riverviewlogs | It's a party, ya'll

[When he frowned, Alex's own mirrored his, but she didn't look down. Instead, her dark eyes were fixated on his face because she knew how his posture and expression could tell so much more than he might have otherwise with his words, however many or few he happened to be using that day. Sometimes she expected that he could say the least when he used the most amount of words, especially when he was trying to talk around her.

That said, Alex did brace herself when he brought up Coralee. It wasn't a flinch, it was more of her holding herself a little more straight instead. Coralee was always going to hold onto a part of Strand's heart that Alex could never touch and she didn't blame him for that. But she also didn't want the specter of her life with Richard, and the way she disappeared to act as a shadow that stunted the growth of what Alex and Richard could have.

Her thoughts stopped when there was that my. Whenever Richard mentioned his father, it was that same biting tone, sharp and hard and with all of the anger that Howard Strand was due. Despite how he choked the word off and tried to change it, she knew that anger for what it was and who it was directed towards. Whatever had happened in those weeks, Howard and Coralee Strand were a part of it, she was certain of it now.

The fingers on his cheek moved down to cup his chin, and she held it for a second when he finally looked at her, and the questions were written all in her eyes. Alex was Alex and there would always be questions whether or not he was ready for them to be asked or for him to answer them. The most important of which, because Alex jumped into all of her more wild thoughts like someone trying to do a belly flop from a high dive:]

Richard. [His name was soft and the concern for him was evident.] Is Howard alive?

[Before he can answer, Alex just wrapped her hand around his and tugged him away from the din and towards a waiting bench so they'd have some privacy.]

Edited 2018-05-12 03:18 (UTC)

[Of course Alex would pick up on the subtle nuances of the tone he took when talking about Howard. The inflection, the deep-seated anger toward the man was too ingrained, even if it was Richard's fault that he and Coralee had been kidnapped. The bite came out without him even knowing it, and he'd hoped that Alex would have taken the tone as his self-deprecation.

She knew better than that, though. Which would always feel strange; Richard always thought he was good at keeping his emotions hidden and not expressing them, yet Alex seemed able to figure him out in an instant. At least that had been the case in the latter part of the last two years.

That may have been because he'd stopped running away. There had become an understanding that, no matter what, Alex would be by his side; even if he tried to push her away. It was an understanding that he once thought he had with others, with Coralee, but that had not been the case. With Alex though, it was different. She'd proven time and again that there was no way she would budge.

It wasn't hard to let her drag him off to the bench, the back of his mind noting just how ridiculous the scene must have looked to any onlookers. It was at least some time to decide how to phrase what he was going to say.]

Howard isn't part of this, and I already told you I wouldn't say you what you don't remember.

[Once they had collectively agreed to trusting one another (despite what misgivings she'd admitted to on her podcast, and the way that Nic had frowned at her when she made them) and after she had gotten back from Turkey, the two of them spent more time in one another's company than outside of it. But even before then, Alex had been working to understand 'The Strand Institute's Enigmatic President and Founder' for three years. There were certain subjects that she knew him well enough to predict things for, and this was one of those circumstances.

After all Howard Strand (that bastard even though Alex would never say it to Richard. Probably. This is Alex after all.) held a singular level of ire in Richard's life, one so far only out done by Thomas Warren. There was no way for her to miss the cues that came around him. She still remembered how much convincing she'd needed to do just to get him to read from a fifty-year old journal of his father's.

But that was in the past, and now there was this. And this, whatever this was felt very current and very now. And important. It was so important that Alex's gut was actually doing flip-flops over itself in an effort to grab her attention. So, of course when he dismissed the notion of him not being a part of it, Alex made her typical groan of disbelief.]

Seriously? Jesus, Richard. What happens? What are you so afraid of?

[Alex moved to sit next to him on the bench, and some of her anger settles into a deeper concern.]

Does something happen to me? To them?

Nothing happens to you.

[The words are immediate and with conviction. Something does happen, and Alex is involved, but it isn't anything bad, not for her.

That's reserved for, everything else. For Geneva. For being told that he's some sort of key to opening a door that brings about the demon apocalypse. Or at least, Warren and Simon Reese think so. It's not true, but that truth doesn't countermine the fact that people he cared about were in danger; that he was probably going to walk into a trap, that he had to know what was going on with all of this. Just because of that belief.

