Collar Full (Carter)

[Aryana Darcy]

"I would like to think so," Rya said, taking a few moments to think about the words she was going to use. There were still a few issues left undealt with, but that would always be the case; life handed her problems at the same rate she could resolve them.

"I was," The words were far from easy to formulate in that given moment. Words that could accurately portray what she wanted to say were becoming harder and harder to find, "unsure of myself, I guess you could say. I had never thought of my life past Hammel. Now I have."

There had been a plan when she had come to Hammel, but the plan had gone to complete ruin when her Senior year came about. And then when graduation hit, she had no clue what to do. What she would be. Who she would be.

But she knew more now, and that was enough to soothe her nerves for the time being.

[Carter Chevalier]

Carter could, at the very least, be grateful for the fact that she'd found some kind of comfort in settling her issues. Even the smallest of victories were worth confiding in. But she wasn't done, and that was clear from the started sentence she offered. How it trailed away to a moment of thought. He waited.

Of course, life beyond Hammel. What came of everyone beyond graduation. How much life changed in such a minor stint of time. One day to the next.

"I'm the opposite." Carter admitted. He knew this much could be assumed, but it felt right to say, "It's always been the future in sight. Never the past, not even the now." He and his brother had a legacy to uphold. "Spending another year in this town was not part of that plan."

[Aryana Darcy]

Either extreme, the Brit had learned, could leave an individual scrambled and frustrated; living solely in the past or even solely in the future did nothing but make somebody miss what was right in front of them. It may have not been such an issue for the eldest Chevalier twin up until recently when Dominique sat instead of walked behind his brother for graduation, but Carter was a flexible man. He always had been.

The life she lived, like he so clearly stated, was the opposite from his own, consistently living in the past and blurring the 'now'. "I'm sure it wasn't," a matter of fact statement that held no sarcasm, a fact that Rya already knew. "But one thing I have learned over the past few months is that if you look toward the future or the past without stopping and looking at what is around you, you lose sight of what is right in front of you." Life went far too quickly for the Hydrokinetic to even keep up when her eyes were always looking over her shoulder.

"I've lost it once, and I don't plan on losing it again, Carter." Eyes on the Terrakinetic, Rya noted a imperfection on his jacket and took that moment to reach out and brush off the speck. It had been far too long since she touched him, and if she had to admit to herself, the longer he stood there, the harder it was to resist.

[Carter Chevalier]

Carter had to take stock when it came to her response. Anyone could argue over just how important the present was; he spent a majority of his high school days trying to dwell in it through random encounters with people in order to escape the proverbial inevitable. But he wasn't fourteen with a new gift given to transpose him into the proverbial God he might have been. He was twenty. In college.

In Vermont.

He lost her gaze as his eyes travelled to her hand; how it worked to brush the length of his shoulder across his jacket. Small inflections often led to a greater moment. Without resistance, he looked to her again.

"What did you lose?"

[Aryana Darcy]

"Myself," She said simply. It had been different at one time, a time where she had believed that what she was was the same as who she was. But as her own gaze traveled across his form, Rya found herself very sure of what she was wanting to say. Never one for conversation, the Brit found that the words were coming much easier now than they ever had been before.

His gaze weighted on her just as it had only a few moments ago; the Chevalier's gaze may have been that of a trophy, a trophy she had possessed for such a long while, but it was a trophy that she never truly appreciated owning. Or rather, she didn't own it, but was given the opportunity to hold it.

"And I don't want to lose that again."

[Carter Chevalier]

With a defined stare, glacier eyes took in the expression given to him. As if it would somehow allow him to piece together whatever it was she might have been leading him to. Or he was leading her to. When it came to such weighed conversations, Carter had no idea who had the lead. If there was a lead to begin with.

Losing oneself in the mind of a Chevalier was impossible. At least, for both himself and his brother. Known since birth, they wore their titles like badges pinned to lapels.

"So don't." Carter replied, as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Truthfully, it was the only means he had to bolster anyone's beliefs when in such a fragile state of mind.

[Aryana Darcy]

There was no real point in which she expected the conversation to go; whatever it was that was happening, where everything was pointing, Rya had no clue. But it was then that she had decided to move away - not necessarily to further herself from him, but in order to lay her hand against the painted wall.

Rya turned to him then, leaning against the wall.

"I don't plan on it." There were things that the two were good at, and there were things that they were not, and frankly, this was something they were not. Her gaze shifted momentarily to the lit waters of the wall before they returned. They always returned. A breath was taken, "But I could always use a bit of reminding."

[Carter Chevalier]

Without a second thought, Carter allowed his gaze to shift. He looked away from her eyes and towards the hand she pressed to the wall. Curiosity clouded bright blues in the moment; he had to wonder if she found some comfort in the fabled sea she'd created.

Pressing his own against it, too, Carter leaned in. Just enough to make it known that he was, either by a drawn sense or something much more simple. Magnetic intrusion. She seemed confident enough in her own ability; to not get so lost to the idea of a future unplanned. Little by way of indicating signs and fixtures to help her. Worldly views for the oldest twin and yet somehow he faced a similar protocol.

"I'm happy to help in any way I can." He replied instinctively, eyes darting to the curve of her lips instinctively.

[Aryana Darcy]

Captivated by the simple way he moved, the hydrokinetic took the remaining distance with a simple half smile, a quirk of parted lips combined with fingertips against the curve of his neck.

