dominance | ( eudio inbox )

[ bellamy watches her. he doesn't say anything, feeling as though he doesn't need to address what's happening at all. he already knows his motivation, even if it's a little messy and blurred and he can't quite pick whether it's concern or his hands needing to stay busy. he may not be the tinkerer like raven, but he's not someone who can sit still while staring at the paint of her apartment for a good hour. ]

[ he doesn't feel like saying anything about her reaction, even though it just tells him what he suspected: idiot. his hands continue to knead at her foot, wondering just how knotted she's allowed her good leg to become. he doubts it'll help her walk any easier, but it's something. ]

[ he can't just sit around and do nothing. ]

Tell stories. [ he repeats it, sounding incredulous. nothing is that simple. not in their world — but he's been reminded again and again, by the people here, by the things here, by how even those from home react to here, that this isn't their home at all. he shakes his head, looking down at her ankle. ] Alright. It sounds too damn easy, but — [ it's something. something he can be useful in, as he feels himself being useless, with no place at all, in eudio. ]

[ he chooses to joke, instead of confessing that. ] It's kind of sad people don't know how to hold a book. It's easier than a rifle.

[Tell stories and rub feet, she thinks, but doesn't say so because she's not acknowledging it, right? Right. There's a knot in her stomach now that's all nerves and tension, and it takes him actually digging in to the tension in her foot to undo it.

She lets out a pained little garbled laugh, because of where he just touched, and lets her head drop back against the arm rest.]

Or a sword. A lot lighter, too.

[ his fingers slow at her laugh before he lets them dig into her foot once more. if she doesn't like it, he thinks she'd pull it away, yell at him or maybe kick him. but he's keen to not inflict any more pain on her; bellamy thinks she's suffered enough. ]

[ he lets his eyes drift to her foot before looking up at her, noting how she rests her head against the arm rest. he sits comfortably, back against the cushions, no longer slouching so relaxedly he may slip off. ]

Guess what matters is we know how to hold a book. [ he tries not to smile as he quips, ] I don't know if you can read one, though.

[She actually pulls her foot out of his grip to kick his stomach, lightly.] Go float yourself. [And then sets it back into his hands, not a second later, so he could, you know, continue.

Not like she likes it.]

[ he laughs out, ] Hey! [ leaning backward, unable to escape her kick. his hands drop from her foot before she settles it back on his lap. if she didn't like it, he figures she'd shift her leg to the floor, or even fold it underneath herself to keep it away from his clutches. if anything, he knows she'd opt to embarrass him instead by telling him not to touch her. ]

[ looking at her pointedly, he rolls his eyes before he returns to his self-imposed task. he doesn't know if this will help her at the end of the day, but a brace can only do so much to alleviate the tension. he speaks to her matter-of-factly, ] That still doesn't prove you know how to.

[She laughs out,] Fuck you. [She still feels tingles up her leg from where he's touching her, but it doesn't matter none when her pride is hurt. She's a genius, mr. nerdy janitor.]

Gimme your stupid book, I'm going to read you a story and then hit you with it.

[ bellamy laughs, shaking his head. ] Nuh uh. I'm not falling for that. [ if he's to get up and grab the book he'd bought, the very one that sits next to his takeaway cup of coffee he's since forgotten, he can easily predict what will happen. swap her own proposal around and there it is. ]

[ besides, he doesn't wish to move. he's comfortable, sitting on her couch, doing something for her that neither of them really acknowledge within the moment. maybe it doesn't need to be, at least not within this minute where he has her completely distracted. he doesn't stop touching her, though, fingers moving down the length of her foot as slowly as a snail. ] You'd read the title and throw it at me. [ and he tsks in a reprimand of her predictability. ] Any excuse to hit me.

[Maybe, just maybe, she doesn't want him to move either so this is fine. But she's still rattled and amused in equal parts.]

Yes, because you're begging for it right now. [She crosses her arms under her head, convinced she's thinking the right thing.] I've studied from books thicker than that one.

And those books helped you become the youngest Zero G mechanic in fifty years.

