Basorexia
A Hal & Lourdes Story
By Brown Eyes Parker
Rated: T
Disclaimer:
I do not own anything. If I did, I probably wouldn't be very good at writing alien centered plots.
i.
"I'm glad you're okay," Hal whispered, tucking her hair behind her ears like he had done a couple of days earlier. "I was so worried. . ."
Lourdes swallowed hard, her pulse speeding up slightly. "You were worried?" she asked.
Hal nodded, his fingers leaving her hair and going to her cheek, he stroked it gently for a moment and then out of nowhere he leaned in and kissed her.
It was everything chaste and innocent, a way for Hal to express just how relieved he was that she was okay without trying to have to find the right words to say to make her know just how much he meant what he had said. At the same time though, the kiss shook him to his core. It was like a chemistry experiment in all the right kind of ways.
After one minute, he pulled away knowing he that if he didn't, he'd just kiss her until they both couldn't breathe anymore. He forced himself to look at her as he took some deep breaths, trying to steady himself.
Her dark eyes were wide with amazement and he could feel her whole body trembling in his arms.
"Hal. . ." Lourdes said, finding her voice after a long pause.
"I'm glad that you're okay," Hal repeated, dropping his arms to his side and stepping backwards. "I-I have to go, I'll talk to you later Lourdes."
He could feel her watching him as he ran away, could almost hear her thoughts as he disappeared from view.
Hal wanted to go back to her, wanted to kiss her again. He wanted to see if he had only imagined the spark between them, if it had been the headiness of the moment or if there was something that had always been there between them and he hadn't noticed it before.
He ran a little faster, unsure of what to do.
.
"You like her, don't you?" Maggie asked a couple of days later. "Don't deny it, I can tell. You haven't been exactly the same since you found out she was the mole. You haven't been exactly the same since you visited her in the tent."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Hal lied, turning away so she couldn't see the truth in his eyes.
"Don't do that Hal," Maggie said. "Tell me what you're really thinking."
Hal sighed and then a confession spilled from his lips, like water breaking through a dam. When he was finished, she nodded.
"You owe it to yourself to see where it goes," Maggie answered, laughing slightly. "Hey, it might work out even better than we have. She wants the same kind of life you do, doesn't she? A nine to five job and a white picket fence?"
"I don't know—"
"Of course she does," Maggie interjected. "A girl like Lourdes always wants that kind of life. She might be perfect for you Hal. If you don't give her a shot, you might spend the rest of your life wondering what if? And I don't want that for you."
"But—"
Maggie held up her hand like she had been anticipating his next question. "If it doesn't work out then you know where to find me."
ii.
"Guess who," Hal said, covering Lourdes's eyes with his hands.
"Hey Hal," she answered with a grin as he spun her around and put his arms around her waist.
"Hey," he replied.
"What are you doing here so early?" Lourdes asked, hooking her arms around his neck and looking up at him. "You weren't supposed to come and see me until tonight."
"True," Hal agreed. "But I remembered something important and I couldn't wait to see you anymore."
Lourdes raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what is it that you—"
"It's been six months," Hal answered. "Six months since the first time I kissed you and it changed everything."
"Six months since the last time you last kissed me," Lourdes interjected. "Why are you taking so long to do it again Mason? Don't you want to kiss me?"
"Of course I want to kiss you!" Hal answered. "One of the only things I can think about is kissing you, I just wanted to make sure that—"
"You weren't basing this off of a physical attraction?" Lourdes finished for him as she framed his face with her hands. "It's been six months now, I think that it's safe to say this is way more than physical."
"How did you know—?"
Lourdes shrugged. "Lucky guess, I guess. So, are you going to kiss me or not?"
In response to her question, Hal leaned in and kissed her. It was tentative at first but as the moments ticked by, his momentum grew and he was kissing her like his life depended on it.
"Too much?" He asked breathlessly, pulling away when the need for oxygen became too great to bear.
"No," she replied, just as breathless as he was. "That was. . . that was absolutely perfect."
"That was perfect?" Hal repeated, tucking her hair behind her ears and looking at her lovingly. "Honey, you haven't seen nothing yet."
