make it better [raine]

[ELLIOT NATHAN YEAGER]

"no."

the one word from yeager's lips caused gloria's lips to set in a pout. she crossed her arms, meanwhile he was shaking his head. "did i ask for your approval?" she questioned and yeager tilted his head as he lifted his eyebrows. he stood in front of the door, already dressed in his costume with his mask on. therefore, he didn't look all that intimidating or responsible. but he was not letting his baby sister leave the house like that. "what are you even supposed to be, a slutty cabbage patch kid?" he asked her. she wore a very, very short dress, a strawberry he figured it was supposed to be. she rolled her eyes, pointing to the hat with a small strawberry on it. "strawberry shortcake, duh." how did they even make costumes like that in her size? she was tiny. now he was mad at the halloween costume stores for slutting up the teens section, though he surely appreciated it when it was not his own sister.

he crossed his arms. "i'm pretty sure strawberry shortcake didn't dress like a hoe, now go upstairs and change." this was for her own good, so he had no problem calling her a hoe. he was going to the dales' party, and since he was babysitting for the night, she'd have to come with. their parents had already left for their office party as batman and robin, and gloria hadn't been dressed then. she was smart. "no," she said confidentally. "and if you snitch on me i'll tell daddy that you snuck out last weekend when he grounded you--" he held up his hands, knowing where this was going. "fine, fine, wear whatever you want." he turned to open the door, walking outside as he muttered, "i'd have thought you'd been something scary like a tax form..." it scared him, how much she was growing up. he didn't like it. he didn't like the idea of anyone looking at her in that because this was his baby sister who only yesterday was playing with him in the kiddie pool.

he locked up and got in his car, starting it up with her in the passenger seat. nana grace had paid for his new vehicle, and she was currently out of country, visiting relatives in italy. he was glad to have the old woman out of his life for a little while, it was refreshing. he knew the way to the dale mansion, and it wasn't hard to pick it out. it was a huge mansion decked out in creepy decorations and lights and there were already ten thousand cars in the driveway. luckily it was large, so he found a place to park. he got out, fussing with his sword as he tried to keep it in his belt while gloria strutted ahead. "glor, stay with me," he called out, to which she responded with her middle finger. he caught up with her and entered, and the first thing they did was go through the tour. which hadn't been his brightest idea, for he immediately lost her afterward. he bet it was her intention, the reason she seemed to excited. fuucckkk. he groaned as he scratched the back of his head, near the back of the house. he was definitely not going to try out the maze, instead going back to where the food he would be.

he talked to people he knew, a lot of students from the academy, so older and some younger, meanwhile having a couple drinks and trying a piece of the kitty litter cake. he was a little wary knowing about their pets and knowing how josh was, but it turned out to be really good. after he was finished, raine came up to him and he immediately brightened. "rawr," he said, bending his fingers to resemble claws. while he had been overprotective of gloria, he truly appreciated raine's clothing. remembering his mask, he figured he should lift it up so she could see who he was. yeager didn't want to have her drink thrown at him for being a creep. "sorry, forgot i was incognito. you're looking mighty fine." he smiled broadly, before he remembered the main issue of his night. "have you seen gloria? she's gone off somewhere and she's dressed as little miss slut-cake." he rolled his eyes. he could only imagine the kind of trouble she'd get into, figuring she'd be the one to start up a game of beer pong with the college kids.

costume

[RAINE SOPHIA ELLISON]

m a k e - i t - b e t t e r ! [cs=2][bg=060606][atrb=border,0,true,b]

[th][bg=000000][atrb=border,0,true]

tag ! stark && ts elliot ;; word count ! 828 ;; setting ! the Halloween party near the food ;; outfit ! cat costume: click~ ;; [cs=2][bg=060606][atrb=border,0,true,b]

