Walk This Way

[valerie_vause]

After class Valerie had taken a shower, then spent the next twenty minutes changing her outfit over and over again. The first had been a pair of black pants and a dark hoody. The blonde had looked at herself in the mirror and sighed. “Hi Brian, I’ll be stealing your wallet tonight.” She’d changed quickly into a skirt with a low cut top to match and decided she looked more like a call girl than anything else. That got removed for a dress that stopped just above her knees, and Valerie had to remind herself that they were hanging out, not planning to attend the theater. The blonde stood with her head against the wall in dismay for a few minutes, and contemplated calling to say that she was sick. Well, it wasn’t far off, she felt nervous enough.

Eventually she had left in a pair of dark jeans that flared at the bottom. Perfect to wear with boots, which meant a slim though sturdy stake could be slid inside, point down. With it concealed out of sight she didn’t have to bother with a bag and she found a nice fitting t-shirt to slip on. Admittedly it was dark green and on the front the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stood proudly. It didn’t matter though because she grabbed a sweater to pull over it. The thick forest green fabric felt soft but light against her skin. It would keep her warm enough that she didn’t need a jacket.

Valerie made it to Tracks with five minutes to spare, and she took a moment to collect herself. Right now her hair was tied back, and although her hand went to pull it free she stopped. It was only a neck, she didn’t have to have it covered with her hair all the time. Hands checked her pants to make sure she still had her wallet before she fished out a packet of gum and took a piece. She chewed it roughly for a second or two to let out the anxiety. With a slow breath she pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Even at seven the place had customers. Valerie relaxed a little and began to half browse the shelves as she made her way to the counter. It was better than actively standing out as she looked around for Brian. Maybe she’d been too presumptuous about how free he had been. Or was that optimistic? Valerie ignored the voice in her head and almost tripped over a guy looking at an Aerosmith cassette. He grumbled under his breath and she found herself mumbling an apology as she moved on quickly.

Comments

[brian_campo]

Brian cupped a hand in front of his face and huffed. He scowled and shook another tic-tac into his open mouth. Way to assume you’ll be breathing anywhere near her face, he chided himself. He checked his watch. 7:01.

Time to admit the pathetic truth. He was hiding in the storeroom.

He did want to see her and that was the problem. He hadn’t been suitable for public since 6:30. Every time the door chimed, it was Valerie. Every time a blonde approached the counter, it was Valerie. It didn’t matter if said blonde was male or female, which Brian demonstrated at 6:48 when, thinking he had found a clever way to break the ice

-- are we hanging out or is this a date? --

he hastily wrote a note, folded it into a football, and sailed it at a mane of yellow hair

‘just in case I can’t get up the nerve to say it: you have pretty eyes’

that belonged to stranger. In terms of greetings, that one stacked up as the most awkward of Brian’s life. Once he realized his mistake, Brian beat a fast retreat, knocking over a turnstile of cassettes in the process.

“Why so nervous?” Billie, the pink-haired manager of Tracks asked earlier as she slapped a price sticker on Lionel Ritchie’s face. He didn’t have a simple answer, just a multitude of possibilities as to why his stomach was in knots. A pretty new face. A sober night. No gig to use as a reason for meeting up. A conversation about a thing he never said out loud. A faint suspicion that he was making things up in his head. All of it.

At 7:02, he muttered, “Alright, get a grip,” and walked onto the sales floor wearing a red Zeppelin shirt, jeans, and doc martens. There was a price tag stuck to his crotch.

[valerie_vause]

The muscles in Valerie’s jaw had began to twinge with slight pain. She brought it on herself, chewing faster than she realised until the gum began to harden. It lost it’s taste quickly and she wound up rolling it along the roof of her mouth until she caught sight of a torn label and yanked it free. She spat her gum into it, folded it up, and stuck it in her pocket to throw away once she was outside. Alright this was ridiculous, she should just walk up to the counter and ask if he was there.

With a plan in mind the blonde wandered between a few people and froze. Brian had appeared, and he hadn’t seen her yet. Valerie side stepped to get into his line of vision, and while she’d never admit it her eyes went from his face to his toes then back up to the top of his thighs. At first she frowned, then laughter caught in her throat as she walked closer. She cleared her throat as she stopped in front of him and quirked an eyebrow.

