Clara walked into the panel room, seeing the Nostalgia Critic in between the slots in her dragon zord mask. Finding a seat up front, as to have plenty of room for her seven foot costume, she sat down gingerly. She had to be careful sitting in the costume, as it was very large on her and a very awkward shape to sit in a seat in. Seating herself successfully, she stretched out her legs forward so that her heels were resting in her boots on the ground with the toes pointing upward toward the table and her legs were splayed out so that the legs of the costume were straight, as they would be if she were standing. It was a little uncomfortable, but a lot of thing about the costume were. Now focusing on the discomfort, she took off her helmet and let out her braid from the back of the costume where she had hidden it. The braid was long, thick and black as black could be, an unfortunate contradiction to her milky pale skin. Clara shook her head and rolled her shoulders, noting how heavy the shoulder pieces felt and considered taking off more of the costume, but deciding against it since it would look odd.
The Nostalgia Critic began to speak, sounding unsure about where Linkara was. Clara frowned, but shrugged it off. She had been hoping to see him, as he was her favorite online reviewer from That Guy With the Glasses, but at least she had been having a good time at the convention, collecting a few nice compliments on her costume, talking with the other conventioneers, and even getting to see Doug Walker! It was a very exciting day, even though it appeared that Lewis Lovhaug wasn't going to make it. The Nostalgia Critic started making jokes about Linkara not being there, relieving a little of the tension and smoothly adjusting to his absence by dressing like Linkara and starting to answer questions as Linkara. They were funny, and Clara laughed half-heartedly. They were funny, but she really would have preferred that they either just focus on the Nostalgia Critic and not rub in that Linkara wasn't there, because of how much she would have liked it if Linkara really had shown up. She sighed and lowered her head for a minute, noticing out of the corner of her eye that people were turning around to look behind them. She couldn't turn because of the bulky costume surrounding her, and decided to ignore it or wait until whatever was behind would come up front. She turned her head as far as was possible, but was still unable to see what it was that was behind her. She strained, and finally coming into sight was the green ranger. She had seen a couple of other green rangers, but the body and gait as well as the attitude on this one seemed familiar. He walked up to the front of the room, climbed onto the stage and stared Doug right in the eyes, bending down and showing anger with his body language, since his mask was still secured onto his head.
"Are you lost, Green ranger?" Doug asked the cosplayer, still wearing his own cosplay of Linkara. The green ranger proceeded to take off his mask, the back first, follwed by the front. The recognition clicked as Louis Lovhaug's face was revealed, and a smile glued itself to Clara's face. Doug fell silent, and his face fell. Then it clicked that Linkara was wearing the Green Ranger's costume and she was wearing the green ranger's zord costume. Her jaw dropped for a moment from the sheer coincidence and she shut it and laughed, her laughter joining in with the crowd's as they followed the actions of the two reviewers.
"Ha ha, he's in such big trouble," Clara muttered to herself as she watched the two men. Linkara opened the jacket that the Nostalgia Critic was wearing, pulled out his magic gun and pointed it at Doug.
"Move." One word out of Linkara's mouth, and the Nostalgia Critic fled to the other seat rather quickly. Clara chuckled and watched as Lewis seated himself, addressing him and finally starting the Q&A session properly.
Clara sat back against the back of the seat and listened mostly until she could think of a question she wanted to ask either of them. One person in the room asked Linkara how studly the Nostalgia Critic was, Linkara answered and Clara was tempted to ask the Nostalgia Critic how studly Linkara was, but decided that might wear the joke thin. She continued to watch and listen, keeping her gaze on Lewis for the majority of the time. She had long admitted to herself that he was a very attractive man, but that it was too much of a long shot that they would get together. He had already broken up with Iron Liz, however she was positive that he wouldn't want to get together with one of his fangirls. She shook her head to clear her head of those thoughts. She couldn't start thinking like that again. As her mind cleared, a memory of a video of Linkara's entered her mind. It was one of his Let's Play Star Trek Voyager Elite Force parts, where he was in the holodeck and fighting in the castle map. He had started singing songs from the musical, "Camelot". She also remembered a clip that she had found on youtube of Harvey Fine-voice singing and remembered the question that she had always wanted to ask. She raised her hand as far as she could in the costume and waited to be called on. Somebody behind her got called on and asked his question, which The Nostalgia Critic answered, with some addition by Linkara since the question was directed at the both of them. The questions being answered, she raised her hand again, thinking that it should be easy to see it, despite it being only half-raised. Linkara looked directly at her, her heart skipped a beat, he pointed at her, her breath suddenly seemed gone and Lewis addressed her,
"The Dragon-zord! Kudos on the costume, by the way." Clara tried her hardest not to blush, but felt her face heating up anyway. She smiled, then closed her lips self-consciously and prepared her order of words.
"Thanks, and this question is for you. Could you sing a song for us?" Clara asked, breathless hope in her voice. Linkara had a marvelous voice, and an even better singing voice. Linkara looked slightly surprised and took a breath for a pause while he chewed it over.
"Oh, okay. Any preferences?" Linkara asked, still staring straight at her. She shook her head in answer, and waited, still breathless. Linkara chewed on his lip while he thought of a song, exclaimed as he thought of the song he wanted to sing, then melody flowed straight from his throat, clear and smooth. He watched her while he sang a song she wasn't familiar with. She had waited so long for something like this, but in the end, it didn't really mean anything. He had lots of fangirls and she wouldn't stand out among the others after he had finished singing. She hoped that she could maybe talk with him a little after the panel. Maybe wearing the big, bulky suit would help her get a little more attention from him later, because of him wearing his green ranger outfit. After he was done singing, the room echoed with applause, then they moved on with the questions. Clara kept watching and listening and laughing with the crowd, mostly keeping her eyes on the magnificent specimen of man not too far in front of her. She was especially glad to be in the front row at this point. A random question from one of the fans was about creepy stalker fans, and Linkara's eyes passed over her. Fear lanced her heart. She wasn't a creepy stalker. She averted her gaze to the Nostalgia Critic and stared at him, deliberately avoiding looking at Linkara for what felt like a few solid minutes. She was nervous the whole time, scared that Linkara would think that she was a creepy stalker fan. She really didn't try to be. In fact, she tried very hard not to be. People tended to tell her, she was sure they were teasing, that she was a stalker no matter who she had a crush on. The questions went on, and she waited a little more before glancing back at Linkara. He had been answering questions cheerfully, as if his eyes had passed over her as though he had just been looking through the crowd at everybody. She glanced again. He was looking away from her. She let out a breath she hadn't been aware that she was holding, and continued to watch, keeping her attention on herself mostly to make sure that she wasn't staring too long at either of them.
