Forge and Crystal - Comfortable Couch

[x-aerial.livejournal.com]

After the training
with Garrison, Forge heads to Crystal's suite to relax. There is, as would be expected, no small degree of awkwardness.



"Ow, ow, ow," Forge mumbled, rolling onto his back, wincing,
then trying his left side again to no avail. His entire body felt like
a mass of bruises and muscle aches, and as comfortable as it normally
could be, the couch in his and Angelo's suite was being singularly
unforgiving.

Pondering, he sat up with a groan and looked over to his room. The bed
would be slightly more comfortable, were it not for the dismantled
satellite radio spread out across its surface. Scowling at his own
lack of preparedness, Forge lurched to his feet and thought of where
he could possibly get some rest and respite in a more comfortable
location.

A distinct memory of a particularly comfortable couch sprang into his
brain, and with a smile, he departed his suite and slowly made his way
up to the third floor. Walking down the hall, he stopped at the room
directly above his own and knocked politely on the door.

Crystal opened the door, smiled and Forge, began to greet him, and
then stopped. "What happened to you?" she asked, her eyes growing
wide as they caught sight of rather nasty looking bruises.

"I ran into a Canadian. A lot. And I think he picked up the floor and
dropped it on me a few times," Forge explained, shrugging one shoulder
with a grimace. "I went through a hand-to-hand training session with
Garrison. On the positive side, he thinks there's potential. On the
negative side, ow."

He nodded past Crystal to the couch. "Do you mind if I lie down for a
bit? I never realized how uncomfortable the couch in my suite is until
I had half my body feeling like I've gone for a ride in a cement
mixer."

"Of course I do not mind; please come in." Crystal reached out a hand
to help Forge to the couch, then stopped, afraid she might hurt him.

Forge walked over to the couch, then sat down roughly, sinking back
into the pillows with a groan. "I didn't even know I had feeling in
half these places. I suppose the benefit of having half my limbs being
artificial is that metal doesn't bruise. I think I have dents, though.
I distinctly remember being tripped with my own leg at one point. By
the way, all that movie stuff about kicking people in the head? Total
bull."

Crystal sat down next to Forge on the couch, frowning. "Was it really
necessary for him to cause all of this harm to you, all at once? You
have time to learn, yes? You should not need to have your entire body
covered in bruises in order to be able to learn."

"Nimrod wouldn't hold back," Forge said firmly. "Toad wouldn't go easy
on me. I asked Garrison to teach me, instead of Scott or Angelo,
because he'll get right to the point, as directly as possible. As for
the bruises, well..." He looked away briefly, focusing on a spot on
the floor. "This isn't harm, not really. I'm sore, but I'll get
better. This was a crash course. It'll get easier from here." He
moaned as rolling his neck twinged a particularly sore muscle. "God, I
hope so."

He had a point there, but Crystal still didn't have to like what
Garrison had done to her boyfriend. Her frown deepened. "Did this
happen just now? Have you been to the infirmary?"

Forge nodded. "Amelia gave me some painkillers and the time-honored
gulag remedy of 'relax, don't be stupid, stupid'."

Pausing for a moment, he stretched one arm out and over Crystal's
shoulders. "What do you know, I'm feeling more relaxed already," he
said with a small grin.

"Are you?" Crystal looked at Forge, concerned. "You were just, what?
Hit, kicked, punched and dropped by someone stronger than you who has
been trained to do these things? I do not know what will help here or
what will cause you more pain."

Glancing up at the ceiling, Forge blew a lock of hair away from his
eyes with an amused expression. "Subtlety is often overrated," he
grumbled before cautiously scooting next to Crystal. "I'll be fine,
really. Yes, getting tossed around for training is uncomfortable.
However, being here with you is quite comfortable and helps to take my
mind off it. I..." He stammered for a moment, then awkwardly reached
out to take one of Crystal's hands in his. "I don't really know how
this is supposed to go either. I know when Angelo gets banged up,
usually Amanda comes over and... well, I spend a lot of time in the
lab."

Crystal's eyes widened a bit. While she might have been naive in
certain ways, Amanda and Angelo had visited the palace together twice,
and... well, naive didn't equal stupid. "Oh?" she managed to
get out.

"Well, yes, and..." Forge suddenly caught Crystal's expression and
coughed self-consciously. "Oh, wait. No, um, no. I wasn't suggesting,
um... oh gosh..." He ran a hand over his rapidly-reddening face. "Oh
man, I know how that sounded. I didn't mean to imply... I mean, I'd
never just assume... I should probably go."

"I did not say that you did... it is just... I did not expect you to
say that, about Amanda and Angelo, I mean. You do not have to go; you
are clearly in pain and you need to rest and you should not be walking
all over the school and would you like a glass of water?" Crystal was
rambling and she knew it. She didn't mean to, but whatever he had
meant or not meant, Forge had caught her quite off-guard.

"Water would be good, yes, thank you," Forge stammered, trying to
regain some form of composure despite the feeling that his face was
going to ignite from sheer embarrassment.

Crystal stood up, doing her best to avoid standing up too quickly.
She made her way to the kitchen, at a normal float, and returned with
two glasses of water. Sitting down in the same spot she had recently
vacated, she handed one of the glasses to Forge.

Drinking quickly, Forge set the glass down and leaned back into the
couch cushions again, letting out a small noise of comfort despite the
lingering embarrassment. "Thank you," he repeated, briefly glancing
over at Crystal. "I'm sorry if I was, well...awkward. Or forward, or
improper in any implications, I just..." He spread his hands in a
gesture of exasperation. "I'm not good with expressing myself, you
might have noticed."

Crystal took a sip from her glass. "I do not believe that you are any
worse at it than I am."

"Aren't we the pair?" Forge said with a small laugh, trying not to
wince at the little jabs of pain from the bruises along his ribs.
"And... okay, this might be forward, but... would you mind if I stayed
here? Tonight? With you, I mean. Wait, not with you, I mean,
just... on the couch. Because, you know, comfortable, and ow, and..."
He reddened again, glancing away. "I'd like to stay."

"Oh?" Thoughts raced through her mind. Would people notice? What
would they think? Did it really matter what people thought? It was
not any of their business, either way, but people at the mansion liked
to gossip. She considered asking Forge what was wrong with his own
bed, but perhaps Amanda was... "helping" Angelo again, and she didn't
want to go to that particular topic again. "All right. You may stay.
There is a daybed in my study; you can sleep in there if you prefer."

"That would be... nice," Forge said with a smile, reaching out again
to place his hand over Crystal's. "And if it's any consolation, future
training sessions will hopefully result in less outright battery as I
get more accustomed to this whole aspect of barbaric physicality. I
have no intention of turning into a walking bandage collection like
Angelo or Nathan."

Comments

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

Awww. That was very nice work guys. Hmm, I wonder what the words for 'Seize the Forge' would be in latin. Laurie is so commenting in my head that Crystal should do so. ;)

[x-aerial.livejournal.com]

As Forge is a name, I'm thinking it would just be 'Carpe Forge'. Whatever it is, Crystal isn't quite sure how to take that and says no.

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

*grins* Laurie's a little more forward with guys then Crystal is, I'm thinking.