“So is $12.99 the standard price for a ride or are you discounted goods?”

The words escaped her mouth before her brain had a chance to process them but if she were truthful she’d probably still have said it. How can you pass up something like that? Valerie might have reddened a little but it had been worth it if only for her own amusement. Well, at least she felt more relaxed, albeit due to mischief.

“No wait.” Valerie grinned and bit her lip, one finger pointed up into the air as if she’d had a brainwave. “Is this a special edition thing, where the rest of the parts are sold separately?”

Valerie stopped herself after that but couldn’t remove the grin she wore. Even if she did a quick, though subtle, check of her own body to make sure she didn’t have the same issue. With no price tags in sight the blonde tried to keep her eyes away from the one stuck on him.

[brian_campo]

“What?” Brian frowned and looked down, patting the flat expanse of his torso in search of the problem. He spotted the orange rectangle on his jeans. Sheesus Christ. Well, what did he expect after the football incident? It was par for the course tonight. He felt his mouth start to twitch into a smile. Instead of peeling the sticker off, he flicked his hair off his forehead and said, “Actually, 12.99 refers to size. In inches. But there’s more.”

He maneuvered across the aisle and grabbed a sign from atop a bin of cassette singles. He held it level with his nuts and cleared his throat.

‘Buy one, get one free.’

“May I offer you a product demonstration?”

[valerie_vause]

Inches. Oh god. Some part of Valerie realised she deserved that but the rest of her felt a blush begin as her mind tried to picture it. She shook her head and pressed her lips together to try and dislodge the thought even if she did start to laugh. “You keep measuring tape in here, right?” Belatedly she noticed the sign he held and it took a moment for the blonde to click. Her mouth opened but all that met her ears was silence while her mind went blank and her skin tinged pink.

Thankfully he said something to put a stop to her brain freeze and she had to hand it to him, he was quick with humor.

“By all means.” She said, and struggled to keep her face straight as she crossed her arms and cleared her throat. “I’ll stand right here and you can show me how to work it.”

[brian_campo]

She wants to play chicken. Alright. I can do that.

“Yeah, sure. Hold this.” Brian handed her the sale sign. He lifted the hem of his t-shirt and tucked it under his chin, exposing pale stomach and a dark trail of hair that began at his belly button and disappeared into his jeans. He took hold of his belt buckle and unfastened it. “Normally I don’t do this sort of thing, but my boss says the customer is always right.”

He unbuttoned his jeans and started in on the zipper. The dark blue waistband of his boxers was showing.

Please, god, tell me to stop. I can’t get arrested for public indecency.

He peeked up at Valerie through his hair.

[valerie_vause]

Nervous excitement dwindled when the topic became learning more about her. Valerie chewed the inside of her lip and realised this was exactly the problem. She might want to know people, but they couldn’t ever really know her. Maybe that wasn’t really a problem, she had a tendency to keep people at arms length for their safety as much as hers. The blonde didn’t like to lie so she had to walk a fine line with what she offered up. Granted the questions he began to ask were nothing to worry about, but that could change quickly.

“Sometimes, but I don’t like to get drunk. I don’t like feeling out of control of my body.” Great start, why not just tell him you’re allergic to fun? “I do like to dance, crowds don’t bother me and I can be quite a solitary person when the mood strikes me.” So far so good. Valerie shrugged lightly with a slight smile. “Okay here’s the thing, I’m not sure what kind of information you want so I’m just going to list a bunch of stuff that I like and uhm, don’t.”

Valerie rubbed her cheek with the side of her hand as she looked at the sky and gathered her thoughts. “I’m taking fine arts at UNLV.” She paused for a second then added, “I like all kinds of animals and being outdoors. I enjoy gymnastics, martial arts and all kinds of sports including the extreme. I’m not a big fan of guns unless it’s paintball, but I do appreciate archery. I actually like to cook, but I hate doing the dishes. I like all kinds of movies, horror, thriller, action, comedy, but I can’t sit through obscure art ones, they make my brain ache.”

[brian_campo]

Once upon a time, Brian idealized being out of control. He liked that floating feeling: his head on a kite string, his fingers floating in the void, tongue moving of its own accord. No accountability, no noise, just a sense of detachment from the universe, as if he could do no wrong and nothing that mattered.