The rest of the time in the Q&A panel passed smoothly, and was over all too soon. After it was over, an announcer working at the convention told everybody to stay in their seats as they moved things around to set up the room for the signatures. Clara stayed in her seat, watching as the people in the same row as her got up and left. She shook her head and wondered why, but stayed in her seat like the man had said. Hadn't he? Maybe she had heard him wrong. She shifted, with a surprising amount of effort, to see how many of the people were moving around. It looked about half and half, so she stayed in her seat, preferring to since her costume was starting to make her feel sore and since she had sat down she was starting to feel less sore and thought that a little more rest would be good. She watched as Linkara started talking about Power Rangers, mentally adding things to the conversation since she couldn't really add her thoughts because everybody else thought they should as well. She preferred sitting where she was at the moment anyway. Soon, they started clearing the chairs away, and everybody was starting to get up to get in line to get autographs from the two critics. She shook her head, wondering what had happeed to the part where they were supposed to stay in their seats. But since they were clearing the chairs away, Clara would have to get up. Clara placed her hands on the sides of the seat of her chair and pushed, trying to lift herself out of her chair. The costume was too bulky to let her reach very much farther than the tail. She bent her knees so that her feet were flat on the ground and tried pushing up with her arms and legs, getting up farther, but started to fall backward because she couldn't lean forward much and so fell back into the seat of the chair. The workers were glaring at her, their eyes telling her to hurry so they could get things moving along. She shot them an apologetic smile as they continued to put away the chairs. They hadn't gotten very far, so she had some more time to try and get out of her seat. She took a breath in and let it out to prepare herself to try again and hope that she didn't fall backward pushed up slowly and bent her waist as forward as she could and started to rise. Gaining confidence when she made it halfway, and thinking she had made it up far enough to not fall over, she smiled with growing confidence and relief and started trying to straighten her spine and sped up her ascent. She started to fall, and immediately started to regret speeding up as she rose out of her seat. Before she knew it, two hands were supporting her back and left arm, and pushed forward. She threw a foot forward so that she didn't fall forward and turned to thank, and maybe include a little scolding for pushing too hard, the person but stopped mid-breath and mid-heart beat. It was Linkara standing there, his hands still on her back and arm.
"You okay? You probably should have stood in the back with the other people," He suggested a little too late. He took his hands off of her, making her wish that he hadn't. She smiled and tried not to blush. She blinked and cleared her throat to cover her surprise.
"Thanks! That was sweet of you to help me like that. I really appreciate it. And yes, I probably should have stood in the back but I was getting tired. This costume is starting to get heavy," Clara stated. It was true, too. The costume was weighing down on her limbs and shoulders. It was also getting really warm, and she was probably going to have to take it off soon. She was reluctant to, however, because all she was wearing under it was a tight black full bodysuit.
Lewis took out his flute and played the song on it and laughed a little and then picked up her helmet and handed it to her. She took it, and started to put it back on, but paused. Linkara had an odd look on his face. She paused and tilted her head questioningly.
"Those helmets are pretty uncomfortable. They're not fitted very well, are they?" He asked, smiling knowingly. She nodded. Hers was too big for her. She figured that the makers of the cosplay costume just didn't think a girl would want to cosplay in it.
"No, they're not," She agreed, shaking her head in disappointment and making a face at her mask.
"Just keep it off. It's a good enough costume without it anyway, and you can put it on if anybody asks you to. It really will be much more comfortable. Trust me, this is coming from the guy who had his mask off for that whole Q&A panel," He said, smiling. Clara nodded, thinking it over and made her decision. It was quite easy. The mask was indeed uncomfortable and Lewis was asking her to keep it off. She couldn't say no to him.
"Good point. I'll keep it off," She told him. She slapped herself mentally. Of course he had a good point. He always has good points. Even about Star Trek Voyager, she had to admit. She loved Voyager, but she did agree with Mr. Lovhaug about it's... Quirks... She hated to admit it, but it did have bad moments. She rolled her shoulders in discomfort from the costume and her mental admission.
"What are you wearing under that?" Lewis asked her. She couldn't believe he asked her that. He was a feminist, after all. Her face betrayed her misunderstanding. "That's not what I meant, I just thought you might want to take it off. The whole thing looks uncomfortable, and I'm not even going to be the green ranger for much longer," He said to her. She wasn't wearing it to compliment his costume, but was still reluctant. But at least he hadn't meant what she originally thought he meant. It would have been too weird, too fast. They had just met each other.
"I'm only wearing a full bodysuit underneath though," She said, wincing awkwardly. Lewis bit off a laugh.
"Ha! Look at what I'm wearing!" He said, turning so she could drink in his image. She smiled, feeling awkward still. He looked good in his costume, and she wouldn't look good in just the bodysuit. Maybe if she could find something to where over it... But the convention wasn't selling clothes. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and almost groaned. She hadn't been aware how sore her feet were. It finalized the decision.
"All right, I'll take it off. I wish I had brought some clothes to change into though," She said, still reluctant but more eager to take it off. She looked around and saw people everywhere. She could walk around in the bodysuit, but she couldn't undress in front of people. She was wearing the bodysuit just underneath the cosplay costume, but it would feel too much like undressing in public.
"Do you know of anywhere I could take this off?" She asked Lewis, who had just started to turn away from her. She punished herself mentally again. She hadn't meant to distract him and waste more of his time.
"You can't change in the bathroom?" He asked her, caught off guard. That reminded her that she had to use the bathroom, but the costume was too big to fit in the door frame to the bathroom. She shook her head and tried to gesture at her shoulders, the widest part of the zord.
"It won't fit in the bathroom," She said, mentally dismissing the need to use the bathroom. Lewis then asked why she couldn't just change here and now. To which Clara explained to him that she would feel uncomfortable. Lewis nodded and took a minute to think.
"How about changing in your hotel room?" He asked, assuming that she had a hotel room at the hotel hosting the convention. She had only driven here and had been meaning to drive back that same day, so she didn't have a hotel room. She shook her head.
"I don't have a hotel room. I was just visiting for today," She explained. The thought crossed her mind that she would have had to undress out of her zord to get into her car and drive back. She really hadn't thought that through before. Lewis looked like he had thought of something, but hesitated. He continued to think, looking like he was trying to decide something. Clara couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking.
"Well... How about changing in my hotel room? I know it's weird, but I can't think of anything else and you'll just be changing out of your costume. You won't even be undressed at all. I'll even stand outside so you won't feel too weird, if you want me to," He offered. Clara was surprised and got to thinking. The first, though not the best thing to think was that of course she would want to be alone and undressing in his hotel room with him, then forcefully drove her thoughts toward making the decision to use his hotel room. It would be weird, but worth it. But what about the size?
