Disclaimer: I don't own Rocky Horror, I think we've covered that by now, I'm just continuing on with my crazed imagination!
Author's Note: Short chapter this time, sorry! Thanks to all who have stuck with me this far, it means a lot!
Brad and Janet lie together in bed, unable to go back to sleep just yet. They're simply staring at each other in the dark. Brad reaches over and strokes her chest again to feel her purring, "Will you always do that?"
"I don't think so," she answers dreamily. "It happens when you're close, I think, and when I…when I especially feel it. You know? The first time usually lasts a while, though. I'll try not to make a spectacle of myself while we're in public. Think about it, though: if we were on Transexual right now, we'd be considered a married couple already, isn't that nice?"
"Too bad there's so much more to it around here. Your way is so much simpler. I think I can get used to this." Brad remembers how Magenta had told him that Riff-Raff thinks it's adorable. Once the shock is over, he's beginning to agree. Endearing, really. Amazing that he has this effect on her.
"I'm so glad you accepted in the end," she sighs, reminding him how close he'd come to rejecting her. "At least according to the customs here you get more of a choice in the matter. Back home you could care for some very much, but keep waiting for this to happen. Then, if it happens, sometimes it's not who you'd have expected."
"So whoever makes a woman do this…they have to stay married?"
"Only until she stops…and doesn't start up again. Then it's up to them whether to stick it out or separate. It's a problem among men who love other men…there must be some kind of drug or hormone they can take to make them able to do it. Or they just do it artificially."
This piques Brad's curiosity, "So, men have made the sound before?"
Janet nods, "Possibly. I've heard rumors of them anyway."
Scooting in against her, Brad whispers into her hair, "If I were like you, it'd probably come out like a chain-saw." Janet laughs, genuinely flattered. "Earlier, when you…stopped, what did that mean?"
She looks up at the ceiling, "That we were over. I thought we were, anyway, it certainly felt like it. I'm glad you changed your mind in time."
"Me, too. I can't believe I was stupid enough to almost lose you like that. I'm sorry. Then you started again. That…gesture we made…" he lets the question hang, unsure of where he wants to go with it.
Janet picks up on what he's trying to ask, "I've already told you. 'Beyond trust, beyond love.' It says 'I'm with you forever and always'." She turns to face him, pressing her palm against his with a smile, "Always. It's for… when there's need to remind, to confirm that we're still a team. Still an 'us'. Loyalty, devotion, it's what every girl hopes for, to have that with someone. As upset as I was, I couldn't say no to that. There isn't even a name for it, just like there's no real term for my...purring. There aren't any words big enough for what either thing means. Where I come from, just about every touch, every gesture, has a meaning." With a playful smile she brushes her fingers against Brad's cheek, sealing it with a kiss.
"Mmm, what's that mean?" Brad asks, remembering that Magenta had touched him the same way that morning.
Her purring spikes sharply, she's obviously pleased. "Beautiful," she whispers.
Brad laughs softly, positioning himself on top of her, holding himself up by arching his back. He kisses her hands, and then trumps her by drawing both of his hands down her face.
"Very beautiful," he whispers, kissing her back and then lying down again. Words fail her; there is no way for her to articulate her pleasure than through keening moans, gasping for breath as though she'd escaped drowning.
"Really?" Janet asks blearily, butting herself into his body before curling up rigidly; inexplicably in the throes of ecstasy, her face wet with a sudden rush of tears. Brad nods, tracing her face. "H-how did you know?" She murmurs, "How to say it, I mean?"
Although Brad wonders whether it might eventually make her purring audible in the next room, he never pauses in his touching. He pulls more covers around them both to stop her convulsive shivering. Only then, does he answer shyly, "Lucky guess. What am I saying now?"
Janet smiles, sniffling a little, "I don't know the words, but that's not important."
"Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure I mean it."
"I'm exhausted, let's try and get some sleep. Hmm?"
"Good idea, you've had a busy day." He kisses her forehead and she closes her eyes. Her love-sound fades to a silent but steady vibration in her chest as she drifts off. Brad watches her, resisting the urge to touch her and provoke a response. It seems that everything he's done since he got home from work had either sent her shooting towards heaven or plummeting to the bowels of hell. She doesn't need any more excitement tonight.
"Brad?"
"Hmm?"
Janet brings his hand back to her chest, barely awake, "I would've done this for you earlier if I could have…I probably would have…the day we met. I knew you were the one."
Ordinarily, the gravity of her confession would've sent Brad into another fit of panic, if he wasn't so sleepy. Instead he squeezes her hand, merely flattered that she would have bound herself to him at the age of 15.
"Dr Scott did one good thing for me, anyway, he gave me you," she softly reminds him.
That night, Brad dreams, his unconscious mind revisiting his first day of high school…
A fifteen-year old Brad is heading to his first class of the day. He's 6' tall and still growing, scrawny, geeky-looking, and dressed in second or third-hand clothes. Obviously a social misfit. A few large jocks forcibly shove him aside as they come through the door, knocking his books out of his arms and his glasses from his face. As he bends over to pick up his things he loses his balance and falls on his face. He looks up and sees a strange girl walking by stop, peering at him as though he were a curiosity. She seems hesitant, shy, but stoops down to help him. Accepting her hand, Brad wordlessly pulls himself up and begins recovering his spilled belongings, if not his pride. The girl watches him groping around helplessly for his glasses, one wrong move and he would end up breaking them. She finds his glasses on the floor and picks them up, looking at them inquisitively before sliding them back onto his face with a mute smile. Brad's vision clears, and they stare at each other, unable to speak, both of them seeming trapped in a moment of déjà vu, or perhaps destiny. Strange, he thought, is she blushing? The color is wrong, somehow, mauve. Pink, with the barest hint of violet. Strange. The bell rings, she jumps with a startled gasp and bolts like a frightened woodland animal, dashing into the classroom, and leaving Brad alone in the doorway.