Valerie was different, he saw. Most of what she liked involved precision and clarity. And it was nice. He wanted to ask about it he didn’t bombard her.

The wind stirred a few loose strands of her hair. It was silvery-blonde and looked like spider webs. He wanted to pull out the rubber band, wrap some of her hair around his fingers and gently tug on it. To keep from embarrassing himself, he curled his fingers into his palms. His nose twigged the smell of her, like chewing gum and that soft ‘girl’ scent that baffled men; where did it come from? Did they wake up like that?

He felt tweaked, like he had drunk too much caffeine.

He made up his mind right there. He was going to tell her.

“I know where we’re going.” Brian held out his hand. “Come on. Just trust me.”

[valerie_vause]

Valerie had never experienced the high that came with drugs, or the detachment or euphoria they may cause. She didn’t judge those who did either, half the music she listened too would never have been made without the stuff. The closest she came to it happened naturally, her own chemical cocktail that took place every time she fought a demon. The rush it could cause could leave her tingling as adrenaline pumped through her system. The way it left her feeling so alive. Primal.

Every once in a long while it granted a few seconds of feeling invincible. Though she knew she wasn’t. Those moments, sometimes they were everything.

A way to push out the normal world and belong for just a second among the darkness that held home for all those monsters that tried to end her life. It wasn’t the same, but she could at least talk about it if she called it an extreme sports rush.

Maybe she had said too much, or too little, Valerie wasn’t sure and she opened her mouth to break the silence but he beat her too it. The blonde looked at him for a second, took in the self assured way he said it, and felt the pull as he beckoned her to trust him.

Valerie lived her life listening to her instincts.

That was why she reached out and took his hand to squeeze. She bit back the question of where he was taking her and said simply, “Let’s go.”

[brian_campo]

As they walked north of the boulevard, the telekinetic bowed his dark head and laced their fingers together. No matter what Valerie felt, he wasn’t going to pussyfoot around his intentions. He wasn’t into playing the hokey-pokey; he was either in or he was out, and it wasn’t both. The contents of that mix tape had probably made it clear, but just in case. The sidewalk traffic cleared up the farther north they walked, but between the ambient noise of cars idling at intersections, cab doors slamming shut, barks of laughter and jazz music coming from the restaurants at dinnertime, it wasn’t awkward to walk in silence. Still, as they stepped onto the campus of a community college, he spoke up.

“Valerie, what’s your favorite constellation?”

His boots left imprints in the thick grass of the main lawn. A sprinkler had come on nearby. He heard the click-click-clicking as its head spun around.

Work for me tonight, he thought of his plan. The door’s gonna be open. There will be two seats side by side.

[valerie_vause]

Valerie heard the soft noise he made, she wanted to reach out and touch the side of his face, tell him she felt nervous too but she didn’t. Instead she walked with him as he lead her around a corner and despite the darkness his steps were confident. Wherever they were the blonde surmised that it must be somewhere he frequented enough to wander around with ease. When they entered the planetarium hand in hand it all made sense. The question about her favorite constellation had tied right into where he’d wanted to take her. The realisation made her smile, and she stepped carefully between the seats to find one next to him.

Fingers slipped free of his as the blonde tugged at the hem of her sweater. The soft fabric got pulled up and over her head so that she could fold it into a makeshift pillow to place over the back of her chair. Valerie slid down in her seat to match his posture and got comfortable. The question caused a slight laugh and she turned to face him in the dark while her hand found his again. She entwined their fingers gently and said softly, “This is better than okay, thank you for bringing me here.”

Alright so she could feel that his palm was a little sticky with sweat and she could almost feel the nerves coming off of him in waves but it was endearing. There was no cockyness or peacocking, he was being himself without adding bravado and if Valerie were honest with herself it felt nice. To actually connect with someone on an honest level, well, as honest as she could manage. The dark provided an illusion of safety, they could talk without seeing each other clearly, without worrying what the others reaction might be.

“So now that we’re settled... What do you want to talk about?”

Valerie kept her head tipped back to watch the show but her attention was on Brian.

[brian_campo]

Brian let go of her fingers. He dried his palms on his jeans. He wanted to squeeze his eyes shut, but he made himself watch the spiraling Milky Way while his fists clutched at the denim on his knees. He cleared his dry throat and mumbled, “The other day in the diner, I did something weird. I know you saw me do it.”

