Doug and Ali...

[x-cypher.livejournal.com]

Set some time yesterday afternoon/evening, before Ali goes to visit Paige.

Doug wandered down the hall, whistling softly. He pondered looking in on Angelo, after reading some of the worrisome posts on the journal system, but then decided to try and give the Latino some space. If he was still doing the woe-is-me schtick in a day or two, then maybe Doug would step in. Altering direction, Doug decided to wander down to the rec room and the gaming systems therein to blow off some steam.

Not quite running the hallway, but still heading at a fast clip, Alison turned the corner, automatically shifting to avoid the person she nearly ran over - and then halted, blinking as she though it over. Waaait...

Doug blinked as he hopped back out of the way. Seeing who it was who had almost steamrolled him, he brightened. "A...I mean, Ms. Blaire." He blushed slightly. While he had mostly gotten past the hero worship, he still wasn't quite sure if it would be appropriate to call Alison by her given name. Sticking his hands in his pockets, he turned back to her. "So, how're you doing?"

"I thought that was you," she grinned as she turned around to face him, looking a little rueful. "Nabbing time! Keep me away from Moira and her evil coffee of doom, please!" she begged, more than just a little melodramatically so, both hands clasped under her chin in a typical damsel in distress pose.

Doug grinned back. Pulling a sandwich in a Ziploc bag out of the pocket of his sweatshirt, he waved it in front of Alison. "I brought along bait to lure you into the kitchenette where there is non-Scottish coffee percolating as we speak."

"Oooooooh," Alison cooed, both hands stretching forward towards the sandwich. "Fooooood..."

Doug snickered as he backed slowly toward the kitchenette, sandwich kept just out of Alison's outstretched hands. "Heeeeeeeere world famous rock star...heeeeeeeeere world famous rock star..."

Laughter greeted those words, and Alison pounced for the sandwich cheerfully, far from bothering with any decorum as she pried the ziplock open. After taking a generous bite, she wrinkled her nose at him, until her stomach reminded her that she had in fact not eaten much today, and she should work on eating that sandwich faster please. "Mmm. Coffee?"

Doug quickly pulled out a mug and poured coffee into it, rather than face the wrath of a Starving Rock Diva. Sliding it across the table to her, he produced a plate of sandwiches, as well as some tater tots he had baked in the oven.

"Cooffeeee..." Alison reached out for the mug with a fervent look, playing it up for sure, but really - anything was better than Moira's coffee. The tater tots drew a giggle, and after polishing off another half sandwich, Alison slowed down, giving Doug a smile in thanks. "So. How've you been doing?"

Doug shrugged. "Worried about Angelo. But then, it isn't my life if I'm not worried about someone. Other than that...ribs still hurt if I'm not careful about things. Homework. Christmas shopping. Although I think you'll understand when I say that it's all been by Internet." He grimaced.

"Yeah, I kinda do," she agrees. Having been hiding out at the mansion herself for the past months, she can hardly say anything in that regard, though one might argue a sniper rifle is a bit more pointed argument in that respect. "Angelo talking to anyone yet?" she asked softly.

Doug shook his head, sighing. "Not as I can tell. Shiro and Alex say that he's pretty much just being a grey blob in his bed. Shiro's bugging Jamie for the lowdown, but Jamie's stonewalling. Says it's not his place to tell."

"Jamie's right," Alison sighed as well, making a mental note to let Moira know of how Angelo was... coping. Her fall back plan was sounding better and better all the time, really. "Thanks for letting me know." She leaned on the counter and then reached out to tap Doug's nose. "And what was on your mind kiddo?"

Doug blushed furiously. "I...um..." he stammered. Wringing his hands, he tried very hard not to hyperventilate. Finally, he leaned back and stared at the ceiling before closing his eyes. "...girls."

i>Grinning like a madwoman is not the thing to do, Alison. So don't. Taking another sip of coffee to give Doug the time to take a few breaths, she looked up at the ceiling as well. "Aaah. That."

Leaning forward, Doug pillowed his head on his arms. He sighed. "I know I think too much about it all, and I should just relax and let things come as they will, but it's hard. Besides, I seem to have a thing for girls who won't ever like me like that."

"Not ever's a pretty long time," Alison pointed out casually, cradling the mug of coffee in her hands pensively. "There's a lot of typical book answers to that one, kiddo but... give yourself a chance, maybe?" She smiles sightly. "You've got time yet, you know. Even if you'd much rather it all happened now."