Doctor Scott wheels past Brad, giving him a look that suggests he'd seen his entire interaction with the new girl. "Better find a seat, young man. Ah, why not sit with Miss…uh, Weiss. She's a recent arrival; I'd like it if you kept an eye on her for me."
With a confused nod, Brad shuffles into the classroom, tripping over his own feet on the way to his lab table. He looks over and sees Janet looking frightened beyond wit's end. Or maybe embarrassed. She's whispering under her breath in snatches of a different language; rich, dark, and heavily accented. He wonders what her speaking voice is like.
"Hi, I'm Brad," he extends his hand with a smile. "Thanks for...uh, you know. Out there," he adjusts his glasses awkwardly with his other hand. She stares at his extended hand, her eyes wide with surprise and pleasure. She actually appears ignorant of the customary greeting, or how to return it. Brad holds out his hand closer to her. Summoning boldness he didn't know he had, he continues, insisting. "Come on, I don't bite. My name's Brad," he repeats, hoping she'll give him her name this time. "Don't be scared, I'll be your friend," he coaxes, praying that she isn't going to laugh in his face.
"Ahh," Janet sighs, losing herself in his eyes, "Oh! My name…my name is…" she falters, trying to pull her name from the back of her mind, which had gone pleasantly blank. Reaching out, in an automatic gesture, she touches her palm against his with a sudden burst of giggles, her face a flood of color once more. Brad "corrects" her attempt at shaking hands, admiring every detail down to her fingernails. They stare at their clasped hands; both of them painfully shy yet irresistibly drawn to one another.
"Janet!" Doctor Scott calls, she snaps to attention, looking inexplicably fearful again. He's handing out a stack of papers to the class. She takes two and passes them along, giving one to Brad. That smile…like she'd never seen a human being before. A recent arrival, Dr. Scott called her; Brad wouldn't have been surprised if she'd been a recent arrival from Heaven itself.
"Janet? That's your name?" he asks, softer this time.
Nervously, she answers in the same low, conspiratal tone, "Yes, Janet Veiss—Weiss." She covers her mouth, looking guilty. "I'm not from here. I'm still learning."
"This, class, is a test to see how much you already know about the fundamentals of science. It won't affect your grades, but it's necessary for me to know what I have to work with. Nothing to be frightened of, I promise you. Begin."
This halts any conversation between Brad and his new friend; they both flip over their test forms and take it in. Brad looks utterly flummoxed; more accurately, he looks like he's about to be sick. Janet, on the other hand, brightens immediately. Her face practically glows in relief. Completely lost as to why she would look so happy, Brad reads through the questions and formulas one more time. There sits Janet, looking as though she were asked to solve a child's puzzle. Her pencil flies over the paper, completing diagrams, circling answers, as though it were the easiest thing in the world. As she's finishing up, she chances a look over at Brad, sees his blank test form and despondent demeanor with a twinge of pity. Surreptitiously looking over her shoulder, ascertaining that Dr Scott is otherwise occupied, she scoots her seat several inches closer to him, nudging her paper for him to see. Brad looks up at her, then at her test, then back at her, questioningly. She smiles brightly and significantly looks the other way. Unable to believe his luck—he made friends with the smart kid! He's saved!—he completes his own test with her "help".
Several minutes later, they hand them in, Brad is panting as though he'd just run a marathon while Janet sits there grinning at him.
"Wh-why'd you help me like that?"
"You needed it. And I could," she answers simply. Looking like she's trying not to laugh, as an afterthought she adds "You're cute."
The bell rings…and the dream ends.
Brad doesn't wake up completely, he only partially resurfaces to consciousness to think: that was the last time Janet had been at the crossroads between worlds. He'd been with her on her first day in public as an Earthling, he is now doubly glad that he'd offered his friendship to her then. Poor thing, she must've been so scared and lonely, not knowing what had happened to her family, probably a vague feeling that something terrible had happened that she didn't want to talk about. Janet needed a friend that day; Brad thinks how lucky he was that it was him. As much as he'd needed someone to cheat off of, in a way, you could say that she'd needed someone to share with. Brad tries to coerce his sleepy brain to retrace old steps with the knowledge he has now. Her first day of high school, scary enough for 'normal' kids, made all the worse by her uprooted state, and methodically suppressed memory. He happily remembers their first days together, now knowing that Janet had grown up never thinking of herself as pretty—that title had always been reserved for her glamorous older sister—and on her first day among ordinary humans she found herself admired, sought-after. No one could understand why she wasted her time with Brad when she could have her pick. She could've had anyone and she wanted him. He wonders how clear her memory is of their early years as a couple. After such recent physical, mental, and emotional trauma, he's amazed that Janet hadn't somehow blocked it all out. But no, she'd just said…that was when she fell in love with him. She'd even acted on instinct and halfway made the sign, although at the time neither one knew what it meant. Forever and always, Brad ponders as he slips back into unconsciousness.