"Plus, then we can play-fight, right?" stroking his hair again. "You should let me take care of you more, bruh. You're good at carrying that whole world on your shoulders but our cabin's a total safe space."
"I know. I allow it with some. With Archer. With Jedao. And sometimes with you," he assures her. "But I would like to continue practicing. So, how would you take care of me now?"
He's mostly joking, but he's curious about it. "Not that I believe I need it."
"Right now?" She looks upward thoughtfully. "I think I have a different angle than Jedao does, 'cause he gets your old person vibe, or Archer who's you know, your boyfriend." And also grappling with old wounds.
"I think I'd try to remind you that right this second, things are okay. People we love are safe. We're in a good cabin with books and things we can learn, or have fun with. Nothing behind us is happening right now, and nothing ahead of us can be touched. So we get to be right here...and if things are too stressful to be good, you at least know they're better right this second than they were before you came home."
He squeezes her hand. "You don't need to be Jedao or Archer," he tells her. "You're good at this." She and Quentin are the same in this regard. It's natural for Godric to want to take care of them. So when they do that for him, he's touched. It's genuine. And he loves it.
He smiles. "But you forgot about Julia Roberts on the television."
"So close!" Her grin sobers just a touch. "Actually, because I saw this one when I was a couple years out of leaving school. And the story in this is 'you have to know yourself before you can love or be loved'. And considering the guys I ran with, it just hit home. Changed how I looked for guys."
"Ah." He sits up at that. "Is that something I need to worry about?" he teases lightly, though he recognizes the seriousness of what she's saying. And, as he always does, he appreciates her candor.
"Oh don't worry, I know myself now. No one's shaking this brain." Including the newly discovered monster part. But she meant what she told him: right now the only thing that matters is she's calm and safe.
"You know so many stories. Was there one that really changed your mind on something?"
"Changed my mind? No. But I have been influenced by stories in my life. War stories, particularly, but not in any profound way, though. Not in the way you describe. It may be difficult to believe, but I have only started really and truly reading since arriving here on the barge. The other stories I've heard have been stories passed down orally."
"You have so many books," she marvels, glancing back at his bedroom. "I thought you'd spent hundreds of years reading stuff like that musty English poet, or those little books people read on the beach. And everything else."
"Oh I read here and there. But even if I spent a solid hundred years doing nothing but reading, I've lived for two thousand. It's such a small amount of time for me. And what I did read was what had already been told to me. Epics I heard over a fire, simply written down. Shakespearean plays I had already seen, now in book form. Books of magic or other artifacts that I collected simply to own."
He laughs. "And you must remember that I did not even know a written language until well into my life."
"My favorite thing as a kid was when my teachers would read to us. And then my least favorite thing was when they'd make us read out loud," grimacing. "I wasn't the worst one. I wasn't good, but I wasn't the worst. But kids are assholes and I always felt bad for the kids who were worse than me."
But it's part of why his reading to her is so soothing, and has become such a welcome routine through their week.
"I've got a little stack of books I wanna read to you sometime. They're so dumb, but they're great before bed."
"Pick one for tonight," he tells her. "It will be something to look forward to tonight." He anticipates that they will end up in his bed that night anyway. Whatever that means for them still remains to be seen, but it hardly matters. He wants to hear the story, no matter what.
"I know the one," she agrees, wondering what exactly Godric will think of Beverly Cleary. She has deeper, more adult books in mind, but they could use something very simple after the week they've had. "But after the movie. We have to see her turn in her running shoes."
"Pretty Woman was my favorite fantasy for so long." Perhaps other women had it too, but Annie's life wasn't very far from Julia Roberts's character back then. "But I hate high heels. I saw a guy who was daring his friends to wear 'em surfing...bad idea."
He shakes his head. "What a truly terrible idea," he scoffs. "Though I've never liked heels. In any century. They once were fashionable in France for men. Red heels, even. For nobility. To imagine anyone attempting to surf seems like a recipe for a disaster."
"It was. I wish I'd been there to see it. Heck I wish I was there to see men walking around in red heels, even though noble people seem like they were all a bunch of dicks. Did that lady really tell people to go eat cake?" She shakes her head, and tugs on his shoulder to point at the final scene: the running shoes, the wedding.
"Qu’ils mangent de la brioche?" he laughs before he lowers his voice to a whisper so he can pay attention. "Marie-Antoinette never said anything like that. She threw wonderful parties, but was actually quite charitable. It was a shame about her head."
"That makes me sad," Annie says when the credits start to roll. "I never learned about it really, just stuff you hear from the street poets and whatever. That women would come like, take hair from the heads or something. That everyone went nuts."
The nice night they're having cushions the thought that wolves don't really stray too far from how brutal humans are, rather than the other way around. She looks down at Godric, taking him in like a talisman, a reminder that she doesn't have to follow any sort of bloodlust. It earns him a small, crooked smile even though she doesn't explain why.
"Can I sleep in your bed tonight?" She's exhausted--like she said, she's always exhausted lately--and she always sleeps best next to him.
"Wasn't that the plan?" he points out. "Since you were going to read to me? Or should we table that so I can read to you?" He doesn't mind doing whatever she needs. If she wants to sleep, then she can sleep. If she wants to stay up, then so be it. He doesn't plan on leaving her, even if that means he just stays around the cabin to let her rest.
"I'm gonna be double checking a lot of things for a while," she confesses, "Everywhere. I feel all...shaky sometimes. I know you won't change your mind it's just, like when you aren't sure if you turned a light off when you left a room. But yeah I wanna read to you about a freakin' mouse on a motorcycle. Totally crazy."
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 02:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 02:07 am (UTC)He reaches up to take her hand. "I am not good at letting people take care of me. It is difficult for me to accept."
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Date: 2021-05-16 02:13 am (UTC)"You have to practice it. It's like we've all got walls up and we forgot to build a door, so you gotta just carve one in a brick at a time."
She pauses, thinking that over, decides it's close enough.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 02:17 am (UTC)He's mostly joking, but he's curious about it. "Not that I believe I need it."
no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 02:27 am (UTC)"I think I'd try to remind you that right this second, things are okay. People we love are safe. We're in a good cabin with books and things we can learn, or have fun with. Nothing behind us is happening right now, and nothing ahead of us can be touched. So we get to be right here...and if things are too stressful to be good, you at least know they're better right this second than they were before you came home."
no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 02:31 am (UTC)He smiles. "But you forgot about Julia Roberts on the television."
no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 03:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 03:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 03:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 03:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 03:24 am (UTC)"You know so many stories. Was there one that really changed your mind on something?"
no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 03:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 03:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 03:50 am (UTC)He laughs. "And you must remember that I did not even know a written language until well into my life."
no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 03:57 am (UTC)But it's part of why his reading to her is so soothing, and has become such a welcome routine through their week.
"I've got a little stack of books I wanna read to you sometime. They're so dumb, but they're great before bed."
no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 04:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 05:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 05:05 am (UTC)Clearly they have a very busy evening ahead of them. But Godric's going to stay with her, which is the most important thing, honestly.
He wraps an arm around her shoulders. "I think I like them better in Pretty Woman."
no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 05:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 05:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 11:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 11:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 11:18 pm (UTC)The nice night they're having cushions the thought that wolves don't really stray too far from how brutal humans are, rather than the other way around. She looks down at Godric, taking him in like a talisman, a reminder that she doesn't have to follow any sort of bloodlust. It earns him a small, crooked smile even though she doesn't explain why.
"Can I sleep in your bed tonight?" She's exhausted--like she said, she's always exhausted lately--and she always sleeps best next to him.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 11:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-16 11:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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