Lessons on, why you don't threat Joseph Blackwood

With a smile still more or less attached to her lips, Maeve squinted her eyes at him in slight disbelief. Cold water and coconut oil of all things. She had heard people talking about how it was a miracle product for things like gut- and skin health but those myths had been debunked as soon as the trend hand subsided. Actually, that it would be effective against organic staining seemed like a more plausible thing when thinking about it. And of course, she has the one on the learner’s side, so she quickly gave it the benefit of doubt and just did as he asked. She grabbed the jar of solid white oil and followed along with him to the living room.
At first she had only planned to stand there and watch him do his thing, but like she had completely forgotten that and went off on habit, she stepped closer and got down in a squat like Ethan in front of him. The blood stains between them. This way she would also be able to watch better along than if she stayed by the wall. She might have observed him more intensely than what was necessary considering what he really only did was scrub the carpet like one would do with any other gravy spill, and her gaze did also calm down as time went on. She had just had the feeling that it would be something more… more. In her head the supernatural and this hunter business was so far from the mundane ordinary life she lived that she had expected something slightly different.

Then suddenly, as if out of the blue, while her eyes had been calmly just watching his big, strong hand grab a hold of the cloth, he finally revealed what supernatural capabilities he had. Baffled and with eyes big she was quick to lift her head and look straight at him. Astonished by what he told her. Much like she had been when hearing about Cecilia’s, although Ethan at least seemed less dismissive about it. Just still not sounding all that fond of them. One of them anyway. The corner of her mouth twitched. “I can’t wait. It sounds like something I’d need to see before I believe it. Transformations and all that,” she said, admitting that she was probably still quite apprehensive about believing the supernatural even if her forth-front conscious and sensibility was convinced. The rest of the brain just needed to follow along.
Pff. “That can’t be right. The Ethan I know is nothing but a big ball of positivity. I can’t recall times where you haven’t been able to make me smile or just get in a better mood than I was to begin with.” It was true. His ability could very well be some kind of embodiment of the ‘negative’ side of things, heck, that didn’t matter to her. Because he, as a person, a person she knew, wasn’t anything like that. She chuckled lightly and shook her head bashfully to him follow-up. “You could say I’m a bit of a curse-breaker, huh. Maybe that’s my special talent,” she fleetingly commented and as she looked to him again, their eyes met, only brightening her smile.
“Can I try?” she asked, holding up the jar of coconut oil hinting to what she meant. Even before getting a straight answer she had the jar locked into her torso with an arm while the less fragile hand twisted off the cap and then swooped a small amount of the solidified oil onto a finger.

She listened to him talk as she got all the way down to sit on her knees instead of focusing on her balance in the squat, and then firmly rubbed a spot of faded red, which he’d surely be able to get off with just the cold water if he had kept scrubbing the area. But she had wanted to test the oil-theory. It distracted her thought, which popped up, by doing it. “I… I know. No one can demand everything to be fixed just like that, I know that. I just… It’s just a lot nicer to think that.” She circled her fingertip over the spot, seeing it turn from a milky white, to melt and become transparent and then get a slight light pink hue as the blood got absorbed. “But she didn’t. She’s… a good friend,” she said with a dear smile, before finally looking up again. She didn’t resent anyone for not telling her. Not deep down at least. Sure, she had felt left out, but that was her own insecurity. Not their fault. Not when the problem got laid all out.
“You’ll be alright, right?” she then said as worry returned to her face. “I won’t have to worry about you getting mauled by a werewolf or explode from the inside out because of some horrible witch’s spell when you’re out fighting evil… right?” Oh. But she would worry no matter what he said. That was what was filling her up more than anything else. Worry and intrigue.