Still, he didn't understand why Alex would have thought something happened to her. Why she had jumped so quickly and with such dread to that when he had mentioned Howard. Howard had never been part of her life. ]

I promise.

[For a long moment, she just looks at him, and then she looks down and realizes that she's still holding that stupid solo cup that seemed so much more fun a few minutes ago. God, how the hell did this manage to go so far south in less than an hour? In less than a week? Without thinking about it, Alex just drained the cup of bourbon with a wince and then slid her empty cup underneath the one that he was still holding.

A sigh followed, and Alex was tempted to reach over and steal his whiskey as well, because this wasn't a conversation that she wanted to have sober. Or at all really, but the two of them didn't do well when they kept things secret. Every time they tried, in the end it always turned into a giant fight that threatened to scorch the earth around them until one of them inevitably provided and non apology apology and they moved on.

She didn't want this to be another one of those times.

So, Alex just drew her legs up, sitting cross legged and facing him, her chin being held up by her palm when she does find words. Soft, worried, hesitant, but Alex Reagan wasn't the sort who was ever quiet.]

But there's something. [Her voice was insistant, despite his promise.]

Otherwise you wouldn't have looked at me like you had looked when Coralee left.

Edited 2018-05-12 05:50 (UTC)

[He let her slide her empty cup under the two he was holding, waiting for her to respond. For this to blow over and her to return to the picnic she so wanted to go to one. He really was bad at things like this. The next time she tried to bring him to one he'd remind her of that.

He didn't remember looking at her that way. The same way he'd watched as Coralee got into the car, ready to leave his life. The yearning to follow her, the knowledge that he couldn't. That realization that he'd probably never see her again.

So he looked at her questioning, brows tightening in confusion as he waited for more clarification. Something that he could grasp and compute. That would enable him to explain without giving away that time this place had taken from her.]

[Alex was very tempted to steal his drink again, but instead she just decided to wrap her arms around herself instead. Letting out a long sigh, she just closed her eyes for a minute and considered how much she'd really like to punch Thomas Warren, Coralee Strand and Howard Strand for putting all of them in this complete and utter clusterfuck of a situation. And honestly, the a clusterfuck was really what this was.

When her eyes opened, Alex just frowned at him, and she pulled one hand loose from the other arm to reach out and twine her fingers with his again. She was well aware of how insane this entire thing sounded (even before one added in the idea that everyone and everything around them was a delusion) and she just wished for once the two of them could not have to worry about what the rest of the world outside had waiting for them.]

Before, after I kissed you. [Which may be there first and last kiss at this rate, cause they might kill one another with longing first.] When I didn't remember Geneva. When I told you when I was from.

[He looks down at their hands, fingers tightening against the back of her hand. A firm press that reminded him that she was there, that she was herself. Even if he kept believing in this being a delusion that Thomas Warren had created to get something from him, he'd never be able to think that Alex was anything but herself.

Wherever he was she had to be there with him.

To be fair, he'd almost forgotten the kiss. It'd been pushed out by the fact that Alex had lost weeks. That, someone, had messed with her memories and taken those weeks from her.]

I'd just found out that you were missing memories. I was, concerned.

[He still was. But now, he was more concerned that he would slip up, that times like this would happen more frequently and that he would eventually tell her everything.

Some things were better for her not to know. Like what was happening in Geneva or her Black Tape.]

Richard, I've seen the way you look at me when you're concerned for me. Or concerned for whatever stupid thing I've done or belief that I have. I know what that looks like, and I know what that sounds like when it comes from you. At this point, I'd like to think that I know you well. The look you gave me wasn't concern. It was loss. Like you'd lost something of me.

[Alex's voice dropped a bit, sounding softer and sadder.]

Or maybe I'd lost something of you? I don't know. But whatever it is that you're not telling me, it feels bigger than just a lecture, and just dinner and just something small involving Coralee and Howard. I can feel it, in my gut that there's something else...

[Alex let out a soft sigh, and stood up again.]

Let's go home, okay? I don't want to keep doing this in the park.

[Placing the cups, top one still full of whiskey on the bench, he reached out to take her hands, letting his run along her arms till he reached her hands. She hadn't lost him, she never would. At least, not unless she chose to. There was just a lot more that had happened in those few weeks than she could know, and he wasn't going to put that on her. He'd never do that to her - or at least he'd try not to.]

You haven't lost me.

