Sidestory:
Caleo

by Emiko & Tami

As they walked and rolled towards the front door of the Kellen residence, respectively, Tibby and Jace looked the epitome of good spirits. "Yeah, it was quite an interesting movie," Tibby was saying.

"I want to be Russell Crowe," Jace said immediately, moving comfortably up the ramp that lead to her front door and opening it easily; this was her territory now. "And hell, yeah, I agree. Can't pass up anything with so much blood and guts and gore."

Tibby followed her inside and closed the door behind him. The decor of her residence never failed to disgust him on so many levels, but he knew it was the doing of her mother, and not a reflection on Jace herself.  Still, perhaps Jace could find it in her heart to break a couple of those Precious Moments figurines on her way out one day... "Shall we catch a bit of the telly?" he said quickly before his nefarious plots could distract him too much.

Jace stopped her wheelchair and raised an eyebrow at him mock-incredulously, half turning around to see his face. "You? Watch American television - willingly? Who are you and what the hell have you done with my Theo?"

"Uh, I-" he quickly stammered, backing into the table and nearly accomplishing the task he had been thinking of just moments earlier. "I just thought you might like it, that's all. Give us something to do."

The redhead grinned at him and continued through to her living room, shuddering distantly at the icecream decor and practically flinging herself from her chair onto one of the couches. Immediately, her fingers went down to massage at her thighs, stretching out next to the cushions. "Whatever floats your boat, Parfett. You're the one doing me a favour, not me you; you get first choice. We can watch crappy TV, we can talk, we can try to take over the world."

"Well, any of those things sounds perfectly good to me, but what would you prefer to do?" His eyes twinkled; whether from merriment or mischief, only he knew.

She collapsed forward on her stomach, propping her face up on her hands. "Burn the ugly furniture, but when Mom and Dad get home tomorrow they might notice." There was a slight, sudden hesitation in her voice; her eyes were dark. "Maybe we should talk. Oh, fuck, I forgot, I'm the worst hostess of all time - want something to drink? We can order in pizza if you're hungry."

"Pizza sounds good."

"Great." There was a smile of  relief as she half-hung off the couch to get at the phone. "What don't you eat? Please say anchovies, they suck."

"Actually, I've nothing against the buggers, but anything is fine with me, so get what you usually do. Just no green peppers, please."

"Wuss," Jace said charmingly and immediately dialed the number. After a short exchange, she put down the phone again, tucking one of her spiky bangs behind one ear.  

"The pizza place doesn't trust me usually," she explained. "I scare the pizza boys."

He grinned. "It's your charming way with words, I'm sure."

"Theodore Alan Parfett, was that a slur against my fucking communication skills?"

"What, your skills? Oh, no, of course not," he answered. The grin and overly sugared tone of voice suggested otherwise. "Well, now we have twenty or thirty minutes, so what to do?"

"I don't know." She was putting off her original intent for as long as possible; there was no reason to depress herself early. "Hey, wait. You haven't seen my room, huh? I'll go drag you there. It's the only damn place in the house with taste."

"Sounds lovely."

Jace slithered back gracelessly into her wheelchair and moved out into the corridor again; the tightness in her shoulders suggested she was on edge, but otherwise, her laughing tone spoke nothing about tension. With some pride, she eventually flung open a door and threw a mock-bow to him in her chair. "Care to enter my den?"

It was sunset by then, and the space was illuminated; one wall was taken up by a sliding glass door leading to the outside yard, the other by a long window; it certainly wasn't dark. The only pieces of furniture was a desk in one corner, a bed with a red cover, and a low shelf and drawers: obviously, she needed a bit of space to move. The shelves were full of various weights. There was no sign of Precious Moments figurines.

"Very utilitarian," he remarked, then, chuckling, "in a good way. Of course, you don't have a roommate to muss it all up."

"Thank God." She rolled forward. "Just sit on the bed, I'm not into chairs much, I have a mobile one - and, anyway, Thomas is a roommate in a million, right?"

"He's perfectly horrid, but you're right, and I wouldn't trade him in so many years."

"I was going to say, 'in a million morons', but he doesn't sound too bad." She sat up on the bed and patted the space beside her. "You Englishmen are -all- crazy, anyway."

He laughed. "Not nearly as crazy as your Americans. American television - honestly!"

"Well, soon you'll be watchin' the good old BBC again." Jace tried to keep her voice flippant and was afraid she failed miserably.

"Urg." He could tell instantly where that came from. "Jace, I..."

One hand was held up immediately; her eyes were like granite. "But hey, what do I care?" she said lightly, though it killed her with every syllable.

