Love is an act of endless forgiveness.

[x-polarisstar.livejournal.com]

Saturday evening, HeliX ball.
Lorna has a little trouble getting through to Brent. Alex takes the direct approach. Shiro shows Brent his way out. Alex and Lorna decide to try talking without fighting and succeed. A little communication goes a long way.



By the fourth time Brent kissed her, Lorna had had enough. She’d used big words, she’d used little words, she’d even performed a little skit using hors d’oeuvres stolen from one of the efficient wait staff but it didn’t seem to get through. She jerked back and frowned at him, giving the room a quick glance. “We need to talk about this. Again.” Her mental map of the ground floor had her dragging him out one of the side doors and into the small room the caterers were using as a staging area. It was empty at present and would probably remain that way. She pointed him in ahead of her and let the door swing mostly closed. She put her back to the wall and folded her arms across her chest. “Brent, have I not been clear?”

He sighed, “Just friends, nothing more. I understand, Lorna. I think you’re overreacting about a few harmless kisses.” He leaned on one arm, not over her exactly because he was the same height as she was in her heels, but definitely in her space.

She shoved him back, irritably. “I don’t actually go around randomly kissing my friends. We aren’t dating. We’re never going to be dating. I like you and if things were different then we might have ended up dating but they aren’t so we won’t!”

Surprisingly, Alex was having fun, well, when he ignored the fact that Brent kept kissing Lorna...not like he noticed or anything. As he was just finishing a dance with Leyu, who was being her cute little self, he couldn't help but overhear the beginning of the argument. Curious at this, he followed them, as Leyu conveniently decided she had to use the restroom. Thankful that the door hadn't closed all the way, he stood by the open door and listened.

Shiro was enjoying himself, also surprisingly, and wasn't stepping on Clarice's feet too much. He'd been paying some attention to Alex throughout the night, waiting for the opportune moment, but when he saw Lorna and Brent disappear, he assumed the worst. And then Alex followed them . . . this would be badness. Excusing himself, he went after his best friend.

Alex looked over when he saw Shiro follow him and put a finger to his lips to keep him from asking questions then pointed through the door at Lorna and Brent arguing. "Listen..." he said softly.

Shiro nodded and didn't say a word. He just stood close to Alex so he could hear the two on the other side.

Brent was speaking in his reasonable way with his crooked grin at its most teasingly charming. “Can you blame me that hope springs eternal? I meant what I said about being first in line. You said you were waiting for him to come back to you. There’s nothing wrong with having a good time while you’re waiting.” Lorna heard the slight slur at the edge of his voice and made a mental note to never let him drink again.

Alex frowned slightly and looked back at Shiro. "Did he just say...she was waiting for me?" he asked softly.

Shiro's expression mirrored Alex's, and he shrugged. He put his finger over his lips to tell Alex to keep quiet, and listened on.

“Maybe you don’t see anything wrong with it but you’re not the one who gets to make that decision.” Lorna’s voice went high and sharp. “If you can’t honor my wishes then I think you should go.”

Brent sighed again, as though he was the one suffering. “Lorna, don’t be unreasonable.”

Alex was clenching his fists as he listened to Lorna and Brent, getting angrier by the second. Moving quickly so Shiro couldn't stop him, Alex burst through the door and moved between Lorna and Brent, pushing him away from her before pulling back and punching him in the face. Then he turned to Lorna, his face showing concern. "Are you alright?"

Shiro swore under his breath, but followed Alex anyway. Someone had to keep a cool head. And the fact that it was going to be him was ridiculous. But when he saw Alex throw the punch, he knew that there was no chance. Shiro just rolled his eyes, and muttered something quietly.

Lorna gaped at Alex, totally speechless. She managed to nod and then shifted her gaze behind him to where Brent was slowly recovering, the wine having done more to take him down than Alex’s punch. Brent reached out to grab Alex’s shoulder.

Shiro grabbed Brent's wrist and squeezed hard. Despite his short stature, he was pretty strong. "You really don't want to do anything you'll regret. I, however, would love for you to."

Totally ignoring the scene going on behind him, quite confident Shiro could handle it, Alex grabbed Lorna's wrist. "Come on...I think we need to talk."