"What if it doesn't fit through the doorway, like with the bathroom?" She asked. Lewis shrugged.
"I can't think of anything else. The hallway would at least be more private than here even if you can't fit in," He said. He had a good point, as always. She nodded and gestured forward, indicating that he go first. He stepped ahead of her and started off toward his hotel room. Her heart fluttered, then it set into overdrive. She couldn't believe that she had gotten so lucky! She followed him, doing her best to keep up in her huge boots. She was going to be glad to get rid of all of it. She was also grateful that her shoes had fit into the boots along with her feet, so she wouldn't have to go back to her car to retrieve them. She followed Lewis, feeling giddy the whole way. This was unbelievable in the best way possible!
The two took the elevator, not being able to fit into the doorway to the stairs. The silence in the elevator was awkward, magnified by the fact that there was very little room with Linkara and her in her zord costume. She fiddled with the helmet to help distract her from the tension in the tiny, almost constricting room that was flying up high. It seemed like a while, but they did reach the top fairly quickly, the little 'ding' signaling the stop, as if the jolt wasn't enough. The doors opened, and Linkara gestured that she should exit first.
"Ladies first," he said, smiling. Clara smiled back, embarrassed and yet still grateful. She hated to admit it, but him being a feminist was nice. She had always thought that feminists were the types of women that hated men, but his thoughts on feminism was very refreshing and gentlemanly. She thought of the way he thought of feminism more as common sense, but it was still nice to see somebody thinking the same way as herself.
She stepped out of the elevator, grateful for the open air. Well, open relative to the small space in the elevator anyway. She looked around at the hallway to the left, then the right, wondering which way his room was. Linkara squeezed past her and started off to the left, looking behind him at her to make sure she was following. She took the first step forward, almost tripping in the huge boot, and kept proceeding forward. The first step was almost the hardest because she always tended to forget how to walk in the boots until she got going, then it became easier with each step.
So she started following Lewis down the hallway, turning the corner and coming to an abrupt halt, almost falling forward onto Lewis; who had stopped just around the corner. Usually she would need to slow down to stop, and she didn't have any warning this time, which was why she almost ended up doing a faceplant and squishing Lewis. He looked at her before pointing behind himself at the door with his thumb.
"Well, here we are," He anounced. Clara nodded and smiled, embarassed to have almost made a mistake in his presence. She would have been mortified if she had disgraced herself in front of her hero. She hefted her helmet under her arm while she waited for Lewis to open the door to his hotel room. She looked down, trying to hide the blush stealing across her face. She was going into Lewis "Linkara" Lovhaug's hotel room... Alone with him. Her heart fluttered and she shook her head and looked up, trying desperately to clear her head as well as her face of the rosy flush. Lewis was heading into the room, so Clara followed him in, hoping that the light in the room was dim.
It was dim, at least until Lewis turned on the lights. The daylight had lit the room well enough to see, but the shades had dimmed the sunlight considerably. Clara looked around the hotel room and noticed a shirt and a small pile of clothes, which she half expected. Apparently they were taking a vacation from cleaning as well as from their homes. She didn't mind, but couldn't help but smile. She wasn't known for keeping her place clean either. That and it might not have even been his mess. He did share the room with the Critic. He kicked aside a the pile of clothes, which turned out to just be a pair of blue jeans, and picked up a gray suitcase, opening it to pick out his bum costume. "I'll change in the bathroom while you change in here. I'm going to be a bum for a while with the Critic," He told her, half answering it in a question to make sure it was fine with her. She nodded and replied with an 'okay' before tossing her helmet on the bed and shrugging out of the forearm pieces. She tossed them on the bed with the helmet and reached for the buckles which held the shoulder pieces in place, strapping them to her arms. She loosened one, then the other and put them beside the forearms. Then she lifted the chest piece up over her head and put it on the floor, trying to leave enough room on the bed for her to be able to sit so that she could get out of the tall leg pieces and boots. She undid the fastenings on the stomach piece and placed it on top of the chest piece, plucking a bit of the stretchy material that made up her bodysuit and released it out of her pinch, letting it settle more comfortably over her body. She then looked down at her legs, which were still inside the pieces of her costume. She sighed and turned around, shifting awkwardly in the oversized boots. She wanted to try to sit down on the bed and take them off like regular shoes. She leaned backward,feeling the extra weight pulling her down made flashes of remembering falling into seats run through her head, along with the pieces of her costume on the bed as well as the headrest and that hard headboard decorating the bed. She straightened as fast as she could, almost toppling forward again due to overcompensating with her balance. She breathed in and out slowly a couple of times, glad that she hadn't yelled out from her close fall. She let out her last big breath and looked down at her legs again, then at the other bed in the room. It had clothes and a suitcase on it, so she couldn't fall backward onto it either. She then saw the height of the bed. It looked low enough for her to be able to step out of her costume and onto the bed. Delighted by her idea, she turned around again, trying to be careful with all the bulky weight, and started lifting one foot out of the boot and leg piece, and having succeeded with that part, she leaned forward and put her leg on the bed. She winced because her other leg was being pinched by the costume, and so she hurried to take it out as well. She placed her other foot on the bed and celebrated with an arm pump. It was the first time she had managed to take off the leg parts off by herself without crashing to the ground. She stepped off the bed, wanting to jump off but also not wanting to disturb anybody that might be one floor down. Lewis stepped out of the bathroom and turned off the light before looking around the room to see where Clara was. His eyes landed on her, and his jaw came close to dropping. She was smaller than he expected her to be. She was petite, and the costume had been quite large, making her look bigger than she was. He glanced at it and saw that it was padded with inches of foam. He had known that she had a pretty face that dimpled when she smiled, but now that only added to her curved figure with the nicely tucked in waist which was thin but not skinny with wide hips and good-sized breasts which looked like B-cups. Her arms had a little muscle, but not enough to take away from her femininity, and her legs looked thin in comparison to her hips, but in fact they were a healthy size like her waist. All in all, a killer combinatin, and the skin-tight bodysuit was only adding to it and hiding barely anything. In fact, he could see the outline of her underclothes. She would have to get some clothes to change into. Now he understood why she didn't want to change out of her costume in the middle of the crowd. He berated himself for staring at her like that. She was another human being, not a piece of meat.
