dollymixtures | Open Post

Dick just lets her cry against his chest, knowing there's no point in trying to stop her too soon, instead he just allows her to cry it out, rubbing her back soothingly.

Eventually, once her mental recriminations die down, he draws away and reaches out to gently wipe away her tears.

"I know it seems hopeless, but we're not going to let her take you."

Lydia shakes her head and smiles, turning her phone screen off and dropping it back into her purse before finally pulling out of the parking spot. "It's flattering," she corrects him gently. The difference between creepy and flattering being entirely dependent on the person giving the compliment and whether or not she's attracted to them, as per the rules of engagement for the average teenager.

Her lips press together to keep from laughing a little as he goes on. "I'll take it as a compliment," she said, dimples cutting into her cheeks and amusement in her voice.

It feels like forever before she's exhausted herself in his arms, having no more energy for the sobs to go with the steady stream of tears and her mind has gone completely blank with the numb feeling of resignation that settles over her body. Ariel's always been a fighter, but this feels like the odds way too far against her and she doesn't think she can do it.

She almost clings harder when she feels Dick starting to move, but instead, she takes in a shaking breath when he starts to wipe away her tears. She'd assumed she would be with Eric by now. She assumed that she'd already have been welcomed into his arms and his castle and his heart and now she doesn't know what's going to happen to her. Dick says they're not going to let Ursula take her but Ariel isn't so sure there's anything that they can do to stop it.

What am I supposed to do now...? I don't have anywhere to go, I don't... her voice trails off in the psychic link and her head tilts down as she wills herself not to start crying all over again.

It takes Dick a moment to respond, he's pleased that she is taking it as the compliment it was meant as, and he's really glad she figured out the werewolf thing because otherwise it would have just sounded weird, or rather, weirder. But when she smiles... it nearly takes his breath away.

"You have the prettiest smile," he says before he can stop himself, staring at her dimples with fascination. Since she took the scent comment so well, he hopes she feels the same about this one, at least it's a slightly more normal compliment.

As she slows to a stop at a red light, Lydia looks over at Dick, a little bit surprised. Her perfectly manicured eyebrows arch slightly and she ducks her head just slightly before turning her attention back to the road just in time for the light to go green again. It takes a quite a bit to make Lydia really and truly blush, but Dick's just done it, and she can feel her neck, ears, and cheeks warming at the compliment.

"Thank you," she breathes with a soft laugh. "You're really sweet, Dick, you know that?" she asks, glancing over at him very briefly before returning her eyes to the road. "Most guys can't be bothered to compliment girls like that. They don't notice. They're too busy looking at our boobs or legs or asses or trying to imagine what we'd look like naked to take notice of things like our smiles or the way we smell. You're kinda refreshing in that way; I like that."

He isn't sure what to do next, all he knows is he wants to see her smiling again, seeing her so upset was almost heartbreaking.

"We'll see what Kaldur says when he gets back, he'll have more answers for us," he explains, though he can understand that waiting might not be the best thing for her right now, especially with her three day deadline.

"While we wait, why don't we go somewhere? You've never been on land before, have you? Do you want to see more of it?"

"I don't see the point of not," he shrugs "I mean... you do have a nice smell and a pretty smile, and it makes me happy to be around, so it's only fair to make you happy too, and if I tell you about it, it does. That probably sounds stupid, but there it is. I like to make people smile. I guess it's the circus kid in me"

He winces. That's the thing he wasn't supposed to admit to. It isn't that he's ashamed of his heritage, quite the opposite, but he also has more than enough experience of the way people look down on it, and he'd rather not go through that again.

When the only real advice Dick seems able to offer is basically to sit tight, Ariel looks even more concerned and uncomfortable. She's certainly not going to find someone to fall in love with her by sitting around waiting for news that could potentially be useless information.

She shakes her head at his question, because no, she never has. The idea of a distraction is more than a little welcome because maybe then she can't dwell on resigning herself to the awful inevitable. A weak smile that falls short of her eyes tugs at the corners of her mouth, though; she's trying.

I think that would be really nice. ...you'll come with me…?