Lorna wasn’t, however, and her shock was wearing off as well. She twisted her wrist out of Alex’s grip and distributed a glare to all three men. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Shiro, let go of him. Brent,” she shook her head, “just go find someplace else to be.” She settled back on Alex and folded her arms. “What kind of insanity was that?”

"You got lucky," Shiro said to Brent before turning to Alex and Shiro. "We'll just be outside in case you need us." He glanced at Alex and winked at him before dragging Brent out, his fingers digging deeply into his wrist.

Alex shook his head at Shiro before turn back to Lorna. "Insanity? It sounded like you wanted him to leave you alone and he wouldn't...Seemed like a good idea to intervene at the time." He rubbed his hand, flexing his fingers. "And damn did that felt good...!"

Lorna was far from amused. “We were just talking. I’m a big girl, Alex, I can handle myself. He couldn’t have done anything.” She took his hand and inspected it, “Are you okay?” She was visibly angry but her hands were gentle.

He was very tempted to pull his hand away from her but he couldn't tear it away from her gentle touch. "I'm fine, really. And it didn't look like he was listening to anything you said and frankly...I didn't want to take the chance." Alex bit his lip. "I do still care about you ya know?"

Having satisfied herself that his hand wasn’t broken or even a little bruised, she let go and folded her arms again, “That’s not the point. In the first place, I’m more than adequately trained to have stopped him myself and in the second, you can’t just hit people.” Some of her anger bled away and a new thought occurred to her, “Wait, you were listening?”

Alex nodded a bit awkwardly, running a nervous hand through his hair. "I happened to over hear your argument after he kissed you and got concerned. Leyu had to go to the bathroom so I wanted to make sure you were going to be alright, and Shiro happened to follow me." He gave her a nervous shrug, not sure how she was going to take the fact he was eavesdropping.

Lorna didn’t know what to say, having gone so far past shock by this point she was coming around the front side again. She leaned her head back against the wall, staring at the ceiling. “Nothing happened, Alex,” she said finally without looking back at him, “Nothing has happened. Brent and I are just friends. Something I think he gets now that my boy…ex-boyfriend just clocked him on the jaw.”

"Good I'm glad he gets the point because we need to do something about that ex thing...Lorna, are you happy with this arrangement? With us separated like this? Because I'm certainly not..." He bit his lip, his tone serious. The last thing Alex wanted was to be pushed away now.

She lifted her head to look at him so quickly it made her dizzy. She clutched at the wall behind her for stability. “What?” she asked, sure she’d just misheard him.

Alex saw her wobble and put his hands on her shoulders to help support her. "I asked are you happy like this...because I'm not...I miss you Lorna..." His voice was softer this time, as he tried to keep his emotion out of it.

She immediately clung to his wrists instead of the wall. “How could I be? I love you.” Her grip was tight, probably because she was trying to conceal the way her hands were shaking. “Of course, I miss you. I’ve told you before that you’re the reason I hold on.”

She didn't hide it very well, for Alex noticed. He moved her hands to grip his own shoulders, so he could wrap his around her waist, holding her steady. "I don't think I realized how much I need you to hold on...I don't think I realized how much I love you...until I couldn't have you anymore..." His voice was soft and low, trying to hide his emotion which was a mix of fright and shame at this point.

Lorna took a deep breath and had to remind herself that she needed more. “Here’s the deal,” she said shakily after a several seconds of steadying herself. Despite the way her voice wavered there was nothing hesitant about it. “I’ve wanted nothing more than to beg for you back. To take whatever terms you had to offer so we could make this all go away and put things back to normal. But I can’t do that. I’d humble everything for you and never count the cost. The trouble is that in the end what I’d be giving up isn’t just my pride. I’d also be hurting you.” She wanted to step forward so he could hold her and stepped back instead. “So if we want to try again, I’m going to need something from you.”

Alex frowned slightly as she stepped out of his arms, suddenly feeling lost as he dropped them to his sides, his hands flexing themselves out of nerves.. "I'll do anything Lorna...Tell me."