“ ‘Look at that Zorro over there,’ he says. ‘Go make conversation with Zorro,’ he says,” she muttered to herself as she left the pair, not quite pleased with it. She slid the arm attached to her empty hand across her waist and cupped the opposite side. She rested the upper arm of her laden hand atop that hand, elbow bent so the drink was at level with her face, though there was still too much distance that for her to drink without additional effort. Effort she didn’t really need as she slowly backed away, focusing on the lips forming words she couldn’t hear anymore, the facial expressions of her ex-boyfriend and her best friend. She really ought to think of Issy as something more than just her “ex-boyfriend” but that… it was too recent..She still needed to get used to the fact that she wasn’t dating him anymore—and maybe the possibility that he might end up with her best friend. Her best friend.They might be boyfriends, and she wanted to see it happen, if that happened. She wanted to see whatever was happening develop. She wanted to see what was going on. She wanted to know what would happen and how it happened, because she knew that she would only get an abridged version of whatever happened. Besides, she had initiated the whole goddamn thing after she’d found out about what happened and that Issy had feelings for Knox and —no. No. No. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m not going there today,” she murmured and tossed back the rest of her drink. She tossed the cup and grabbed another, then decided to head over to the very person Issy had pointed out to her. Of course, the best Zorro was the only one she was familiar with: Antonio Banderas. Too bad he was married with child in the movie. But she could still hope that the Zorro here at the party would be even remotely sexy. She was probably going to end up making a fairly poor decision tonight, though it wouldn’t be bad either, considering her parents would throttle her for going out in the costume she was currently wearing. The costume was as bad a choice as going home with a stranger, and would no doubt influence that choice. Hell, maybe she’d just find someone she knew with whom she’d have fun. That was always best. You’d know what to avoid and what to look for, what he or she liked and what he or she didn’t. When the Zorro growled at her playfully, she lifted both of her hands above her head, careful not to spill her drink on top of her cat ears, and did a slow twirl on her way over, shimmying her hips as if she were a pole dancer, before she straightened again right in front of him. “Love the belt,” she purred back at him when he removed the mask to make him easier to identify. She ran her fingers over it, then traced the ‘Z’ on the front. Black and gold always went together well, especially on some sexy like the poetically nicknamed friend before her. She glanced back up at him and offered him her drink. She’d get depressed if she had much more than she did now, so why not be nice and share? She knew her limits, unlike some people, because she unfortunately drank more than she should though she technically wasn’t allowed to for just under a year. Was he allowed? She couldn’t remember how much their age difference was or even who was older, though she did remember they were in the same grade. She wasn’t suffering from enough alcohol poisoning to impair her memory that badly. “Why thank you. I though the cat was rather appropriate. I’ve been practicing my purr.” To prove this, she leaned up and rolled an ‘R’ right into his ear. “Gloria? Uhm, no. I was a bit too distracted by another thing to notice any little miss slutcakes running around, though that sounds like the kind of thing you buy for a bachelor party,” she admitted, laughing. “Don’t tell me she actually came out of Josh’s bachelor party cake.” God, she could imagine that being awkward. But then, were Yeager and Josh even close enough for Yeager to be at Josh’s bachelor party. She didn’t even know if Josh’d had a bachelor party, partially because she wouldn’t have been invited regardless. She hadn’t gone to Nell’s bachelorette party, though she’d enjoyed the wedding and looked forward to getting together with her sometime soon. “I can help you look for her, though,” she offered sincerely, thinking it might sober her up a little before she did make a stupid decision. “Maybe she’s outside by the maze or something. Or maybe she just wanted to freak you out and went back home. You know how she is. You live with her.”

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notes ! uhmm. So. Yeah. I POSTED ;;

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[ELLIOT NATHAN YEAGER]

yeager's costume decision went along the lines of being forced into shopping with luke and having it thrown into the cart without his permission. there had been a little argument, with yeager asking if he could chose his own "goddamned costume." his father's rebuttal had been to give him a withering look and ask him if he actually had costume plans in mind. that was when they boy gave in. apparently, males didn't put as much effort into their costumes as females did, unless they were doing something creative. and they were never half as sexy, usually something stupid like a banana. he preferred zorro over the banana, because from what he knew zorro was sexy. not that he felt any attraction toward antonio banderas, but the dude was a badass and chicks dug badasses. he was cool with that, though he didn't wonder what luke had seen in the costume. he had to admit that he enjoyed his father's costumes, though it did bring uncomfortable thoughts of a batman and robin love affair in the comics. and that was just a little strange.

his thoughts were better rested on the sexy cat that had wandered her way over, and that was a much better train of thought than his parents. or maybe not, considering that she looked freaking hot and that was not a good thing to be going on in his head when wearing tight pants. and especially not when she spun and shook her hips. he only grinned as she complimented his belt and drew the z on his mask. "thanks, it's target vintage," he said with a pompous air. it was the truth. but it seemed to be attracting the ladies, at least. the drunken ladies, as it seemed. he was a good reader of that, being a party extraordinaire. when she leaned next to his ear, he placed a hand on his hip, his hair rising on edge as her breath hit his skin. yeager leaned back and grinned. "oh? so you always wanted to be a cat, huh. you can be my pet any day, meow." being that what he said was completely skeevy and that was not yeager style, it was obvious there that he was joking. okay, so underneath maybe not so much. underneath he was really turned on, as any guy would be when having a fine ass lady in front of him.

however, raine's next words did well to turn him very, very off. at first, he made no response but a small sound of displeasure in his throat. as much as he hated her most of the time, he was protective of her and did not want to think of her as a stripper anywhere near a cake that she could fit into. "that isn't even funny," he said, and as usual it was hard to tell if yeager was joking or not. he did find it funny, actually, raine was a funny gal. however, he was so concerned about gloria that all he knew was that he shouldn't have let her leave the house like that. he had dirt on her too. "as long as i am breathing, she will not be popping out of any cakes. she will never see a bachelor party in her life. she will never see anything in her life. because she's going to a convent. like sound of music, except she won't fall in love with a german dude." it was his decision, made for the girl right on the spot. she was thirteen, she was at a good age for that, right? what was a good age for girls to become nuns? he wasn't very well-versed in that sort of thing.

he sighed, shook his head. his hand was still on her waist, affectionate and friendly as yeager always was. he appreciated having her help him, that was for sure. "maybe. she could also be with a group of college guys, telling them how to play beer pong and asking them if they worked out, because she needs to stop acting like she's twenty goddamn years old." well, now that rant was over, he didn't feel much better. he wasn't implying that his sister was a whore -- just that she acted older than she was and thought she could do things women could do because she was mentally mature. he wouldn't deny that she was smarter than a lot of girls her age, and she was dead set on proving that. he sighed, took her hand. "all right, let's go look for a dark-skinned child with a strawberry hat." it sounded cute, but it wasn't, not for him. and if he found her with any dude, he could guarantee that he'd be knocked the fuck out.