Okay.
Confusion stroke her momentarily there and she just looked at the hand, he held out without quite understanding what he was about to do. Did he want her to take his hand? Was he about to lead her to where he was keeping this weapon of his? But then it just simply appeared. Right there. In his hand. Completely out of thin air and she must have looked so dumbfounded in that very moment. She had excepted it to be a weapon he would change, which it probably still was, but not one that he could just manifest out of nothing like that. And besides, he had only just said, that he’d show it to her ‘one day’, which her obvious interest must have pushed forward to ‘right now’ instead. Honestly, though. She couldn’t complain. This was… amazing.
She didn’t even feel one tiny nerve of unease by the fact that he was holding out a gun. That didn’t matter. The supernatural aspect of it was more than enough to overshadow her former thoughts and opinions on weaponry and how they were dangerous and didn’t condone them - at least when it came to guns. She wasn’t without weapon on her daily person… “Wow! You don’t say. And it’s… And it’s real?” She looked back and forth between the gun and Ethan, still not fully understanding how he had been able to summon it. She had to ask. And she apparently had to touch as well, because she carefully and slowly reached her hand towards it. All she needed was a faint graze with her fingertip to be convinced of its existence. If he’d let her. He was a bit particular about her and potential danger, she’d found.
She wanted to thank him for showing her, for involving her, but the thanks never passed to verbal and stayed in the happy look in her eyes.

“Oh, now you flatter me, Bear. I’m amazing, but not that amazing,” she chuckled, dismissing how flustered the comment, or rather; the compliment made her. Surely it wasn’t all her. They were in it together. Bear and Hamster. Two sides to a shiny coin. Her face then softened as they glided back down into the melancholia. The seriousness of the situation which she was so nervous of staying down in for too long in fear of losing that façade she had put up so to not freak out. Her heart wouldn’t be able to handle it, she feared. But it was still a nice level in the subject. Still not enough for her to tense up.

Gently, she crossed her arms under her chest and curled herself a little inwards while falling all the way down to sit on her calves, shoulders pushed up towards her ears. Eyes locked onto Ethan still with the concerned eyes. Of course. He wouldn’t promise more than that. She had even just stated herself that it was as much anyone could. But.. “Would you stop if I asked you to?” she with a delicate and non-demanding or judging tone to her voice. She had even lowered it slightly from her normal speaking voice. Lowered the power in it. “Stop hunting, that is. Stop going out there and actively seek out the beasts and monster. Would you?”
She didn’t expect him to ever do that. He had kept the true nature of his hunting a secret from her, but he had been on ‘hunting trips’ from the moment she had met him. It was a part of him. But… wasn’t it enough that he did a similar thing through the police work. She’d rather have him here and safe, than out there and hurt. Was she being unreasonable?

Maeve’s face dropped and instilled a faint but sweet smile on her lips as she did. She hadn’t expected him to answer any other way. Of course, he wouldn’t. She knew that even before asking. And she knew very well that it wasn’t a thing she would ever be able to ask of him and the question hadn’t been to hint to such a thing either. She just needed him to confirm what she was already aware of. That he wouldn’t walk away from danger if it meant the safety of others. But… she couldn’t help but think on who’d be there to protect him. She was selfish. She’d most likely choose his life over strangers as long as she wasn’t presented with the dilemma in front of her. It was, after all, difficult to imagine a life without the broad hunk of a man. She simply nodded, accepting his answer as gospel, showing him that she wasn’t about to question or argue about it. Respecting his choice. She understood..

Huh? She lifted her head and gaze once again, the serenity gone to make room for the curiosity he had suddenly sparked back in her. “Something else?” she repeated, questioning. At some point she must have gotten over the feeling of betrayal from Ethan holding secrets from her, because she didn’t feel it much anymore. Nothing could possibly be a bigger secret than what had finally been revealed to her. And she was correct. She knitted her brows slightly and looked confused at him. “I do? Why?” Prom was so long ago, though. Their friendship had been fresh and new back then. Now the friendship was a commitment that could never be broken. Not in a million years.
Her eyes automatically widened as he began explaining and for some reason she couldn’t get herself to look away from him or listen. Even when she needed to take a breather, her eyes didn’t avert away from him. The knitted brows had separated again and instead pushed themselves high up in her forehead. Her lips were a tiny bit parted. “Ah.. Yea,” she finally managed to get out and gave it somewhat a shrug. Not shrugging it off but rather in the same sense a sigh would tell that it couldn’t be helped. “Prom wasn’t much fun without you there, so I had Cecilia drive me back him that night. I was probably too hurt to want to wait for you to return since you never really arrived.” It was really just old news, but it looked like it had been eating him up ever since, which kind of surprised her. “But I’m over it now. It was just some stupid dance anyway. And it’s not like I never forgave you afterward, although I remember being so mad at you, that I ignored you for a week straight. If not longer.” She chuckled, thinking back. She had cried that night. Wailed so much she’d almost not had a need for makeup remover, which truly had been a shame since it had been one of the first times where she had been dolled up like that. But now it was just a silly memory. To have cried like that over a boy. If she would choose between the worries she had as a teenager and the ones she had now.. she knew which she’d choose.
“I've already forgiven you for that time, but…” The faint smile from before had grown substantially as she had kept her eyes on him. “I’m happy that I now know you didn’t just ditched me on purpose. That you were out there saving people even then.” She now also knew just how he felt. She wanted to go back into the bubble he was talking about. Without the chaos. She didn’t mind knowing the supernatural but… it was clear that too much would be different now. And she didn’t like the thought of that.

