elseworldexiles | Tomb Raider III

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crusader

Tomb Raider III

It's an hour into the movie. Angelina Jolie runs from a giant boulder chasing her down a cooridor in homage to another great cinematic forray into archaeological cheese.

The dark theater is packed. The crowd hisses and boos at the traps springing up at the heroine's feet. Gretchen stares straight ahead, her gaze not slipping one inch to the side. Her eyes are on the screen, but her entire attention is on her arm. It's resting right alongside Sarah's on the padded armrest.

Swallowing hard, not daring to look, she nervously ventures a pinky over to touch Sarah's. It's an accident. Really. Honest.

Unless Sarah touches her back. Then it was totally on purpose.

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Gretchen's heart nearly pounds right out of her chest at Sarah's little squeeze.

The credits scroll by. Key Grip. Best Boy. Personal Assistant to Ms. Jolie. Reluctantly, Gretchen slides her hand out of Sarah's just before the lights go up. The theater is mostly empty by now, but there are a few clumps of people laughing and talking excitedly about the movie.

"So." Gretchen gropes for a topic of conversation. "Did it make any sense without having seen the first two?"

Blink... blink... Oh! the movie! One can almost see the wheels turning in Sarah's brain as she tries to get it into gear again.

"Oh, sure. Action movie... not that hard to follow. But really, uhm... exciting." she answers, fumbling, if anything, even more than her current companion.

Gretchen shuffles down the isle and back into the theater lobby.

"I like the Indiana Jones movies, too. Some people say Tomb Raider is all stupid because it's based on a video game, but I like seeing a girl get to go on adventures."

She risks another hesitant smile.

That gets a genuine smile. Sarah pauses to glance around, making sure they have some space and no one listening too closely. Not like most people tend to pay that much attention to a couple chatty teenagers anyway.
"I could have kind of guessed that from the karate, and the movie and everything." she replies, relaxing a little. "I don't suppose you have any favorite superheroines or anything?" she asks, hoping this world won't turn out to be some sort of anti-mutant capital or something and she'd just missed it. But suddenly she feels like she at least needs to know how Gretchen might react.

"Strong Simba's pretty cool." She leans in a little, whispering conspiratorially. "I bet she can control animals other than tigers, but it'd totally ruin her image if she sicced a herd of fighting squirrels on people. Plus, that muscle's all her. She works out, like, four hours a day."

Sarah leans in for the whispering, grinning along, even if she's never heard of Strong Simba, but its at least a pretty good sign so far. Then she pauses again, hesitant, almost sure this is a bad idea, but going ahead with it anyway. Between the butterflies and the elated feelings, she's feeling the need to get one of those other 'big secrets' out of the way. Still whispering conspiratorially, "Gretchen... can you keep a secret. I mean, a really big secret?" she asks as she heads out of the theatre.

Gretchen's eyes go wide. Something clicks in her brain. Military family. Always on the move. New in town.

"Ohmigod...your parents are that couple on the run for flooding that military sperm bank with gamma radiation, aren't they! I promise, I won't tell. I promise! And, like, you can totally hide in my mom's basement if you need a place to lay low while your parents go to another state. I never said a word about what really happened to that shipment of cargo pants last summer..."

By the time Gretchen is finished talking, Sarah has gotten to the edge of the theatre, and stepped into the alleyway. Gretchen's promise to hide her for... uhm, whatever happened there has convinced her. By the time her friend catches up, Sarah will be hovering about six inches off the ground, keeping close to the alley wall to reduce the chance of anyone seeing her.
"Not exactly." she replies with a small smile, somehow feeling whole lot more confident and capable now that she's flying, even if just hovering bit.

Gretchen's mouth forms a silent O. She blinks in surprise, looking up and down between Sarah's feet and hair half a dozen times.

"That's..." Her face breaks into a grin. "SO COOL!"

Sarah grins... then blushes, taking a deep breath, and then holding out her good hand. "Come on, hold on tight, I only have one good arm... but we're going flying. I just had to make sure you weren't anti-mutant or something."

Gretchen looks genuinely confused at the idea of someone being anti mutant. She doesn't let that get in the way of taking Sarah up on her offer. She steps forward and wraps her arms around the other girl's waist.

Sarah sees the confusion, which only makes her feel more comfortable. This world really is nice.
She wraps her good arm around Gretchen, lifting her like she weighed nothing, and then lifts off slowly, peeking over the building to make sure no in is looking, before really climbing for altitude. Even if anti-mutant prejudice is not big in this world, she sees no reason to draw attention... oh, and holding Gretchen like that is awfully nice too.

She's not afraid. Really. Honest. She's just snuggling in because Sarah's warm and soft and gosh, she smells good. Really. That's all.

Whatever the reason, Sarah doesn't seem to mind. Nor does she show the slightest problem holding on. "Don't worry, I'm stronger than Strong Simba... a lot stronger." she says with a grin, levelling out and starting to fly forward, not too quickly. "You doing ok?"

"Uh-huh." Gretchen's unashamedly holding on tight now. They're awful high up. Without a plane. It's kinda chilly.

Still, she peers down at the city in wonder.

"Springfield's so pretty from up here."

Springfield... huh... she wonders which one. But only briefly. More important things on her mind right now. She shifts a little, making sure Gretchen can hold on easily. She responds to the 'pretty' comment, but she's looking at Gretchen when she does. "Yeah, it really is."

Gretchen looks up to catch Sarah's gaze. Her blush starts at her cheeks and flushes all the way to her ears.

Sarah's blush is almost as dark, but she's still smiling. She can't even find the words, so she just strts flying instead, keeping Gretchen close... for warmth, yup, just to keep her warm, that's all.

Warmth. Uh-huh. That's it. Gretchen nuzzles in, resting her cheek against Sarah's neck.

This is a ton better than holding hands.

That... feels really nice. Her pulse jumps a little, and there's the butterflies again. The flying, super-strength, showing off thing helps, but she's still feeling totally giddy.

She flies in silence for a while, not taking the whole soaring over the city thing for granted for the first time in a long time, even if she's barely noticing the city down below.

"I hope you get to stay for awhile," Gretchen whispers.

Gretchen's not looking at the city any more, either.

Sarah looks at Gretchen again, blushing bright, but not s hesitant now. "Yeah, me too." she whispers back, sincerely.

"Tonight...I mean...y'know...what's your curfew?"

Her stomach has given up flopping in favor of acrobatics.

"I..." she pauses, the words catching again. "I don't have one." she whispers.

Steeling herself, she leans in to kiss her. Its awkward... pretty obvious she's never kissed anyone. Likewise, its brief, whether kissed back or not, drawing back quickly, the look of being totally unsure back on her face.

Gretchen's eyes go wide - and not from the lack of curfew. She awkwardly puckers back, more of a clumsy brushing of lips than anything else.

Ears aflame, she buries her face in Sarah's collarbones.

She can't help herself. Within seconds, her body shakes with nervous giggles.

Sarah is a little longer in the 'uncertain' phase, laying the side of her face against Gretchen's forehead. Then she, too, gets the giggles.

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Tomb Raider III

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