he pulled her through the house, jokingly dancing with random people who had made their own dance floors meanwhile keeping out for gloria. as he headed toward the back he, questioned raine, "did you come with anyone?" his veiled way of asking if she had a date. after all, he had been holding her hand all this time, he didn't want israel coming around to kick his ass. he hadn't heard of the break-up just yet, and unfortunately the gossip mill was not on his side. and yes, he was a gossip, and he had no shame. the water student liked to stay informed, and there was nothing wrong with that.

costume

[RAINE SOPHIA ELLISON]

m a k e - i t - b e t t e r ! [cs=2][bg=060606][atrb=border,0,true,b]

[th][bg=000000][atrb=border,0,true]

tag ! stark && ts elliot ;; word count ! 1 091 ;; setting ! the Halloween party near the food ;; outfit ! cat costume: click~ ;; [cs=2][bg=060606][atrb=border,0,true,b]

The girl laughed at the pompous air, bumping against him a little as she swayed briefly before finding her balance. “Target. The best place for a Zorro costume. But make sure to keep it a secret so no one copies you,” she whispered to him. Another laugh escaped her when he continued. She definitely caught the dirty side to it. She curled her hand into a fake claw and batted at him lightly. “All you need to do is say something,” she purred throatily, teasing right back at him and wiggling her hips again, just to see what sort of reaction she could get out of him. She liked his reactions, and how the tight pants were making them easier to distinguish. Ah, the wonders of ill-fitting, store-bought costumes. Thank you, Target. She listened to his spiel for a moment, trying to piece together the picture of Gloria with what she remembered of The Sound of Music. She really needed to re-watch that movie. Either way, Gloria would probably be the sort of Mother Superior who brought the convent to do outrageous things like host daycares—like the nuns did in Sister Act. Which would be totally awesome, but didn’t really fit in with the strict thing Yeager was probably imagining for the girl. Pity. Would have been funny. “Hey, there’s nothing wrong with German dudes,” she defended jokingly. Maybe it’d be good for Gloria if she honestly fell in love. Love, though crazy, could also tie someone to activities more appropriate to their age level. Though Gloria also seemed curious enough to start reading up on sex if there was anything she didn’t already know. Raine had enough faith in the girl, however, to assume she wouldn’t actually try anything. At least, she really hoped that was the case. She had a feeling Yeager’s reaction would be far less amusing if he caught wind of that. “And what if she pops out of your birthday cake just to be nice to her big brother?” she retorted, grinning broadly and not taking it nearly as seriously as perhaps she should have. Should. Could. Would. Either way, she was having a hard following the first one. She tended to do things more on impulse than thinking about them. Hindsight is twenty-twenty. She looked back on things she said and did and knew she ought not have done, should have acted differently, but by then it was generally too late and she couldn’t do anything about it anymore. She rolled her eyes at her friend, elbowing him in the side. “Oh, come on. That was funny and you know it. You’re just trying to stay sobered up because she’s your sister.” Raine didn’t have that connection and she didn’t really know what to do with it. She was one of many, the youngest of five girls. She didn’t really have a particular bond to any of them. She was the wild child, the crazy one who fought the most with her parents, who argued for the sake of argument, who liked to disagree with someone and play devil’s advocate just to make them think things through even though she didn’t. At least she got along with Yeager. He would just never be a brother to her. She wasn’t interested enough in incest to even dream of it. In fact, thinking of Yeager as her brother made her want to shudder. No, that was more reserved for someone whom she didn’t want to sleep with, like Knox. At the mention of college guys and a party game she knew, the blonde gaped at him, mostly amused by his antics. “Gloria knows how to play beer pong? Where on Earth did she learn that?” She blinked at him, mildly impressed with the girl, but mostly shocked. She didn’t think her environment was that crazy, although the extraordinarily determined had no problem moving past their environment to discover things they otherwise wouldn’t. Gloria definitely fit into that category, so she honestly shouldn’t have been surprised, but still. Where had she learned? She elbowed Yeager teasingly. “Don’t tell me you taught her. You never even played with me.” She made a horrified expression that was more joking than anything else. Knowing herself and her relationship with the Zorro in front of her, it’d probably turn more into strip pong. Toss a ball between her boobs and she takes her shirt off. Miss and he takes his pants off. That actually sort of sounded like fun, but she shouldn’t be thinking about that. Even if they were friends with benefits, she didn’t want him to turn into a rebound, well, anything. He’d been too close in the past and she still felt terrible about that. “But, you know, sometimes I feel like Gloria’s more mature than we are. Not that that’s saying much.” At least she was still able to laugh at herself, as she did then. Laughter was the best medicine, unless you couldn’t stop laughing, in which case it could cause oxygen deprivation and suffocation. She considered his question for a moment, knowing the way teenage subtlety generally worked. He’d asked if she’d come with anyone. In reality, he was asking if she had a date. She didn’t even know whether he knew about the break-up. He was generally good with the current events at a high school, but it was still questionable whether he knew this. She hadn’t thought that he relationship with Issy and the end thereof had been very… well, publicized. The circumstances were a bit iffy, after all.She’d be made a fool of and he’d be labeled a cheater or something along those lines, and she doubted that either of them wanted that. “Well, technically.” But that would give the wrong impression, wouldn’t it? It wasn’t like she had a date. Not since… well, she wasn’t going there unless he specifically asked. She could explain herself a little, though. “But I sort of match made with him and my ex-boyfriend. Said ex-boyfriend told me to come talk to Zorro so they could be alone. So all that’s left of him and me is… me.” She glanced at him, hoping with her whole heart he wouldn’t see past the facade she was trying to keep up. She didn’t want to burst into tears like stereotype demanded of a woman during her period. She wasn’t on her period anyway. “Is there anyone who’s supposed to be hanging on your arm, or did Gloria steal that glamorous role?”