Clara saw him staring, it would be hard to miss, and started feeling very self-conscious. She usually didn't feel bad about how her body looked because she tried to excersize and eat healthy, but sometimes she didn't feel so good about her bone structure. She looked down and saw the outlines that her panties and bra were making, and made the connection. She tried to preserve her dignity by trying to cover herself with her hands, but it proved to be unsuccesful as her hands were too small to be able to cover much body space. She looked at Lewis and blushed and gave him a half embarassed and half apologetic grin. Lewis stared into her eyes and smiled back at her, apologetic for staring and also with an understanding curve on the edges of his lips. Clara bit her bottom lip and forced herself to think of other things besides Lewis's lips. "Did you want to get some clothes to change into?" He asked Clara. She shrugged. The convention wasn't selling any clothes, not even cosplay costumes or wigs, and they would have to leave to go somewhere and buy clothes. She had cash with her in case of an emergency, and she could use that to buy clothes, but she didn't want to miss anything in the convention. Though she did mostly just come to see the Q&A panel that had just ended.
"I guess we could. I probably won't be staying much longer anyway, since I already saw what I came to see," She answered, trying to leave it vague but was left with a suspicious feeling that he knew that she had come mainly to see him.
"All right. There's a Wal-Mart just a few blocks from here. You can get your clothes there and leave, though it's a shame you have to leave so soon," He continued, as if he were oblivious to her subconcious hints. Clara lowered her head, saddened by the way he had said that she could leave early so bluntly, then tried to hide it by looking at the pieces of her costume on the bed and floor.
"Okay. I'll probably have to take a couple of trips to move all of this," She gestured at her costume, "Out to my car. Did you want to stay in the room or keep the door open, or what?" She asked, trying to sound polite while talking casually.
"I'll just help you carry it to your car," He answered with a gentle smile. Clara's heart melted. He was definitely a gentleman who was going above and beyond. Men like him were rare now.
"Are you sure? You don't have to do that, you've already been so kind to me..." She trailed off, unsure of what to say next.
"It's okay. It's the best way. That way I won't have to leave the door open or stay here, and I have to go back down soon anyway," He replied, convincing her of the logic but still leaving her feeling like she was taking advantage of him somehow.
"All right then," She said, still unsure about why he was so willing to help her. She started piling the chest piece, the abdomen piece, the arms and finally the shoulder pieces all on top of each other, then picked them up and looked at Lewis.
"You can pick up the legs and boots at the same time by reaching into the legs and grabbing the boots inside the legs," She said, hoping she had described it well enough for him to understand. He nodded, took a peek inside the leg pieces then reached in and did as she explained. His arms had enough room inside, but with only an inch or two of extra space. Her legs seemed smaller than ever. He lifted the pieces of the zord costume, and was surprised by the weight. It looked light enough, but then he remembered the effort it had taken her to simply walk in the thing. It was actually just a bit heavy, though it was probably easier for the larger leg muscles to move them than his arms. Clara started to exit the hotel room, carrying the rest of the costume, when Lewis noticed that the back of her bodysuit was just as revealing as the front. He followed, putting down the leg pieces outside his hotel room so that he could turn off the lights inside and pat his pocket to make sure he had the key-card, then shut the door and let it lock automatically before picking up the legs again and following Clara closely enough so that it was harder to see her unmentionables. He was walking close enough to her to be able to feel her body heat, which was leaking easily out of the thin material of her body suit. He repressed a shudder and tried not to walk too close to her. It had been a while since he had felt a woman's heat, and the want for more had to be repressed. He tried to ignore it and moved on, hoping that he was walking close enough to hide her body but far enough so that he didn't look suspicious or protective.
They walked through the lobby without hardly any incident. There were a couple of wolf whistles, but a death glare stopped them and prevented anything further. He had heard plenty about sexual harassment complaints during conventions, and it wasn't going to happen while he was around. They made it through the lobby without too many stares, and headed outside to her car. He followed Clara and looked around for anybody hanging around the parking lot. There were a few conventioneers, but they were mostly in small groups talking amongst themselves or taking pictures. Nobody was interested in an uncostumed conventioneer. They were mostly outside to take advantage of the sun for their photographs, and nobody wanted a picture of somebody outside of their costume.
Clara headed for her VW Beetle, looking back every so often to make sure she hadn't lost Lewis. It was a fairly straightforward path and Lewis was following closely, but she was also trying to see why he was following her so closely. Was it because of the whistles from inside? She was still feeling embarassed from them, and hadn't been expecting them at all. She was just a tiny bit flattered that the people whistling had found her attractive, but was mostly mad. Nobody deserved that sort of treatment. She checked behind her again, and saw that Lewis was following her just as closely as before. She walked to her car, put down the pieces of her costume, and reached into her shoe for the keys to her car. She pulled them out and unlocked the car while rubbing her ankle, where the keys had been resting uncomfortably. She opened the back door, and her movies fell out. She groaned, thinking that the cases were probably scratched, then put in the pieces to her costume, picked up the movies and got out of the way so Lewis could fit in the leg pieces. He struggled a bit because they were large and they were supposed to go in first, then had to put them in the front trunk of the bug. Clara inspected the movies after opening the trunk for Lewis, finding a couple of dirt smudges, but found no scratches. She smiled and wiped the smudges off with her sleeve. "What's that?" Lewis asked, trying to start up a conversation in which he would work in a goodbye and get back to the Critic.
"Oh, just a couple of movies that I forgot were in the car," Clara answered, a memory tickling in the back of her mind. She glanced up when Lewis started walking toward her, and wiped off another smudge off the case of Camelot. She started humming a song from the movie, and Lewis stopped beside her to look over her shoulder. He smiled and started humming with her, then started singing. Clara stopped humming to listen to his voice, her eyes glazing over as his captivating voice eased out the lyrics and tune alluringly.
Lewis finished the song all too quickly and told her what she already knew; that he loved that movie. She grinned at him.
"I was actually introduced to this movie through one of your videos. I'm really grateful for that. Thank you," She told him. He smiled at her.
"I'm glad I was able to introduce you to it," He answered her. His smile brought flutters to her heart. The smile was infectous, and Clara smiled, feeling like she should hug him. She repressed the feeling, thinking that it would be too forward and unwelcome. She wasn't big on hugs herself, and she especially didn't like it when strangers hugged her, and to him she was a stranger. The flutters in her heart stopped when she remembered that he didn't know her and that they weren't friends. She fidgeted with the movie cases, flipping Camelot from top to bottom and back again over and over again. Lewis's hands stilled her own. The movies had landed with Camelot on bottom and the full set of Beast Wars on top. Lewis laughed, unable to believe that she had the both of them.
"So you got started on Beast Wars because of me too?" He asked, his voice tinged with laughter. Clara shook her head, and he stopped laughing, surprised.
"I actually watched it when I was a child, and I loved it enough to buy it off of ," She said, fondly remembering coming home from school and turning on the tv to watch the Transformers Beast Wars show. Now that she was grown she enjoyed it more than ever.
