ArchivedLogs:Lightning Bugs

Lightning Bugs
Dramatis Personae Ivan, Rasa
In Absentia	2013-08-11 '
Location <XS> Forest
Quiet and shady, the trees rise all around here high and thick. In stillness, woodland creatures make appearances, though sudden noises scare them back into the cover. Dappled sunlight filters down between the thick foliage, and the ground underfoot is heavily overgrown, though here and there paths have been worn, by deer or years of students wandering familiar trails. Yesterday was a tiring day for Ivan, having just come back from a long bout of travel, He chose to spend most of the day in his dorm. Near his bugs, his best friend, and near Rasa. Today has been a little more eventful, with him having been around his bees for most of the morning and even meeting some new people, though that time is over now. Now is the time for quiet. The forest provides this, especially when one wanders off the paths. Which is exactly what Ivan is doing, in jeans, converse sneakers and white dress shirt - the latter covered in... well. A fine selection of pretty much any insect and arachnid he's come across on this little trip. Some skitter up the side of his neck or into his hair. He's also got a black backpack slung over one shoulder. The forest floor gives satisfying crunches of leaves and twigs as he walks past trees and bushes alike, before he turns and looks around -- as though he momentarily forgot he asked a Rasa to come along. Where is ze? Boring as his navigation usually is inside the school, rarely straying from where he is supposed to go, the forest finds him occasionally just thoughtlessly wandering off, like an overexcited puppy. Also vaguely like that, he looks /guilty/ about it when he finally stops in his tracks and realises it. Rasa? "Did you forget something?" Rasa asks, watching his mood change and his movements slow. Ze closes the distance between them, moving four or five feet in from the left and turning hir head to look in the same direction that Ivan does. "Or did you hear something?" Ze narrows hir gaze down the same trajectory that Ivan looks and pauses, really listening, too, until ze is sure there is nothing. Hir hand sneaks out to gingerly grab his hand, in case of insect, then shuffles a little closer. Ze is wearing a transparent, yellow, sleeveless shirt, with a round collar, pleated front panel with buttons and eyelet flowers around the rest of the shirt. Ze has a black tank top underneath and black shorts under that. There are a pair of gloves stuffed in one pocket, peeking out. Hir tail is a soft pinkish hue, one that runs all the way up hir spine and disappears into hir dark hair, while the rest of hir skin holds a light blueish tinge, something tranquil over the human tone of hir skin, like ze had been washed in blue berry juice. Ivan /almost/ startles when Rasa's voice is suddenly /right there/, but hir hand grabbing his does its job of calming him almost instantly. Phew. Okay. The bugs on his shirt do poorer job of hiding his panic, though, momentarily skittering around in chaotic little movements before they, too, calm their engines. "I remembered something." He replies quietly, a little vaguely, though not entirely untrue! Unwilling to let go of hir hand, he shifts his weight to let his backpack slide down and rest of the floor, while he rifles through it with his fee hand. But it's full of BOOKS and clear plastic containers and other THINGS. Between attempting to find what he's looking for, he looks up with a careful sort of smile. Though in his mind, there's a looping of Russian << { where is it where is it where the hell is it } >> , all he says is, "Are you not cold?" "No, I'm not cold." Rasa is amused by Ivan's distraction, enjoying how he gets lost in his thoughts sometimes. Ze lowers hirself down to one knee, letting Ivan get closer to his bag so he can search through it more calmly. Hir hand tugs Ivan's toward hir face though, and ze gently kisses his knuckles, waiting. A tiny mess of containers and a notebook spills out of the backpack, before - aha! A small, white plastic bag is pulled out, with something vaguely book-sized in it. He places it carefully on the forest floor, placing everything else back into the backpack. The bugs collected on his shirt begin slowly to scatter, as though Ivan suddenly has more important things to do than be covered in them. He too is kneeling down now, and without getting up, offers the bag to Rasa. "I brought you a gift. Gifts." His eyes dart to the side for a second, before adding, "... My mother helped." "Ohh." Rasa scoots