Ash Meets Marie, pt. 2

Just hammered this out waiting for the doctor to answer his phone, just some more personal exchange, nothing too fancy.

--

Ash did Marie the favor of not vomiting in her immaculate car and she did him the favor of driving him home instead of shoving him out of the car in mid-air for ruining the interior. Ash's home was humble and by no means opulent but it was definitely better than most of the residential sectors on this tier of Espher. Ash's salary covered everything well and gave him enough money to spend most nights getting shit-faced. As the Nexus W-X came to a quiet, delicate rest on its landing struts, Ash turned to look at Marie while using pure will to force down the nausea. “I... this was a hell of a night. Thanks... I needed--” Ash began but his lips were assaulted by her own for a brief, blissful moment. He presumed she was rolling the dice on his nausea, getting a kiss in before anything came out. He was struck by it, however, and lost his train of thought. “You...”

“Kissed you...” She replied, mimicking his tone perfectly.

“Hell of a night. I.. wish I weren't drunk so I could be a bit more... coherent. Yea, that's the word.”

“You're fine. If nothing else, being in this state shows who you are at heart. You really broke free tonight, it was wonderful.”

Ash tilted his head “I what?”

“Broke free. You had fun, you stopped moping, you lived in the moment and being able to help you achieve that is great.” She replied, turning in her seat, slightly.

“You saw all that -and- drove through all that crazy shit?”

“I have my skills, cherub.”

“I'm wondering how much of an understatement that is.”

“Don't be like that. I just happened to have a sequence of events to showcase my abilities, tonight.”

Ash sighed and shrugged “I don't question good fortune. I was just surprised.”

“Can you make the walk?”

“Yea, no problem.” Ash said, looking outside the car for the first time. Inside, it was so easy to forget everything that was not a part of her.

“Can I at least make sure you don't fall and hurt yourself, Ash?” Marie asked, keying a console which brought the engine to a slow stop and the struts creaked just a bit as the repulsordirve shut off.

“My place is kind of a wreck.” Ash warned, looking at her uncertainly.

“You should see -mine-.”

“I'm not going to pass up a chance to bring a celebrity into my home. Maybe they'll make some kind of tour where they make a big deal about how you helped some drunken idiot home out of the kindness of your heart. Big to-do and everything, selling some cheap alcohol as a souvenir and explai--”

“Ash. Hush. Let's get you inside instead of waking all of your neighbors, all right?”

“Fair point.” Ash muttered, turning as the door began to move and stepping out of the car with only one small stagger.

The doors on the car sealed and there was a faint beep to indicate the security system on the car had been enabled. Marie helped Ash to his home twice, the first had been just a door too far. After returning to his actual home she guided him in to sit on a worn-out couch. She shut, and locked, the door behind her and turned around, smiling. Ash was sprawled out on the couch, looking at her with no attempt to disguise it. She was the kind of beautiful you got angry over, so much frustration building in knowing that someone so beautiful would never be a part of your life and that is where his thoughts lingered. Surely she was stringing him along, there had to be some reason. She walked casually across the room and took a gentle seat next to him, turning to look him over. She smiled that warm, disarming smile and if it were possible, Ash would've melted in the heat.

“Are you feeling okay?” She asked, placing her hand on his.

“Yea, better, just... trying to settle down.” Ash replied, turning to look at her more directly.

“Good. I don't want to watch you ruin your carpet.... any further.” She said, smirking as he was sprawled there and pretty much defenseless. “Do you have anything to drink?”

Ash nearly heaved, alcohol wasn't what he wanted to think about right now. “Kitchen, kitchen. Third cabinet from the left.”

There was a pause and a whistle “Wow, you sure do bring a lot of your hobby home with you.” she called out from the other room.

Ash smiled, furrowing his brows “Yea, been... kinda rough lately. Some really frustrating things.”

“Oooh? Are we reaching 'classified' levels of detail, here?” She called out, glass tinkling lightly amid her words.

“No, not really... It's not really so classified as it is... just... gone.” he said, closing his eyes and reliving the moments all over again. CO Green shouting in his ear, the weight of the rifle in his hands, how completely out of place he felt.

“Not surprising, honestly.” Marie said, stepping into the living room once more and gently slipping around his legs with a subtle grace.

“There's a lot of things they don't show. Bad for the morale of the people of Espher.”

“I've seen it happen. Friends I had that just... disappeared and never existed so far as any record is concerned.”