Tibby fixed her with a level glare. His eyes were both angry and teary at the same time. He longed to tell her that it wasn't fair, that these things had been decided before he met her, that he wanted things to be different somehow, but he had no words, only watery hazel eyes.

-Oh, God, I love him so much.- Her heart was doing flipflops and she longed to reach out to him but couldn't; why did she always have to be so moronic to lash out whenever she was in pain? "Could be worse, Parfett."

"I fail to see how."

"You can write, can't you?" Her words were miserably stony and her eyes burnt.

That seemed to snap him out of it. "Jace, of course I'll write. I'll come visit, too, on breaks. No one will be able to stop me."

She was immediately confused, out of her depth. "You'd visit? Me?"

"Well, yes, if I could get the funds." He seemed offended that she'd ever thought he wouldn't visit her.

"I'm just -me-, Tibby. Nobody special."

"You're special to me," he said resolutely. "No one in the world could come even close to replacing you."

Very unfortunately for Jace, that was the worst possible thing he could have said. Her lower lip wobbled, and she bit it fiercely until it bled; however, it was nothing doing, and the little redhead burst into tears and buried her face in her hands.

Tibby was there instantly, placing a reassuring hand on her back, even though he felt more like crying himself. "Surely you know that, Jace. Surely."

Jace tried to stem the flow of tears; she hadn't cried since forever. Hiccupping miserably, the sobs came afresh. "Life -sucks-," she spat bitterly.

"Life is wonderful when I'm around you."

She turned around to bury her face in his shoulder, finally reaching out for contact through her tears. "But - you're the only one, I've ever..."

"Shh," he hushed, brushing her spiky hair with his hand. They sat like that for a short while, relaxing, til he finally worked up the courage to ask, "Jace, have you..."

"Have I...?" Her face was pressed into his neck, lips brushing against his warm skin as she spoke.

Failing to quite finish his question, he took that as a signal to go ahead and pressed her lightly towards the bed, just enough to suggest that they move there without forcing the point.

Her mind had gone numb and she stared at him blankly, unwilling and unable to ask what he had meant, although Jace knew immediately; she had simply frozen.

The pressure became more forceful, waiting for some type of tangible response. Her chest had gone all tight and her throat was dry; moving back finally, the redhead pulled herself back on the bed, stopping when she felt herself hitting her pillow. There were goosebumps all over despite the warmth of the air, and she felt embarrassingly small and wished she'd worn more than a tank top and cutoff shorts.

Tibby was wearing a shortsleeved shirt with far too many buttons, a fact which made her choice of clothing all the more awkward, but somehow they managed quite fine until the doorbell rang.

"The pizza man is never coming to your house again," he informed her, and she giggled like a schoolgirl.

The pizza man rang the doorbell once more before finally giving up. He'd been out there for over two minutes without any sort of answer, and this was the fabled Kellen residence, so he could hardly expect anything for his continued presence at the doorway. He walked back to his car in a huff and drove off, tires screeching in protest to the world.

From his vantage point in the bushes, Perdix could do nothing but glare pointedly, wondering what was going on. Surely Jace would not have ordered pizza if she didn't intend on eating it? Then a horrible thought struck him-what if Jace were in danger somehow, or had suffered some kind of injury? What if senshi had attacked?

Perdix ran foward as fast as his scaly legs could carry him. Thoughts of worry and fear ran through his mind, yet none of them were for himself. Only Jace concerned him now.

Naturally, there was nothing he could do at the front door, so he circled around back. He was familiar with the house layout, having visited it once before with Sophie to discuss senshi business. He jumped over tacky lawn ornaments and under bushes until he found himself sitting on a bush in front of Jace's bedroom window.

At first, he feared his suspicions of medical malady might be correct, but he quickly determined the situation to be otherwise. Jace was in perfectly fine health. More than that, she was deliriously happy with the man in her bed. With her in the bed. In bed together. Air hissed through Perdix's gaping beak.

Perdix glanced around. No hostile animals or humans of any kind were present. The alleyway behind Jace's house was dark and silent. The area seemed perfectly safe.

He leaned forward for a better view.

Some time later, when all was said and, more accurately, done, Perdix began to tap his beak against Jace's window. He could see from the glint of light on her eyes that she wasn't quite asleep. Most likely she was thinking over everything that had just happened. That was all good and well for her, but Perdix had urgent news that could not wait a minute longer. So tap-tap-tap went the beak on the glass.