Doug lifted up his head slightly and rested his chin on his folded arms. "I know. I know that I need to chill out a bit, I know that being friends isn't second place, I know a lot of things in my head...but my heart is a different story. It keeps making an idiot out of me."

"Caring for someone doesn't make you an idiot, Doug. Neither does falling for someone. It just shows that you have a capacity for caring, and for loving others. And there's nothing wrong with being that way - other than it puts you through some hard spots, now and then, until someone figures out that hey, their heart's saying the same thing as yours."

Doug shook his head. "No, I know that just caring for someone doesn't make me an idiot. But I made a pretty big idiot out of myself over a girl. And it just seems so incredibly hard. Because there..." He sighed, took a deep breath, and just plowed right through. "There are two girls. One I know doesn't think of me like that. The other one...I dunno."

"Do you feel better for the knowing, or the not knowing?" Alison asked idly, not batting an eye at the fact that he liked more than one girl. Teenage boy, meet hormones. And a lot of likeable girls all at once.

Doug frowned. "I don't know. I mean, on the one hand, knowing where I stand is a good thing. On the other hand...knowing that where I stand isn't necessarily where I wish I could be can kind of hurt. And with the not knowing...sometimes my stomach just wraps itself up in knots from her walking by."

"The knowing where you stand gives you a chance to slowly move along," Alison points out. "And sometimes, finding out where you stand when you don't know, gives you the chance at something more. You don't know until you go out on that limb and ask, really..."

Doug bit his lip. "Yeah, but there's somebody else in the picture." Two somebodies, as a matter of fact. But he wasn't going to say that, because then it would just be completely obvious who he was talking about. And it was hard to name names, be completely open about it. For that matter, Doug was still feeling slightly antsy just talking in generalities.

"Ahh." Alison nodded slightly. "And she's shown a preference for that somebody already then?"

Doug nodded. "And the other one...she's just...kinda distant sometimes."

"Well, maybe the other one just doesn't know how not to be distand, hon. Or that you even like her that way. Contrary to popular myth, not all girls are mind readers, you know?" She reached over, patting his hand lightly.

"Yeah. She..." Doug closed his eyes and took a very deep breath. "This would probably be easier if I wasn't talking around their names, wouldn't it."

"Whatever makes you comfortable, hon," is the easy reply. Because Alison can talk about general just as easily as specifics on this particular subject matter, though she knows to Doug, it's all about the girl (or girls) in particular, of course.

Doug closed his eyes, speaking in a near-whisper. "The someone else in the picture are actually some_ones_. The one who I know doesn't think of me like that is Paige. And the other one is Rogue."

A quiet nod. That explained a lot, really. On both counts. "Ah." Because really, to the Paige one, that's all she can say. Especially with the way things are now, in that particular area. "Marie..." she nodded slowly, contemplating that notion calmly. "Well, if there's anyone I can think of who'd let you know where you stand, it would be her."

Still speaking quietly, Doug said "I don't have the guts to ask."

"If you don't," was the gently rejoinder, "someone else might, one day."

"I just..." Doug sighed. "What would she want with a plain ordinary guy like me?"

Teenagers. Alison represses a smile, and looks down at her tea with a considering expression. "Well, maybe you should be letting her have a crack at answering that. I can't tell you what she'd think on the matter myself. Not a mind reader." She nodded wisely at that.

Doug smiled wryly and self-mockingly. "So yeah. The melodrama that is my life. Kinda silly, huh."

"Naw. S'life and being a teenager, that. Been through it myself, not so long ago," Alison smiled back at him, before giving the plate a pensive look, and deliberately nabbing the last sandwich.

Fishing a tater tot off the plate, Doug dunked it in ketchup and popped it into his mouth. "I..." He shrugged his shoulders. "Thanks, Alison." It didn't seem quite right to call her Ms. Blaire, after he had done all that soul-baring. "This really helped."

The use of her name for the first time drew a bright smile from her, and she wrinkled her nose at him lightly before answering. "You're welcome, Doug."

Popping another tater tot in his mouth, he straightened up and switched gears. "So, Christmas decorations..."

Comments

[x-crowdofone.livejournal.com]

"Jamie's right,"

*neenerneenerneeners in Shiro's general direction*

[x-sanfuaiyaa.livejournal.com]

Blah blah blah. Urusai, gai-jin.