Pillar of Solitude (Lucy)

[Dominique Chevalier]

In the time it took for a student at Hammel to pull on pants, get into a car and drive to the lake, Dom was able to drink another few swallows and consider just how stupid it had been to call Lucy and confirm to her what an idiot he really was.

On the pillar of earth he'd raised under himself, Dom had one arm hanging over his eyes as he grimaced at the headache starting. Using his meta ability while drunk was never a great idea, not to the extent he'd done it. Maybe that was one of the reasons he had failed his final year, again. He laughed, a hoarse and cracking sound that held little joy in it; his powers were fine. They were the one thing he still had control over.

He made the pillar rise and fall a few times to prove it to himself, even if afterwards his head was spinning painfully.

The sudden glare of approaching headlights was visible across his eyelids, even through his arm. Blond hair still spilled out on the grass, Dom didn't get up. He had decided that it was better if she didn't see him like this. No one could reach him on his earth pillar of solitude anyway.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy drove the necessary minutes to find Dom. On the drive over, she felt a strange surge of adrenalin overtake her senses. She didn't really know how to find him. Not by any means. He hadn't given her any clear indicators over the phone. He hung up before she could even ask anything else. All she knew was that he'd said he was going to get himself up some place high.

That... Wasn't helpful in the slightest.

However, Lucy was overtaken by clarity when she saw the risen mound of dirt in the distance. Who the hell else would have managed to pull something like that off?

Lucy pulled up on the side of the road and shut the headlights off. She left the confined space of the car and locked it, immediately stuffing her hands into the pockets of her parka. Even if the weather was slowly getting warmer, she was still cold. The prospect of returning to a warm bed with a starkers chick at her side seemed so damn appealing.

But this was important.

Approaching the proverbial pillar, Lucy glanced up. She realised then that from where she was, she couldn't see anyone. "-The fuck did you go?" Lucy said, mostly to herself. She was screwed if he ended up disappearing before she got there.

[Dominique Chevalier]

Dom could feel it in the earth when Lucy approached, the vibrations of her feet traveling all the way up his tiny empire of dirt. He sighed, because she was here now, in the cold, and as much as he would love to ignore it and wait until she went away, Dom was also aware his feet and hands were going numb, his breath frosting on his lips.

So he let an arm dangle down over the edge, slowly twisting his body until he could swing two of his legs over too and with an effort, pulled himself up, empty chest and all, to look down at the Australian. His pale throat rippled as he swallowed. She was wearing a scarf, just like he'd said.

For a moment his fingers gripped the turf until they sunk down to the knuckles, and then he lowered himself slowly to the ground. Setting the bottle down, Dom raked his fingers through his hair to try to tidy it, and then got up. He started swaying almost immediately, his mouth pressing into a bloodless line as he stared at the ground.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy waited a moment or so longer before she glanced back the way she came. It wouldn't have surprised her to know he'd wandered off, given the state of mind he was in. But she recalled again that he said he'd be up somewhere high.

And there was his pale arm, hanging over the edge of the pillar above. His legs followed suit - she raised her eyebrows. Finally, she saw his face. From a distance, she could tell he was exhausted. But she couldn't see much else written on his features.

Lucy rested her hands on her hips, dropping her jaw with every intention of speaking out towards him. But slowly the ground he'd raised was sinking back to the Earth again. Any sarcastic, albeit tired remark she had was subsequently taken away. She glanced at thd bottle he seemed to disregard - of course that's what he had with him. It was difficult tk watch him stand. The moment he did, he was wavering. He didn't even seem to notice that fact.

Stepping forward, the Australian made the move to reach out towards him. "Jesus, Dom." She said quietly, curling her fingers around his forearms to draw him in. Not for a hug, but so he finally had someone to lean on.

[Dominique Chevalier]

Glancing numbly down at the hand that was now around his arm, Dom blinked and then looked back up to Lucy. He could feel the muscles in her hand flex as he moved in her hold, the first real evidence he had that perhaps the ground was not as stable beneath him as he had hoped.

Her words were no a comfort, and he almost pulled himself out of her grip. Was it a condemnation or some sort of pity?

But then he returned the grip on his arm, and grasped her other one for good measure as, for a moment, something welled up, hot and horrible, in his throat. Bowing forward at the neck, the younger of the Chevalier twins felt his face work in that awkward way muscles move when they feel too much.

