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Post by skyeknight on Jun 21, 2017 2:24:10 GMT
"I thought you were perfect just the way you were!" Axel replied.
Perfect. Hard to believe he'd use the word on a human, but she was. The way she'd smile at his bad jokes. The way she would laugh. Her random drink orders. Their conversations. Her little lizard and having to keep a steady supply of cherries for the little guy. Her bubbly personality and how she lit up a room, every time she entered. How she had trusted him with telling him why she worked for the BPD. The way she hadn't judged him for being a demon and saw something in him that he had thought wasn't there. Except he proven her wrong, because he hadn't told Shadow no.
"You... love me?"
The concept seemed so foreign to him. Was that was this was? These feelings... He was good at other things, but being what he was, he had all but given up on ever finding someone who wanted something more than a one night stand. Because who hadn't wanted to brag they slept with the physically hottest guy at the bar? But Anna's feelings weren't lust and not alcohol fueled. Her feelings would have been pure and innocent and true. She had 'started' to love him. Perhaps meaning she did't anymore.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 21, 2017 2:58:04 GMT
It was only in the sudden silence, the complete lack of any noise or sound in the café that Anna was able to recall her last words and process what Axel had said. For a moment, her headache seemed to slacken by the slightest degree and she was able to put her hands by her sides, look up into Axel's green gaze and see the stark shock reflected in them.
"I.....I.."
Anna's voice seemed to echo inside her own skull and her tongue felt numb. Did she love Axel? Did she really love him? All she could see in that moment seemed to be Axel. Only Axel. She tried to find the answer within her, the truth to his question, and opened her mouth to speak... but she never got to.
"I think I'm going to be sick."
Suddenly her stomach seemed to roll violently inside of her and she put a hand over her mouth, a horrible metallic taste lining her tongue. Without another word, she turned and ran to the doorway marked 'restrooms' in the Nevermore. She only just made it into one of the stalls of the bathroom before her stomach let go and she heaved into the bowl.
For several minutes her mind was a complete blank as she knelt by the toilet, her body racking as she vomited again and again into the porcelain bowl. Finally the last of the heaves seemed to pass and she shakily wiped at her mouth, regaining a bit of composure. She felt weak and ill in that moment like she had come down with the flu. It took her another minute to pull herself back to her feet, flush the toilet's nasty contents away and stumble to the sink. She rinsed out her mouth with shaky hands and threw some water into her face, trying to make sense of what had happened beforehand. Strangely, all she seemed to recall before being sick was a reddish blur of anger and noting more.
It was only while the cool water was running over her hands that she noticed the cuts in her right palm and recalled what had happened between her and Axel. Why was it only now that she could remember what had happened less than 10 minutes ago? Was he still standing out in the café, waiting on her? Or had he left? She wasn't certain but she felt a wave of shame and confusion over how she had reacted towards him. Surely it must have been the headache making her act so impulsively, so aggressively....
Once she had wiped the sweat from her face, she weakly and slowly pushed open the bathroom door. It was as she stepped unsteadily back into the café that she realized her headache, while still present, was much better then it had been. Perhaps she WAS sick with the flu or something...
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 21, 2017 15:01:38 GMT
She dashed to the bathroom before Axel could get an answer. He smoothed a hand over his forehead. What a mess. He looked around. The patrons had fled, not wanting to stick around for any potential drama. The only two people left were the cashiers, looking at him in mild concern. There wasn't much he could do about that. Things... never went according to plan. Not that he ever made a plan. He bullied his way through situations. Gentle wasn't in his vocabulary. Seemed that Anna invoked all sorts of weird things from him. Kindness. Gentleness. Compassion. Strange for the demon, but not quite unpleasant. Just strange.
"Hey, you two, give us a moment?" he asked of the remaining staff. "I'll make it worth your while. Just go to Bourbon Graisse tonight. Drinks on me."
The staff hadn't needed to be told twice. They headed into the kitchen, probably to gossip about what just happened. Axel went to the front door and turned the sign to closed. It would buy him some time alone with Anna. He would make it up to the Seddon family later. He went behind the counter and picked up some cleaning supplies, mopping up Anna's blackened blood with a rag. He looked at it. Deep dark red almost as black as coal. Unnaturally for a human like her. He frowned before setting it aside. He would have to take it with him, get it examined. But the blood was cleaned. Her smashed cup was picked up and disposed of. The café was as clean as when Axel came in. He placed the bloody rag in a bag that he then put in his jacket pocket.
He wasn't leaving until he spoke further with Anna. Maybe he could convince her to seek help. He'd put his very pride aside and beg if he had to. But he patiently waited. He didn't want to barge into the bathroom and make her feel trapped no less. He was going to have to try a softer approach. He was completely out of his element in that aspect. For Anna, he would try. He almost laughed at the irony. The demon with anger issues as short as a fuse trying to be calm and gentle with a girl who was normally in a cheery disposition but now raged around like a seething volcano.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 21, 2017 18:19:27 GMT
When Anna stepped back into the main part of the café, she expected to see the place empty with Axel long gone. So it was hard to say exactly how surprised she was to see the Fire Demon still standing by where she had been sitting, waiting for her. She blinked at him, her eyes having returned to their normal coloration, and looked at the floor.