“Don’t say that until you hear it.” She clasped her hands in front of her, knuckles white. “I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. About what happened.” She had gone pale but she didn’t look away from him, “I think I wasn’t totally wrong. I know that you would rather have not told me about your nightmares but I did need to ask. I keep thinking back to all the times I backed off because I was more afraid of losing you than helping you. So I need you to talk to me. When something is going on, you have to talk to me. Or to someone one else, I don’t care, just so long as I know you’re talking to someone.” She was scared, so totally terrified that she was trembling from the chill. She was essentially revoking most of her apology. But she couldn’t do anything else.

Alex bit the inside of his lip as he nodded. "You’re right...And I could repeat back a lot of what you just said...I think we both need to work on our communication, especially with each other, and we can help each other with that. But..." He looked away a bit, slightly afraid and trembling himself. "I want you to understand why I didn't tell you about my nightmares. It didn't have anything to do with you...I swear."

Samson had said the same when she’d ranted about the fact he hadn’t told her. “I know. But I think what we need to learn is that we can’t hide things from each other. We have to be able to trust each other. No more keeping each other at arm’s length because we’re afraid it will hurt the other too much to get close.” She drew in another steadying breath and plowed on. “That’s the other thing. I can’t take you walking away from me anymore. We’re going to fight but it can’t end with you running off or me throwing you out. We need to stay and see it through.”

Again he nodded taking a deep breath. "You’re right...But trust works both ways. If one of us does not want to be pushed into something, the other has to respect that and find another way to help. I don't want a fight like that to ever happen again because it was painful revealing something that personal and painful like that. The nightmares...I had to come to terms with them myself before I could even think of telling you, or anybody." Then he opened his arms a bit to her with a small smile. "And I promise to not run out if you promise not to throw me out."

But she stayed where she was. “I can’t agree to that.” Her voice was hardly more than a whisper. “You didn’t want me to push about your hands last year either and I let it go.” She swallowed hard. “It nearly killed us both. We have to be able to push until we get results. If something is wrong, you have to tell someone. I’m just as guilty of it. I didn’t say anything about…” she stopped, literally unable to say ‘Manuel’ and had to edit herself, “about my eating. You don’t have to tell me but it has to be said to someone who can help.”

Alex sighed sadly as he dropped his hands to his sides again. "I...alright, I'll...I'll try. But don't push too hard too fast...that's what caused this remember?" He swallowed hard and looked down at his feet. "I’m so sorry Lorna..." he closed his eyes now, taking a trembling deep breath.

“Me, too. Oh god, Alex, I’m so sorry.” She reached forward, touching his face with hesitant fingertips. “I’ve missed you so much.”

Alex looked up slowly as he felt the touch on his face and hesitantly held out his hands to her again, wanting to hold her so much. "I didn't think I could miss someone this much before..." He paused a moment, taking a deep breath. "I love you, more than anything I love you, Lorna Dane. And I don't want to lose you, ever again..."

She stepped forward quickly, wrapping her arms around his neck, clinging like he was her only lifeline. “And I love you, Alex Summers. You’re the most important person in the world for me.” She was crying and tilted her head back so that her mascara wouldn’t run.

Relief rushing through him, Alex hugged her too him like he would never let go, tears coming to his own eyes. He picked her up and twirled her a bit, laughing happily.

Hearing him laugh started her laughing. Trusting that he would hold her, she took her arms from around his neck and framed his face in her hands. She traced his features, revelling in her right to do so, in her ability just to touch him again, before kissing him soundly.

Hold her he did, until she began to trace his features, as he was practically melting under her touch, a touch he had missed dearly. Wisely Alex set her down before they kissed, for it made him weak in the knees. Apart of him had thought he would never be able to do this again...and thankfully, that part was wrong. When they finally parted to look in each other's eyes, he heard a slow song coming from inside and Alex asked softly. "Might I ask you to dance m'lady?"

“I would be honored, good sir knight.” She kissed him again before easing away just enough to drop a graceful dancer’s bow, putting her hands in his.

He bowed in return before taking her hands, pulling her close to him. Alex sighed happily as they began to dance slowly, her head against his chest, his on top of hers. Everything was perfect again...