[Completed]
WHO: John Connor and Claire Bennet
WHAT: He's walking around and obnoxiously weird girl bumps into him XD
WHERE: Wandering around the market. No specific spot.
WHEN: Mid-afternoon.
John shoved his hands into his pockets and keeping his head down made his way through the over crowded market. His mother's rules, that he had once said were etched behind ( Read more... )
Well, it was just one of those things that was a bit hard to miss.
Almost instantly she let go of him again, as if his own shock and abrasion to the fact had made reluctant to keep touching him a second too long-- afraid to be frowned upon or upset him...
Too insecure, too needy for approval, afraid to do any wrong--
Nervously, she worried her lower lip. This was exactly why she was wearing local clothes now instead of her own.
"John," she said, tasting the name on her tongue. "Ah-- um." She flushed brightly, swallowing-- it was that same striking resemblance that had her blushing in addition to the interesting circumstances of their sudden and unexpected meeting. She couldn't help but be a bit instantly and unexpectedly taken with the boy that looked exactly like Zach, and she had to admit that it was at least a bit disappointing that he wasn't Zach, that he was John--
"Talking... uh, yeah. I'm Claire. I'm really sorry, you just--" wincing, she gave him a wry smile. "Never mind. Claire. Yes. Sorry. I don't always bump into people, ah, that is--" LIE, "nice to meet you."
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But this...was so far out of his comfort zone, it was a little ridiculous. How was he supposed to look her in the eye and act like he hadn't just grabbed her really inappropriately? Well, sure it was an accident, but that didn't exactly make it okay...It didn't even help that she was just as embaressed as he was.
"It's okay...I..." He offered a sheepish smile. "I'm really sorry, about you know, that." He offered her his hand, to shake, for a proper meeting. A little belated perhaps.
"Nice to meet you too..I...Do you know your way around?" So his concept of small talk was a little skewed.
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She smiled, nodding and shaking his hand. He didn't have to be riveting or even particularly charming as long as he gave her something familiar in one way or another.
And he did.
Even if his name was John, he looked almost exactly like Zach and did one hell of an impression of him.
Claire wasn't about to question the miracle.
"Oh! It's totally fine," she brushed off, blushing again.
Not embarrassed. More so... endeared.
"I... uh, no, I don't, I'm sorry," she said, wincing. "I'm not exactly familiar with this place either. I'm from Texas-- well, I was last in New York, but... yeah. I don't know this place. I've just been looking around-- um, my uncle and I took a place, though, if you'd like to be around friendly... familiar... ah, human faces? We're from 2006... I guess I should mention that."
If Peter was allowed to bring friends home, so was she, dammit.
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"It's alright...I just really...I'm starving." He admitted, his tone a little sheepish. John wasn't used to talking around things that he wanted or needed, with the kind of lifestyle he had, he just didn't have to time to drag things out. Also because of it, he felt like blurting out that he needed food or he'd have an immediate medical problem on his hands, in a crowded square, with people he'd never seen before in his life, wasn't the smartest thing he could be doing.
"Texas huh? I don't think I've ever been there. I'm from Los Angeles." Well, not originally, he didn't think. Once you moved around enough times, all the places just sort of blurred together. He'd been in Los Angeles for all of six days before he'd come here, so it wasn't really a lie, either.
"....2006?" His eyebrow's arched high on his forehead. He didn't really think this was anything like time travel, which was a concept he was familiar with. She made it sound like, she'd run into quite a few people from all over the place. "I'm from 2007. Sort of."
He rubbed the back of his neck once again and considered the offer now in full. "Sure, that'd be great." Probably not his most logical move, but he couldn't sleep outside, and he wasn't quite sure how accomidations worked, and he'd rather stop in at her place, than end up with one of those people that looked like they'd stepped out of the Twilight Zone.
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"Oh! Oh-- well, here--" she said, grabbing hold of his hand and trying to make her way through the crowded streets without losing him.
Finally reaching the bakery, she stepped inside and smiled at the man behind the counter. "I'm really sorry, could I have like... a roll... or a loaf of bread, or... something... please?" she stammered, and the man wordlessly handed her a pretzel, which she promptly handed to John before pulling him out of the place once more, only throwing a thank you so much! over her shoulder.
