It Sounded Much Cooler in My Head
Summary Elizabeth Brooks' favorite color is green,he is green,surly they're meant to be.Too bad he's an insecure,unstable madman of a mutant who wants to end humanity and she's a human with an attitude problem.
Warnings: This story is going to contain coarse language, gore, violence, mentions of drug and alcohol abuse, and maybe sexually explicit content some day.
Memo: This perticular chapter is devoted to lbmunich's amazing review that certainly had a lot of thought in it and showed me that some people pay true attention to my stories and is the reason you don't have to wait an aditional four or so days for this chapter.
Forgive the cruddyness and lateness of this chapter, you'll like the end!
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of X-Men, just my originals and this story.
Exalted Fans: Itsallaboutme11 // animebaby6 // Jinx of the 2nd Law // foxfire222 // Angeldustedthatfreak // Italia12 //Shostakovich // st.elmo-lover // GothikStrawberry // darkraya // lbmunich
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Chapter Thirteen: Questions and Poor Humor
Eric, not surprised to see Elizabeth return alone, didn't question the matter and downed a large mouthful of spaghetti while she sat down. She really was a good cook, but in all reality it didn't take a lot to be a step up from take-out or the horrifying things Sabertooth could concoct for dinner. He snagged a quick second helping before she could get her first and grinned at her. She smiled, batting his hand away from the sauce playfully. "Leave some for Toad and me at least."
"Oh, he's coming?"
"Yeah, he said he'd be here in a minute."
Eric shifted a bit, suddenly finding it a bit harder to swallow. He and Toad were close in a sort of comradely sort of way, united by a cause and a leader, but that didn't really mean he could get the time of day from the guy. Yet he was the one and very same mutant treating Elizabeth the human better than anyone else in the lair lately. It wasn't anything to really worry about, right? It was still Toad after all. Still, that unfounded inexplicable infatuation she seemed to have for the guy did kind of worry Eric who didn't feel he was exactly safe for Elizabeth to spend so much time around.
He liked Elizabeth, of that much he was sure. He thought she was cute, funny, and smart. Eric himself, was all of those things himself and he knew she was sort of interested in him despite all that was going on, despite the fact that she could very likely be dead by the end of the week by any account and he admired that as some sort of odd sign of courage. Like she wouldn't let all of this get to her. She was above falling prey to worrying about the likeliness of negative possibility.
How was he to know that he was wrong?
Elizabeth prodded at her food idly, waiting respectfully for the last member of the party before she ate. She was so stuck on prodding her meatball that she didn't even notice Eric gazing off into space with a streak of sauce down the side of his nose or else she might have laughed. The moment Toad walked into the room, Elizabeth flashed him a smile in greeting and dove onto her food having only been ignoring her hunger out of her own good manners.
No one spoke. No one said a freaking word and it was all too unnerving but Elizabeth wasn't up to breaking it, having no clue what to say. No one even made eye contact. When had things suddenly become so awkward? It was like one had walked in on the other two having sex and no one wanted to talk about it.
Eric was the first to finish and after putting his dishes up sat back down and waited for Elizabeth, watching her. Still unused to gaining the attention of the opposite sex, shifted uneasily, averting her eyes. Even if he was a guy she considered a friend, he was a very hot friend.
She'd hardly managed to put down her fork before his whisk her plate away and put it in the sink. "You up for Mario Carts now?" he asked brightly.
"Um… well… I have to do dishes still," Elizabeth said, gesturing to the pans and such still on the table.
"I'll do it," Toad said suddenly, "my job anyway."
"Great, come on Liz it's been a while since we last played."
Now she was kind of weirded out, Eric was always kind of happy but he was acting too… eager? Hyper? What was a good word? It was just… off, they'd both been doing that a lot lately. It was not as if she'd known them a very long time or knew them in depth but still… "It's only been like two days Eric, no biggie," she said tensely, hard-pressed to rationalize things.
"Exactly, over 48 hours is a while, don't you think?"
"I guess." Elizabeth glanced over at Toad, finding him staring at her with a sort of glassy look. "Whatever, let's just get on with you kicking my butt at videogames, shall we?"
"Ladies first."
Elizabeth waited a moment, watching him expectantly.
He quirked an eyebrow, "What?"
"I'm waiting for you to go."
"That had to be the worst attempt at humor I've ever encountered," he chided.
"Well I never liked any of your jokes either! Every time I laughed I was faking."
"You're a horrible, horrible person, Elizabeth."
"Just go on, both'a ya."
The two left the room, not wanting to antagonize. "First one to get to my room get's the controller without the sticky 'X' button."
Elizabeth gave him a hard kick in the shin then sprinted off, full well knowing the way to his room. "YOU DIRTY LITTLE CHEAT! THAT HURT!" he called after her, limping down the hall.
The victorious girl lay on the bed, trying to steady her breath and look as bored as possible. "What took you so long?"
"You KICKED me!"
"I did no such thing! And even if I did, don't be such a baby." she said, sticking her tongue out at him.
Eric grabbed her tongue, smirking at her. She glared, pushing his hand off, "Ew, you taste like soap!"
"Well at least you can rest safely knowing I wash my hands," he pointed out as if it were some true grand knowledge.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, snagging the 'good' controller while Eric took that as the signal to start up the game. It wouldn't start.
"Damn it, guess it didn't appreciate being stepped on this morning," Eric muttered,
He was immediately broadsided by a pillow. "You STEPPED on it? The ONE day I get the GOOD controller?"
He smiled sort of sheepishly, "Uh… yeah… well… We could watch a movie instead or something." Frankly he was very much hoping she would take him up on the offer.
Elizabeth shrugged, laying back down, "Let's just watch TV, I don't think I've gotten to since I got here."
"Okay." He tossed her the remote and she flipped through the channels. Not finding anything really worth watching, she just left it on Cartoon Network. Eric sat on the bed, watching her closely. "Hey, Liz?"
"Hmm?"
He'd hoped to have a better setting for this conversation but when you didn't know how much time you had left with someone, whatever time you had was as good as any. "What do you think is going to happen?"
She went rigid at the question, she hadn't thought about it after those first few days. "I don't know."
"Do you think your sister will… help you?"
No. She didn't. No way in hell would that frigid witch ever help her. But what should she tell Eric? She had no answer for him that she was willing to give just yet so instead she just turned away from him and faced the wall.
That was all the answer he needed.
"She isn't going to… is she?"
Elizabeth was quiet for a bit. "No… she's not."
Eric let it sink in; he'd known that was a possibility but he'd wanted to think that Elizabeth would come out of this no worse for wear, that she might be able to go home. "I'm sorry."
She sat up, looking him in the eye, "Don't be, and don't do anything stupid to get yourself in trouble either. Even if we are friends, no sense in both of us getting taken out, right?" she said brightly, "Just don't worry about me, I guess I'm kinda okay with it." That wasn't true, she didn't want to die, but even more so, she didn't want him to worry about her.
He couldn't believe it, she'd known all this time that she was going die and even now didn't falter. "Elizabeth…"
He couldn't take it anymore.
He kissed her.
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THE END! We will move on to the 2nd installment now so be on the lookout!