[ he says it so easily, like he's said it before, over and over, like some line that's meant to make her roll her eyes and hit him with a book. he doesn't believe she wouldn't study, riding on the coattails of any parent or friend or advisor. raven's always been hard at work, trying to better whatever she makes. if it hadn't been for her and the radios, her and her reading of books he'd never touch, he thinks he'd be dead in mount weather. ]

[ for all intents and purposes, though, he insists on teasing her. his hands don't stop on her foot. he isn't sure when he should stop, either, but he doesn't think on it. ]

Still doesn't prove to me you know how to read.

Fifty-two. [Just saying, fifty-two isn't fifty, but who's counting? She looks down at her foot in his hands, and feels that same heat curl in her stomach again, so her toes curl and then wiggle, a soft sound escaping her when he smooths a knot out successfully.]

I have books. [She brings one hand down to wave it towards the desk, where some books lay in a pile and is that one on mythology? Maybe.]

[ bellamy smiles at her correction, assuming her to be proud of her achievement. she should be. it's not like she even brags about it when she can. he remembers it had been him telling her she was a genius, him telling her she still had work to do. she's never once really bragged about being the youngest zero g in fifty-two years. ]

[ his gaze focuses on her foot before he looks to the table, searching for the books among the clutter. once he spies what he thinks to be the spine of one, he smiles. ]

[ returning his attention to her foot, he bows his head to watch his hands. he hesitates in even acknowledging it, but after a few moments, asks quietly, ] Is it helping at all?

[Did it help?

It's not those words exactly, but she's thrown for a loop when he asks, and her mind goes back to right then, of all moments. To his mouth on hers, and his mouth on her neck and his hands up along her back. If she hadn't been so raw and mad and angry at her own heart, she would've liked that.

She looks at his profile for a while, then has to look down, and away, gaze lowered.] Yeah, it's helping.

[ truthfully, bellamy doesn't think much of it when he first asks. it's just an innocent inquiry, one that would see him release her foot if it's not doing anything. maybe it isn't. when he'd tried to help his mother out when she'd been pregnant, it usually helped just a little. in hindsight, though, he thinks him just being there was what had her relax as much as she could. ]

[ just as they always are, though, he misses her looking at him as his attention is on her foot. she misses him glancing up at her after her response because she looks away. he trails after her, kind of like how he's always shadowing her these days, with his own thoughts returning to when he'd remained in his bed, wondering what the hell he hadn't been able to do for her. he figured it was because he wasn't finn, or maybe because he wasn't clarke's, but as vindictive as some of the guys hoped raven to be, bellamy just thinks she was looking for something and found the person she suspected may have it was just a disappointment whose hands were empty. ]

[ he's the guy who doesn't care, because admitting as much usually gets people floated or locked up. ]

[ it's after a noticeable pause, ] Good. [ he doesn't stop his hands, though. he hadn't asked to gauge whether or not her foot was fixed. it never will be. ]

[ he looks down and speaks to her foot. ] You should probably see if there's someone in the city who can make sure you don't work yourself into a cramp when you're reading all your big books.

[It could be. There are doctors in this city, and magic, and maybe she could get someone to fix her leg, but now it feels like a part of her. And she doesn't know, she doesn't know if she wants to, or dares to, ask anyone for help.

Proof being, all this mess.]

What, you're quitting already? Do they smell?

Yeah. [ he smiles, but it's small. he looks up at her, even though he feels like there may be some tension lingering ... or something. ]

[ he feigns disappointment by shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders. ] The smell of feet just doesn't do it for me. [ but he contradicts this by continuing to knead her foot. ]

[By all means, talk to her about what does it for you, then wonder why there's tension.]

Just gunpowder, huh?

[ there's a landmine there, he thinks, but bellamy willingly steps on it. compared to how he's smelled over the last few weeks, a mix of either smoke, anger, defeat, and his own blood thanks to mount weather, he'd rather just return to that. gunpowder hadn't been such a bad smell, in hindsight. ]

Yeah. The stuff they sell at the mall doesn't have the same kick to it. Expensive as hell, too.