The streets were incredibly busy, and she didn't stop in her fervor, walking with him in tow, until she reached the building where Peter and her were staying in, opening the door and pulling him inside.
Peter wasn't home-- that was a good thing. She knew for a fact that if he knew she was dragging boys inside...
Oh well. Hospitality came first.
"Okay. Wow. Phew. That's... um, really busy outside. Okay. You can have a seat and I'll get you something to drink... ah... water, I guess-- yeah, I'll get water. And I think Peter brought home a ham... if you want a slice... maybe?" she babbled somewhat incoherently as she walked backwards and into their kitchen, pouring a glass of water.
She kept talking as she cut him a slice and grabbed an apple from the fruit basket, calling back to where he was. "I said sort of because I was about an hour ahead of him. What's weird is that he remembers me being there... after I know I left. Disappeared from New York, I mean. I met someone who was from 1888, so I guess that makes sense?"
Walking back to where he was, she held out both the glass and the plate with a small smile.
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He took the pretzel with mild relief, it was a food he enjoyed very much, and the slightly dizzyness that he'd shoved to the back of his mind, would hopefully ease after a food and a lot of water. And now with a place to rest at, even if only temporarily. When she dragged him out of the store though, he blinked at her and turned back to stare at the shop keeper who was just letting them go. "Don't we have to pay for that..?"
Not that he had any money on him, from his time or whatever the this place was, and not that he really was unused to stealing...but...that was just...bizarre.
John tried to remind himself to eat slowly, not only because if she made an unexpected sharp turn, he could choke himself, but he wasn't looking forward to making hismelf sick if he wasn't careful. He stepped inside her temporary home and looked around interested. It looked...well, it looked any regular home.
There was a kitchen, which he was being led to, a living room, doors that led to bedrooms, or an indoor bathroom respectively, which just made his head spin a little in confusion. They had progressed to electricity and indoor bathrooms, and yet they still dressed and traveled like they'd just invented the wheel?
"It's...nice." He offered, having been thoroughly dragged out of his contemplation by the fact that she'd stopped talking long enough to gain his opinion on something, and he'd said the first thing that sounded like it made sense to stall until he could recall what she'd been saying while he'd been paying attention to well, not her. Which was, more than just a little rude.
"Sorry. Um...water! Water sounds nice thanks, and um, yeah, ham is...I like it." This was just..awful. He ducked his head self conciously, she'd been really sweet in offering him her home for the moment, and he'd gone and botched it up. Apparantly, he was very good at doing that around her.
He took the offered plate and glass of water with an equally tiny smile. "Thank you...This...Doesn't make any sense. How can we be from two different years, but be here at the same time, as well as someone from well....before we were born?" A pause. "And I thought my life was messed up before..."
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Well, yes, it was a little weird that these people were just giving things away. But-- really. Who was she to complain? They had enough to worry about as it was what with being in a whole other dimension and all, with people from different worlds and places and times; worrying about money and jobs and food and accommodations would have probably led her to getting a hold of Cross's gun and asking him to kindly blow her head off, no end to this madness in sight.
Still! That was hardly the matter at hand here-- she had a guest in a house that wasn't really hers, eating food that wasn't really hers...
Awkwardly tugging on her earlobe to scratch it, she nodded her reply before rounding about the counter to take a seat on the couch, patting the spot next to her. "My uncle is... out, I don't think we'll be bothered," she said with a smile. Yes-- there was only one bedroom. Yes-- her and Peter shared a bed. Yes-- this certainly did mean that she felt the immediate need to reassert the fact that they were related and therefore not sleeping together.
Ahem.
He was all sorts of endearing when he blushed, and once again the comparison-- that she was trying to cut down on-- was there, giving her color to match.
"I don't think we're on Earth anymore. I mean, they took us, took away any abilities we had, or... modified them... there's some Queen who's lived here for 80 years and she's still a kid-- Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," she quipped, chuckling lightly.
"Yeah, tell me about it," she said a bit sheepishly, nodding. "I... uh. Yeah. I guess they really took people from all sorts of messed up walks of life." Never mind the fact that she could regrow her kidney if she needed to. Right.