Nice and vague, buddy.

All of a sudden, the sky tilted. A nebula flew toward them. He started to feel kind-of off. It was all in his head, but Brian rubbed his eyes anyway. He figured out it was easier to look at the spherical projector than the map of the universe, so he watched the pinpricks of white light pierce through the spinning ball.

“It was an accident, but I do it a lot.” He wanted to just spit it out, like when he learned to rip off a band-aid or stick his finger down his throat when puke was imminent. It was the same principle, and if he couldn’t tell Valerie, he had no one else. “I make things move without touching them.”

In a burst of nervous energy, he sat forward and shoved his hair off his face. He sat that way for a while with his elbows digging notches into his legs. "Fuck," he whispered.

[valerie_vause]

Fingers flexed then settled against her thigh as Valerie watched the stars projected above. Hypnotic almost as she listened quietly. She did see it, but there was no sense in saying what he already knew, it could just spook him into changing the topic and the blonde would rather hear what he had to say.

The word ‘accident’ had Valerie pause. Accidents usually happened with abilities when they were new, when control hadn’t quite made it into the picture yet. From the way he struggled with the words the blonde pieced it together. Brian hadn’t lived his life with this, it had started recently. Any normal person might have laughed at the idea of someone being able to move objects. Valerie’s mind went straight to how useful it could be for personal defence.

The moment Brian sat forward the blonde reached out to pat him on the shoulder, though her hand never made it because she tried to break the tension with a light, “Never on the first date.”

She shifted in her seat and used her hand to rub the side of his upper arm for a second before taking it back. It didn’t seem weird to her, fascinating maybe but not strange. Demons had all kinds of abilities, witches with real power could do things she could only dream of, so a normal man who could do things like that seemed natural really in such a world.

“Once you learn to control it you’ll feel better. I can help you with that, if you wanted? To gain control over it. I actually have a lot of experience in…” Valerie bit the inside of her lip just in time. “Discipline! I mean, learning to focus and channel your energy, like, people do.”

Like people do? Valerie let out a groan, her gaze moved to the projection above, just to utter under her breath, “Beam me up…”

One hand rubbed across her face and she tried again, “I want to help.” The corners of her lips twitched into a smile as she repeated his words, “Just trust me.”

[brian_campo]

Brian kept his shoulders hunched forward, but he turned his face to get a better look at her. The artificial stars turned her skin blue and he could see that Valerie was smiling, not laughing at the idiot who thought he had superpowers. “Why are you being so nice about this?”

Brian knew that it was unwise to look a gift horse in the mouth, but hers wasn’t an ordinary reaction. He was sure of it. Ordinary would be calling him a nutcase or speed-walking to the nearest exit. Instead, she was offering help as if she believed him, as if that wasn’t The Most Insane claim he could make.

His pulse sped up. What was that, hope? Better get that in check before he made an ass of himself.

“And I don’t understand, how can you help? This is fucked up, weird, sci-fi stuff. It doesn’t exist,” he hissed.

She’s an angel, he thought. That’s gotta be it. I lost my mind and now God’s taking pity on me.

[valerie_vause]

Startled, a small noise escaped the blonde as he picked her up, then it turned to amusement as she got placed onto the metal handrail. Feet began a careless back and forth through the air while her hands gripped the bar on either side of her. The cold metal felt nice against her heated palms and she threw her head back to look at the sky. With the sun sinking out of sight she probably wouldn’t have to explain the sudden onslaught of such nervous babbling. If they didn’t find somewhere to go something might just find them.

“Or something.” Valerie repeated, cocking her head to the side as she watched him try to work out where he wanted his hands. The whole thing made her smile, he felt just as nervous as her. Though she appreciated the way he tried to give her space, she didn’t want him to think she would break if he touched her either.

Valerie uncurled one hand from the railing to reach out and grab the front of his shirt. With a gentle tug she pulled him closer and took one of his hands. The blonde guided it back to her waist with the excuse of, “You can help me keep my balance.” With the added height they were practically at eye level, when their gaze met, Valerie realised he probably saw through the fib. Part of her felt fine with that.

She didn’t have to tell him everything right away, but a little might be a good idea. To at least keep him safe and alive, which, technically... Was part of her calling… Valerie rationalised it the best way she could because at the end of the day it was still her life. She should be allowed to confide in who she wanted providing she didn’t appear on television or radio broadcasting it to the world.

