A change of pace.
After stumbling through the mysterious door that had appeared back in the lab, Connor found the sudden change of scene more than a little disorienting. He had gone from the sterile, white walls and loud clicks of Fred’s lab to an entirely different setting. Still frowning, he took a few steps forward and let the door from the lab close behind him.
( Read more... )
Pale, Connor turned his head away and quickly stepped away from the door, standing in front of the neighboring stall while Cordelia scrambled to cover herself. What the hell was going on? He had to admit that he didn't really mind seeing Cordelia topless, but it was impolite, and she was angry... plus, given the circumstances...
... why were her clothes off?
"What the hell did you do that for?"
"He was attacking you!" Connor thought that much was obvious. Why else would he have staked Spike? Sure, he didn't like Spike -- in fact, Connor was almost positive that he hated the ex-vampire -- but he didn't go around killing people without reason. Well, mostly. He was angry again now, the shock of Cordelia's reaction fading away and replacing itself with confusion.
Shouldn't Cordelia be grateful?
"I just saved your life," he said harshly, folding his arms and letting the remains of the wooden hanger fall to the grown. Scowling, he furrowed his brow and glanced back towards Cordelia's stall. "He would have killed you. That's what vampires do. You should know that, Cordy."
Reply
"Of course he was attacking me!"
Didn't it go without saying that I hadn't had sex in months? That there had been no time, no single men, and no love for me in such a long period of time that I'd started to wonder if I'd lost my looks?
I sighed; Spike was the only male of any kind that had shown an interest in me lately. Now he was just a big pile of dust. I should have known that Angel's son would be the one to do something completely irrational like that.
"I just saved your life. He would have killed you. That's what vampires do. You should know that, Cordy."
Oh crap. He thought Spike had been attacking me in the blood thirsty vampire way. Didn't he know what...
How could the offspring of Angel and Darla have grown up without knowing anything about sex? Honestly, the things I've been forced to read about those two, you'd think they'd have tried claiming that they invented fornication.
"Spike couldn't hurt me, alright? He had a chip in his head that would have protected me from him! And I can't believe you don't know what we were doing!"
Now, how am I supposed to explain to him about--ooh, I've got it.
I pressed the shirt closer against my chest and took a step towards Connor. Angel wouldn't approve my my methods, but it was better than giving the birds and the bees talk.
"How did you feel when you saw me like that? Not with Spike, the part after that."
I don't want to know, but if I can help him figure this out without sounding like a gym teacher, then I'm going to try it.
Reply
What was she talking about? A chip? None of this was making any sense to him. Of course Spike could have hurt her. He was a vampire. That's what vampires did. They hurt people. Indiscriminately, even. How could Cordelia pretend that she hadn't been in danger? Spike had been so close, and she had been so... exposed.
"How did you feel when you saw me like that? Not with Spike, the part after that."
What a question. Connor felt his cheeks beginning to grow warm as he forced himself to look away, a strange feeling rising in his stomach. He didn't want to admit anything about what he'd felt. It had been too strange. Completely foreign. "Um..." he began, fumbling for words. "I, um..."
He shook his head. "I don't wanna say." There. Maybe she'd be satisfied with that answer. Maybe not, but there was a chance that she might not press any further, wasn't there? He really didn't want to answer any questions like that one. It felt way too personal.
Reply
We're getting somewhere. We're not getting somewhere good, but we're getting somewhere. I'm going to try and block out the fact that Angel would kill me for this, and just try and make my point any way I can.
Ugh, this should not be happening. Can't that demon do something good for once and bring Spike back? Each one of us was stranded here for a reason, Spike included.
I'm going to have to work out a deal with that bitch.
"Well...was there anything that it made you want to do?"
Come on, throw me a bone here. I wasn't expecting him to grow up and be the sharpest tool in the shed, but he should have some genetic advantage on animal instinct.
"It's not bad, Connor, it's normal...."
And why am I still walking around like this? Surrounded by clothes, and I haven't taken advantage of the designer labels yet. God, this is the day from hell.
Reply
Normal?
If this was so normal, then why was he getting the distinct feeling that it was not something they were supposed to be talking about? He finally allowed himself to look back at her, then turned the other way and walked towards the far end of the row of stalls. In his opinion, he'd had more than enough "serious talks" for one day. Fred had made sure he met his quota on that one.
"I don't want to talk about this," he said firmly, keeping his back turned to Cordelia. "We're not talking about it. I saved your life, that's it," he went on, though he was finally beginning to realize that Spike hadn't been so much attacking Cordelia as... something else. He wasn't about to admit that he was wrong. He hated admitting that he was wrong. "End of story. Now be grateful or don't. If I interrupted something..."
He trailed off for a moment, frowning and knitting his dark eyebrows together. "... then sorry. How was I supposed to know?"