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"Do you uh..think he'd be bothered?" He wasn't exactly in the mood, or condition for any sort of confrontation if and when he came home. Placing the now mutilated ham into his mouth, he chewed as he considered her 'theory'. "Isn't that..a little extreme? I mean..there's air and it certainly, looks like Earth..."
"Well, maybe we'll get lucky and find the yellow brick road." He offered, with just a tint of sarcasm, but was slightly put at ease by the reference. The Wizard of Oz was his favourite story, probably ever. His mother...due to his 'destiny' was not very good at being maternal, he understood it, he guessed, but that didn't mean he liked it. It was one of the only motherly type things she'd ever done. He knew it off by heart in English and Spanish, and while it was a stupid to get comfortable in a place like this, it reminded him a little of home.
"So no one, you've met, knows what's going on...even a little?" Well...that was great. How could they plan to get home, when they didn't even know how this worked?
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Extreme. Well-- "does it look like it to you? It looks like we're in some place like... in the 19th century in a Caribbean pirate town. Except that there's some child Queen who's lived for ages because of some crystal thing and everyone who came here from different times and worlds and places... have their abilities somehow impaired, if not taken away entirely. Doesn't something about that sound really... off to you?"
Pulling her leg up onto the couch to sit on it, she shrugged. "Like, I can't heal as fast. I can still do it, though. And this one guy I was talking to... apparently his ability doesn't work anymore..." she shrugged.
Yellow Brick Road. Claire grinned. He was definitely something more or less familiar-- comforting, somehow. "Now if only we could be off to see the Wizard and float on back home in a hot air balloon!"
If only it were that easy.
"Not... really? I mean, everyone that was here before seems to have this weird glassy... look on their faces and they all seem uncharacteristically happy, and everyone else is trying to get back home. But given that there are a ton of people here and no one has left so far..." she sighed. The statement spoke for itself as she offered him a wry smile.
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"A little. I mean, there are cultures that still live in mud huts...And can they prove, she's been alive that long? Maybe they're lying. They think the will of God did this to us, I'm not sure I believe that they're all there, up top." He tapped his temples for emphasis. John didn't have very much room for believing things that couldn't be proven. If he trusted the wrong person, just one, the whole world could go to Hell, according to his mother. And he'd had proof she wasn't crazy.
These people? Looked...well they were just weird. Some of them talked in a way that didn't really make sense. Like, not quite old English...more like Shakespeare, and they dressed like that too. But...the houses...the houses were so normal...And the fact that the people didn't even know where they were, or refused to say was just...frustrating. He had a feeling it was going to drive a person crazy trying to figure it out with nothing to go on. Which, is why he resolved to go exploring all on his own as soon as he felt up to it.
"It sounds off yeah...But, so does being on some other planet in an entirely different universe than ours. Of course, we could just be in another dimension. I can't decide which sounds better. Kidnapped by crazies, or stranded somewhere without a way to get back."
He sent her a smile to let her know that while he was annoyed at the fact that not only did he not have answers, no one had them, that he wasn't annoyed at her, or trying to take out his frustration on her.
"Think the Wizard could help? We're not exactly missing organs. And don't forget the sparkly red shoes. I'll let you wear those, of course."
This was...nice. Normal. He didn't have enough normal in his life. And he didn't exactly have friends either. Of course, he'd helped some kid out in mechanics class, and he'd declared himself John's new best friend, but that didn't really count...And neither did his robot protector. He spent more time teaching her and telling her not to be a freak, and making excuse for her not-human behaviour than he did anything else.
No, this was as close to a normal interaction as he would get. It seemed more than a little par the course to him that he'd have to move to another dimension, or world or whatever he was in, for that to happen.
Finishing off his meal and water, he leaned forward to put them neatly at the floor by his feet, not quite ready to get up and figure things out, and resolved to put them away properly before he left. It was the least he could do. Leaning back again he considered her for a moment. "Could you show me where you got your clothes, later?" If he wanted to explore, he had to blend in. Besides, even if he didn't want to blend in, wearing this for more than two days was just disgusting.
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"Hm, yeah. I don't know. I just know we're not... home. And I don't know if we can get home." She just didn't see an out anywhere. They woke up randomly on some boat as if they'd been shanghaied-- there was no logical basis in this anywhere at all.