“I know,” she said softly, presenting him with a just as soft smile to go with it. “I’m sorry that I doubted you for a moment there, saying I wasn’t sure if you were still the Ethan I knew. I just… you know.. thought that I already knew everything there was to know about you.” It was possibly a very bad excuse but at the same time, he had been exactly how she had felt in that moment. The only inexcusable thing was the fact that she had actually said it out loud to him. Obviously hurting him in the process. And she was nervous about maybe even having done it on purpose, knowing that it would be a bit of a stab since she herself was hurt. She wasn’t anywhere near as perfect as the way the look in his eyes made her out to be… “You’re my friend. My best friend. I should’ve reacted with excitement for there to suddenly be to much more to you that I now will get the pleasure of getting to know. So, I’m sorry too.”
She lowered her eyes, still sensing his eyes on her as always. She had senses him looking at him for many years now. She remembered the giddy feeling that it had given her back in high school. As well as how she had been too unsure to ever acknowledge the truth behind the looks he gave her. Things sure had changed since then. She wondered if they’d even be friends still if he hadn’t ditched her Prom. Maybe they would’ve found together and then split and the split would’ve ultimately created a cliff between them. This, what they had now, was for the best. Placing a hand on the ground and pushing against it and back, she rolled up on toes and then the rest of the way up in a squat so she in the end stood up from the floor, looking down at Ethan med a larger, reassuring smile. “You’re right. Everything will be fine. As well will I. I won’t be losing hope that easily, you should know that by now. Not when you’re there to remind me once in a while.” Her smile got a more cheeky edge to it and she chuckled.

Then with the couch already to close by, she turned on her heel before flopping down into it to sit. This seemed to be an awaited que for the darling Border collie to make itself present again, having stayed in the corner as the atmosphere had thickened and probably been very uncomfortable for it. But in an instant it had gotten back up on its feet and trotted to the couch where it immediately hopped up and after a few roundabout around itself it laid down half on top of Maeve and half beside her. Leaving no room for anyone else, selfishly hoarding her to itself. “Awh, hi there. You must be so worried too, huh. It’s okay. We’re all fine. Cecilia too. Good thing we have you to protect us. You and your human.” Maeve couldn’t help but talk to the dog as if it could understand and even reply back. And it seemed it understood her, because it sighed huffingly and readjusted the way his long snout laid in her warm lap.  She automatically started stroking it over its soft fur. “It’s almost as if he thinks I’m his owner whenever I visit,” she commented, running a finger gently in between the dog’s brow bones, watching its eyes become heavy by the nice sensation of a good petting. This only made her smile both bigger and softer to look at. An a sliver of jealousy was creeping in on her. She wanted to be as relaxed as that dog. And as easily pleased. Puzzle cared for all the humans in its life, that was for sure, so uncaring was definitely not the right word, she was looking for. But just… carefree.
She gently started to scooched her down all the way down to lay on the couch instead, forcing the poor dog to reposition itself too but eventually it curled up by her feet as her short frame didn’t demanded the entire length of the furniture as long as she put a little bend in her legs. She laid on her side, that way she could still watch Ethan rummage around. And eventually, that sound of him walking and moving thing and mumbling - did he say something? - had her eyes fall heavily closed and only moment thereafter her face became peaceful. Her lips slightly apart and every worry line between her brows or in her forehead was totally smoothed out. Her breathing was the clear sign of how she had finally just fallen asleep. Right then and there. Passed out now that her body at last was allowed to calm down. And she slept a heavy sleep. Not so much as getting the slightest notion when strong arms had lifted her up from the couch - by silent whimper from the dog, who wanted to sleep with her - and took her upstairs in the bed. Only the next morning did she realise it had happened. Like being a little kid again. Only with a better, more gutted feeling.

//Out