He might have started to feel guilty if he wasn't positive that Spike was evil incarnate.
Reply
How can he not get it? After that, and the reaction that I know he had, how the heck can he be so dense?!
"Fine."
Angel's son; the first teenage boy who refuses to talk about sex. That really must have been some hell dimension that he grew up in, in really did a number on the poor kid.
I'd ask him about it, because I do want to know what it was like. I'm concerned, and I'm curious, but I don't want to upset him. If he wants to open up to me, he can do it on his own time. But, maybe it's not fair of me to treat him like he's an average teenage boy when that's the one thing that I'm sure he's not.
Connor's special, even if killing Spike was more special ed than heroic.
"End of story. Now be grateful or don't. If I interrupted something... then sorry. How was I supposed to know?"
You could have stopped and realized they were happy noises, and not sad ones?
Whatever, at least I know he's not a total moron.
"You really had no idea what was going on?"
I'm pushing, but...it's a little mind-boggling.
Reply
She just didn't want to let it rest.
"I thought I already made that pretty clear," Connor said sourly, his voice taking on a foul tone. He crossed his arms and took a few steps forward, just to put a little more distance between Cordelia and himself. This was not turning out to be his best day ever. Cordelia didn't seem to be happy with simply having her questions answered. She kept rehashing things, like she wouldn't be completely satisfied until Connor was completely humiliated.
It had been a mistake.
He was really starting to hate this day. It had all started the moment he made the decision to shut Angel in that box. Justine hadn't even been there to help him do it, like she promised she would be. Connor grimaced and fixed his eyes on his feet. Justine. Just another person he could add to the Untrusthworthy List. Then he'd just been plucked right off the beach by that purple demon, and brought to this... this place. This place where he didn't know anyone. No... he knew people. They just didn't know him.
Was this really going to be "home" now?
He sighed out loud. "So I'm an idiot. Are you happy now?"
Reply
'Pretty' before. Now it's crystal. Someone wasn't too concerned with teaching this kid about the real world. Birds and bees and babies, you would just assume that teenagers would know. So what if Connor didn't come from a place where he had television and video games to ruin his mind, human nature could have done it for him.
Hadn't he ever seen a hot girl before?
"So I'm an idiot. Are you happy now?"
Great, now I get to deal with Angel's bitter offspring, and I have no one to blame for it but myself. Could he be a little more mad at the world? Someone must have burned him pretty bad, and now I know it wasn't a girl.
Unless...no, Angel's son couldn't be gay. That would defy everything about the world we know to be true.
"Hey, I did not call you an idiot, I wouldn't. I'm just having a hard time figuring you out, kiddo. You might remember me from your other world, but I didn't make it that far into the future, or the past, whatever. I'm sorry if I made you feel stupid, but if it helps, I feel kinda dumb too."
Reply
Connor was beginning to realized that Cordelia was in a similar situation to Fred. At first, he thought she might be different. She had seemed to know who he was, though she'd been lacking a lot of the details. She remembered him as a baby. She recognized him as Angel's son. He'd thought, maybe even hoped that she might know a little more... then he wouldn't have felt so alone. But no. She was like Fred. She didn't know anything about him or where he came from.
He knew it wouldn't be long before he was expected to start explaining things again.
"I don't like it here," he said out loud, talking to himself as much as Cordelia. On that note, he couldn't think of any place that he'd been that he particularly liked. This island might have been the best of the bunch, even. Not like that was saying a whole lot.
"I don't know anyone. I'm tired of going from place to place where noone knows me. I'm tired of just not knowing anything." He sighed. Hopefully Fred would find a way to get everyone back where they belonged soon. Los Angeles might not have been much better than the island, but at least there, he had something of a plan. He had Justine. He had his vengeance. For a little while longer, at least, he would have Fred and Gunn until he figured out what to do with them. After that... well, he didn't know what would come next, but he was sure it was better than being stranged on some strange island with a bunch of even stranger people.
Reply
"You think you're the only one who feels that way?"
Excuse me if I'm being a little rough on Angel's son, but this poor me act is starting to get old. He made a mistake, I apologized for giving him a hard time about it. I was the one who had to suffer for his lack of knowledge regarding the birds and the bees, but I also was mature enough to let it go. I'm trying to be nice to him, and I want to give Connor a chance to have a friend here. However, he's making it harder than it has to be.
"We're all stuck here Connor, and none of us know why. Either you can keep whining about it, or you can be my friend."
Maybe where he comes from, we're already friends. Or maybe he hates me, and that's why he's acting like he has a stick up his ass. Either way, our old lives won't matter to us until we're back in them. We could be stuck here for a day, or for eternity, and just in case it's eternity, he might want to work on his people skills.
Reply
"No," Connor admitted, "We're all strangers here." At least they all had something in common. He liked to think that he was justified in feeling so alone, and to a certain point, he knew that he was, but those sentiments didn't hold quite as much water here, and Cordelia had called him on it. They were all in the same boat now.