Lydia's cheeks are warmer and pinker by the second as Dick goes on. He's either just one in a million, she thinks, or he's never really spent a whole lot of time with other guys his own age, because nobody's ever talked to her the way he is right now.

"I don't think it sounds stupid," she tells him gently, glancing at him again before shifting her eyes back to the road as she turns into the student parking lot. They're going to be late. Lydia will just have to walk him to class and let his teacher know that their tutoring session ran over because she lost track of time. They'll believe her; she's the top student in the whole school right now. "I think that sounds nice." The circus kid comment is lost on her in favor of the sentiment in the rest of the statement. Lucky you, Dick.

He breathes a sigh of relief when she doesn't seem to notice, instead focusing on the words he actually wanted her to hear, and he can't help but smile that it's gone over the way he wanted it to, rather than sounding like a rambling idiot.

"Now, as pretty as your smile is, I really hope it can get me out of trouble for being late, because I can't very well take you out for dinner if I'm grounded," he points out, and though he's still smiling and it's mostly a joke, he very much hopes she can, because he's really not kidding about how his dad would not be happy.

It's pretty obvious that his suggestion of distraction is not quite as effective as he'd like it to be, but he can hardly expect her to leap at the idea when she's just received such a bombshell - at least she was willing to try it at all, instead of just moping, that was good to see.

"Of course I'll come with you, I won't leave your side until we have this figured out, I promise," and that is a promise he can keep, they haven't got any missions due in the next few days and even if one came up, he was sure the league would understand his reason for not going "oh.... except for at night, that's probably, uh, improper or something. But I'll still be close by!"

Lydia pulls into her parking spot and laughs a little, parking the car and pulling the keys out of the ignition. His worry about being late is legitimate, she gets that; it's not something she's used to worrying about, but she understands where he's coming from with it, anyway.

"Don't worry, I got it covered. I'll walk you to class and talk to your teacher. Easy peasy, they all love me. I'll just say I lost track of time with a touch point tutoring session with you, trying to help you navigate what you're already good to go with and what you need to catch up with given your sudden curriculum change. You're good," she promises before getting out of the car and waiting until his door is open to click the lock.

Relief, although fleeting, washes over her when Dick says that he'll be right with her. She gets the reference as far as him not being able to spend nights with her, but she appreciates that he'll stay with her in the day time, helping her at least live the last couple of days of her free life to the fullest. Ariel isn't in any way convinced that this is going to be a thing they can fix, so she's just going to try to grin and bear it and soak up as much of the experience on the surface as she can. Maybe it'll help her get through the rest of her miserable life if she's got something beautiful like this to draw on when she's having an especially hard time dealing with the consequences of her thoughtless actions.

Thank you, she thinks and gives him another small smile. She's getting there. Still a little short of meeting her eyes because there's still sadness and resignation hiding there, but she is trying and she is making progress. That's got to mean something.

Ariel looks around the room. Where are we going? she wonders, looking back at him with big, blue, curious eyes.

"Do you take all the boys back here or should I be honoured?" Tony asked when he realised where they were headed, the joking making it easier to hide his nerves.

The grin widened just slightly at the almost flirtation in return, she was always pleased whenever she got that reaction out of Patty, though she always wanted more.

"Sure I can think of something that you haven't seen before," she replied, voice low, leaving absolutely no doubt just what she was thinking about, and it didn't have anything to do with ghosts. She was watching Patty carefully, like she was waiting for a different reaction to usual, wondering how far she could push before it was too much.

"Oh I like that," he compliments as he climbs out the car as well "Makes it look like I'm making an effort to catch up with my new school, and you're making an effort to reach out to new students, turning a potential troublesome situation into one in which we both look good. Very smooth, you're an evil mastermind." It was important to compliment a lady's brain as well as her looks.

"I'd offer you my arm," he says as he crosses over to her and starts towards the school "but I don't think your subterfuge would work quite as well if we looked too close."

"Well... I was thinking we could head into the city? Gotham city, it's where I'm from so I know it, and there's lots to see." Sure it was occasionally a little...uh... dangerous, but Dick knew all the good places to be and all the best places to avoid, he also had the advantage of knowing exactly where every access point was to get them back to the base as soon as they heard from Kaldur, so there would be no unnecessary delays.