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notes ! another late-night post for starkeh-san with a lot of dialogue ;;

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[ELLIOT NATHAN YEAGER]

It wasn't a secret that Yeager liked Raine. She was a cool chick, someone he could actually hang around when he spent more time around his guy friends. That was an honor considering he was a high school guy. Not that he thought any less of girls, it's just that he had different interests than them. With Raine, it hardly seemed to matter. "It's my little Tarshay secret," Yeager assured, using the 'posh' version of the word. Yeager couldn't help the reactions to Raine, not when she was in that costume. He'd always thought she was sexy, but for a time she'd been off-limits because of Israel. He respected that. He was not the type of guy to goad another girl into cheating, and he was sure that Raine was a lot more faithful than that. Her behavior suggested otherwise, though, and that made him curious. He grinned when Raine batted at him, saying, "It's been that easy all along?" His face appeared to be shocked, surprised about this new information he had gotten from her. It was easy to joke with her, even though it wasn't a difficult thing for Yeager to do. He was always joking, as a matter of fact.

He was just a little more serious in his talk of Gloria. Well, his protectiveness was serious, at least. And he tended to overreact, that was for sure, but he was honestly concerned about her. He hoped that made him a good person, after everything that she'd done to him. "Not just German guys, any guy. Or girl. Anyone." He remembered a conversation they had had when she'd been younger. He'd told her that she shouldn't be interested in boys, and she rebutted she'd just be interested in girls instead, and he informed her that they were just as bad as boys. He had gotten in trouble for that -- Richard had told him that she was going to end up a crazy cat lady. Then came Raine's comment about his sister popping out of a cake on his birthday. Any mention of his sister popping out of any cake just upset him. Dear god, now I'm thinking about it. This was not good for his psyche, not at all. Yeager took a deep breath. "You need a timeout to think about what you just said." He shook his head, the movement fast and obviously disapproving. Thinking of his sister doing anything sexual was a roadblock for his brain. It wasn't too the point where he was going to tell her no, don't ever have sex, you will die because teenagers knew how much bull that was. He would educate her and hope that she would be sensible because she was only a kid still. She didn't know the repercussions, not how they can really be.

Yeager rubbed his stomach as if she had really injured him by elbowing him in the side. He actually didn't know whether the Water girl had siblings or not. Maybe she'd told him once and he'd forgotten. It happened. In any case, he didn't even have a real blood sibling. But Gloria was that way to him, he saw no difference between his friends with their younger siblings and him with his adoptive sister. "Do you see me laughing, am I smiling right now?" he wore his gravest expression as if to emphasize this, circling his face with a finger. His voice came out disapprovingly when he said, "God, Ray, you're so insensitive to me." Like he was actually hurt. Even if he was upset by something, he could get over it quickly. And he knew that Raine meant well, of course. If it were anyone else, he would have just stared flatly at them and moved along, not bothering. But this was her, and he knew how she was -- a lot similar to him, actually. He appreciated that, someone having similar ways of joking and horsing around.

Of course, it was getting hard to to think of his sister and look at Raine at the same time. His hormones were just going to get largely confused. But they continued to speak of the younger girl, and he shrugged at the question. [color=99CCFF"I don't know, Satan? She's probably good pals with him."

[/color] He actually didn't know whether or not she knew beer pong, which was rather concerning. As suspicious as he was of the people she hung around with, he had no doubt in his mind that they were teaching her something illustrious. His lips twitched into a smile when he looked at her and saw her expression. "All you needed to do was say something," he told her, repeating her earlier words. So he did know how to play beer pong, but this was Yeager. He spent most of his high school career partying it up. I'm a terrible influence, that's what's happening. It wasn't like he was going to stop once he hit college, either, of course not. Then he reminded himself that the girl would never want to look up to her stupid older brother. Raine did have a point though. He liked her laugh, too, very much so. "Yeah, probably. I mean, she's a smart person, so much so that it's terrifying. Who knows what else she's got going up in her head." It didn't reassure him very much. Of course not, this was his baby sister. Adoptive, but she would always be the little terror that his dads brought home one day in a pea coat with a teddy bear clutched in one hand. That's why he couldn't help his protectiveness.

She had apparently technically come with someone, and he didn't know exactly how to take that right then. What was that? It gave him a little hope, needless to say. He lifted his eyebrows, a silent 'o' forming on his lips. Ex-boyfriend. Two parts battled in his brain -- the one that felt sympathetic because he knew all about break-ups and they were never easy on anyone. The other part was happy that she was single now, and he knew which brain was happy about that. Luckily, the part of him that felt really, really bad for her was stronger. "Well then...you hooked your ex with your friend. You know, most exes key cars, I think you've got something good going for you." He draped his arm across her shoulders, more friendly than anything else. He didn't have to be a hormonal teenager all the time. "Really sucks though, sorry to hear you guys broke up." He didn't know Israel at all, and so he had no clue about their relationship. Apparently it wasn't working out because well...he had a thing for guys. Huh. That's a weird kind of break up. When she questioned him he rolled his eyes up exaggeratedly. "Would you believe it, I'm struttin' my single swag, ain't nobody cramping my style, nuh-uh." So he was the loser coming with his sister. He was at least enough of a good guy to take care of her then.