[It seemed strange, but he thought he needed to give her reassurance that they were still at their status quo, at least the one that they were at after the weeks she lost. He loved her and, that wasn't going to change anytime soon. Everything else, regaining her lost memories could come later.]

Go, enjoy your picnic.

[To emphasize the point he squeezed her hands reassuringly.]

[for a long moment alex just watched him with a small frown. There was still a lot going on that she didn't know and if there was one thing that Alex hated more than most things it was that feeling of not knowing. That was one of the reasons why she very rarely let anything go. The fact that she'd not pressed more on this so far was already something of a miracle. Because as Alex said, she wasn't done. Not even close.

More than that her irrational curiosity had been completely aroused. She was willing to place bets on the fact that Howard Strand was alive and that he had something to do with Geneva. Maybe it was those damned leaps of logic of hers but she knew him and she knew what made sense. So even while he was telling her to enjoy the picnic and comforting her, her brain was still working a mile a minute and trying to make the new pieces of the puzzle he'd given her fit into the framework of those extra weeks that she knew.

With a soft sigh, alex just murmured.]

I must be pretty close to right if you're not using it as an excuse to get away from people, love.

[Sometimes Richard hated how perceptive Alex was. She caught on too quickly to how things changed with him, and it was dangerous for keeping stuff she didn't need to know from her. Between that and her penchant for jumping to conclusions, it caused more annoyance than he could express.

She didn't need to know about Geneva, not yet. Nor did she need to know about Howard and Coralee's kidnapping, or that there was a genuine possibility that the two of them were going to be walking right into a trap set by Thomas Warren. A trap that he had been planning on going to alone if Alex had chosen not to go.

She didn't need to know about that night either. Not yet. The fact that they had gotten to where they were was still because of it. If it had been before that night, he wasn't sure that he would have been able to confess the way he did. It was just, upsetting, that there were weeks that she was missing that he wasn't; that they were at different passes in their mutual life. It felt like something had was stolen from them, and he hated the idea of Warren having taken any more from him than he already had.]

I'd prefer we stay here then be attacked by questions at home.

[For the first time he noticed her use of 'love' instead of his name. It was, curious. How long had she been doing that without him hearing it? Not that he particularly minded.]

[It was on the tip of Alex's tongue to comment that she could attack him with questions anywhere. Hadn't she proved that over the last three years? But the difference was that he'd asked her not to, and Alex was trying to live up to that request even though it went against everything that she was. It was difficult as hell, and Alex wanted to worry at it like a puppy with a bone, but for now she was letting it lay.

Trying to anyway. Alex let out a huffy, frustrated sigh before she gave his hand a squeeze once more, rolling her thumb along the back of his hand. After all, Alex had answers to things that a month ago she was sure she wouldn't even be able to ask as questions. That needed to mean something, and that did mean something. Honestly, it meant the world to her, but she hated that there were secrets between them again.

It had gone so well when there were last time, and Alex had almost completely blown up their relationship because of it. So, her voice was soft when she just said:]

Okay. I'm leaving it alone. [She didn't need to add 'for now' onto that because Alex was Alex, and he knew her. He probably knew her better than anyone else at this point.]

[He knew that she could, and would question him. It was Alex's nature to do so. Keeping them there was only a minor reprieve, and only because she didn't want to get into it here. He was well aware of how much she dictated how much she pushed, but she wasn't in control of how much he gave, and he'd already given up enough. She didn't need to worry about what was going on back in reality. Just here for now; he'd keep the rest as guarded as he could, to protect her. Not that he didn't think she could handle herself, he simply didn't think she should have to.

Thomas Warren had already toyed with her enough here.

In response to her grudging agreement, he leaned in, letting a light kiss fall over her ear, and quietly spoke.]

This, it doesn't change, I promise.

[His promise definitely settled down more than a little bit of the worry that she had about the unknown and what it could mean. Honestly, the worst part about the unknown for Alex was the way that her very creative imagination could fill it in with the worst possible scenarios, telling her all of the wrong conclusions about what could happen that lead them to Geneva, and what she'd found in those missing weeks of searching.

Alex may have been reckless, but she was never stupid and she knew that things were building up to something. The story had more forward momentum than it ever had had before, even than before they had ended the season last time. More than that, Alex and Richard were more on the same page than they had been before, even if he still thought that she was jumping to all sorts of conclusions. But her gut had been telling her that Oneda was important, that the kids looking like Sebastian were important, and that they were all from the East Coast was important as well. She was onto something, even if she didn't know exactly what it was yet.

