Closed RP: Jaime and Lola and a Talk.

[nicknamegirl]

((Backdated to Valentine’s Day.))

Right. Busying herself and talking to Gatsby, to try and keep her mind away from Jaime and the Impending Talk, had only worked so-so. Fine. Lola knew she couldn’t avoid it forever. And besides, she had missed Jaime a lot during her mission. Part of her couldn’t wait to see him. So. She went up to her own room,

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[bantersucks]

Lola had interesting timing, to say the least. Jaime was just getting back into his room when she knocked - that is, coming in through the window. He'd been out flying to clear his head and just for the excuse to go out flying. Rural wizarding Scotland wasn't exactly teeming with superpowered crazy, so aside from helping put out a fire and some ensuing awkwardness it had been a pretty uneventful trip. (Luckily, the wizards whose house was ablaze had the sense to realize that no Dark creature would stop to help get people out of a burning building.)

So he was perched on the windowsill when he heard the knock, and trying to carefully step down to the floor when the Scarab informed him that Lola was on the other side of the door.

Which was why Lola might hear a "Wha-" and then a heavy thud. "Thanks for the warning, man. Smooth. Real smooth." This was followed by some scuffling and the sound of a chair scraping across the floor as he righted it and himself, as well as picked up the books he'd knocked off his desk. Footsteps approached

[nicknamegirl]

Lola waited. And listened. Somewhere between the mumblings and the thuds on the other side of the door, her smile stopped being anxious and instead turned completely genuine. She glanced down, spotted the blue glow, and puzzle pieces came together in her mind. He'd been transformed. Was there are particular reason for that? She hoped he was okay. It didn't sound like he was in pain or anything, but you never knew...

The door opened. And there was Jaime. He looked... fine. Apart from the steam. Yeah, she would have to ask about that. The breeze coming in from the window was another sign of him having just been out... Good thing she'd arrived when she had, then, or she'd have missed him and spent some more time being ridiculously nervous about this conversation.

"Well spotted," she said, with slight amusement glittering in the corner of her eye. Then she lowered her voice and murmured, "Good flying weather, is it?"

[bantersucks]

Jaime was just relieved he hadn't opened the door suited up. That would have made things even more awkward.

"Huh?" Hello, wide open window. "Oh. Yeah. I kinda had trouble with the landing part," he admitted with an embarrassed smile, rubbing the back of his neck and trying not to stare at Lola. Jaime had never quite understood the phrase "sight for sore eyes" until now. He was nervous as hell and simultaneously really happy to see her; it was a weird feeling, to say the least.

He remembered his manners and opened the door wider, stepping back so she could enter. "You, uh, you want to come in?"

[nicknamegirl]

Lola grinned. It broke the tension a little. "It happens," she said diplomatically. Even angels had problems getting used to their wings. Lola had stopped counting all the times she'd fallen on her bum during training.

"Yeah, thanks." There was definitely something grateful in her voice. It felt like she hadn't been sitting down properly for days. Azhar had moved around a lot. She went inside, ignoring her fluttering heart, and turned around quickly to look at him. She was keenly aware that they hadn't kissed yet. Or hugged. Or... anything, really. Gah. It was frustrating, to not be sure how to approach him, and be thrilled to be back and completely dreading the situation at the same time. Still, there was one thing that she had to know before anything else.

"Um... How long was I gone?" she asked. "Hogwarts-time, I mean." Please don't say three months.

[bantersucks]

Jaime could relate. "Don't I know it." Seemed like forever before he'd finally figured out how to hover. He shut the door and hurried to close the window, kneeling on his bed to reach the latch. The Cuddlewrap Lola had given him for Christmas was draped over the bed.

As a rule, his room was generally pretty clean, and today was no exception. This was not the case for his desk, which still bore the evidence of the temporary research insanity he'd gone through. You couldn't see the surface of the desk beneath the stacks of books and notes on it. There were a couple of photos tacked up on the bulletin board above it - mostly ones he'd taken with the camera she'd given him. Somehow, the small framed photo on the desk was untouched by the chaos

[nicknamegirl]

Lola wasn't mad. Or hurt, really. Heck, she hadn't realised she'd said anything close to "I love you" until about four days into her mission, when it had hit her like a ton of bricks and she had smacked her forehead repeatedly. Stupid angelic truth-telling compulsion! She had tried not to obsess too much about it, or what Jaime was thinking now, or anything that would jeopardise the mission. Sometimes it had worked, but when things had been quiet, and Azhar had been asleep, she hadn't been able to stop going through it over and over in her head. She'd definitely said it. She'd been in a hurry, not to mention worried about Mel and Brice as well as her own task, and she'd... wanted him to know. Just in case she was gone longer than expected. The fact that Jaime hadn't said it back was... fine. Because yeah, the stress thing. And he'd gotten it thrown at him pretty unexpectedly. So, not hurt. Just incredibly nervous, and not knowing what to say or do to make that feeling go away. The look on his face wasn't helping much, and she bit her

[bantersucks]

Not being a mind-reader (and being generally clueless sometimes), Jaime didn't know that. It had taken him a few minutes to realize what she'd said, and thus had frozen up like an idiot and spent a week freaking out about it. Not exactly the best reaction to leave her with.

He did take the hint when she touched his hand, though, and reached over to take her hand in his. "Yeah, I was kinda trying to look up stuff on that," he said to fill the silence. "The weird time thing." Distractions aside, it looked like he'd had the right idea. Still no clue if he could do anything with it.

Small talk wasn't helping his nerves. "I'm really sorry," he blurted out suddenly. "For, you know, not saying anything when you took off." Well, that didn't make total sense, but it was a start.