Instead, Dom just stayed there, holding onto her arms so he wouldn't fall, his breath ragged in his throat and his hair in his face. He'd already told her everything he'd done wrong, she knew better than anyone that he'd tried, at least he'd tried to do something worthwhile and out of his comfort zone in what he'd thought would be his final year at the school.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy felt the way in which he tried to pull back from her. The words she'd dropped were words that fell out of instinct. Later, she might wish she had more control over such a thing. But she'd never seen him like this.

And she wasn't about to let go.

She felt grateful for the fact that he chose to reach out to her, returning the simple act. He wasn't looking for an embrace, and she felt that from him. At least, she was sure she did. He looked down, to the point where she couldn't see his features any more. Concern coloured her dark eyes, her eyebrows furrowing. This wasn't just bad. This was a breaking point. This boy had so rarely shown her anything but a stonewall expression. That was, until later months crossed things between them.

Slowly, her hand breaching the minimal distance to run across his arm, over his chest before her fingers curled around the back of his neck. She closed her eyes. She felt anxious.

"I failed, too." The eldest Serrano breathed.

The corner of her mouth tugged into a frown, and she exhaled on a heavy sigh. It was the first time she'd allowed the words to pass through her lips, and they were more bitter than she thought they'd be.

[Dominique Chevalier]

A startled, soft sound came from Dom's mouth when Lucy's hand curled around his neck. It was warm, warmer than his neck which had been absorbing the chill of the ground. That the sound had been allowed past the prison of his teeth was testimony to his state of inhibition, an audible admittance of a reaction, and not his way.

He stood, motionless, feeling like a pebble top of a hill. One shift of his weight and he'd start toppling down, out of control and ravenous for warmth.

But her words were more important than his own stupid surges of insanity, and Dom looked up quickly in unhappy surprise. "Bullshit," he said, not in question of her words, but in condemnation of the deed. His hands tightened on her arm, as close to a hug as he felt safe enough to give her.

The part of him that put together what her words meant in so far as her company was loudly demanding to be spoken of, but that too made Dom feel unstable.

"That's fucked up," he said finally, his blue eyes sliding from her own to her mouth, then with an effort to the left of her shoulder.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Even with her eyes closed, Lucy felt acutely aware of Dom's every movement. The way he stayed on his feet - regardless of whether he knew he was or not. The small sound he offered; involuntarily, she assumed.

When he moved - and she felt that beneath her fingertips - Lucy didn't open her eyes. She wasn't sure what was going to be staring back at her. She doubted he would judge her, but part of her felt that whoever she told first deserved to judge her for it. She was going to be twenty before she graduated. Coming from a world where people graduated in the year they turned seventeen. Three long, ridiculous years.

Someone was going to judge her for that. She knew it. When the singular word passed through his lips and hit her ears, she opened her eyes. His fingers tightened around her arm. She offered the same to the back of his neck.

How were they supposed to talk about this?

And how the hell was she supposed to articulate that the selfish part of her was glad she wasn't going through this alone?

"Fuck-" She started, watching the way his eyes moved and faltering over the fact. "Yeah, it is."

Lucy felt confusion colour her eyes very briefly again before she worked to soothe the way it felt. She was hurting. He was hurting. Over something that seemed so stupid - something that they both would likely wear as if they didn't care. Except for this moment.

A moment worth lingering in; "You wanna stay here? For a bit?"

[Dominique Chevalier]

Lucy's fingers on his neck felt hot for just an instant, when she pressed them harder for a moment. They were warm, not on his shirt or on his clothes, on his skin and he was so aware of every point of contact it felt, for a moment, that only those parts of him even mattered any more.

His throat worked as he swallowed, and nodded, not trusting himself to speak just yet. Not until he had some control over what he'd say.

She was going to stay with him. They were going to be here, in this moment of space and time, and it didn't make his life perfect but it put a light at the end of what had just seemed to be darkness and free fall.

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah."

They could deal with their short comings, and the consequences later. With that in mind, Dom let go of Lucy's arm to pull her close in a hug, his arms squeezing her tight as he pressed his face to her shoulder. He didn't say thank you, not for answering her phone, for coming to see him, even for telling him one of her secrets to help show him he wasn't totally alone, but he tried to show it, there, under the stars, with Lucy in his arms if only for a few moments.