"We're all stuck here Connor, and none of us know why. Either you can keep whining about it, or you can be my friend."
"You want me to be your friend?"
The Cordelia he knew... well, he didn't know very well at all. They had met very briefly after he left Quor'toth. He distinctly remembered holding a knife to her throat, but she hadn't panicked. She took hold of him and... well, she did something. Even now, he couldn't exactly place what she'd done. All he knew was that things were different now. A lot of the rage and the madness he'd felt then had subsided, and he was able to think and see a little more clearly than he had before. He and that Cordelia weren't exactly friends, but she had been kind to him. She had helped him. She was the only one who didn't return the thorny attitude he had given everyone else. He knew he probably deserved to be treated like an outsider -- he'd certainly been asking for it with his behavior -- but the fact that Cordelia had continued to be nice to him stood out. He thought that must say a lot about her. If he knew a little more about the human nature, he might be able to figure out exactly what.
But this Cordelia? He didn't think he'd done anything to merit friendship.
"... I'd like that."
Reply
Didn't he hear doesn't keep up his whiny woe-is-me act. It's severely dull, and this place is already boring enough for me. I'm used to fighting demons, not basking in the sun at a tropical resort.
I have no right to complain about being here.
Despite the fact that the multi-colored fashion fiasco is after us, this place isn't so bad. There's the sun, the five star resort; it's pretty here. If certain evil people would get their own island, I'd enjoy it a lot more, but all things considered, I've been trapped in worse places than this. Maybe they'll make me ruler.
"... I'd like that."
"Okay."
Angel's son is going to be my friend. The one whose diapers I'd still be changing if we didn't both happen to be stuck here. I guess stranger things have happened, especially in my world. Probably in his two.
"Would it kill you to smile a little?"
Maybe I'm pushing it, but the kid needs to cheer up a little. This isn't the end of the world, its like..the Bahamas.
Reply
Despite his bad attitude, he had managed to befriend both Fred and Cordelia now... sort of. Maybe the island wasn't so bad after all. Even with everything that had happened since that demon had dumped him in the sand, he was doing better than he had been back in Los Angeles. It went without saying that this place was an improvement over Quor'toth.
"Would it kill you to smile a little?"
"I guess not." He forced a small, tight smile, and was a little surprised when he found that it came easier than he'd expected. He wondered if it looked unnatural on him. Maybe it was a little easier to be happy when you weren't focusing all of your energy into hating everyone.
"That better?"
Reply
"Much. You should do it more often."
I smiled back at him to show Connor that I could do the same.
Gee, I wonder who else I've advised to look more optimistic. The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree; it's not coincidence that they both happen to have equally nice smiles. Connor looks like he could be a heartbreaker if he set his mind to it. There aren't many hearts capable of being broken around here, but I'm sure we could find him some island hottie. We're probably not alone here. There has to be a Gilligan or a Maryanne around somewhere.
"I'm going to get dressed now."
Which means that he has to either turn around or leave the room. I'm not concerned about him trying to sneak a peak, he already saw the twin queens, and Connor was embarrassed enough to know that he has to look away next time.
Reply
"Oh... right."
That was probably a good idea. Since they'd started talking, Connor had forgotten that Cordelia still lacked... proper clothing. He hadn't really been paying attention to her clothing itself. He'd been more focused on what they'd both been saying, and what he saw before she had gone and covered herself up.
Doing what he figured must be the normal thing to do, he turned his back to her again, folding his arms over his chest and fixing his gaze on the opposite wall. "I won't look," he promised, just in case she had any doubts. Now that he knew being seen without clothes was something other people seemed to be embarrassed about... he thought it might be best to check and make sure he was following all of these new and confusing social guidelines correctly.
"Unless you just want me to leave?"
That was always an option, too. He didn't particularly want to leave, but thought he should ask.
Reply
"I know."
The kid's embarrassed enough from the looking he did the first time. He's also discoved sex, which is overwhelming enough when you first figure it out. He won't look, he's probably too afraid to.
"Unless you just want me to leave?"
"You keep your eyes directed at something other than me, and we're good."
I started sorting through the clothes to see if I could find something decent to wear. Spike, dusted lustbunny extraordinare, ruined my bikini top before Connor staked him. I didn't mind at the time, but now I'm more than half-naked and sexually frustrated. I mind plenty when the results don't work in my favor. I haven't been 'favored' in at least...
I'm not going to think about that. If I think about it, I'm going to lose my mind.
I found a black bikini in my size and changed into it. Deciding that it might be a little too much for Connor to take, I threw a red tube-dress over it. For a deserted island, the clothing selection was practically to die for.
"You can look now. Feel free to compliment."
Reply
Leave a comment