[nicknamegirl]

Good. Hand-holding was good. Miles better than not touching at all, and it was kind of comforting, too. Holding hands with Jaime always felt... safe, somehow.

She opened her mouth to ask if he'd found out something about the time thing, but then he dropped the small talk and went straight for the matter that she'd known they'd have to discuss sooner or later. Apparently it was being discussed right now. O-kay.

"Oh, it's alright!" said Lola quickly. "I mean, I was stressed and I might not have heard you anyway, and I'm sorry if I, um, freaked you out. With saying what I said. It just sort of... came out." Cue the blushing... now.

[bantersucks]

Okay, maybe he could have eased into that. If he was someone else. Who was actually good at being subtle. Hadn't he rehearsed something that sounded better than that? He didn't remember.

Jaime blinked, taken aback by the apology. That wasn't in the script that he'd mostly forgotten. "Um. You don't have to - I mean -" He shook his head, trying to put his thoughts in order. He'd had long enough to get this to come out right.

"I guess... I started thinking about stuff that I'd been trying not to think about. Like that you're an angel, and I'm, well, not." Before she could add anything to that, he barreled on. "Like what would happen if I had to go home and you went back to Heaven and we couldn't come back. Checked the Popcorn Room once or twice - hey, the last person I knew who had to leave in a hurry wound up there, after all."

He studied their clasped hands for a moment before looking up at her again. "That's what kinda freaked me out. 'Cause - I love you too."

What? He sucked at small talk anyway.

[nicknamegirl]

Lola listened. She did open her mouth to say something when the angel issue came up, but it was quickly shut again when he said the four words that she so had hoped would come. And then her face lit up like a beacon. She almost started dancing

[bantersucks]

Jaime had noticed Lola opening her mouth to say something, which was why he'd hurried on before she could stop him and he'd completely lose his nerve or get distracted and say the wrong thing

[nicknamegirl]

Slowly the room filled up with sunshine. Or at least that's what it felt like, to Lola. If she wasn't careful, she was going to start floating. And awww, Jaime was blushing... Why was it always so cute when guys did that?

"Good thing I like you anyway," she mumbled happily, in this moment not caring about Scarabs or angels or even Heaven.

She nooded faintly, sighing in contentment and blowing hot air against his neck. "Later's good... Hey, you know what?" Lola shuffled a bit, sitting up and kneeling on the bed, turned completely towards him. All traces of nervousness were gone now, as if they'd never been there at all. "If I've been gone for ten days... That means today's Valentine's Day." Very interesting information. A good day to first say "I love you."

((Totally fine! Sorry this tag took me ages. School ate me up and spat me out. >.< ))

[bantersucks]

((Okay, now it's my turn to apologize - researching technical paper topics does not lend itself well to tagging. Lola can ask about "the deal," it's just something silly.))

Sunshine? Well, it felt a lot warmer than it had ten minutes ago, and that had very little to do with closing the window. Jaime blinked and managed a soft laugh. "Lucky for me." There was no trace of sarcasm in that statement whatsoever.

As the warm weight left his shoulder, he looked up, confused, relaxing when she didn't try to pull away. "Are you sure? I -" He paused, listening. "Wait, how do you know about Valentine's Day?" Obviously, he wasn't asking Lola. "From the Internet - okay, that's enough, I don't want to know the details. We had a deal. Don't share."

Jaime shook his head, looking sheepish. "I totally forgot," he admitted. "If I knew you'd be back today... probably would've done more than this." And been even more nervous, probably, so maybe being forgetful worked for him in this case.

[nicknamegirl]

Lola looked on with interest as Jaime spoke to the Scarab. She was rather amused. It was strange, really, how quickly she had gotten used to Jaime talking to someone she couldn't see, but really, how was the Scarab's voice any different from that of Lola's inner angel, which advised her when she was being human and uncertain about what she was doing? ...Okay, so there were a few obvious differences between an inner angel and a piece of alien tech. But it was the same basic principle, anyway.

"That's alright," she grinned. "I wasn't really aware of the date anyway... And trust me." She planted a kiss on his cheek. "You did plenty." Him saying he loved her? Best Valentine's present ever.

She twined a strand of her hair between her fingers, and smiled a bit. "So, what deal do you two have? If you don't mind me asking." Hey, he'd said it out loud, and she was curious.

[bantersucks]

The main difference was that the advice, more often than not, wasn't that helpful. Even though it had eased off the "ack it's a threat kill it" tendencies, it still didn't get a lot of important things. Like individuality, love, sex, pacifism, or personal space. But when its advice made sense, that was usually a sign that he'd been missing the obvious. It knew that Lola made Jaime happy, and that was enough

[nicknamegirl]

Lola pondered this. "About a week, I think," she finally replied. "It's hard to tell when you're constantly travelling and looking after someone else all the time. But yeah, I'd say a week." Plenty of time to miss him, anyway. Which she had, like crazy.

She listened to Jaime's explanation and grinned widely, and just a tad wickedly. "I understand, babe. I kind of was that little kid, actually. Once." That that been her prerogative as the baby sister. She had developed a knack for finding out the most embarrassing questions to ask, too, and which brother would find it the most awkward to answer it, and when was the appropriate time to ask. In public was always fun. There had been one period in time when Alejandro, who had been 14 when Lola was at her worst, had refused to go anywhere with her. Good times.

Lola paused, pushing away a silly mental image of the Scarab clicking around, visiting forums and reading bizarre fanfiction, and blushed a little when she thought of what else existed online. Ahem, yeah... Focusing on other things