Missing organs. Well-- Claire would be able to regrow her kidney; it hardly meant she wanted to, though.
"Well, that's..." Claire laughed, grinning at him, "very nice of you!"
Gay? Probably not.
"Oh! Of course! There's a store not too far from here; I don't feel comfortable sticking out like a sore thumb here... call it conditioning, my dad got me used to it."
Thinking on this for a moment-- clothes, food, and so on and so forth-- she grinned again. "There's actually another free apartment in this building, you could probably move in there. I know my uncle is having some people for dinner over tonight, maybe you want to come?"
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He'd rather not think about it, but at some point, he knew he would have to. He'd spent enough time fearing for his life that he didn't want to add something else onto it. Terminator's...weren't so far fetched if one thought about it. Technology made advances all the time. From a cd player to an ipod in the space of a few years. But...magical beings? That was just...How did you defend yourself against something like that?
"Of course we can. We got here, didn't we? We just have to find it." Sure, it wouldn't be easy, and they might be here for a really, really long time, but there had to be a way off. He refused to give up and accept that this was his life now, before he even tried to get away from it.
He'd made her laugh, it was such...an unfamiliar sound from anyone, and it was...well it was really nice. He couldn't help but grin back, even as his ears turned pink a little.
"That'd be great. It'd be nice to be close." The pink turned a little more red. "I mean, I don't know anyone...and you're not, you know...weird...so...I'd love to come to dinner!" As well as have the ground open up and swallow him.
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...powers.
She didn't want him to think she was crazy!
"Actually--" she said, standing suddenly with a purpose now to get up, walk over to the kitchen, and grab the knife she'd used on the ham, "before you don't believe me when I say that-- or what I said earlier, about knowing what you meant when you said your life was messed up..." Claire took a deep breath and cleanly ran the blade down her arm, flinching just slightly-- deeper than she'd meant to go-- letting the blood run into the sink as she set the knife aside, watching with him as the skin knit itself together once more.
"I just... yeah. Before I have to make a spectacle of myself at dinner. Um. Maybe they -- I mean, it's usually faster than this, and I know my uncle can't do what he usually can... maybe they want us weaker somehow?"
She made a face, trying to think over that point. It was incredibly unsettling, to say the least.
"Maybe we should look around sometime? I mean, this place... seems pretty big. We could just get like... a satchel of stuff together and start walking. I'm sure we could come across something, right?"
Yes, she was practically asking him out.
Yes, she was blushing furiously.
Yes, she half hoped that he didn't see it that way, and half hoped he did. She had--
"I, uh... if this doesn't mean that I'm... weird all of a sudden... then I'd be really happy about that," she said, grinning a bit sheepishly over at him. "Both... having you... close and... having you come to dinner."
Having him close. That didn't sound wrong at all, oh no. Cue some more nervous laughter!
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But he'd stopped a few feet from her in shock when she'd run the knife down her arm and the blood spilled over into the sink like water over flowing from a glass, thick and constant, and...gone.
It was just...gone. All of it. The blood, and the cut, and all it left behind was some of the blood droplets that had dried onto her skin. He was sure if his eyes widened any farther they would just pop off his face.
"I...that was...you...people can't do that! And...and...it's faster?!" He pinched himself, sharply. He wasn't sure why he was so shocked, aside from the fact that some girl he'd just met had cut herself on purpose. To prove she wasn't crazy sure, and he got it, but that...that was just shocking to see anyway. He wasn't dreaming.
Oh, God. She could do stuff. And she wasn't a Terminator. He knew Cameron, his Terminator could heal cuts, but her skin wasn't...well it was real, it could sweat and be cut, and blood would well up, but she'd never actually literally bleed, it was just...she wasn't human, it was just living tissue over metal parts and so she could regenerate faster. This...
This was a living breathing girl, and oh God, maybe he was crazy and...
"Make us weaker? I...I'm still trying to wrap my head around the 'injury, be-gone!' trick here...I...whoa."
And wait, what? Was she asking him out? No. That couldn't be right. He was, well he was weird. A dork, and outcast, on purpose but...he was...girls didn't like him. Didn't notice him. And just because he was on some magical island didn't necessarily mean she did either. She was just..being polite. That was all. Right.