"Oh, that's great!" He exclaimed, smiling and staring at the case. "May I see it?" He asked, gesturing at the Beast Wars case. She handed him the silver box they came in and the sunlight gleamed off of it. Lewis took it and stared at the 15 year anniversary edition of Beast Wars and took out the dvds to look at them, and two booklets fell out. The guide to the dvd menus as well as a mini-comic titled 'Transformers Timelines' and subtitled 'The Beast Wars Prequel!'. He picked them up to look at them and flipped through the comic book, which didn't take long. He shrugged, then handed it to Clara, who couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking. He looked up and saw her face, and knew that she must be wondering about what he was thinking about the comic, him being a comic reviewer and all.
"It's not the best, but it's not the worst either," He told her, her delight surprising him a little. He was expecting a smile and maybe a laugh, but her entire body was thrumming with exuberance. Clara couldn't believe that he had reviewed a comic of hers, in a way at least. She knew that he reviewed some of his watcher's comics if they sent them to him, but she never thought he would review one of hers. She didn't have very many yet because she had just started getting into comics after having watched Lewis's excitement and enthusiasm in his reviews and thinking that something must be good about them if a man such as him liked them that much.
An idea popped into Clara's head. It was going to be a long shot, but she had to try. She swallowed hard. She was afraid of his rejection. It would feel like the end of her if he did. But she had to try. She would never know if she never tried.
"Do... Do you want to maybe watch some together?" She asked, hesitating at first then finishing fast before she could stop herself.
"Yeah, that would be great. But what about your clothes?" He asked, glancing down and half regretting it by bringing attention to her state of indecency and half not regretting it because of the feeling it gave him; like the inside of him was soft and warm. He had been trying lead up to a goodbye, but had been glad for the chance to talk a little more with her, but now he was also dreading saying goodbye. He thought she might make a good friend, and she was getting more interesting all the time.
"I'll get some clothes while you do your bum thing with the Critic, and I'll come back when I'm done and then when you're done we can watch the movies. But where are we going to watch the movies?" She asked, her heart and head sinking. She chewed on the side of the inside of her cheek and tried to think of an idea to work it out.
"How about my hotel room? It has a tv and a blue-ray player so we can watch both movies, since blue-ray players play blue-rays and dvds," He said, adding on the last part in case she didn't know, which she should considering she had the Camelot blu-ray.
"I suppose I have already been in there with you anyway," She said, thinking it over. It wouldn't be so weird to just watch movies with him. In fact, it would be great! "Okay! So I'll go get something decent to wear and see you again!" She said, the excitement bubbling up inside her again. She almost wanted to do a little dance, but she didn't want to embarass herself in front of Lewis. He replied with a 'see you later,' and turned away and started to leave her, then turned back to look at her and wave. She giggled and waved back, then got into the driver's seat of her car and drove away, looking around for a big blue building with a yellow smiling face on it.
It wasn't long before Clara found the Wal-Mart. It was even within sight of the hotel that was hosting the convention. She parked in the middle of the parking lot, not too far from the front and not too far from the back. She liked the excersize of walking, but to a certain extent. She picked up her lady wallet and undid the long straps that let it turn into a miniature purse and slung it over her shoulder, turned off the car and placed her keys in the mini purse so that she wouldn't have to put them in her shoe again and headed for the inside of the store, hoping nobody took advantage of her carrying her money in plain sight.
She wandered through the aisles, looking for something that wasn't too expensive and that didn't show too much skin. That was the problem with clothes these days. She passed up the short shorts and tank tops, though that was the majority of the clothes and looked at the jeans. They were a little bit too expensive because she wanted to save most of her emergency money for a real emergency, so she moved on to the dresses. Most of them didn't even go past her fingertips in length, but some of the sun dresses were long enough for her to wear. She rummaged through the hangers, looking for one of good length, cut, and color.
In a few minutes she found one that went halfway down her calves and was cut so that there were ruffles at the bottom and there was a little space in the medium-cut collar that had a sheer material instead of the cotton that made up the rest of the dress with three buttons going down the space, and the space itself went down about a third of the length of where her breasts would be, which would show a little but not too much. The pattern was her favorite part. There was a patchwork pattern in which the majority of the colors were lilac, a soft pastel orange and coral that made it look like a quilt, and in her size too. She smiled and headed to the fitting room to make sure it would fit. She tried it on and turned to the left then the right, seeing how it looked on her. The sheer space was bordering on indecency, because it was showing a bit more than she had imagined it would but it was definitely better than her bodysuit. The length was fine, and the pastel colors complimented her pale skin and made her hair look darker. She fingered her black braid, which was starting to come undone, with hair starting to stick out and made it look messy and frazzled. She shrugged and undid her braid, placing the hair tie in her mini-purse. She shook out her hair to loosen it and to make it look a little better and patted the rest of it into place. There was a bit more wave in it than usual since it had been in a braid, but it looked better than the plait had been looking. Deciding to get the dress, she changed out of it and proceeded to the checkout, wondering when she would be able to change into it. She thanked the checkout clerk and headed back to her car and headed back to the hotel, since she didn't see anywhere she could change. She decided to change in the public bathroom at the hotel while she waited for Lewis to finish his thing with the Critic since he probably wouldn't be done with it yet.
She parked in the spot she had had before because it wasn't taken and headed inside, taking her mini-purse inside with the movies and her new dress and headed inside, going straight for the bathroom and ignoring the stares like she had ignored the stares at the department store.
She changed inside and put her bodysuit in the plastic bag that her dress had been in with the movies, and started out to look for Lewis and the Critic. At first she just wandered around, then started listening for talk of bums or anything else about the two. She was just about to start asking people if they knew anything about them, when somebody tapped her on the shoulder.
Lewis laughed when Clara let out a small 'eep!' of surprise. She rounded on him to see who had touched her, and when she recognized him she let out a sigh of relief and smiled as bright as she could.
"Hi! You startled me," Clara told him. He gave her a crooked smile and looked her up and down. She noticed his gaze pause on her hair, but that must have just been because she had let it out of its braid.
"I almost didn't recognize you with your hair down," He said, inspecting the waves and shine in her hair. Clara smiled at him and pulled the movies out of her bag and waved them in front of him. "Ready?" She asked him, just the tiniest bit disappointed that he didn't comment on her dress. He stared blankly at her for a moment, like he was staring off into space then answered with a nod and an excited smile. They turned and headed for the elevator together.