"Oh really?" By that point, any remaining insecurities and doubts were resolved maybe it didn't matter as much to the Brit who stood in front of the blonde. The familiarity of it all mixed with a foreign excitement pushed it all away. "Then come here."

It had been far too long and the hydrokinetic was not willing to wait any longer. Just the way he leaned in, it reminded her of just how much she wanted to be reminded of the way his breath felt hot against her skin, the way his hands knew every spot to touch her. Far too long.

[Carter Chevalier]

Despite everything Carter tried, she spoke his neutral language far too well. The simple request she offered proved just how close they were to the same page, as if they ever really left it in the first place. Magnetic protocol had him lingering as close as he was to the best of his ability.

With an arm pressed against the wall, he moved his free hand. Fingers grazed the line of her waist to circle around it, but he brought himself in just that little bit closer with a small step. Pressing himself in close instead of bringing her to the same point. Taking forward motions over proposing the proverbial game; the draw, the wait.

Breaching minimal distance, he leaned in through that final frontier to kiss her, but there was hardly anything simple about the intention behind it.

[Aryana Darcy]

There wasn't anything she could offer him in words in that current moment; actions spoke much louder, and frankly, she was tired of hearing her own voice speak the nonsense it had been. Instead she desired the one thing they both played so well, knowing full well that all the words would be made clear without having to say anything.

The strength of his presence only heightened as she felt fingers curl around her waist, to which she responded by placing her hands on his shoulders, slipping underneath the fabric of his jacket to will it off of his form. The Hydrokinetic was determined to take things relatively slow, knowing full well that the tension only made it more intoxicating, more worthwhile, but her resolve began to crumble the minute his lips were on her own.

The Brit reveled in him in that moment, the way it seemed as though no time had passed. It rendered her breathless and without the restraint she practiced only moments before, if only because while she may have spoken the words, he had taken the reigns then. She left the rest of his clothing untouched, and instead enjoyed the moment he offered, a hand placed on her waist while a hand rested against the back of his neck.

[Carter Chevalier]

Familiar hands eased themselves into the curve of his jacket, intent on dragging it off his form in the usual parry they were so dangerously falling back into. Talking felt important. Trying to be expressive through other means felt equally so. Taking his jacket off involved moving his hands away.

He gave her that right, easing the hand from the wall and the one from her waist long enough to curl around the break of what he wore. Sliding it from his shoulders, he allowed it to carelessly fall to the floor like it didn't matter. Like it wasn't worth more than the rent she paid for a month for the floor it was now settled on.

Without a need for a wall for stability, Carter dragged his hands back towards her, deftly finding the break to the hem of her shirt and brushing beneath it.

[Aryana Darcy]

Feeling the absence of his grasp was more difficult to accept in that split second than the Hydrokinetic would have cared to admit; her own hands compensated by assisting him in the final removal of the jacket, of which she no longer paid any mind to once it fell onto the floor, as though anything and everything that wasn't apart of him no longer mattered.

While his fingers brushed up underneath the hem of her shirt, her hands began working the top buttons of the dress shirt he had. The less clothing he wore, as she saw it, meant the less distance there was between them. While he had an immense effect on her body anywhere he touched, she wished to provide the same effect to him. The Hydrokinetic wanted him to be reminded of just how it felt to have her hands roam his figure and her fingernails dig into his skin when it all progressed.

Words were effective in certain instances, but in this case, the time for talking was over. Rya reached for him in this way in order to make a statement. She could say she missed him, and she could say that she was alright, but those words couldn't accurately convey those ideas like she felt they should, and so she opted for physicality. If she had learned anything from the eldest Chevalier twin, it was that a tongue didn't have to form words in order to prove a point.

[Carter Chevalier]

Time for talking was a hindrance Carter refused to waste his time with. As much as he was sure she deserved everything he thought he could say, her actions spoke against the fact. At least for now. It was clear in every way that she preferred the physicality shared over the stumbling through words; in instances like these, it was fitting for the two of them.

Seconds later, Carter felt his hands curl into the fabric of the shirt she wore. Without a second to waste he forced a break in contact. As intoxicating as it was to have her removing the buttons from his shirt, he wanted to remove hers more. Forcing her hands away was only momentary, but it was imperative.

The moment his hands were free of her shirt, he pressed his palms to her hips. Careful, precise pressure eased her back towards the bed she called her own.

[Aryana Darcy]

Simple actions with the removal of her shirt, Rya aided the terrakinetic in removing the fabric by raising her arms. Such a break in contact was minimal and warranted, but the Hyrdrokinetic found herself feeling at a momentary loss before his hands returned. On her waist. Leading her back to the bed.

She let him.

--

Clothes scattered across the floor with no pattern whatsoever, the Brit found herself eyeing what had become of the bedroom she was in. Sheets crumpled in certain areas, the obvious clothes, but most importantly the man who was lying beside her, an accomplice in creating the 'mess'.

"Fuck," Rya offered a short exhale that mimicked a laugh as blue eyes landed on Carter. It was almost interesting to note that while the girl hadn't forgotten how easily he could work her, there was something to his hand that made it more worth it. Five years possibly - almost six as the new year approached, but Rya chose not to delve into it too deeply.

"Fuck me," though not meant literally, the words escaped on their own on instict - rather, no other words came to mind. But then again, that wouldn't have been the first time.