She felt ashamed for how she had reacted. She'd never treated anyone as badly as she had treated Axel right then and there, even people she disliked. She had lashed out at him completely, letting her anger control her. She'd acted more like a rabid wild animal in those moments then a person.
Yet despite how she had behaved so poorly, she still stubbornly believed she had done nothing wrong with her experiment. She didn't even bother to think that her symptoms might have been caused by the serum. It had to be a flu and nothing more.
".... I've got the flu. I'm going home."
Her voice was low and indeed she did look ill. Her face was still pale, sweat once again beading up on her skin and the tremor hadn't left her body yet. The only good thing about her appearance was that her eyes had returned to their regular blue.... but the white of her hair was still present.
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 21, 2017 19:02:14 GMT
Axel got to his feet. He walked right up to her before he grabbed her wrist, bringing her hand up for her to look at. Still stained with her darkened blood. Being this close to his face, he could even smell something wrong with it. A vampire would even think twice about feeding off of her. It would likely even think three times before making a meal out of her. Which for a vampire to hesitate over blood, it wasn't good. Something had tainted Anna's blood. Axel knew it had something to do with the serum that Anna bragged about injecting herself with. How he wished he had destroyed every single vial, but that would have been an invasion of personal space. It had been on Anna's person.
"I thought you were smarter than that." he said. "You injected an unstable chemical into your body. You don't think that has anything to do with it? Your blood. Your hair... There's something wrong so please, Anna, you have to have someone take a look into this."
He would get on his hands and knees and grovel if she told him to. He would go behind her back and make a cure if he had to. He wasn't very science savvy but he figured he could bribe the right people into helping. Shadow owed him for destroying the lab in the first place. And good liquor got you places.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 21, 2017 19:14:16 GMT
Anna didn't even bother looking at her hand, keeping her gaze fixed towards the ground as Axel held her wrist. She would never admit it in that moment but his touch only seemed to make her feel worse, causing her to realize how stupid she had been to think someone like Axel could actually love her. She really was just a big fool.
"I'm a medical examiner. I know how to take care of myself just fine."
With that, she pulled her hand away from Axel. Strange. The Demon had been holding her wrist rather tightly and yet she easily broke away from his touch. She didn't recall being so strong before but it hardly mattered in that moment.
"I just have the stomach flu. That's it. All these symptoms are just part of it, ok?"
Well, most of them were. She couldn't speak for the darkening of her blood or the growing streak of white in her hair, but everything else was typical of a flu. The headache, the vomiting, the shivering, the sweating, those were average symptoms.
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 21, 2017 19:27:56 GMT
"Anna, please, I am begging you," Axel said. "Let someone help."
Let me help. He wanted to say that but only knew that it would get him slapped or kicked. She didn't want to hear that he wanted to help her. He had done enough 'helping' in her opinion. He had perhaps been distracted. She broke away from him. He hadn't been holding her tightly but it surprised him. He cared about what happened to her. Everything he had done had been for her. He had turned everything upside down for her and it was still not good enough for her. That was the worst part. He was doing and doing for her but none of those things were even registering in her head. Her saying what she did... made him start thinking but he didn't have time to mull it over too much. He had to convince her to see a doctor or he was taking her blood sample to someone who could help her.
"This isn't the flu!"
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 21, 2017 19:47:52 GMT
"Please, Axel, please just...."
She was tired, so very tired in that moment and she felt completely used up. And yet Axel wouldn't leave her alone and it was only making the pain come back. Tears once more began to leak from her eyes and the shaking in her body wasn't caused just by her illness.
"Just leave me alone. You've hurt me enough so just leave me alone."
Her words broke down into a soft sob. She knew she wasn't being fair in that moment, that she had hurt Axel just as much as he had hurt her, and yet she wondered if anything ever really effected him. He was always so closed-off.....
Maybe that had been her mistake from the start. After so long and being so uncertain about things like love, she had tried to give her heart to someone who simply didn't care about her in that way. Oh yes, Axel cared to some degree but.... but he didn't love her. That was the simple truth of it. He didn't love her.
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 21, 2017 20:15:50 GMT
"I never wanted to hurt you," Axel said. "I was trying to protect you."
It was difficult for him to see her like this. Not herself, weak and sickly. He wanted to scoop her up and take her somewhere he knew was safe but quickly shook that thought away. A demon grabbing a sick girl in broad daylight was likely to have the police called on him for kidnapping. She likely wouldn't take that well either. When she asked him to leave it cut him deeper than he had anticipated. A physical ache roared through his being. He didn't to leave. He knew that if he did, he would regret it. But if she told him she never wanted to see him again, he was likely to give her the space she asked for, because she had asked for it.
"Do you really want me to go?" he asked.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 21, 2017 20:38:35 GMT
"I.... I...."