“What if, hypothetically, I told you the things we’re taught to fear as children are actually real?”

[brian_campo]

"Hypothetically?" Brian shrugged. "I guess it's possible. A story's gotta come from somewhere." Now that he had permission, he gently squeezed her side. The pad of his thumb wandered underneath the hem of her tshirt and made contact with her skin, which felt soft and velvety. He tried to recall what he feared as a kid. Spiders under his bed covers, the blackness outside his bedroom window, getting lost or left behind. Too literal. "Are we talking fairy tales? Urban legends?"

[valerie_vause]

Brian’s attitude toward the not so hypothetical question felt relaxed. Valerie watched the way his shoulders moved with the shrug, how his shirt ruffled then smoothed out, a sigh escaped as she debated how to say more. So far he didn’t show any signs of running off and there appeared to be no narrowed eye suspicion that she might actually be bonkers. She sniffed the warm air and watched a shadow move behind him as the sun lowered.

“Sort of, think of it l-ike...” Valerie trailed off with a slight squeak, surprise twined with a tingle of skin contact. The squeeze before had been half expected, perhaps even thought about, but this, she decided, felt better. Feather light as it left behind a slight tickle against her skin. It wasn’t an intrusive act, he made no attempt to roam anywhere else other than the skin beneath the pad of his thumb.

Valerie cleared her throat with a bit of an embarrassed, though amused, smile. “Things that go bump in the night. Monsters and ghosts, that sort of stuff.”

[brian_campo]

Cute. She’s ticklish. He couldn’t help noticing.

Years back, when Brian was a skinny kid looking for surrogate brothers, he cut class to hang out behind a convenience store with a variety of drop-outs and other truants. There was a seventeen-year-old named Trip, newly licensed with a hand-me-down car, who had made out with a few girls in the backseat and considered himself an expert on the subject matter. Trip, eager to promote that reputation, shared tips of the trade. He told Brian that touching a girl in a ticklish spot was a quick way to tell if she was easy. If she jumped, she wasn’t used to being handled. If she didn’t, it meant she got around.

Of course, as Brian figured out for himself, women were way more complicated than that. But the memory flew into his brain. Brian felt his mouth hitch. He worried he might laugh and have to explain himself, so he doubled down to focus.

“Uh, two months ago, I’d say you were pulling my leg. Now I’d be an ass if I said that. I mean…” He flung his left hand haphazardly. A coke can, nestled in a nearby crack in the sidewalk, skittered uphill. Not too impressive, as far as tricks went, but at least it was on purpose.

“Back home, my ma used to swear there was a ghost in our house. This was back when I was a kid. She said things moved around the house at night. I dunno. Maybe it was me doing it in my sleep. But I believed her.”

[valerie_vause]

Why was she being so honest with him? Why did he have to be so close? Why hadn’t he run off yet? Valerie couldn’t stop the series of questions that plagued her mind right then. The only things she knew for sure was that when he stood so close it made it hard to think, that his breath still held a touch of mint to it and that the tingling sensation she felt as his thumbs traced her palms must have been common sense leaving her body.

Every night since then.

“Oh you know… Only when... The earth rotates...”

Valerie felt herself slump ever so slightly. She’d said so much already she might as well just spit the rest out before she lost her nerve or came to her senses. If the worst happened and Brian decided to tell anyone and everyone what she did with her life then she’d just have to pack up and move to another state. Or out of the country.

“Look I know how crazy this sounds, and honestly I wouldn’t have believed me either as a kid but then I woke up one morning and... Everything had changed.” I had changed.

Valerie cleared her throat and said lightly. “Destiny is thrust on some of us whether we want it or not.”

[brian_campo]

His smile was small, conflicted. “Think I know what you mean.” He traced the seams of her palms.

He wondered if waking up and learning he could throw objects without touching them was a kind of destiny, too. But that implied a greater purpose and he wasn’t prepared for that. He hadn’t sorted out the mundane parts of his life, like how he planned to pay the rent for the next fifty years, or what job he could do, day in and day out, without wanting to blow his brains out. How was he supposed to deal with destiny?

Questions flew in his head at dizzying speed. When she saw the vampire, why did she have a stake? How did she know what to do? Did she stake vampires alone, or did other people know about them, too? One earth-shattering revelation at a time, he told himself.