And then, he kissed her again.
iii.
They had had their first fight.
It had been something so petty that Hal could hardly remember what had caused them to argue in the first place. The only thing he did know was the argument had been his fault somehow and that Lourdes had looked absolutely devastated after he had made sure he'd gotten the last word in before stalking away, making sure she knew just how angry he was.
And now that he had cooled off considerably, he was embarrassed by his actions and by the way he had treated her. He knew that he had to make things right between them, to apologize for his actions.
She was the best that he had ever had, and he didn't want to lose her over something so stupid.
He found her, sitting in the bed of a truck, writing in her journal and humming along with a song playing on the battery-ran radio by her side. He walked towards her, his heart warming with every step he took. She was totally oblivious to his presence, she didn't even look up from her notebook when he opened tailgate and climbed in next to her. He leaned in and kissed her ear, gently drawing her attention to him.
Lourdes looked at him, dropping her pen in her lap. "Hal—"
"Shh," he replied, putting a finger to her lips and shaking his head. "I need to talk to you."
"We already talked—"
Hal shook his head again, silencing her quickly. "I owe you an apology for what happened earlier today. I should have never gotten angry at you like that, especially over something so petty. Please forgive me for that, Lourdes."
Lourdes nodded, her dark eyes lighting up with a smile. "Of course I forgive you Hal, I love you."
It was the first time one of them had dared say the 'L' word aloud. Hal didn't know how to react, couldn't get the words I love you too past his throat. So, he gently tucked her hair behind her ear and then kissed her cheek before kissing her on the mouth. He hoped that just for that moment, his actions would speak louder than words and that she would realize he loved her too.
iv.
It had been raining for days and Hal was starting to feel the effects of being inside a tent for too long. He was beginning to run out of things to do. There were only so many games of hangman that he could play with Lexi and Matt before it got old, fast. There wasn't even a television to flip on to consume some of the grey afternoons with a few mindless hours of Disney and Nickelodeon shows.
Just when Hal thought he was going to lose his sanity because Lexi was following around him and constantly badgering him to keep her entertained every second of the day, Lourdes produced an umbrella and suggested that they go for a walk by themselves.
Despite the conditions, he gladly obliged her.
They weren't very far away from the camp when Lourdes dropped the umbrella and let the rain fall down on them.
"What are you doing?" Hal asked. "We're going to get drenched—"
"I know," Lourdes answered, throwing her head back and closing her eyes. "Isn't it wonderful?"
"Wonderful?" Hal repeated. "Well, I wouldn't say that. There's a reason that we stay inside on days like today—"
"A little rain never hurt anybody," Lourdes answered, as she started to spin around to the symphony of thunder and downpour.
Hal watched her, utterly entranced, the rain all but forgotten. She was dancing like it was homecoming night and she was wearing the prettiest dress in the whole school. After a moment, he slowly walked towards her and then, they were dancing together. He pressed his cheek to her's and started to whisper an old Dionne Warwick song in her ear.
He pulled away and brushed her cheek with the back of his hand, she was a drenched vision in gloomy twilight. Her eyes were sparkling, her cheeks glowing with the gentlest shade of pink, and she was smiling. Smiling so widely at him, it caused his heart to give an empathetic thud.
"You're beautiful," he whispered.
Lourdes laughed. "You're not so bad yourself."
"I love you."
Her mouth dropped open, her laughter cut short by his abrupt statement, and then she started to dance with him again. "It took you long enough," she said.
Hal stopped her again, pushed her wet hair away from her face, and then he captured her lips in a slow kiss.
"I love you," he repeated as he pulled away, their lips a breadth away from each other, his eyes still closed.
"I love you too," Lourdes replied automatically, her fingers sliding across his jaw. "I love you too."
v.
"I can't wait until we can have chocolate cake again," Hal said a few weeks later while he and Lourdes snacked on saltines and Nutella at midnight.
"I can't wait to have an ice cream sundae again," Lourdes replied, stealing one of his cracker sandwiches.
"Hey!" Hal said, making a half-hearted grab for it. "Eat your own snack, Lourdes! That was my last one."