Clara felt like she was experiencing deja vu, which she almost was, were it not for her lacking her costume that she was wearing before. To ease the tension she was feeling, she fiddled with the plastic bag she got from Wal-Mart. It crackled loudly in the quiet elevator, trying to fill that silence that happens when two people who were getting along well were suddenly very alone. She stopped fiddling with the bag and started shifting her weight from foot to foot. Clara noticed that Lewis was shifting his weight as well, and so she stopped, trying to become as silent and still as possible, trying not to draw attention to her awkwardness.
Lewis glanced at her, just for a second. She almost didn't catch it out of the corner of her eye. She looked over at him, pausing to give him a chance to look back before she turned her gaze back to the panel with the buttons that were lighting up as they soared upward through the hotel. She caught him looking over at him again, his mouth opening then shutting as he turned back forward. She knew he was searching for something to say to ease the tension in the tiny mobile room. He turned to her once again, and she caught his gaze this time. He searched her eyes for a moment before he cleared his throat and finally spoke.
"I like your dress," He said to her. She smiled and almost laughed. Such a simple sentence, with so few words, yet it eased the unease away as simply as a cool wind blowing away choking smoke. The atmosphere in the room was already much more relaxed, as well as the connection between the two of them.
"Thank you," Clara said, smiling and looking down at it, smoothing the skirt and pushing a lock of her hair behind her ear simultaneously. She looked back up at Lewis as soon as she was done with her skirt, still smiling at him. He was smiling back at her, his smile brightening his face and letting the kindness in his heart shine through. Clara caught her breath as soon as she realized she was holding it, and jumped a bit at the sudden stop and the 'ding' as the elevator stopped on his floor. She swallowed, and stepped out when Lewis gestured toward the doorway, and turned to wait for him to lead the way.
The two walked down the halls, watching the numbers going by and looking for the one that hung on Lewis's room door. They came to it soon enough, and entered using the key card. Clara looked around, looking for the blue-ray player and the television. It was set up on a television stand across from the beds, with a blue-ray player hooked up under it, resting on one of the shelves on the stand. Clara headed over toward the tv and put in Camelot first, figuring that they could get the movie done first and watch as many episodes as they could before it got too late. It was still early in the afternoon so she thought it would leave enough time after the movie to watch some episodes of Beast Wars. After putting in the disc, Clara sat down on the bed on the right, avoiding the charcoal t-shirt crumpled up in a pile and half-hanging off the bed. Lewis picked up the shirt and tossed it on top of a suitcase that was now laying on its side on the floor in between the window and the bed and sat down where it had been. He was sitting next to her on the end of the bed, closer to the tv than her, but it was fine. She could either lean forward or backward slightly and see the whole tv just fine.
The menu screen came on, and Clara pressed play on the remote that Lewis handed her, and the screen darkened, the music starting to set the mood for the movie. The room was dark because the blinds were still drawn, so the room was very dark, but she could see by the light coming off of the television screen. She leaned back and rested on her hands and relaxing and settling in to watch one of her favorite movies. The music flowed, telling the story, and Clara hummed along for her favorite parts.
It wasn't too long before her already tired arms started getting tired. She looked over at Lewis and swallowed as quietly as she could. She didn't want to interrupt the movie, but she wanted to make sure that she wouldn't bother him by laying down on the bed.
"Hey Lewis," She said quietly, very nearly whispering, "Is it okay if I lay down on the bed?" She asked, searching his face that was softly illuminated by the tv. He nodded at her and smiled, his face glowing and looking more kind than ever "Actually if it's okay with you, I think I might lay down too," He said, one side of his mouth quirking up higher than the other. She smiled and nodded back, getting up and walking around the side of the bed kicking off her beige slip-on shoes as she did, climbing on and sitting against the headboard and straightening her dress so that it would lay straight and cover her pale skin that looked like it was glowing in the dim light. After a moment, she grimaced and propped up a pillow behind her, giving her some padding between her back and the hard headboard. Rolling her shoulders, she layed back and settled in, letting her hands rest on either side of her and waited for Lewis to settle in as well. She picked up the remote and paused the movie so that he wouldn't miss any of it while he was getting comfortable. He shifted and arranged blankets and pillows, and was cozy in no time at all, and Clara played the movie again, set down the remote and put her hand at her side again. The outer side of her hand touched Lewis's, and she withdrew far enough so that they wouldn't be touching again, so Lewis wouldn't think she was trying to hit on him. Her hand was still at her side, but was up against her hip so that Lewis had room for his hands too. She knew there was enough room, so she was surprised when she felt Lewis's hand cover her own. It was warm and covered hers. She looked up at Lewis, to see him watching the movie. She tilted her head, about to move her hand out from under his, sure it had been an accident, when Lewis squeezed her hand. It was a soft squeeze, his fingers interlacing her while they squeezed, reassuring her. A smile grew on her face, not stopping until she felt that surely she was grinning like a fool, but she didn't care. Her heart galloped, soaring and beating fast; Her stomach was filled with a swarm of butterflies, a cloud of fluttering; And she was beyond happy; she was exuberant and ecstatic. She turned back to the movie, her head swarming with joyous feelings.
As they continued watching, they slowly scooched closer and closer inch by inch. It was almost subconscious, but as sure as the sky is blue, after a while they were sitting hip to hip with their hands resting half on Clara's leg and half on Lewis's leg. Some time had passed, and the movie was melodiously telling to them of how Lancelot could never leave Guinevere. The strains were inspiring, the dim light in the room adding to the mood set in as well as by the movie. Lewis couldn't resist. He started singing, hoping that it wouldn't disturb Clara. He started under his breath, until he caught Clara looking at him. He stopped, until he saw the stars in her eyes, and continued, his volume growing until he was singing out loud. Clara joined in on Guinevere's parts, drifting closer to Lewis, her singing growing soft and almost husky as the lyrics took on new meaning; a new truth. Lewis did likewise until their lips were brushing and their singing were mere whispers that were more breath than song. The song was beginning to end, but they couldn't wait for the end any longer, and their lips met fully, Lewis's warm lips capturing Clara's, which were conforming to Lewis's mouth.
The movie forgotten, Lewis caught Clara in his arms and deepened the kiss, swiping his tongue over hers and felt her tongue on his lips, sending shivers down his spine. Lips were moving against each other, arms were wrapped around shoulders and waists, moving to caress hair, over curves and legs tangled together. Clara's hands gently caught Lewis's face, moving up his cheeks, over his ears and knocking off his hat to ruffle his hair. Lewis pulled back out of the kiss, partly to catch his breath and also to pick up his hat. He put it atop his head again and leaned in to kiss Clara again, needing those full lips planted on his own. He slid his hand down her arm, feeling the goosebumps she was getting. Her lips dominated his, then submitted to his as her fingers traced his ears, then moved up to pull of his hat and put it on the nightstand. Confused, Lewis pulled back, looking down at her with a frown.