“I don’t think you’re crazy,” he mumbled. It didn’t seem likely she’d object, but he felt a nervous lump growing in his throat as he guided her arms around his neck. She can hurt me, he thought. She can grind me into a paste. He didn’t know if he was warning himself or granting permission. He spread his fingers on her back. She was small but solid. He felt her shoulder blades and her bra strap through the t-shirt.

[valerie_vause]

Valerie would consider his ability to be destiny. To wake up and have a power you never had before? There are people out there who spend their whole life waiting to be recognised by some invisible force. Fate, God or Goddess, The Universe... It didn’t matter which. As long as they ended up special in some way. Then there are people like them, who wake up one day different. Never asked for it, perhaps to begin with never even wanted it, but they have it.

Destiny didn’t care if she was at the younger end of the teenage spectrum. It didn’t care that she was a child. Some would even say it’s better to be chosen young. To craft and hone abilities before they were old enough to have developed their own traits that would have to be undone. Destiny didn’t care if you didn’t know your ass from your elbow. If you had plans to live the rest of your life in a thoroughly thought out way, too bad. None of that mattered because something, somewhere, decided you were what it had been looking for. Like some colossal cosmic joke.

When he spoke Valerie had to look at him, she searched his features for any hint of a lie and decided he really meant it. Brian didn’t think she was crazy at all. Excitement flooded her system only tempered by sudden apprehension as her arms were guided around his neck and she realised just how close they were like that. Lips parted just enough so she could breathe more easily while his fingers splayed out across her back. His hands were bigger than hers, steady and strong in their own right as they clutched across her shoulder blades.

Half a second later and she felt brave enough to bring her hands up to the back of his neck. Questing finger tips gently pushed through the short hairs that sprouted from his skin until they were hidden within his dark hair, nestled against his scalp as Valerie stroked lightly, soothingly, through it. When she finally spoke it was hushed, inches away from his face while she gazed back at him, “I believe you.”

[brian_campo]

Brian shut his eyes.

His brain felt like an overloading circuit board, sparking, snapping as the things Valerie had told him and those he told Valerie set in; sure footing gave way as a familiar world crumbled around him and left a void of things he didn’t understand. But the way her fingers felt in his hair? God, she was sweet. He could spend days trying to unload this moment at the keys and never tap into it. Never even get close.

The only thing worse was if she stopped.

He ducked his head and buried his face in her throat. Arms doubled over themselves and crisscrossed behind her back, squeezing until the corded muscles stood out in his forearms. Safe. She felt safe, and he just wanted to wrap himself up in her, to be cocooned in her. A few minutes passed before he got up his nerve. He pressed his nose against the thin, deceptively delicate skin where her pulse beat inside a blue vein and then his mouth. He kissed the spot. The knot in his gut began to loosen.

I’m cheating, he thought. He breathed deep and emerged from the crook of her neck.

“I should ask first.”

[valerie_vause]

Brian might not have noticed as bulbs blew and sprinkled to the sidewalk like glittering raindrops but Valerie did. She heard the cracking as glass spiderwebbed in warning, like a roaring bonfire, only to explode. The slivers tinkled to the ground as he found his legs and joined her on the grass, oblivious to the power he’d just wielded. Though the blonde bit back a slight grin as she realised he’d destroyed the very things that helped keep people safe.

“No, I tried walking on water but it didn’t work.” The response had been automatic when he said it. Valerie wasn’t entirely sure what his reaction would be and some part of her rationalised that if ever there was a time where he would walk away it would be now. Only he hadn’t, had he? Instead of using those legs to run off he used them to kneel in front of her. Long fingers caught her chin and she allowed him to move her head this way and that to inspect the damage he expected to see, yet didn’t. Lips quirked into a slight smile as the blonde lifted her shoulders haphazardly, “I’m made of sturdy stuff.” She said, as if that explained it. Of course it didn’t and she knew that, but it was the only thing she could think of to say that sounded light hearted.

The stake was pushed back into place within her boot before Valerie wiped away the dust that clung to her. Mostly because she didn’t know how to respond to what he said even if her actions were cleverly disguised as habit. Then she paused mid wipe, looked him right in the eye, and pinched the side of his thigh. “You feel that?” Despite the fact of what they’d just gone through the blondes tone was light, mischievous, as she narrowed her eyes with an amused, albeit small, smile. “It means you’re not dreaming, so I must be real.”