[Too bad she's no longer making bullets double time, but she's not going to say that. Or think it. Or think that, in hindsight, it's very likely that's exactly what she'd smelled like. Gunpowder, rocket fuel, dirty, defeat and sweat.]

Gunpowder doesn't exactly come cheap either.

I doubt we really need gunpowder in a place like this, anyway. [ there's no grounders, no mountain men, no real enemy to fight. he's determined to find that person, though. no place offers freedom and safety in exchange for two minute cuddles. ] It seems so ... [ he shrugs. ] I don't know.

[ suspicious — at least to him. he's pretty sure everyone he spoke to thinks he's crazy. but raven likes this place, so he opts for a word that doesn't technically destroy any comfort she may have found here. ] Non-threatening.

Weird - [is what she says before he finishes with non-threatening. IT's not a word that destroys anything at all; there are dragons and elves and magical people in this place, weird is the right word for it.

She opens her mouth and then closes it.] Or that.

[ bellamy thinks it's weird with its choice of people and its rules, but he finds that the fact there's no group to fight, no threat in the shape of grounders or mountain men trying to harm them in the worst possible way, that's the weird part of it all. he's so used to fighting someone that, now, when he's slowed down and stopped moving, he's not so sure of what to do with himself. ]

[ his fingers slow as he thinks, almost an unconscious act on his part that he continues to work at her foot. ] Have you ever spoken to Samantha?

Not beyond the first time. [And even then, it had been rushed. Where do I sign. Get me out of here.]

[ he shrugs. he approaches what he's about to say so casually, ] Yeah, well, if I end up leaving again without saying goodbye, there's a good chance I pissed her off and she lied to my face.

[ "we're not full of shit" is something kane would tell him, parroted by jaha, even said by abby griffin. he thinks they'd try and say it in a condescending manner, and although it'd been over text, bellamy has a feeling samantha's keen for him to learn by himself eudio is a safe city, whereas those on the council would tell him it is while providing no proof. he'd thought to call a spade a spade with her, but maybe the eudio representatives are buckets instead. ]

[ he figures he owes her that, just in case. he doesn't know why he hadn't come to see her before he'd left, but, bellamy sometimes doesn't know himself. ]

Just in case it happens again, at least you know.

[Leaving? There's an almost instant feeling of rejection inside her at the possibility, for so many reasons. He's actually relaxed here, not scared or angry or fighting for his life. And him being here means her having an ally - a friend- that gets where she's coming from without the need for hours of background story. And also -- also, Octavia, or something?

She frowns, and pulls her foot out of his grip, pushing herself up to sit; the wince is there, but dulled by the fact that her right leg feels pretty great right now.]

Do you want to piss her off?

[ does bellamy want to piss samantha off? yes, he does — he wants to push her until she breaks, showing him that this place is bullshit. he wants to eradicate it then, saving all these people from their bullshit deals that will never be fulfilled. it's all he can do, even though he doubts he'll ever make up for the fact he cost three hundred of his people their lives, that he'd acted too slowly and lost more of their own inside a mountain. ]

[ — and no. he doesn't want this to be some crappy deal he made, risking coming here when he could be back at camp jaha trying to fix things. selfishly, he hasn't minded being here. some of the people are cool, some of them are actually nice, and most of them ... he feels like he's twenty again, a year before everything had gone to shit with that one choice that had ruined everything for his family. ]

[ all he can think about is mount weather, of how he'd wanted to pit everyone inside of it as the enemy, but had found an ally in the most unlikely of girls. it's hard to come back from that, losing maya, losing her family and their friends. if he'd been quicker, maybe abby and raven wouldn't have been drilled into, but then he's not the only person who had cards to play that day. ]

[ he shifts on the couch, no longer preoccupied with her foot. he presses his hands against his jeans and frowns, looking down at the space of the couch beside him rather than at her. ] I just don't believe this place is as black and white as it claims to be. Nothing is as perfect as this.

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