LadyOfThieves – It's true, I haven't memorised all three hours, only about two and three-quarters :) And yes, I'm scarily obsessed. You hadn't figured that out already?
LordLanceahlot – I hate the fact that links don't show up in reviews…can you email it to me? Because I need some shirtless Jack to cheer me up…I really want to apply for your C2, but at the moment I've got tons of exams coming up (stupid school…) Thanks for reviewing!
Ermine aka Tree – Again, it really sucks that links don't show up in reviews. Can you email it to me? I really want to see that clip! I'm glad the description's good, it's one of my weaknesses. Good to know I'm improving! Thanks for reviewing!
Black Lumina Enchantress – Great penname by the way! And thank you so much for your review, it really made my day! I felt like crying after seeing King Kong, and when I see it again I probably will :) Thanks for reviewing!
Deathwing8 – Thanks for reviewing! Sorry I made you wait so long for an update!
PA – Ah, thank you! It's such a beautiful movie, it needs beautiful writing! I'm glad mine's up to the job! Thanks for reviewing!
I'm so sorry, I meant to update this much sooner, but I've been feeling ill recently, and I really wasn't in the mood to do anything productive. But I'm here now, right?
I have absolutely nothing intelligent to say (ill, head not working right) so I'll just let you read this chapter. Warning, it's really fluffy. But when was that ever a bad thing?
Chapter III: One Moment is Enough
With every step away from the ape's body, Ann felt both better and worse. Better because she could put it out of her mind. Worse because she didn't feel that she wanted to put Kong out of her mind, tossing him out like so much garbage. Her whole life, people had been leaving her. Her mom had been a vaudeville girl, and her father had walked out on the both of them before Ann had even seen the light of day. Their relationship had been fractured at best, and when she'd been left on her own at thirteen, Ann had convinced herself that she'd cope. And she had. She'd been part of a vaudeville act in a small, homey theatre with a tightly-knit cast who almost felt like her second family. But that had been both good and bad, as when people left, one after another, to move back to where the jobs were, and away from the stripped and poverty-stricken city, the loss had felt like a hole that would never heal.
And now Kong…
Manny was right. The people she loved always let her down.
But how could that be true, when walking next to her was someone who had never given up on her?
Or was that it?
The thought made her stop in the street suddenly.
"Ann," Jack asked, "what is it?"
"Why did you come up there?" she asked, her voice soft but there was a firmness in it which could not be ignored.
"Because–" he began, then stopped. Whenever a character had something important to say, he could write it, then rewrite it, then continue to make changes right up until the opening night. With this he could only say it once.
He had to get it right.
"Because I love you."
Whatever reaction he was expecting from Ann, he didn't get it. She seemed to look everywhere other than at him, and her whole body stiffened in a way that was barely perceptible, but to someone who had worked in theatre, even the most insignificant movements spoke volumes.
Internally, Ann's heart was going a mile a minute. She hadn't known or expected that at all. She knew that she loved him, but she was just a vaudeville comedian. When she returned after the voyage, she would go back, hopefully have enough money to stave off starvation and eviction for a little while, and then return again to futile auditions and unopened résumés. Jack, she assumed, would go back to writing plays and living out his artistic life. Once they were back on dry land, she assumed that this would be over. The daydream would fade, and she'd have to return to her ordinary world, without adventure or romance. Just the mundane struggle to survive.
Survive…just survive…
She almost jumped; hearing Manny repeating his familiar mantra about theatre life inside her head felt so real she could have believed that he was standing next to her. She'd planned her day-to-day life by that principle.
But, she realised, she didn't want to survive. She wanted to live. She wanted all of the passions and infatuations of a life well lived.
Ann looked up at Jack, meeting his eyes with her own. For once in her life, she was going to trust what her loyal heart told her instead of the cynical voice in her head.
She said nothing, but moved in and kissed him quickly, covering his mouth with her own. The feeling of her own heart pounding was all the confirmation that she needed to know that she had made the right choice.
Heat was generated in all the places that their bodies touched, and Ann shivered, not because of the cold wind whipping through her thin white chorus dress, but because of the knot of warmth sliding down her back. She could feel every beat of her heart, pulsing in her veins, and it made her feel more alive than ever.
"Good," she said softly, pulling apart from their kiss, her warm breath just tickling his cheek. "Because I love you too."
There was no time to decipher any subtext. She was sick of subtext. She wanted too say it and so she said it. And it was the truest and most liberating thing she had said in a long time. She meant it more sincerely than anything else she had ever said. And it rang out, her sincerity, in every syllable.
She didn't know how long they stood there, embracing in the snow and cold. She only knew that the serenity around them shattered, as the sound of a flashbulb cracked in the distance. Ann pulled back, remembering with a shock the flashbulbs that cracked around Kong's body as he lay, broken, on the hard, unfeeling concrete outside the Empire State Building. The mere sound brought back a torrent of emotions and stripped all other good feeling away, and she suddenly almost felt like her head was swimming. A sudden sense of deep urgency gripped her stomach, and it was hard to believe that a second ago she had been standing with her arms wrapped around the man she loved. The cold started to seep into her bones again, and she felt older than she had a minute ago.
"Let's go." Jack said softly, seeing her vulnerability. It didn't suit her. Ann Darrow was not a vulnerable person, but he could guess the cause behind this sudden change in moods. It was hard to believe that just know she had been kissing him, telling him she loved him, and for a second, everything had felt stable and safe. However, they should both have known by now that stability was fleeting.
It was in both of their interests to stay as far away from reporters as possible. He didn't have to say this, as he knew just by the look in Ann's eyes that she was thinking the same thing.
"Where can we go?" Ann asked, equally softly, looking around like she expected a reporter to jump out behind one of the trash cans in the alley. This wasn't like her; she was tougher than this. She had to be, after years of fending for herself in a cut-throat industry. But after several of the most traumatising hours of her life, she was bound to feel a little jittery. She just wished she didn't.
"My apartment. It's only two streets away." Jack explained, and when Ann nodded, he took her hand and started to lead the way through the dark streets, which felt eerily calm after the chaos of the scene of Kong's rampage. They didn't say anything more, but there was nothing else to say. No subtext.
Jack's apartment was, as always, a mess. He had bits of paper, random parts of scripts all over the table and floor, coupled with whatever books he was reading at the moment and the remnants of what passed for food strewn about, left wherever he had last had it. He'd never really minded before, but suddenly he became conscious.
Ann suddenly smiled, without meaning to, at the scene before her. It was so quintessentially Jack, so typical of him that she smiled without thinking. This she could deal with. This sort of thing made sense to her, she could understand. Thinking about Kong made her head hurt, as well as her heart. Was he the last of his kind? Why had he fought so hard to keep her safe? There were too many questions, questions that rolled around the inside of her head incessantly ceaselessly.
"Ann," she heard Jack say. He'd been watching her, watching the shift in moods that was evident on her face.
"I just wish…" she started, and then trailed off. "I wish it was easier," she finished lamely, knowing the words were inadequate to describe what she was feeling, but also understanding that she wouldn't be able to describe it any better.
She could feel Jack's arms around her, and she encircled her own arms around his neck, taking comfort in the nearness of their bodies. She could be sure she was safe with him. And it was over – for today. There was still tomorrow, and Ann wasn't sure she'd make it through that. But she was still around to try.
And as the darkness enveloped them both, there was still that comfort between them, the joining of souls. Through the darkness, there was only light.
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