"You don't want me to wear my hat?" He asked, wondering why she had taken it off. He had thought that she would have wanted him to wear his hat. It was what people recognized about him, that and the comic books and the cybermats. He had thought that a fan of his would have wanted him to wear it while they were engaging in the activities they had been doing.
"I didn't lose my heart to your hat, I lost my heart to you," She told him with a soft, careful voice, a little confused that he would have thought that she would have only liked him for his hat. She watched his reaction, unsure of how to read the multiple expressions running across his face. She held her breath, her hands starting to shake. She clasped her hands together and fiddled with her fingers nervously to give herself something to half-focus on.
Lewis was caught off guard. He hadn't expected that for an answer. His heart felt like an ice cream pop left outside in summer, and it had felt like his stomach had dropped out of its place and had been filled with a toasty and floating sensation. Lewis took her into his arms again, holding her tightly and glad that he had found somebody that didn't just like him for his webshow. He loosened his grip so that he was holding her tenderly, and twisted slightly to kiss her again. He expressed his newly found feelings with kisses, pressing his lips a little harder against hers. He felt a physical warmth growing, and reigned it in. He couldn't go too far. Even the kissing was too early. He started to think that maybe he should stop, that he didn't even know his name yet, but his thoughts quickly grew cloudy, and the sensations of Clara's hands running over him and the feel of her soft, moist lips rid his thoughts of anything but her touches and the feel of her skin, the scent of her hair.
Clara's entire self tingled, and excitement coursed through her veins, and it was overwhelming, but it felt right. But yet... The thought vanished when Lewis's fingers trailed down her spine. She would have gasped if her mouth hadn't been glued to his. She was starting to throb, her mind filling with what she wanted, what she might do to and with him. Her dress's strap slipped, and she pulled it back up and replaced her hand to the back of Lewis's neck, holding him to her. Lewis slid his hand up the right half of her back to her strap, pulling it off of her shoulder. She let it stay there, her dress would stay on well enough even if the other strap fell anyway. She let her hand wander underneath the unbuttoned outer shirt that Lewis was wearing, pushing it off his chest to let it rest on his shoulder. Lewis broke their kiss, shrugging off the sleeve, then locked his lips with hers again. He took off the other sleeve and let the shirt fall to the bed and pushed Clara's other strap down so that her shoulders were bare. He ran his hands along her shoulders from side to side and let his fingers trace her collar bones. His hands met at her delicate neck and ran up the sides and into that dark hair that was pitch in the dark of the room. He drank in the feel of it, finger-combing it all the way down to her waist, where he took her and pulled her against him, cradling her against him. She murmured a little and swung a leg over him, straddled his legs, letting the skirt of her dress ride up, baring the skin of her legs almost to her hips. He shuddered in ecstasy; she was very warm and sitting right in the middle of his lap. So close to him, so receptive to his every touch and responding with touches of her own on him, feeling like she was caressing everywhere at once. He wanted more, knew she wanted more too. Even so, he asked her softly, whispering against her lips if he could proceed. She answered with a soft, pleading, yes. Confidence flooded him, and his hands went to the buttons set into the sheer material on the front of her dress, undoing them and folding the material apart, letting the light glow on the skin underneath. He took a shaky breath, and pulled down the top of her dress slowly, glancing from her dress to her face to make sure she wanted everything he was doing. She was watching him intently, teeth biting into her bottom lip, her hands still behind his neck and prodding carefully under the collar of his shirt.
Emboldened, he pulled down the dress further, revealing soft skin, pulling her dress inside out and past the elastic inside on her waist, and a heavy breath escaped him. Clara pushed farther into his shirt, rubbing down his back, up over the shoulders and letting her hands glide over his chest. She pressed against him, taking her hands out from the collar and slid them down his back, around his waist to the front, and they stopped at the bottom of his shirt. She murmured again, kissed his neck and lifted the shirt off of him, sliding it between them and up so that they were connected with skin against skin. Lewis's head went up and back, his eyes sliding shut as he savored the soft feel of her chest against his, the coolness of her hands trying to touch every part of him, the moistness of her mouth on his neck, the sharp yet gentle nips of her teeth on his trapezius, and the slight weight and heat of her legs seated directly over him. She was making him soar higher than ever before, and he just had to return the favor. He rolled over, supporting her and holding her against him as he rolled, landing with her laying on the bed, head in one corner and feet facing the other corner with him atop her, his legs swinging over hers and encompassing her and raised just enough so that they weren't crushing her, and letting his jeans be pulled down by gravity to give him a little more room. He took her breasts in his hands, thrumming his fingers over the peaks, letting her gasp and moan behind her teeth as he kissed her, trailed kisses from her luscious lips to her jaw and down to the corner of her neck where he returned the kisses she had given him. Her hands found his back and gripped him, pulling at him while her fingernails slid over his shoulder blades. His hands trailed from her mounds to her waist and lower, sliding over the bunched fabric down to her skirt, pushing it up the rest of the way, letting the skirt meet the stretchy waistband, and he sat up, absorbing her image, while her hands found the tops of his jeans. She looked so small, and had felt so small when he had been holding her, instinct rose up, demanding that he protect her. He brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes, and admired her while her fingers found the button of his jeans. He could see most of her now, and she was beautiful. Her hair was splayed around her head, lips parted, firm but soft breasts heaving slightly, her little legs under him curved attractively, meeting at those wide hips with her panties covering less than he would have thought. He groaned, his voice husky with passion as his zipper slid down past him, her fingers following it closely slipping in between the space between the two zipper halves for just a moment, and pulling down on his denim pants as soon as the zipper was down all the way. He looked back at her face, expecting disappointment but finding adoration instead. He leaned forward, landing with his hands on either side of her face. He thrust his hips forward a little, connecting their bodies again, but in a more intimate way and almost choked on the euphoria. They were still parted by cloth, but he could feel her heat and the way that her panties had slipped when he pushed against her promised that there was moist slickness on the other side of her panties. He knew that she could feel him pressing against, could feel that she knew how much she was pleasing him. Gathering himself before he was lost completely in the moment, he caressed her face with the back of his hand, and watched her eyes open from having been shut from the sensations cascading her body with the intention of continuing that caress all the way down, wanting to grab her panties and pull them down. But she was looking straight into his eyes and he hadn't noticed before, but they were a rich brown with a hazel crown-shape surrounding her pupils. He found himself drowning in them. And he realized: He had found himself again. And he didn't even know her name. He swam to the surface of the sensations he had been drowing in with considerable effort. It had been like he was in a trance or spell. Looking down, he saw what he was doing, and was mortified. He rolled off, pulled up his pants and frantically put on his shirt again, and shielded his eyes, to give Clara some form of dignity.