“That's why I stay out of politics, I don't want to be a part of that kind of thing. It's childish as hell and I can't stand that.”

Marie poured a bit of some amber colored liquor into a small glass and brought it up to her lips “Tell me about it, if you want to get it off your chest.”

“It's just... Things are obviously changing. We were taken off reserve and sent to O-S-Zero-Five to find and confiscate and and all firearms or similar weapons. Half-way there it suddenly changed into 'Kill them all, don't ask why'.”

Marie's eyebrows raised as she took a small drink. “That's... a big change of plans.”

“And we were stuck with it. I... I'm not even 'off duty' right now, I'm on forced leave. There were orders I refused to follow and they slammed me the moment I got back.”

“When was this?”

“About three days ago.”

“If I may ask, Ash, what orders were you refusing?” Marie inquired, tilting her head.

“I was being ordered to shoot a kid. Probably twelve or something, grew up out in the settlements, never knew a life without guns on hand for defense. We come in firing rockets and air-strafing his home, who the fuck isn't going to grab their gun and fight?”

“So they wanted you to kill him for defending himself?”

“No... he killed at least one of our eight-man squad. That was why they wanted him dead but... it was our fault. No one -ever- gave us a reason why the mission changed.”

“So you just didn't feel he did anything wrong?”

“I... no, I knew those guys, all the ones we lost, but we didn't even say anything, we just came in and started blasting the place all to hell.”

“Sounds awful...”

“I'll spare you the details and just say that Espher never gives the whole story, just enough to justify their actions or remove doubt. There's thousands of things I've noticed over the years that escape mention and there's no explanation other than someone actively filtering what is made public... but I think all governments do that.”

“You're right. They all do. I don't think there has ever been a government that gave the people the whole story.”

“I'm just sick of pretending not to notice it. Some people can look it over, some people just don't ask questions and they can just be fine with that-- I can't. It aggravates me to the damned bone.”

“Calm down, Cherub, just try and relax.” she cooed softly in his ear.

Ash had somehow managed to miss the way she shifted her slight form against him and leaned over to partially lay along his side as he slouched slightly. There were all sorts of things buzzing in his head right now and the feel of her against him was not the least of them. Slowly his arm curled around her shoulders and she exhaled against his neck, laying her head there and reaching across to set her drink upon the table. If he could open his eyes he would be seeing what he would presume to be a dream but it was actually happening. What was so appealing about him? Did she just go for the kind of person who feels broken and use their misery as a sort of muse? Did she genuinely care this much about someone she met less then twelve hours ago? He had so many questions and so little nerve to ask them. Slowly he let his eyes open and behold her. Her hair was a wash of deep red spread across their bodies, her arms running from her tee-shirt up and around his neck where he could feel her nails gently bite at his flesh. She had ditched her boots somewhere and had her lower half tucked neatly against her in her slim denim jeans and thin black socks. He pondered what the material was, it looked like silk from his view, and was then struck wondering why he was thinking about that at all.

“Ash...” Marie began, turning her head upward to whisper on his jaw.

“Yeah?” he responded, half-groggy but fully focused on her.

“Do you mind if I--”

“Not at all.”

Marie smiled a bit “You didn't know what I was going to ask.”

“I think I had a good idea.”

“Maybe.”

“Just be quiet and come here.” Ash said, turning slightly to pull her body onto his own as he slipped down to lay on his back.

Marie's slight build was even more apparent in this way, her arms around his neck and her head tucked into the nape of his neck. Her legs had tangled into his own, Ash sighed with plain, simple content. His hands moved down her back slowly, fingers tracing along her spine before resting on her lower-back. One arm curled around her possessively and kept her held snug and he turned his head to press his lips to her hairline, closing his eyes. It was quiet, it was never this quiet when he was home. The was no racket from the television pane, no food cooking or declaring it had been long-since ready to be eaten. He could hear every breath she took and he was unsure if he could hear her heartbeat or if he was just imagining it but in this moment there was a quiet, still world that did not exist anywhere else in his life. As if his home had simply been removed from the world, it was just as it was in the car. Nothing existed outside of her and the room they shared. Ironically they were much closer when they had so much more room to spread out. Ash tried to find the words to say some appropriately pretty or meaningful or... something poignant at all only to find nothing coming to mind. Just the same, he could feel sleep overtaking him and he begrudgingly accepted it as it creeped over him and pulled him into the abyss of slumber.