xp_logs | Sarah and Paige, finally

x-foliate.livejournal.com posting in

Paige comes down to Sarah's room to tell her something. Then they are silly. I'm sure Shinobi is very sad that he doesn't have video cameras in the room.

Icon is ~~blatantly ripped off of~~ inspired by Hilory's own. Hopefully she still loves me.

In her room, Sarah was perched in her swivel chair watching a movie, a sleeping puppy with a bone under his paws down in front of her feet. It seemed he'd finally gotten used to the noise of the movies that Sarah liked to watch, not whining nervously every time somebody screamed.

Paige leaned in the frame of the door a long while after she had opened it. The movie was too loud for Sarah to hear much of anything and the puppy was really quite asleep. It gave her opportunity to just watch Sarah for a moment, collecting her thoughts. It also gave her time to reconsider and so she knocked on the wood, gaining her former roommate’s attention. “Hey.”

Sarah waved vaguely with one hand, using her free hand to fish around in her desk drawer for the remote. "Hey you." The extra movement nearly woke Oscar, but instead he only stretched out and rolled over onto his side.

“May I come in?” she asked, realizing how very odd this must sound, especially coming from her. For over a year now Paige had just come and gone through Sarah’s rooms as she pleased.

Sarah shrugged, pressing the power button on the remote. It was suddenly very quiet in the room. "Yeah, sure. Come on in."

Coming in just far enough to close the door, Paige held onto the handle an each moment longer than necessary before turning around. She didn’t move any closer, reminding herself she was trying to make this as least dramatic as possible. “So. How’re your knees healing up? Almost done?”

"Yeah. I was back in the gym a couple of times while you all were gone." She waited for a minute, and when Paige didn't move from right inside the door, she rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to fucking eat you, roomie. You can let go of the door."

“You never know,” Paige shot back, but it wasn’t without a lace of sheepishness. “I don’t see a ‘fridge down here and you’re not notorious for going upstairs. Unless it’s hiding underneath the dog. He’s cute.” In spite of her words she moved forward a little, uncomfortable now that she had nothing to lean on.

"No, no fridge. I think they're afraid I'll -never- leave then." She stretched out, resting her feet up on the bed across from her. "So I don't suppose you came in here just because you wanted to chat."

“And wouldn’t that be a shame,” Paige replied idly, unaware of what she was saying. She’d lost herself thinking on Sarah’s second set of words, and the pacing that generally came with thought and pent up anxiety. “Well, I do want to talk to you. But more I want to tell you something that I just thought you should know.”

"Some people say so." The words were flat. She crossed her arms over her chest, and leaned back a bit. "Well I'm intrigued. Go for it."

“See, being trapped in an alternate part of the world, or whatever it was, for three months, thinking that you were never going to see a familiar face ever again, gets a person thinking. Especially about things they did or didn’t do. Lost... things.” Paige found that her pacing had led her directly in front of Sarah, just where she knew she shouldn’t be if she wanted to hold a shred of dignity but, who needed dignity anyway? “And well...” She found herself suddenly in Sarah’s lap with nose to her ear. “I love you,” she said, muffled. “I mean, I’m not in love with you, I don’t want to have sex with you or anything like that, and I still think you were wrong but I do anyway. I love you. A lot. And I just thought you needed to know.”

Sarah let out an uncharacteristic squeak as Paige plopped down into her lap, and Oscar stirred on the floor and looked up with a curious bark. Sarah dropped one hand to hang down beside him, wiggling her fingers to get his attention. She'd have spoken if she thought she could, but right now she was sure it would be shaking, if her hand was any indication. So instead she busied herself with holding her free arm as far away from Paige's body as possible, willing it to stop shaking before she noticed.

For all Paige loathed Jono’s mutation on occasion, how it gave them the ability to know every little running thought once they got this close, she suddenly desperately wished she had it now. Defeated in the silence, Paige raised her head, giving Sarah a tight little smile if only to stop her mouth from trembling. “I... Well. Now you know, I guess. I’ll go.”