She got to her feet because the notion of spending any more time in the remains of the demon, dust or not, made her cringe. Hands raised to clasp behind her neck before she looked up at the sky and inhaled a breath of fresh, warm air. “I have my share of fears.” Valerie shrugged with one shoulder as she held her hand out to him. The other rubbed across her cheek then down her neck as if to show she had no wounds. “I’m alright, honest, it takes a lot more than that to leave a mark.”

Then her posture changed and she turned to Brian curiously, one hand lifted into the air to twirl her index finger over her head, “How are you doing? I already know that the streetlights will be asleep for days because they’re shattered.”

[brian_campo]

Brian wiped the grime on his pants and took her hand. “What do you mean?” He got to his feet. He was chagrined at the discovery that his knees had more in common with jell-o than bone. He tried not to beat himself up; he tried even harder not to give it away. Her swirling finger directed his eyes to the top of the nearest pole. Its protective cage was intact, but the lens and bulb inside were missing, their previous state only evidenced by a ragged fringe of glass. He checked out the others. It looked as if the breakable parts had been systematically jabbed out by a metal rod.

I did that?

He put the heel of his hand up to his eye socket and sighed. All around them in a sphere, the concrete sparkled with flecks of sharp, white dust, with the two of them at the center. “Great. Destruction of public property,” he mumbled. “Remind me to get insurance.” At the rate he was going, Brian was going to be replacing a lot of equipment. “I’m alright,” he said and dropped his arm. “I just freaked out. When he hit you I thought my brain was gonna explode.”

Any normal situation would see him jumping a guy for laying a hand on her. Brian wasn’t prone to fighting but he, like most kids, had gotten in his share of scraps growing up and a decent amount of backstage brawls as an adult, usually when Seth ran his mouth and got in over his head. Thanks to the past five minutes, Brian was keenly aware that Valerie didn’t require back-up – that he would have been useless in the situation – but he still had cords of tension in his neck.

Valerie didn’t need him to do it, but that didn’t erase the crazy, testosterone-fueled urge to pound on something for her. To protect her, when she'd been the person protecting him.

[valerie_vause]

While they stood there together, heads tilted back to look at the lights that could no longer shine, Valerie felt calm. Adrenaline usually made her almost jittery yet right then as she listened to him, she felt perfectly still inside. Though it was his own words that had the blonde turn to look at him, one slender eyebrow raised as her mind worked over a question. If he didn’t see the connection she was going to join the dots for him. “You thought your brain was going to explode.” She said slowly, watching his features as she added, “Then the lights did.”

Valerie had been taught that coincidences rarely, if ever, happened. So could it be that simple? She thought back to the diner. Eyebrows arched as she mulled it over in her head only to outright ask, “The incident with the chair, before it happened, what were you feeling?”

The blonde turned to fully face him as she thought out loud. There seemed no point in silence when she had a suspicion to work with. The only way it could be confirmed or denied would be if he actually knew it too. “Right now that just happened because of your emotions. That might be the link you’ve been looking for to get a handle on it.”

She brushed a stray hair that had come loose from her face and raised her chin a little to meet his eyes. “Emotions are powerful things. Why not use them as a gateway into the first steps of control?”

[brian_campo]

He started to grin, one of the slow kinds that crept into the corners of his mouth before he could hide it. It was the grin of the guilty.

“Nah,” he shook his head, “I can’t tell you what I was feeling that time.” He lowered his head and watched as he dug a divot in the parched grass with the toe of his boot, turning up more dust than roots. More like won’t.. But his memory of it was crystal: In the middle of their hand shake, she swept her thumb across the webbing of his hand and it sent his brain running off the rails. He tried to flee the scene and shoved a chair out of his way. “I guess I could, but you’d turn red.”

Brian considered her hypothesis. The emotional connection had occurred to him before, right after the mic stand flew out of Seth’s hand, but he hadn’t considered it possible to control it. Tamp it down, suffocate it, make it die, but not control it. “It might be hard,” he said. “I’ve got a bad habit of bottling things. Still gotta try. Otherwise, when the timing’s right and I finally get to kiss you, I’m gonna destroy a building.”