closer to Ivan when he kneels and leans hir shoulder against him, taking up the bag that is offered to hir. Hir head curls inward, to lean against Ivan's as much as possibly, hir tail looping around his waist gently. Nimble fingers open the bag and slip inside, pulling the contents out into hir palm, hir lap below in case anything else should tumble. "I'll have to write your mother a thank you." What comes out of the bag is a wooden, rectangular lacquer box! Black and shiny, handpainted with intricately veined leaves and a few yellow flowers, with gold paint decorating the outer edges. Something makes a dull thunk on the inside of the box - when opened, revealed to be a pendant, fairly small, of purple charoite with bronze inclusions, wrapped in bronze-coloured wire that curls around and ends in little spirals across its surface. There is also some cloth! It looks to be a black, gold, red and green... scarf? A black platok, to be precise, decorated in delicate little floral patterns. Ivan just SITS. Quietly, what his emotions betray to be concern drawing his eyebrows slightly close to each other as he watches Rasa's face like a hawk. An anxious hawk. Rasa spends a good deal of time just staring at the box, turning it over in hir hands to look at the design, and to feel the impossible smoothness of the finish in her fingers. Ze bites hir lip, hir mouth busily trying to spread into a look of wonder and pleasure, but it must be held back until every bit of the present has been investigated. this includes the contents of said box! Rasa stretches out hir legs in front of hir, settling down into a seated position and rests the box on hir lap, slowly lifting the lid. Inside, ze finds the beautiful purple and bronze stone. Hir eyes lift it and study it, turning it this way and that, the colors leaking into hir fingertips first, then spreading across hir body, a dazed and happy expression on hir now purple face. Ze then picks up a bit of the fabric inside and starts lifting it out, watching the fabric unfold, careful in case anything else falls out. Pendant still pressed against the palm of hir hand with the las three fingers, ze uses both hands to hold the platok aloft, staring at the print and grinning. It's only now that Ivan's expression finally shifts to something happier, a content smile slowly emerging on his face as he watches Rasa's. "My mother helped to pick it out. There were two different ones but she liked this one the most. She found the box to put it in, after. They are both traditional Russian things." He watches hir skin, now, his gaze following the change in colour where he can find it. "The third gift is-" He stumbles over the next word, as though he's only just thought to remember what it was, "- charoite. The woman who was selling it told us it gives you courage and calm dreams but I think this may be superstition. I checked it on the internet." Despite his doubts, he perks up /slightly happier/ for a moment, hands fidgeting with the zipper of the backpack beside him. "I bought it because it reminded me of your skin when you are happy, some times." "Thank you, Vanya," Rasa shifts hir head to kiss the side of his cheek, but ends up a little more toward his jaw. Hir hands fall into hir lap to collect the platok and box into the same hand as the broach before turning move to hir knees, wrapping an arm around his neck and rubbing hir cheek against his. "Thank you so much. They are lovely." Ze pulls back a little to smile at his face and look into his eyes, hirs having adopted a burnished bronze color. "It is a very happy color, one that is calm happy and pleased. I am glad you remember it." "You are welcome." Ivan replies, almost automatically despite it being very obvious how happy he is that his gift was well-received! Less automatic is the silence that follows afterward, after he opens his mouth but fails to actually say anything. Suddenly his smile fades, and his gaze lowers to the forest floor. His fingers trail a restless sort of line over his backpack, as he leans slightly into Rasa. "I did not--" He finally manages, but then looks up again, and starts over. "Do you remember when I said I would tell my family, about your past? Because I do not like to keep secrets?" Rasa falls still during the silence and slowly starts to pull back when Ivan begins to speak, worry darkening the colors in hir face a little. She settles backdown on hir heels, then scoots back to a seated position at Ivan's side, resting the presents in hir lap, slowly packing them back into the box and then the bag as he