She couldn't seem to stop the sobbing, her words broken up as she tried to hitch in a breath to answer. And yet what was that answer? Did she really want him to leave forever? Did she really want him to stay? Did she want things to return to the way they had been or her experiment back? What DID she want in that moment?
"I don't even know what I want anymore."
It was the only answer she could give and the closest to the truth. She didn't know. Not anymore.
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 21, 2017 20:49:41 GMT
"Come here," he said gently.
He motioned for her to sit down in one of the booths nearest them. He didn't think that keeping her on her feet any longer would be a good idea. The poor girl was likely to faint if he kept her at it for much longer. He sat down and scooted into the booth so she wouldn't be the one trapped against the wall. He was waiting for her to come to him. He wouldn't force her but he really did want to talk to her. He was compromising. Sitting in the booth or hugging her until she listened to him for once in the first few weeks. But her non-answer of 'I don't know' wasn't a no so he didn't think he was doing that poorly.
"I just want to talk," he requested. "Please?"
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 21, 2017 21:08:51 GMT
Anna finally looked up from where she had been staring at the ground, tears still gleaming in her eyes. She quickly glanced back down when she saw the expression on Axel's face. It was too kind in that moment....too concerned.... and it made her heart hurt all the worse. If she had to look at that for too long, she knew she wouldn't be able to stop crying. It was already bad enough that she had an emotional train wreck in front of him. No wonder he couldn't love someone like her...
Nonetheless, she gave a small nod of her head. It was so sore now after that headache but she managed the nod before sliding into the booth on the opposite side. She still kept her eyes downcast, focusing on the wooden pattern of the table while trying to listen to the Fire Demon.
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 22, 2017 2:14:01 GMT
"You're a frustrating for a human, you know that?" he sighed.
Axel took a deep breath before smoothing a hand through his hair. He had asked to talk with her. So he had to talk. However, her tears distracted him. He pulled a napkin out of one of the holders before offering out for her to take. Better that she do it herself because he didn't trust himself to touch her when things were this... wrought with emotions. He couldn't risk burning her. He knew he was already warmer skinned than a human. No need to test that out.
"You waltz into my bar and charm everyone there with your smiles and your personality." Himself included. "And now, here were are... And all I want is for you to be back to how you were before all this. Happy. Healthy."
She did have a way to make him do things he wouldn't ordinarily consider. Like getting involved in her personal life. Going to dinner at her home. His desire to make a drink she liked and surprise her with it. He lingered at the bar when she showed up, just to talk. He hadn't stopped to consider what power she had over him.
"I don't get to know many people like you." he said.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 22, 2017 3:12:18 GMT
As Axel began to speak, Anna's hands tightened in her lap but she kept them out of view. She frustrated him? So what else was new? However, the grip eased slightly as the Fire Demon began to talk, stating how he just wanted things back to the way they had been. He just wanted to see her happy and healthy once more. When he offered her a napkin, she hesitated before taking it, making sure not to touch him in that moment.
She wiped away at the tears on her cheeks before crumpling the napkin in her hand, still keeping her eyes on the tabletop. He said he didn't get to know many people like her.... What did that mean, exactly?
She didn't know and she didn't trust her voice to ask in that moment. When she finally did speak, her voice was very low and sounded strained.
"No one is like me... I've been told enough times by enough people..."
Yes, those were words she had heard her entire life and yet they had never been meant in kindness or as a compliment. The words were meant to cut and hurt her, to make her bleed. As a young child other kids had taunted her for being so odd, as a teenager they had said she was freak and a weirdo that didn't belong, even as a young adult people had claimed she was too strange for her own good. Eventually she had tried to use her strangeness as a shield and for a time it had worked....
"So what exactly is it you want me to do, Axel?"
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 22, 2017 14:46:20 GMT
"No, you're right. No one is like you," he confirmed, "But that's why I like you so much."
He couldn't quite use the word love yet. But he knew he cared for her immensely. It surprised him how far he was willing to go for her and to what lengths he had gone to keep her safe. Enough so he broke his fire streak for her. Enough so that he tried to save her from the thugs and then her own research. Enough so he broke his own rules and had dinner with her. Her devil-may-care attitude had drawn him in. Her smile and personality had kept him there. It bothered him to see her like this. This only reaffirmed how different the two of them were. It made him wonder what would have happened in her life had she never met him. She wouldn't have gone to the bar that night. She wouldn't have been attacked. Shadow wouldn't have been told about the experiment. She might not have tested it on herself out of sheer desperation.
"Anna," he breathed. "You won't get help for this... You still aren't quite listening to me yet, so I want you to swear to me that if this... gets worse, you get help? Please. I want your word you'll do it."
She was too stubborn to see this for what it was. This was not the flu but effects of the serum of hers. He wanted her to listen, to see this project of hers for how dangerous it truly was, but she was still angry, still hurt and still proud. He understood those things. As a demon he was an expert in anger and pride. He simply didn't want to see her succumb to them because she was unwilling to look at things clearly. He would be keeping a very close eye on her to make sure that she would listen to him this time. He would step in again if he had to. Anything to keep her alive. He would not see her die because she was too proud.
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