He holds a hand out to her so he can help her if she stumbles again "We have this special transport that gets us there pretty much instantly, come on, I'll show you it."

Grinning, Lydia shuts her car door and cocks her eyebrows just once. "I'm all kinds of clever," she replies with a wink. "You'll see. This? This is child's play."

They both start toward the school and Lydia looks over at him with a smirk. "Well, we'll just have to save it for dinner," she says matter of factly.

The idea of being able to see where he's from is appealing because she thinks that probably means he'll know all the best places to take her. This time when she smiles, it finally looks completely genuine.

I think that sounds really nice.

Ariel takes his hand and draws herself up to get feet again looking curious and excited all at once when he says they're taking a special mode of transportation. She wonders how come Scuttle's never told her about instant transportation for humans; that would've made a really great story, after all.

His compliment got a smirk out of Isabel and she turned her head toward him, lowering her sunglasses to watch him. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that he was too sweet, that she was (unintentionally) going to break his heart, to tell him so many things that she knew she ought to. However, despite knowing all of that, she liked Stiles. Maybe it was selfish and horrible, but he made her feel safe and special. Stiles wouldn't break her heart and she didn't think that he'd reject her. Of course, she'd been too afraid to try anything serious for fear that she was wrong about that. Isabel iwa far more fragile than she'd like anyone to know.

She didn't expect a safe, happy future. She was reasonably sure that girls like her didn't get those sorts of futures no matter how much they wanted them.

Her hand stayed there because she liked the way he leaned into that touch. Right now, in this vulnerable state, she wished they had this all the time too. She wished she could allow herself that vulnerability, wished she knew that she'd survive this. She wanted that safety, that gentleness, that domesticity. She just didn't think that she could have that, not without it destroying her.

"Well I can't wait to see what other kinds of clever you are," Dick says with a smile.

"Can't wait," he adds, trying not to sound quite as excited as he feels, as much as he's managed to impress Lydia so far he doesn't want her to think he's a total dork.

Dick takes her hand and he can't help but notice how soft and warm it is against his own, how sweet her smile is when she really means it. Eric would be a lucky guy, maybe he still will be - if she could come forward in time maybe they could send her back and she'd still have her chance.

"It's over here, come on," he tells her, pushing aside those thoughts, at least until they know what Kaldur has to say. Somehow it's easy to not think about when she'll have to leave them. He leads her over to the Zeta tubes "We just walk in and it takes us where we need to go. You ready?"

Lydia just smiles smugly and leads him back into the school. She can't wait to show him. All in all, she's feeling like this was a pretty productive lunch period in spite of the fact that she's done absolutely nothing of 'substance' with it.

She stops just outside the classroom and looks at her watch. They're only about five minutes later. "Have a good full moon," she whispers before turning the doorknob. This is where they'll separate; he'll have to sit down and she'll talk to his teacher. "Don't forget to text me," she adds before pushing open the door.

Lunch well spent.

((ooc: and scene? I'm down with doing another whenever you're feeling it. Their date maybe?))

She likes the feel of his hand around hers; Ariel decides she instantly likes hand-holding a lot more when it's not one of her sisters or her father. She gives him another shy smile, ducking her head, before he starts to draw her nearer to a large contraption she's never seen before this place and she stares back at it in awe.

I'm so ready, she thinks gleefully, looking up at him with a bright smile. Hey, she might be doomed to a life of servitude that starts in a few days, but for now, she's more interested in focusing on the fact that Dick is nice and she likes him and he's going to show her as much of the surface as he can before she has to go.

She'd spent a lot of time alone through no will of her own. She knew how much little things could matter. She nodded a little in agreement. They'd pick out some candy for him and have the store ship it to him or something. Maybe it'd make his day a little better or remind him that he wasn't alone.

Ava couldn't help but laugh at Peter's self-deprication. She shook her head at him as her laugh faded into a smile. "Well, not everyone can be as cool as me," she agreed. "I think he's alright though." Her voice dipped a little in volume so that it was almost a whisper. "Spider-man is awesome and all, but he's got nothing on Peter Parker."

Oh Peter. Honestly, all she needed to have a good time was his company, but she wouldn't say no to candy.

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