"Lewis?" Clara asked confusedly, sitting up. She let her eyes focus and saw him turned away from her and covering his eyes. She looked down and saw her dress pulled into a bunch around her waist, and slapped her hands over herself, trying to pull up her dress and keep herself covered at the same time, fumbling but managing to cover herself again. Her face felt hot, as it should. She couldn't believe what had happened, though which part she wasn't sure. She was amazed that she had gone so far so fast with Lewis Lovhaug, and at the same time she was ashamed at what had happened. She had never gone so far, much less so fast with anybody she had been with before. "What happened?" She asked, shaking her head to clear out some more of whatever it was that had taken over momentarily. Lewis uncovered his eyes and glanced over at her quickly enough just to check to see if she was dressed again or not. Seeing that she was, he turned to her, rubbing his forehead as he tried to think.
"I'm not sure, but I'm sorry if you're experiencing the same things as I am," He said whilst frowning at the floor. Clara looked up at him, her heart breaking. She hadn't wanted to give Linkara grief of any kind, much less something like this. Embarassment, guilt and sadness didn't mix well, and she stood, gathering her movies so she could leave before she started crying. She held back her tears as she ejected the disc out of the blue-ray player, and wiped her eyes before the tears fell as she placed the movie back in its case. She heard Lewis sit heavily on the bed and sling his belt on, with his magic gun already looped onto the belt.
Clara turned around to get her Beast Wars dvds off the bedside table, and jumped back a step. There was a lady standing behind Lewis, next to the bed. Lewis frowned confusedly at her, then turned and recognition struck them simultaneously.
"Margaret!" Clara and Lewis said, again simultaneously, Clara's being more of a question than an exclamation. Margaret nodded, looking from one to the other and looking disappointed, of all things. Her gaze landed on Lewis, and for a minute she looked sad.
"Linkara, what went wrong?" Margaret asked, which made Clara confused. What could have been going on? Lewis and Margaret looked at her. Lewis was looking at her like she had been conspiring against him with Margaret, while Margaret was looking at her like she had failed her. She couldn't think of what to do, so she picked up Lewis's hat so she could get to her movies and sat down on the bed, out of arm's reach from Lewis.
"What do you mean?" He asked, sounding more confused than herself. He tilted his head, waiting for her answer. Clara put Lewis's hat on his head, and scooted out of reach again, her attention to him and Margaret never quavering.
"Is Clara Cline not good enough?" Margarest asked while gesturing to her, as if what she said made so much sense that she couldn't explain it any further. Clara was surprised that Margaret had known her name. She couldn't even remember introducing herself to Lewis.
Lewis glanced at her, questions in his eyes. Clara shrugged, and Lewis looked back at Margaret with the same confused and curious expression on his face. Margaret looked from Lewis to Clara, and Clara started to feel like a lobster in a tank at a supermarket, with everybody eyeing her like she was supposed to be good enough for dinner but didn't have enough meat on her.
"I was worried about you, Linkara. You've been alone too long. So I chose her for you and arranged for you two to meet," Margaret explained. Clara's eyes widened. She had been used? For what she wanted, but she had still been used. It wasn't a nice feeling. Clara withdrew into herself and waited for somebody to say something. She couldn't think of anything to say, but somebody had to speak up. "I had picked her out because I sensed her feelings for you, and I knew of your loneliness. I had thought that you would make a good match," Margaret continued in an as-a-matter-of-fact kind of way. "Now that you've broken free of my magic, it's up to you to choose whether you want her or not," Margaret said. Clara withdrew further. She wanted some say in the matter, but she was being talked about like she wasn't even there!
"Look, first of all, you can't take people's lives into your hand. I appreciate that you care about me, but you can't cast magic and use people like you did. And I'm a little surprised and disappointed that you used my magic against me," He said, looking a little hurt. Clara's heart told her to comfort him, but her brain warned against it, providing what had happened. She could still feel his hands on her and smell his musk. Margaret started to look sorry, and Clara felt bad. She may have used her, but she had also failed in her mission because of her.
"I didn't mean to use it against you," Margaret told him. "I'm sorry. But what do you think of Clara?" She asked, as if she had just wanted it all to be done and over with. Lewis looked at Clara, into Clara's brown eyes. The eyes that had broken him out of the spell. He did like her, and they did seem to have a lot in common, but he wasn't sure that he wanted to be with anybody at the moment. He reached out a hand to her, and Clara inched closer to him, placing a small hand inside his own, hope blooming like a chocolate rose in her eyes.
"What do you want, Clara?" He asked her, his voice soft and gentle and caring. If Clara didn't know any better, she might have thought that he had been placed under another love spell. Her heart had jumped at him using her name just like it had jumped before, when apparently there had been magic bending them to its will. Focusing, she searched inward. What did she want? Her first instinct was a resounding, echoing shout of 'yes', but when she searched deeper, she realized that she really did care about Lewis, and it mattered more what he wanted than what she wanted. She would be happy if he chose to be with her, but if being without her made him happy, she would still be happy for him. She explained herself, and Lewis turned from her, still holding her hand. He looked at Margaret, then back at her. Clara's breath caught in her chest as Lewis took her other hand into his hand so that they were facing each other and he was holding both of her hands in between them. He gave her an apologetic frown, and Clara panicked a little, but let him explain.
"I think I want to stay single for a while," He said, looking worriedly into her eyes. He seemed to care for her, but he must have had good reasons for wanting to stay single. Clara looked away from Lewis so she wouldn't start to cry, and looked at Margaret, who looked just as disappointed and heartbroken as she felt. She looked back at Lewis, straight into his eyes and nodded. It would have been a little strange to start a relationship like they had anyway. Margaret nodded too, and was gone as if she had never been there. Clara looked back at Lewis, gathering the inner strength she needed to leave him. She leaned forward to give him a hug before she had to leave, and he opened his arms to let her in. The hug lingered for a bit, but even so it ended all too soon. As she pulled back a little, Lewis stopped her and gave her a kiss. His lips were gentle and sweet, and his tongue swiped hers briefly before the kiss broke.
"Sometimes though, true love is a magic all its own," He whispered to her, resting his forehead against hers. She nodded while her heart broke but at the same time was filled with a hope that maybe someday when he was ready for a relationship they could see if there was a seed of their own magic, and not Margaret's. before straightening and gathering her things together, she stood and took a step toward the door. She looked back at him one more time, then turned before her strength failed her, and walked out the door and out of Lewis's life. For now, at least.