It was sweet watching her struggle against asking any of the growing list of questions Melody could see spinning around inside her genius mind as they wandered side by side along the uneven pathways of the street fair.
The sights, sounds, and blending flavors from the gathered scattering of varied food trucks almost made her dizzy, but nothing compared to the flipping race of her heart against her ribs every time she'd catch another unspoken question teetering on the edge of Phoebe's held tongue, along with the occasional brushing of her jacket-covered arm against the girl at her side.
"What?"
Melody smiles at the undertone of self-consciousness when she's caught staring…. again. If she were being honest, she was missing the ability to turn invisible right about now just to get a handle on her very alive emotions buzzing around her equally much more solid body. "I missed you." It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth either, as she fists her hands deeper into the pockets of her jean jacket.
"Oh." Phoebe answers, and Melody smiles wider at the dusting of a blush coloring Phoebe's cheeks. "Missed you too." The off-the-clock ghostbuster mumbles back in answer, reaching up to nervously fidget with her glasses.
"You hungry?" Melody asks, needing some kind of distraction before her side-stolen glances get her into even more trouble.
Again, the buzzing of fresh questions clouds Phoebe's so expressive eyes as the two look at one another.
"What?" Melody mimics with a teasing smile. "I have a little more pocket money thanks to the contests, even when the judges of this thing are keeping the bulk of the stuff safe and sound till I tell them what charity I want to donate to."
"I didn't think these contests were charity-driven." Phoebe muses, still following along as Melody leads them toward the closest line of parked food trucks.
"It's not about the winnings." Melody counters.
Phoebe hesitates more than a little at the suddenly hardened undertone of the bitter words. "Who is he to you?" she asks at last. "That man?" as if Melody needed clarification on who she was asking about.
Again, Melody's face hardened into a bitter scowl for half a second before she took a steady breath as they joined the too-short line, in Melody's quiet opinion. "another factor is why I and a lot of other more innocent folks ended up barbequed." She admitted after a few tense beats of quiet while they both pretended to study the truck-offered menu.
"I died in a horrifying tenement fire," Phoebe remembered her telling her during that insightful first chess match. She'd said it so casually then as she slid her bishop into a new position on the chess board. Then, adding an equally throwaway, "I died before my face melted off," in further explanation as the game had unfolded.
"—or we could maybe split one if you're not that hungry right now." Phoebe dimly hears Melody, suggesting that her mind, usually so calmed by such overstimulation, now seems to spiral under the new information about Melody's past. "Bees?"
The nickname surprised her more so than the sudden feel of Melody's hand against her shoulder "Hey, you alright?" her crush of a not so ghostly girl asks pulling them clear out of the small line now gathering at the trucks order window as then dropping her voice in a low whisper when she adds "you're crying." Without lifting her warmed hand from against Phoebe's shoulder in guidance.
Horrified Phoebe's hand reaches up and sure enough her searching fingers catch the outing slide of tears against her cheek. "I…." Phoebe started to say only to become even more lost for words when her eyes lift again to meet Melody's triggering more uncharacteristically shed tears slipping from her eyes.
The look so similar to the guilty one she'd seen right before admitting her part in forcing Phoebe to help free Garraka.
"Hey." Melody's voice coaxes then when Phoebe's chin lifted just enough to meet the other woman's eyes Phoebe was embracing her or crushing her really with how hard her arm locked around Melody's shoulders more to prove to herself that she somehow was back and alive, but Melody didn't bother with that as she hugged back, if possible, even tighter.
Nothing was said when they eventually separated but again it was Phoebe that instigated when she decided to release all but one of Melody's hands.
"So, is it some kind of leftover ghost metabolism thing?" Phoebe probes, scrubbing hard to hide the tear tracks under her eyes as they wander away from the tempting smells of cooking food in the air. "I promise I won't turn you in for cheating or whatever, but I am curious."
"Huh?" Melody wonders, hoping the blush in her cheeks wasn't as obvious to anyone else as it was burning under her skin at the simple ability to hold hands with someone again. Especially if that someone happened to be Phoebe Spengler.
"How can you win all those contests without, you know…. Exploding." Phoebe clarifies
At this, Melody lets out a real deep-belly kind of laugh. Even doubling over but without letting go of the hand she'd been allowed to hold.
"What? Come on, it's a valid question." Phoebe defends with a pout in her expression, which only makes Melody laugh harder in admiration.
"I mean, I was, you know, dead for a while before sitting down for that chess match with you, so you'd think I'd have the stomach to make up for everything I've missed out on," She says, sobering a little more under Phoebe's pouting scowl. "But no. it's not like that. Not that I understand it myself, 'cause I don't. It's just that I don't know. It's like as soon as the contest starts, I can't taste anything. Like I'm dead all over again." Melody shrugs, earning a nervous gasping from the listening scientist. "until I get off the stage and immediately get that well-fed kind of feeling, but my stomach is empty, and I'm hungry all over again." Melody attempts to explain.
Phoebe does crack a tensed smile at the attempted joking. Then deciding not to press much more but not entirely ready to drop the topic either Phoebe asks. "Did you meet anyone else- on the other side?"
"You mean like, did I get to meet your grandfather, Egon?" Melody prods nudging her shoulder playfully against Phoebe's without feeling the need to also let go of the hand she still held. "Yeah. I met him. He wasn't exactly happy with, you know, my helping in tricking you and all."
Phoebe shakes her head in denial at the answer. "No. I mean." She pauses, hesitating. "I meant, did you find your family? You know, on the other side."
At the question Melody goes quiet. So quiet that Phoebe begins regretting voicing the question at all so instead she suggests. "What if we give this competition obsessed guy a little payback then?"
This does seem to draw Melody back from her cloudy thoughts. "Oh yeah?" her returned crush prods with a heart-melting half smile curling one side of her mouth. "I'm listening."