It only took a few more rooms to find Gloria sword fighting with a pirate. At least it's plastic. God, he hoped so. "Gloria Estefan, the hell you think you're doing?" She instantly swiveled her head at the nickname, glaring at him with the most intense stare he'd ever seen anyone muster. The guy she had been fighting with stopped as she approached Yeager standing in the doorway. She lifted her sword to his throat, and told him, "If you ever call me that again, I will gut you." The girl had attempted murder, before, so he believed it. Gloria lowered her sword and turned her gaze to Raine, critical and calculating like a Bond villain. "You're pretty. What are you doing with my brother?" She said it plainly and probably with honest curiosity. Because clearly no one pretty could be interested in the curly-headed dope. At least that's what she viewed him as, that much was clear. "This is Raine, and the more pressing question is what you think 'stay with me' means, because obviously the English language must not be your forte, you Haitain devil." French had actually been her first language, and that was an interesting thing about her, he supposed. Luckily she didn't know many curses. But the girl ignored him to say to Raine, "He sleeps with a teddy bear, you know." Yeager narrowed his eyes, but his sister was fearless.
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[RAINE SOPHIA ELLISON]

m a k e - i t - b e t t e r ! [cs=2][bg=060606][atrb=border,0,true,b]

[th][bg=000000][atrb=border,0,true]

tag ! stark && ts elliot ;; word count ! 1522 ;; setting ! the Halloween party near the food ;; outfit ! cat costume: click~ ;; [cs=2][bg=060606][atrb=border,0,true,b]

The blonde cat pretended to zip her lips and tossed the metaphorical key over her shoulder, keeping in mind the joke and amusing herself with a second, more inappropriate one as she thought through the situation a bit more. She must have appeared to be a poor girlfriend, by the flirtatious manner in which she was acting, if Yeager were not yet knowledgeable of the ending of her relationship. Perhaps he would blame it on the liquor. She let her gaze fall upon the red plastic in her palm, the nearly-empty cup. What a shame. She was tempted to grab for more, but rather placed the cup on the edge of some bookshelf or other as they walked, knowing herself well enough not to take the risk that would likely end in unwanted results. “Of course it’s that easy,” she continued, willing to shatter any illusion that she was still spoken for, “You know me. You know how…” A brief pause, to search for the appropriate word to fit what she attempted to describe—she settled for saying, “…compatible we are.” This, of course, made her giggle and lean against him a little, because she saw no reason to falter at silliness. She would rather enjoy it. Much as she happened to enjoy the sudden seriousness she observed in her.. Well, what was he? He wasn’t her brother, as he was Gloria’s, and he therefore had very little reason to be so quite protective of her as he was of the girl’s innocence and character. He wasn’t her boyfriend. Which brought her to wonder as to why that was so. They had slept together. They got on so well. They were incredible friends, and who better to be a romantic partner than one’s best friend? She didn’t want him to be a rebound of any sort. But her mind did wander… It left her mouth to run away with itself, as it promptly did in reply to him, stating, “Oh, are you going to spank me for being naughty?” which was immediately followed by a hand clapping over her mouth to silence herself and a flush in her cheeks. She shouldn’t have said anything of the kind. Lord, she was horrid. This she was definitely going to blame on the alcohol, if he so much as asked. For the most part, though, she was hoping he wouldn’t draw attention to her statement. She had so little explanation for it. Similarly, she had no explanation for his behavior. At first, she had appreciated the seriousness for the amusement it allowed, but he was pulling it a bit too far for her tastes. God, the way he looked at her, as if he wanted her to get on her knees and beg for forgiveness (and no, not in that manner—that was to be reserved for a different mood). She wasn’t about to do that, so he’d have to be okay with that. She had too much pride to outright beg, especially in public. It did succeed in making her more reserved, however, more hesitant as how she was about to reply and considered her words before she let them escape. Maybe she should apologize. No. He’d get over it. He usually got over it. She bumped him with her hip, allowing another smile as she turned her face up to meet his. “Come on, T.S.E., you know I’m plenty sensitive to your feelings.” She rolled her eyes jokingly at him and continued on, swinging her hips to meet the music’s rhythm. Oh, she loved a song with a good rhythm, even if it tugged such movements from her without her agreement. That was the sign of beautiful music, wasn’t it? To elicit unintentional appreciation? And she was letting her mind wander again. She really ought not let herself do that. It would end up poorly eventually. But of course, sometimes not thinking things through would end up being just as terrible a situation. She couldn’t think of one off the top of her head, honestly, but he was bringing up Knox and Issy again, and she didn’t know what she could or should be saying about it. Agreeing with him was like tooting her own horn, and she really needed to tug away on the compliment train. “Oh, stop. You’ll blow up my head. You should have heard him, when he told me. Kept throwing compliments my way to make sure I didn’t think it could possibly be my fault.” She rolled her eyes. She didn’t want to admit that they had helped, although they had sounded like complete and utter BS at the same time. They had helped, just a little bit. They had been the salve to put on the bruise her ego had been scattered with, but they hadn’t been quite enough overall. She still felt a little dejected when she got into thinking too much about it. Well, there came the desire for another glass of really strong liquor. She shooed away the thoughts quickly, mentally waving them off, and rather rudely, too. They had no business in her mind. “There’s nothing to apologize for. It was… mostly amicable.” And that was true, but it didn’t mean that she wasn’t a little sad that it was over. Raine intertwined her fingers with those of the hand suddenly draped over her shoulder. He was warm, and her bare shoulders were starting to run a chill along her skin, which spurred her to lean against him a little while at the same time trying to prevent it from seeming like she was actually snuggling against him. She thanked the party for its many attendees. They kept a cloud of bodily warmth contained in the rooms that made her dread having to leave. At least they wouldn’t have to, yet. She almost laughed out loud when he exaggerated his answer so, putting her hand over her mouth again to halt herself from spewing spit or something along the sort. “You make it sound like I’ll let some other girl steal you from me,” she complained thereafter and pouted at him. “Or don’t I count for anything? I’m helping you find your sister, for Christ’s sake. Should be worth something, man.” She exaggerated the last bit of her speech just as much as he had his eye-roll, mostly to make the point that she wouldn’t let herself seem even the slightest bit offended if he happened not to count her very small efforts. She was more focused on speaking with him, after all, than looking for the girl. Fortunately, they happened upon his cupcake warrior. She watched the interaction between them with little intention of interfering until Gloria turned to her, looking as though she was trying to figure out how best to hide the body. The pirate re-commandeered his sword and backed away, out of sight. God, she felt like she was evil stepmother come with the father to punish the child. How inappropriate. Gloria’s question only encouraged such thoughts, and she couldn’t help but indulge herself. She crouched to whisper int he girl’s ear, “Believe it or not, there’s something your brother is very good at—better than anyone I’ve met—or else I wouldn’t be bothering.” It was mostly meant as a joke, just to see the girl’s expression, to tease and not be serious at all. Partially, she wondered if Yeager had heard. A whisper was not a whisper at all when at a party, after all, and she’d nearly had to yell at the girl just so she would be heard. This would probably be fun anyway. She was going to like their expressions, regardless if they recognized her attempt at humor or not. “Oh, I know about the teddy bear. I gave it to him.” She grinned at Gloria. She was liking this girl. Helped that she didn’t doubt that she’d be able to throw anything back at the “Haitian devil.” Maybe it was unfair that she felt she was competing with a 13-year-old, but hey, from the stories, Gloria could be vicious. And she was using jokes anyway. She wasn’t being seriously mean to the girl. “Good to know it’s being used for something.” She even patted Yeager’s cheek and grinned at him as well. Besides, this was fun. “Does it help with the nightmares?” God, she was a horrible person. But it’d be easier for her and Yeager to hang out at his place if his sister liked her at least a little bit, right? It’d be less awkward. Hell, it was a surprise she hadn’t run into Gloria before. She’d heard of the girl, sure. She’d seen pictures. But they’d never actually met. Was that on purpose? Maybe Yeager had orchestrated it so they wouldn’t meet and this was mostly by chance. If that was the case, she was forced to wonder why that would be so. He wasn’t embarrassed to be around his sister, was he? Why else take her along to this party? Or was he embarrassed to be so “close” with Raine? That was nearly offensive.