Jace sat up with a start, scrabbling for the sheet to cover herself as she stared blankly at the window; Perdix could see that she was going pink, even underneath the cover of darkness. Quietly as she could, detaching herself from the sleepnig figure beside her, Jace slid onto the floor and pulled Tibby's discarded shirt around her shoulders so that she wouldn't be -completely- naked. It didn't serve it's purpose too well, as there was little left to the imagination, but Jace didn't exactly care as she went over in her wheelchair to quietly open the window.

"You feathery pervert," she hissed mildly.

"I don't know what you're doing," he hissed back, "but I'm just trying to get your attention here. I have something to tell you."

"Of course you damn well know what I'm doing. You're practically leering. Birds don't leer." Jace tugged the shirt around her shoulders and winced as she shifted; she was obviously in a bit of pain. "What is it?"

"Don't go to school tomorrow."

"Oh, God, I forgot about school." She rubbed at her temples, then blinked. "Huh? Why?"

"Because!" His voice had risen dangerously high and he quickly lowered it again. "Just trust me. Call in sick. Please, Jace."

"Can you give me a good reason why, other than Campbell the Neo-Nazi?"

"Something bad is going to happen."

"Like?"

"Jace, can't you just take my word and not go tomorrow? Please? Would it be so much to ask that someone listen to me for once?"

Jace rolled her eyes, but sighed, rubbing at her face tiredly. "I know, I know, bird. You just want to keep me safe. But I'd prefer to know what the hell you're keeping me safe -from-."

"It's just... Well, there's going to be an attack there tomorrow. I can't say anything more. I, uh, have to go..."

A Dark Universe attack? The only reason Perdix didn't see Jace's eyes light up was because she was radiant already, eyes shining. "Thanks for warning me, Perds."

"Okay, bye Jace..." He ducked out of sight.

Jace rolled her eyes, dropped the shirt on the floor again, then looked over at the sleeping Tibby; as much as she just wanted to go back and wrap her arms around him all over again she had to go and make a few phone calls...

Jace woke early the next morning, much too early; she'd been sleeping fitfully, waking up every so often to check anxiously that Theodore was still there, asleep and steady and adorable. Her sleeping patterns could also be attributed to the fact that, no matter how gentle and wonderful and amazing he'd been, she was still as sore as hell. It was somewhere around five-ish.

Gently, with infinite tenderness, she stroked a lock of hair away from his forehead, grinning stupidly at how little he looked asleep and without his glasses.

Slowly, groggily, Tibby came to consciousness and opened his eyes. "Good morning, Jace."

"Morning. I love you." She bent down to kiss him on the forehead and flushed. "Sorry. I've just been waiting hours to say that."

"I love you too," he smiled. "What time is it?"

"Five-fifteen?" she guessed sleepily.

"Oh, lovely," he mumbled. "I should get going soon. I need to head back to ISAS for my stuff and get ready for the day."

Jace nodded, sitting up blearily. "You want to use my shower, darlin'?"

"I'd better not, I'm afraid," he said politely.

"Hmm? Why?" She slipped back down to quickly hug him again.

"Because if I do, I might be tempted to never leave your house again, having found all the comforts of modern civilization."

Jace burst out laughing, letting out a soft hiss of pain as she cuddled against him, but grinning nonetheless. "You idiot."

"Mm. Let's just stay here like this for a while."

She contentedly nuzzled into him; one of her hands slipped into his. "Theo?"

"Hm?"

"When you've graduated from Oxford and become a poncy bastard and haven't found some beautiful English chick who's much nicer than I am, will you come back for me?"

"I'll never even leave you, not really."

"I know." She closed her eyes. "I'm still going to miss you so damn much, though."

"Well, I'll have to buy you one of those webcams so we can talk to each other face-to-face on the Internet."

"Nah. All I'd ever do is ask you to take off your clothes."

"And we certainly couldn't have that, now could we?" he chuckled.

"'Course. Your parents would think I was some sort of pervert and we don't want that as the prospective partner, hmm?" Jace cracked open one eye again.

"That, or my mates would think I've lost it."

"You have. You're with Jace Timothea Kellen."

"Fine, then, let them think what they want. I don't care who knows it."

The love that Jace felt then was so overwhelmingly intense she couldn't speak; just squeeze his hand, eyes fierce, having ten million things to say and not knowing how to say them. -Well-, she reasoned inwardly, -I suppose we have the rest of our lives to find out what words to use.-

"Thank you," she managed.

"Uh huh," he mumbled complacently, and closed his eyes again.

Following his example, Jace closed her eyes and had soon fallen asleep again in his arms, a small smile on her lips.

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