struggles for his words. "Yes, Vanya. I remember." Ivan just /thuds/ back, sitting down in the leaves and bits of grass that poke through without much regard for how graceful it looks. Which it does not. His eyes find Rasa's again, and he takes a deep breath, as though preparing for some monstrously big speech. Instead, he says simply, "... I did not. Tell them. But that is okay." Rasa watches Ivan with wide eyes and a half bitten lip, the lip freed when he flops into a sitting position. Ze keeps a little bit of distance while he moves, watching him carefully then pressing hir lips together, biting both at once. "It is okay, from my side, Ivan. Are you okay with it though? I know you do not like secrets with your family," especially since he just reiterated this, "won't they be upset when they find out you've known for a long time?" "They would be upset if I told them tomorrow, and they would be upset if I told them last week. Or next year." Ivan's expression is still /serious/ like this should be common knowledge. There's a momentary tensing of his jaw, before he takes another deep breath and just-- stares off into the distance. Screw you, /distance/. "But they are there. And I am here, and I think... that I would like it if right now, no one was upset. For a little while." Rasa nods and moves to cuddle him once more, placing hir head on his shoulder and hir far arm across his waist as ze settles in close. "I can understand that. You know I support you, however you wish to approach this." Hir skin continues to lose its color, shifting from the happy purple into a mauve, touched with gray. "Everyone being okay is a good goal." There's a bit of a silence, then. Until... Ivan finally moves, wrapping one arm around Rasa's back while the other reaches for hir hand. "My family can be okay, if they want to be okay." He sounds almost annoyed now, though a little less so after he's pressed his face against the side of hir head, plants a kiss there, and adds less angry and more determined, "I want us to be /great/." Rasa's mind is a mixture of sadness and tiredness, an almost apologetic desire to not be a problem that comes between Ivan and his family. The thought is covered heavily with the desire just to sleep with Ivan, many parts of hir mind shut down to avoid the sadness inside them. Ze grips his hand and leans into the kiss, a swelling up of comfort starting to drown out the other notions, allowing hir to feel the crunch of old leaves underneath them and the smell of the forest -- and the smell of Ivan. "Mmmmmm. Great is a better goal. Fantastic could be the next level - when great is achieved." Ivan's own mind is a tense sort of thing, refusing to dwell on the negative and trying desperately to push into the positive. But when Rasa's leeaaning toward sadness properly pushes through, he perks up again, and tightens his grip around hir, doing his best to focus on the future! Which, apparently, he is fully convinced is free of worries, even if he hasn't exactly figured that part out just yet. "/Yes/. We will be so fantastic, other people will be jealous. And then we can give them classes on how to be fantastic, and earn a lot of money. Only we will not teach them all of it. So we can still be the-" He frowns, his face still pressed against hir head as his mind mulls something over, "most... fantastic?" As opposed to 'the fantastickest'. "Yes," Rasa agrees, "The most fantastic." Hir mind focuses on Ivan's thoughts, hir body starting to shift with the focus, gaining his skin and hair color, but staying very much hirself in body shape and proportions. Ze is still tired, but a happy sort of tired, a wonderfully warm and content, with a bubble of laughter welling up at the thought of 'the fantastickest.' "We can also be tremendous, after we have conquered fantastic, then breaking away into the realms of awe inspiring and wonderful." << I already think you're pretty wonderful. >> Ivan sits perfectly still as Rasa speaks, staring sort of absently at hir skin and hair as it changes, occasionally glancing at hir face or hand in curiosity. But as hir mood changes, so does his mood finally show on his face again. << We can not tell people we are already wonderful. Or they will want /those/ classes as well. >> Now more relaxed, the quiet flow of information about insects and arachnids in the general area starts to invade his mind again. A willfully allowed thing, and it does not seem to impair his thoughts in the least, as they roll away from worry and over into happiness properly. "I am glad you liked the gifts." Rasa gains