But she trusted him, and that what was between them wouldn't be screwed up by this, so when he kissed her ear, Alex just wrapped her arms around his neck and burrowed her face in his chest for a moment, holding onto him before she murmured:]

Okay.

[When she wrapped her arms around him, it wasn't hard to do the same to her in return. To pull her close and bury his face in her shoulder. There had been too many times in the course of the last few months when he'd resisted doing just that. Knowing that she wouldn't want it, that it would cross a line that they could never uncross. Knowing the act would have irrevocable repercussion on her professional career.

That night she'd been the one to cross it first, to offer her hand to help him over that line, and here, that line felt as if it were a million miles away.

Kissing her shoulder lightly, he murmured into her shoulder.]

You should enjoy the twenty minutes left of your picnic.

[The muffled tone held slight amusement. Richard hadn't forgotten the deal he and Alex had made, and he was counting this as part of it.]

[When he buried his face in her shoulder, Alex just closed her eyes, entirely contented. Well, as contented as Alex Reagan got with a secret in the back of her brain, but contented enough for her. She let out a soft sigh, because just doing this wasn't something that she'd ever really allowed herself to consider. Yes, Alex hugged everyone she worked with to an extent: Nic most of all because he was her oldest friend. You could always tell how tense things were between them as reporter and producer when there wasn't any hugging going on.

But Richard Strand wasn't something that would be considered huggable in most universes by most people. If anything, most people considered him anti-huggable. When Alex had been interviewing people about him, he'd been described as everything from an asshole to a bastard to heartless. It was part of who he'd needed to be to protect himself, and well, hugging didn't make good armor unless you were one Alex Reagan. So, the closest that she'd come to hugging him before he arrived here was simply to place her hand on his arm for comfort before he'd come back for Italy, and then on his hand after.

Now, however, she was enjoying it before she just laughed against his tie.]

Are you seriously holding me to that, love?

[Drawing back from his chest just enough to look at his face, Alex's eyes sparkled with amusement.]

[Turning his head in toward her neck, he lightly brushed his lips against it before pulling his head up to look at her, smirk mirroring her own. His brows, however, were raised.

If for one moment she thought she was going to get away with staying for the whole picnic, then she was delusional inside her delusion. There was no way he was staying any longer than he had to at this place. Even if he'd just spent a significant amount of time with her, he could do that much more comfortablely at home then here. At home where they were alone and could have a nice cup of tea and coffee; where he could read, and she could rest. It was a far better plan than staying out here where she couldn't. Especially when people like her friend Elizabeth were worried about her lack of sleep.]

I'll accept less time, if that's what you're implying.

[Strand was Strand was Strand, so of course he wasn't going to let her get away with staying for the whole picnic. Of course that didn't mean that Alex wasn't considering doing a little bit of renegotiating for more time. Or at least she might have if he hadn't kissed her neck. It was a little odd as to what counted for things and what didn't, but she still wasn't going to push him on it. After all, it was enough that she'd told someone that they were together, even if she had needed to use the dreaded 'boyfriend' title to do it.

In the end, Alex just rolled her eyes and made the patented Richard Strand sigh that belonged to him and him alone. No one else ever really deserved it as much as he did, especially like right now.]

You are incorrigible, you know that? Yes, yes, twenty minutes. Grab food while I make rounds?

[His brow raises at her assessment of him. Incorrigible, was it? Richard Strand had been called many, many things in his life, but that wasn't one of them. In fact, he doubted anyone would call him anything even close to that. Anyone, except Alex that is.

He settled on the honest answer.]

That isn't one of the terms commonly used to describe me.

[Then he took a drink from his cup, now three in one and pointed toward the food table. He'd put up with someone else's cooking for the night. It wasn't as if he were looking forward to cooking for the two of them. At least that would have been his answer if someone asked. It really wasn't a big deal. They were living together; there would be plenty of times for that. Besides, it wasn't as if she would understand the significance of it. Instead, it would just be, plesant, which wasn't bad, but also wasn't exactly where he was going with it.

Really? You'd think it would be...