Lourdes laughed and took a big bite before handing it back to him. "Here, we can share."
"You got more than me."
Lourdes laughed again and leaned across the worn out picnic table. "Then, I'll just have to make it up to you."
"And how are you going to do that?" Hal asked, a little bit surprised by how flirty she was being.
She smiled at him and then she kissed him. It was hesitant at first; she was never the one to initiate any kind of physical contact between them. And then she grew more confident, kissing him as fervently as she could with a table between them.
Hal was just about to pull her over the table to make it a little easier on the both of them when he heard somebody clear their throat.
Both of them looked towards the tent entrance and saw Pope and Maggie watching them, amused smiles on both their faces.
"Don't mind us," Maggie said, smirking as she glanced at their empty plates. "We were just looking for a midnight snack. You can go back to doing whatever it is you were doing."
"Good going Hal," Pope mouthed as he and Maggie passed their table and gave them a knowing wink.
Lourdes looked at him, her eyes wide with shock. Hal grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the tent.
"Don't worry," he said. "Maggie will make sure Pope keeps his mouth shut about tonight, I'm sure of it. Besides, it isn't like we were doing anything wrong. We were just kissing, barely kiss—"
Lourdes cut him off with another kiss and then she nodded. "I know. I'll see you in the morning, sweetest dreams my darling."
"Sweet dreams," Hal echoed, stealing another kiss while he reveled in the way darling sounded coming from her mouth and in the taste of hazelnuts, chocolate, and salty crackers on her lips.
He watched her as she left, counting the hours until it would be morning and they would be together again
vi.
It was a year to the day since he'd kissed her for the first time, since everything had changed between them and he had realized that h
And Hal was anxiously waiting for her on the beautiful Brazilin beach. Today was the day that he was going to take things between them to the next level.
He wanted happily ever after's and a house. He fingered the velvet ring box in his pocket and hoped that she felt the same way. Because after the past 365 days, he was 100 percent certain that he couldn't spend the rest of his life with anybody except for her.
"There you are," Lourdes said, breaking him out of his thoughts as she approached him. "Tom said I might be able to find you here."
"I was waiting for you," Hal answered, taking her in from her head to toe. She was wearing a dress and her hair was pulled away from her face in a fashionable knot on the top her head.
"The dress belongs to Anne," she told him. "I wanted to get a little dressed up because today's kind of special. It's been a year since you kissed me for the first time."
"I remember," Hal answered, his fingers finding the engagement ring box again. "I think that moment changed my life."
"Me too," Lourdes agreed.
Hal smiled. "I was hoping you'd say that."
"You were?" Lourdes asked, looking slightly surprised.
"I need to ask you something Lourdes," Hal told her as he got down on one knee and pulling the ring box out of his pocket.
"The answer is yes," Lourdes said, anticipating what he was going to say next.
"Yes?" Hal repeated, standing up immediately. "You're saying yes?"
She nodded. "I'm saying yes, I love you. I want to marry you and spend the rest of our lives together."
Hal smiled at her, opened the box, took the ring out and then slowly slid it on her finger. "The ring belonged to my mother.
"It's beautiful, Hal."
"It looks good on you," Hal replied, kissing her ring finger and slowly working his way up her arm with his lips. "I will spend the rest of my life making you happy, Lourdes."
"Me too," Lourdes whispered, closing her eyes as he started on her neck.
"I love you," he said, kissing her ear. "I love you so much."
"I love you too," she answered, her pulse starting to race from the tenderness of his kisses.
Then he found her lips, sealing their proposal with the sweetest kiss of all.
It was more than perfect.
_The End_
Author's Note:
A quick things, the cover art for this story is NOT Hal/Lourdes. The couple in the picture reminded me of them though. I hope you enjoyed my third attempt into "Hades" fan fiction, if you did then I would LOVE to hear your thoughts. The Dionne Warwicksong that Hal was singing to Lourdes was "I'm Your Puppet", and for story updates and other random stuff, you can follow my Twitter account BeyesParker22.
Until next time!
Holly, 8/30/2013_