the curls that Ivan chopped off, a messy cloud of them drifting down around hir face and neck. "I would have liked it if you brought me a piece of wood that you carved yourself that looked like a dog when it was supposed to be a bee," ze jokes softly, squeezing his hand. There's a quiet thought in the background of hir mind, that of kissing, and a fear that the giant bugs scared away Ivan's desire to kiss hir. There was never alone time afterward, and now, ze doesn't know how much to touch him and what is welcome. Ze tries to hush it, but being this close makes hir think all the more about it. "But instead, you have brought me lovely things that both say how much you like me and how much you thought of me when you were home. They are lovely, beautiful... and my favorite things." Though the joke causes Ivan's smile to grow slightly wider, doubt creeps into his features easily, a few seconds later. Immediately there's something clashing in his mind, and whatever thoughts of giant insects make it over into his mind receive a mental cold shoulder as he attempt to do his best to ignore them. He leans slightly heavier against Rasa, but his grip itself loosens slightly. Fighting memories is sort of hard without also REMEMBERING them, but that doesn't mean Ivan's not going to try not to, apparently. Perhaps to no avail, if his silence is anything to go by. Something else grows louder, however, /outside/ of their heads. Gnats, mosquitos, grasshoppers, crickets, little beetles and big ol' flies, moths and butterflies alike - the forest is full of them. And now, more than before, this becomes evident as a great, great number of them start to stir all at once, tiny winged critters of various colours and sizes beginning to show themselves either through taking to the air or crawling from wherever they were hidden before. Rasa's smile and hushing techniques fade quietly as Ivan starts giving hir thoughts the mental cold shoulder. Hir gaze lowers and hir hands cling harder to his shirt for a few moments before relaxing, gray edging into hir skin tone, this time giving hir a rather grave appearance. Ze draws in a deep breath and closes hir eyes, stuffing down the teenage desires with a spike of depression, trying to focus hirself on both the audio and mental sounds of those insect friends of Ivan's. A pleasant thought stirs eventually - wondering if there are any lightning bugs in these woods. Ivan's eyes stay open, though they appear to lose focus. He fails to move, the insects around them closing in through whatever way of locomotion they are most comfortable with, be it sluggish crawling or uncoordinated fluttering about. But... eventually, their movements slow, with Rasa's help. Once by one they're cut loose from Ivan's mind, as though he's going past them individually and dismissing them once they fail to meet a requirement; Is this a lightning bug? No. This one? No. Is this? << I am sorry. >> No. This one? Also no. Though he stays where he is, he sinks slightly lower to bury his face in Rasa's neck, as more and more insects around them simply drop from where they were flying, or seemingly lose interest. << Can we go inside? I am sorry. >> Rasa reaches up and runs hir fingers against Ivan's scalp when he curls in toward hir neck and shoulder, holding him close and hanging on to that glowing mental image of a firefly for him. << You don't have to apologize. I can be your lightning bug, since there are none local. >> Ze starts to help him to his feet, hands gripping his until he is standing on his own. Hir coloration remains somewhat dark, but also reddish over hir head and shoulders, with hir hands a vibrant shade of yellow instead of hir backside. Ze releases one hand to grab hir present bag and waits for him to pick up his before turning toward the school. It may take several seconds for Ivan to get his head acceptably clear again, but even after giving it a quick few shakes in order to try and sober up, he fails to manage to remember his bag. Apparently it's not important! More important, he's decided, is to still slightly sluggishly stumble his way to Rasa, his hands finding their way to hir neck -- and kiss hir. << Only you, Rashka. >> Rasa is surprised at first to see him turning toward hir again, and to feel his hands upon hir neck, but then there is kissing. If ze could light up, bioluminescently speaking, ze would. Instead, warm oranges and yellows and purples travel through hir skin in happy waves as hir hands grip his waist first, then move around to his back as ze leans into the contact and deepens the kiss.