[The sentence trailed off with a grin, and she just shrugged before she took another sip of her drink the way a southern lady would take a sip of her tea. Or the way a meme would occasionally. But she was amused as hell that no one had called him that before. It seemed impossible almost to her that at no point someone else had looked at Richard Strand and not seen someone who was entirely incorrigible around certain things.

Not all, of course, because while Richard could be stubborn and unmovable around some things, there were others that were less ingrained within him. Him wanting to leave a social place early and doing nearly anything he could to do it? Well, definitely incorrigible in that arena. Still, she didn't end with that, when she added:]

Well, I'm your Alex, I need to come up with some things of my own other than 'love', right?

[He hid the smirk at her comment behind his cup as he drank more of it. After all, there was quite a bit of liquid in it, and he'd drank none of it, till now.

Alex competing with his past was ridiculous. Alex was nothing like anyone or anything he'd had in his past, and their life experiences until their meeting had been vastly different. Even removing social status and the supernatural bend of it all, their whole societal raising was different. Between his generation and hers, things had changed so much.

Besides, he didn't think even Coralee had attempted to find things that she would consider 'Richard Strand relationship milestones.' That was a uniquely Alex Reagan sort of thing.]

I can assure you that my experiences with you are entirely unique.

[He was still hiding the smirk behind his cup, and it caused his voice to be amplified, the amusement in it carrying.]

[Alex didn't need to see him hiding that smirk behind his cup, because she could hear it when he spoke to her. And of course, Alex just broadly grinned at him in return and bobbed her head a bit as if she was taking a bow or something like it. After all, in all the worlds and universes there was only one Alex Reagan, and she was entirely one of a kind and loved it. Of course being one of a kind occasionally had it's drawbacks, but well... Alex didn't mind them so much.

And if Richard thought that Alex was only charting their relationship since had turned into a relationship, he was dead wrong. If someone had asked when they'd had their first fight (at the end of episode 2) or the first time they made up, or the first time she'd managed to make him laugh even when he didn't want to, she would remember that as well. Alex was just one of those annoying sorts of people who never forgot birthdays or anniversaries, even if the two of them weren't exactly on speaking terms when his birthday rolled around. The last two times, Alex had sent an edible arrangement, even if she'd never heard that it got to him or not. (If nothing else, she was sure Ruby enjoyed it.)

This year, she'd make sure that he got it in person one way or another as long as the world didn't end before they got back to it. (But she was thinking that they'd probably still end up being there.)

With a smirk of her own, and her eyes sparkling, Alex was just going to be the one to bait him for a change.]

Well, I hope so, and you haven't even seen anything yet.

[The idea of Alex doing more then this was, one one hand, frightening. Alex tended to go overboard at the worst of times. This was, arguably the best of them (for her at least). She was bound to go overboard to a degree that Richard wasn't sure anyone else could do. On the other hand, it was a strange sort of nice to have someone want to surprise him like that.

Of course, Richard wouldn't be Richard if he didn't only slightly rise to the bait by adding more of his own. Alex was his, and he liked to think that no one could push her buttons as he could. Of course, he knew that was hubris, but he allowed himself that much where Alex was concerned.

His whole manner fell into a relaxed position, less wholly squared shoulders as he observed her for the reaction. Judging by how off guard she seemed to be he could surmise there would probably be blushing, maybe some indignation, but he doubted that here.]

We live together Alex; I'm sure I've seen most everything by now.

[To punctuate his words he gave her a moderately subtle once-over before taking another drink of his drink..]

[With the comment, Alex definitely turned as crimson as the solo cup he was holding, and she bobbed her head once more, this time letting off a rather loud laugh. He was right in that no one else pushed her buttons in quite the same way that he did, and more than that, Alex didn't allow anyone else to. With most people, she would have just brushed it off or ignored it, but no, Strand received the full on Alex blushing like a kid treatment. At least at first anyway.

With her cheeks still on fire, Alex just reached over and alleviated him of his drink, taking a long sip of it, because there was still a fair amount of it there. If nothing else, she was sure that would be a surprise even if he didn't think that it was a very good one.

Once that was done, Alex put it back in his hand before she moved onto her toes once more, and this time, she did wrap her arms around his neck before she whispered in his ear:]

Most everything is nowhere near everything, my Richard. Not by a long shot.

[If he wanted to play dirty, then Alex could too.]

(no subject)

nobasisinfact - 2018-06-04 03:47 (UTC) - Expand