"I thought you said you wanted to talk." The words came out in a rush, like she wasn't sure exactly what to do but she had to do -something-. She stopped for a second, at another loss for words, and finally with a tired sigh, buried her head into Paige's shoulder. "...I missed you."

Paige relaxed instantly, her fingers touching as she slipped her arms around Sarah. There was a sigh of relief and she looked at Sarah’s scalp for a moment, lips pressed to her hair, before closing her eyes. “I thought you wanted me to leave. God Sarah, I’ve missed you. Missed you so much.” She didn’t know if she was talking about Asgard anymore.

Sarah shook her head slowly, mumbling, "You're one of my best friends....why would I want you to go?" Wrapping her arms tightly around herself, she fought back tears. Again.

“I don’t know. You were just so quiet, I thought...” Paige trailed off, not wanting to the complete that thought. Marveling at the reversal of their roles, Paige rocked Sarah gently, breathing in the smoke from her hair and finding she didn’t mind.

Sarah took a deep breath, trying to reign in whatever composure she had left. "I didn't know what to say." After a moment she added, "I still don't. As it's probably painfully obvious."

Paige laughed, finding it to be shakier than she would have liked. “I got that idea, yeah. Didn’t think it would be that hard or I would have tried to give you some warning.”

"It wouldn't help." Sarah shook her head, pulling away just enough to look at Paige. She held up a shaky hand with four fingers up. "I still can't count the number of people who love me on more than one hand. It hits a little hard."

“Consider it concentrated love,” Paige replied, kissing Sarah’s held up finger lightning fast, as one might kiss a wound. “Like that orange juice that comes in cans.”

The quick movement nearly had Sarah pulling her hand away, and she watched the kiss with a curious expression. This was...odd. "Like orange juice, huh?"

Paige nodded once in strong belief. “Orange juice. Not orange drink but orange juice with medium pulp,” she replied, letting her gaze slide to one side as she thought. “Now I want orange juice.”

"Well don't let me hold you back. I'll just be sitting here considering the simile. And probably laughing."

“You mean I don’t get to just hold you until Shinobi comes back?” Paiged asked, totally innocently and yet hardly at all. She tightened her grip around the other girl, squirming a little as if to get comfortable but more to prove that she was there.

She shrugged. "Well you -could-, but I thought maybe orange juice sounded more interesting."

“I am content here,” Paige informed her. “At least for a little while. Besides, you’re a very good girlfriend and enjoy supplying your wonderful boyfriend with wet dreams.”

If Sarah was thrown by Paige' s comment, she recovered fairly quickly. She smirked, and made a thoughtful noise. "I think we're a little overdressed for that one. But it's a nice thought."

“Well, if we time it right, we could be kissing when he walks in the door,” Paige teased, grinning widely to inform her of the joke. “Bet he wouldn’t even notice the lack of clothes then.”

"That's about when we'd find out he had a video camera in his eyebrow ring," she laughed. "Just imagine the gossip those pictures would cause."

Paige covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. Future leaders of the X-Men did not giggle. She was still working on it. “So like that boy to turn the situation to his advantage. Knew there was a reason I liked him. Other than the obvious having good taste, of course.”

"Obvious insanity maybe." Sarah corrected dryly, shaking her head. She let her hand hang down again, to scratch Oscar's head gently. Either he'd been awfully quiet, or she'd just been too wrapped up in their conversation to notice him. Most likely the latter.

“Just for that, new rule. You’re not allowed to talk until Shinobi shows up,” Paige said before pausing to think about it. “Unless you’re telling me how much you adore me. How much you’ve missed me is also acceptable.”

Sarah looked at her in amused disbelief for a moment. The rule seemed to have worked, however, because the next sounds out of Sarah's mouth were not from talking, but from laughter.

Paige tossed back her hair, chin slightly in the air. “Damn straight,” was all she said.