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notes ! You give me a long post, you get one back. I thank my muse for going along with it. And apologize dearly at the same time xD ;;

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[ELLIOT NATHAN YEAGER]

At Raine's words, Yeager felt a range of reactions would be very appropriate. One of the most prominent was in his pants, and he cursed his pants. But first instinct had him laughing when she cupped her mouth, her cheeks all red. He collected himself when he realized it would probably make it worse for her and shook his head. "I don't know, I think I might just have to after you said that." He waggled his eyebrows at her, being an intentional sleaze. How else could he respond other than with blatant raunchiness. Joking raunchiness, of course. He didn't want to cross any boundaries that she didn't want him to be crossing.

Yeager barely realized what she said, all his mind focused was one the letters she had used, completely confused. He looked at the blond with an arched eyebrow, confusion plain on his face. "Wait...what the hell is T.S.E?" First thought had been General Tso's Chicken for some reason, but that definitely was not it. Either way, it was never something anyone had ever called him. And besides, he was content in watching her hips sway to the music.

Yeager did have quite a bit experience in amicable splits. There had been a few girls who threw a fit, there had been arguments, sometimes even he threw a fit. But he could honestly say he had never found himself in the situation that Raine was in. "Sounds like a nice guy, at least. Diabetes sweet. How can you stand it?" He couldn't say he had a lot of friends like that, who were so nice that it was possibly dangerous to be around him. But he understood Knox was her friend, so he wasn't about to go around insulting the guy he didn't even know. Especially not when they were at the same party. With her next words, he simply pressed his lips against her hair before saying, "Right, right, won't apologize then." His grin was wide and joking, to make it clear that he wasn't about to go around bringing it up multiple times. Any break-up had the possibility to ruin an evening if it was brought up too much.

His first response to her words was joking, naturally. How anyone expected more would be a mystery to him if they so much as spoke it aloud. He bet Raine got him, however. She of all people had to understand that barely a moment went by when he didn't have some joking retort."Sorry, babe, can't have you crippling my single swag." He shook out his curls with that, like he was just so fabulous he couldn't see anyone coming between him and singlehood. But then he leaned in and spoke into her ear, arm still around her. "But hey, I didn't say that anyone could change that, hmm?" Now he definitely felt okay with flirting around. He didn't have the boyfriend to worry about, there was no limits. Except that she might be hiding more heartbreak than she showed, but he had never been particularly sensitive.