"I was planning on doing that after I felt better." Realizing that sounded kind of blunt, and more like a no, he hurried to add, self concious once more. "It'd...be nice to have company, and...two eyes are always..better than one...right? You'll be easy to find too.."
He resolved to be more careful on how he spoke in the future, he didn't want to alienate his...almost sort of friend. He'd need someone around here he could talk to, spend time with, to bounce ideas off of. Or he was sure to actually go crazy if he had only himself and his own thoughts to accompany him. Weird abilities or not, she was...well she was...great.
"It...doesn't. I uh...it would be nice...you'll be easy to find this way, for our adventure...and...other times." Gah! Why did that not sound as good out loud as it had in his head? "So! Wanna show me where it is right now? And you know, clothes. I need...clothes."
Wait...She wanted to have him close? Did she mean...they just met, she didn't, he was being a freak, and he needed to go do something else nownownow. He cursed not for the first time, the life he'd led which had just made him so damn awkward.
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Better show him now than later. If he found her intolerable... well. He should know straight away so neither of them got attached to the new friendship that seemed to be developing.
She sighed. There was Peter, sure, and that guy Adam, who could do what she could do apparently, and that was all fine and good, but--
She didn't want to have to be such a freak.
"I'm sorry, um... I'll-- yeah, uh, I'll understand if this means you won't want to... spend time with me anymore-- I just wanted you to know right away so you would know whether to bolt now or... later, because I don't really want to get close and then... have you decide that you don't want to be friends with someone like me."
Like a stupid curse, or something.
"I mean, yeah. If you'd like to do that, it'd be... probably pretty useful," she said, nodding, glancing down with a fierce blush spreading across her cheeks.
...wait.
What?
He didn't think this made her weird?
Claire grinned-- a bit shyly at first, biting her lip. "Well, it's not like I run around hurting myself on purpose," she laughed. That was... almost the truth. Not on purpose-- but she had, for some reason, a strange penchant for getting hurt.
"Oh! Sure!" she said, nodding as she rounded the counter, grabbing hold of his hand again. Shameless. "I can show you the place and then we can go to the clothing store. I forgot the name. You ready or do you want something more to eat?"
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And really, it wasn't the weirdest thing he'd ever seen, or even heard about. The part that had him freaked out the most, was the random [well, to him], self inflicted injury.
"I...I'd still like, to be friends. Or, you know, get there." If he even really knew what that ment. Friends were something other people had, but he was sure it had something to do with accepting the weird stuff and being honest. He could do that. Well, most of that.
He wished he could do the honest part too. Especially since she'd opened up to him about something that most people would keep quiet about. She'd clearly taken a chance and trusted him, but he couldn't do the same. Not only because, his life was totally crazy and he knew what happened when you told the wrong person, but he also knew he could prove it.
He was also...really, paranoid besides that. For good reason, but being on the run and always learning a new last name, a new life to tell people, it just...it was hard to tell sometimes what was true anymore and what was a lie. He'd tell her maybe, one day. If they didn't get away from here anytime soon.
It didn't seem like there was anyone who could actually recognize or hurt him here, or that his future was even possible where she was from or...Worrying about it made his head hurt. One day, maybe. But that day was quite a ways away.
"I've seen weirder things, just next time you want to go give yourself an injury, give a guy a little more warning, okay?" He grinned, and then nodded in understanding at her continued explanation. It made sense after all, no one exactly was asking to get hurt, whether you could heal or not.
Moving back to the couch to pick up the plate and the glass, he'd put them neatly in the sink, before turning back to face her. "I'm ready to go, thanks."
He'd frozen a full moment when she'd taken his hand in the same upbeat manner he'd begun to associate with her. He was unused to being touched in such away. Generally it was a shove to floor, or being dragged around. You know, useful things, not...sweet things. The smile he gave her was small, and if not a little bit confused.
In the square it had made sense, to not get lost, and John had been more than a little out of it, and trying too hard to think around the dizzyness than being able to focus on following her through a mass of people. Now that he'd had food, and water, and a chance to actually sit and rest, he was sure he could do it on his own, but even though he was confused and he knew that, his fingers closed around hers and he gave a little tug on their now joined hands to get them going.
"Lead the way..."
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