uh, well...I'm not sure what to say, clearly just messing stuff up in this place. So, I think it's about time I go." He said, point his thumb behind him. Dino smiled awkwardly and waved to the three he was leaving behind.

[reckless_rebel]

Ow was not a good noise, but Ran didn't look in distress. On the other hand, whatever it was Dash had missed had Ran rubbing her cheek and Dino apologizing. So, probably accident? But still, not cool.

Dash gave up the idea of staying out of their business, moved with his emotions that told him hey man, even if it was an accident he hurt Ran. Not cool. He stepped up to Ran's side, watching Dino without hostility, but without much warmth either. He wasn't going to get all up on the alpha male thing again, but he couldn't approve of anyone that made Ran say ow. Not to mention, when Dash sort of glanced down and to the side there was a slightly painful looking red mark on Ran's cheek. Probably not bad enough to bruise, but still, not cool.

"You okay?" He asked, hunching his shoulders a little as he looked away from Ran to eye Dino some more. "Yeah, uh, see you around man." Personally he was happy enough to let Dino make good his escape. Things were resolved weren't they? What was the point in making them more complicated than they had to be? But then, he supposed, girls were like that. Not that he minded exactly, that was what made Ran interesting. But it was sort of frustrating.