He blinked at his friend leaned down to whisper in the girl's ear, not sure if he should stop her or...what. When she pulled back, Gloria simply wore a blank expression. "Ew, you whore," she deadpanned and Yeager glared absolute daggers at her. "Whoa, Gloria," Yeager said, his voice fierce. While she may have been his baby sister and he cared about her greatly, he would not let her say something about his friend. If she were joking, he would have just laughed along, but he knew how the girl was. Hearing his voice -- the fact that he never used that tone -- had her looking askance for a moment before she kept on speaking as if he hadn't even said anything. It was only a momentary reprimand.

Raine retorted smartly to the girl's words, and he felt very proud, like he should give her a pat on the back. Or something else... Could you get your mind out of the gutter? He honestly couldn't help it. Before he could answer the question aimed at him, Gloria spoke. "I don't like you," the girl said plainly, her eyes straight on Raine's. Yeager sighed, started with, "Gloria..." but then she lifted the fake sword up to his nose again. "Don't speak while I'm speaking." He blinked in irritation, long and exaggerated. "You weren't even speaking." She sent him a sharp look and he wanted to kick her in the shin. No, that would look bad to Raine, wouldn't it? It was bad to hurt people in general, yes, but especially his own baby sister. "Since I don't want to interrupt bonding time with your whore, I'm going to go to the maze. Ciao." He was about to argue, but then looked at one of the guys she hung around with and recognized him as a friend. He nodded his head and said to the guy, "Do you mind going with her?" He lifted his head up and tailed after Gloria.

Yeager sighed and looked at Raine. "Didn't want her ruining our evening. At least I know who she's with." He said it with a pompous air as if they were at a country club. The guy just wanted Raine all to himself. He moved his arm so that it was around her waist, turning his her so he could rest his forehead against hers. "Now tell me, what should we do for the rest of the evening?" There was a glimmer in his eyes, one she should be able to recognize. Hormones pounded in every part of his body, and he just wasn't able to control himself.

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tried to shorten it...and nope. BTW LOVE THESE TWO.

[RAINE SOPHIA ELLISON]

m a k e - i t - b e t t e r ! [cs=2][bg=060606][atrb=border,0,true,b]

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tag ! stark && ts elliot ;; word count ! 1 0 4 0 ;; setting ! the Halloween party near the food ;; outfit ! cat costume: click~ ;; [cs=2][bg=060606][atrb=border,0,true,b]

“Oh, you’re horrible,” she responded, grinning again. Her cheeks were still a bit flushed, of course, but he was helping her get past that and return to a far less appropriate state of joking then even hers had accessed. She changed the topic quickly nonetheless, hoping that it wasn’t too quickly because of the awkwardness that hidden and curious desires could potentially cause. She was grateful for the question. “T.S.E.? T.S.E. are the poet T.S. Eliot’s initials, as well as the letters on the car in the musical CATS, which was based off a particular book of his poetry. Have you never heard of him?” She blinked at him, as if she expected him to have heard at least a few of the poems, or to have recognized the name. Mostly, she was teasing. She knew that some people weren’t into poetry, and normally she wasn’t either, but this articular poet was a favorite of hers, and the nickname was quickly becoming something of the same breed. It was also something she didn’t mind discussing with him. However, Raine didn’t want to talk about the situation with her ex-boyfriend and her best friend anymore. She didn’t know how she could stand it. She knew she was putting on a brave face, when compared to what she was surprisingly feeling inside. Why had this break-up hit her so hard? It was crazy. Of course it was crazy. It was just a high school break. It wasn’t sweet. Not like the compliments had been, even if they hadn’t helped. “How can I stand the guy or the break-up?” she asked, looking up at him. “I stand the guy because he’s a good one. Just not… one for me to be in a romantic relationship with, and that’s how I stand the break-up. No other option, really.” Lies. All lies. She didn’t know how she could stand the break-up. She could stand Issy because she still had a bit of an inappropriate affection for him. If she could transform it to Knox and encourage him loving her, she would, but she didn’t know how except to speak with him and try to convince him that Israel was very much in fact worth it. Why was conversation difficult? Well, it wasn’t always, it was just sometimes, and Yeager usually made it easy. The blond snorted when he started acting like some arrogant twerp. Key word being that he was acting. She knew he wasn’t normally like that. But she wanted to play along, so she shook out her much larger mass of curls to show off a little and lifted an eyebrow at him. She twisted away, cocking her hips to the one side and bending forward a little, giving him the opportunity to take a glance down her top. “Well, your single swag will be taking second place to mine.” She straightened, lifting her arms and twirling again. “Or don’t you think I could pull it off?” The eyebrow went higher, not quite believing it if he said he didn’t, ready to take advantage of any ego boost he might be willing to give her. She was desperate today, wasn’t she? It was embarrassing. “Oh, honey, maybe I don’t want to change it. Maybe I want to find someone else to have some fun with tonight.” She rolled her eyes at him to reaffirm that she was only teasing him and that she definitely didn’t mean it seriously. She was very, very willing to end Yeager’s single swag herself. It also wasn’t something she was ashamed of, as she implied to his little sister no matter that it was inappropriate. Gloria shocked her with the response she received. Ew, you whore. Of course, she had pretty much invited the reply, the name-calling. She hadn’t expected it, of course, but she had asked for it implicitly anyway. She had revealed a bit of her sexual history to a 13-year-old girl who was not even the slightest bit impressed with her. It wasn’t anything to be impressed about, no, she knew that, too. She hadn’t expected an amazingly positive response. But she hadn’t expected the blunt reply either. She hadn’t expected the outright insult, but then, maybe she shouldn’t have been surprised. She knew from Yeager’s story what the little girl could be like, and from the way they were treating each other now. But her surprise kept her silent as she watched them, almost amazed at how impertinent the little girl managed to be to her big brother. They weren’t related by blood, but what had Yeager done to deserve this? As Gloria insulted her again and left, she even asked aloud, “What did you do to her to make her act like that? Or is she just… normally like that?” It was almost hard to grasp that anyone could be like that the majority of the time. At least he was distracting her from that whole scene with something much more pleasant. She smiled up at him as he turned her to face him, nuzzling his face with her own and brushing their noses together. She listened, swaying a little, mostly on purpose, and nestled her hips against his. It was a little like dancing, but for the most part it wasn’t. It was alcohol and hormones instead, and perhaps a little bit of desperation, the desire to feel wanted again. It made her feel a little guilty, because she felt like she was using him and she didn’t want to be doing that. And yet, when he offered the delicious potential of the evening, she couldn’t help but want to jump at the offer despite the guilt. The smile grew, increasing in sauciness as she folded her hands behind his neck. “Well,” she began, imitating her purr from before, “I think it would be a wonderful idea for us to go over to your place and do exactly what I was telling your little sister about, if you aren’t opposed to it, of course.” She winked at him and kissed his cheek. Her place wasn’t an option because of the costume she happened to be wearing and the parents she happened to have there.

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notes ! I don’t mind long posts at all, m’dear xD I was just teasing~ ;;

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[ELLIOT NATHAN YEAGER]

Instead of talking about poets from the early 1900's, he'd much rather ... well, he didn't want to be talking to Raine. He wanted to be doing something else to her. Though he had a little more sensibility than actually saying something out loud to her at this point. "No, I don't think I have. Then again, I get a lot of shit from my English teacher because I refer to The Picture of Dorian Gray as This Gay Guy and his Art Collection." He grinned merrily, clearly happy about causing his teacher some trouble. His territory was not -- and would never be -- English. The Water elemental did not care for it, and instead any energy he had for classes were focused on Science and Maths. His one desire for the future was to become an engineer; his motivation to do anything spoke otherwise. Lazy as he was, he had hidden talent. And it wasn't just one of those things parents told their children about some hidden talent. It showed when he actually did his work, the A's on his projects and tests that saved him from a lowly participation and homework grade.

He pondered the idea, let it roll over a few times in his head. If you respect someone, he supposed that it would make the break-up easier. But he always knew it as hurting. Even when the relationship had been crumbling, it was always painful. So he understood, somewhere under that cool and smile demeanor, there had to be pain. But he smiled his usual smile. "Well, that's a lot of respect he must have from you. I wish I was as...understanding." He chose the word carefully. Though not particularly vindictive, he could also be bitter at times. Might not have been the best way to handle situations, but he was a visceral kind of guy and reacted as his gut told him too. Little logic was put behind it, as if his body were at odds with his usually logical mind.

He tilted his head to the side, letting his gaze slide over her body, up and down. He should stop that. It wasn't doing good for his libido. Actually, it was doing good -- that was the problem. Doesn't have to be the problem. She knew him well enough to know that his feelings for her were not completely platonic. And yet, not truly intimate. "You know what, you might just do it better than me. I've been told curly-tops like me can't have swag." He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. If you couldn't laugh at yourself, you were truly dead inside. Despite all his male bravado, he was ready to tear himself down for the sake of a joke. He grinned. While he did get into relationships, he didn't mind spending a few nights with ladies he found attractive without settling down. "Maybe? I mean, I could offer, but..." He lifted his hand. His face contorted into a little grimace. "Maybe." It was so uncertain. And he so enjoyed teasing her. Flirting. It was fun and rather uplifting, as well as distracting. He could almost forget that he needed to find his wayward sister.

Though he regretted it when they did. Oh, did he fucking regret it. He lifted up his hands, as if Raine had accused him of committing some great crime against the girl. "Wasn't me, she came that way out of the box." Okay, so maybe he was mean to her as demonstrated by the fact he used the words out of the box, but it was just his reaction. "We're hoping it's a phase. A ten year phase." Puberty, maybe. Actually, Yeager was lying and he felt uncomfortable for it. They knew. But it didn't feel like something to say, not to people outside of the family. After the twerp insulted Raine, however, Yeager felt she deserved to know. He rested his hands on her shoulders, and leaned his head to the side. "She's uh...we know she went through some pretty tough shit before we adopted her. Not that it makes everything excusable, but...there you have it." Her social worker had helped with some of the stuff. Most of it he liked to chalk up to puberty. Some of it was the fact that she had never had it easy and she might just hate the world a little bit.

He was ready to take his mind off of it however, take the Water girl into his arms. It felt much better with her body against his. He smiled as they brushed noses together, feeling her lips against his. Yeager pressed his own back against her, reciprocating and not feeling at all bothered by the fact that he was the rebound. How could he feel upset when his hands were on her back, tucking her into him, like he could keep her safe. His eyes sparkled at her proposition, but he rolled them up like he needed time to think about it. "Hmmm, I'm pretty sure there will be no opposition from me. And I think I need to show you what I can do with my sword in return." He grinned as she pressed her lips against his cheeks, just about ready to leave. It was a great party and all, but he had something better calling to him. Raine was always fun, exhilarating, wild -- she left him breathless just by standing in her presence. "Should we go, pussycat?" He swayed with her. The Water elemental didn't think the night would turn out like this, but it was looking up for him.

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