We're Doing Fine, We're Doing Nothing at All (Adaryn)

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"Sometimes I feel like Eloise is actually making me more lazy," Monroe told Adaryn as they walked down the hallway towards his bedroom. Tina, their maid, it seemed, had just left and the place was spotless. It made Monroe feel rich or something, saying goodbye to a maid on their way out the door. He wasn't quite sure why they couldn't clean up on their own, it wasn't as if Eloise didn't have time. He assumed she had a maid just because she could.

He sat down on his bed and started unlacing his combat boots. "I'm still not used to this whole thing of...living with my twin sister. Mostly because I didn't know I had a twin." That and he was still harboring anger towards his father, who he knew nothing about except for the fact that he was loaded. He still had so much to talk to Eloise about, but it seemed she was throwing herself into fashion. He constantly heard the sewing machine. "How are things with you?" He felt like he was talking too much. He'd been so busy lately between actually training, which meant having Candence put him to sleep more often and also Chase making him sleep to practice his power, and working and dealing with the newfound information about his father and sister...meaning knowing about them.

He was planning on asking Adaryn to stay the night. After all, it was a Friday night. He'd proposed it once before for her to deny and he was hoping that the decision would be different this time, especially since she seemed to have come around to the idea. He had a feeling it'd be easier to try and sleep with her by his side.

[Adaryn Breslin]

It had been a long while since Adaryn had even seen Monroe's room as messy as it usually had been in the dorms, what with Eloise and his money now going towards cleaning services and things of the like. And so, as the two walked down the hallway past the maid, the Empath was only further reminded of the fact that so much has changed.

Months had gone by since she had fallen asleep with him by her side, and while it was offered once before, Adaryn rejected the offer for many reasons, but the main one was a change in the way she was seeing him. The way she felt when she was around him. The way her skin burned wherever he touched when they kissed.

It all felt so... wrong, and yet she loved it.

"I think any help you can get when it comes to cleaning is a good thing," Addie teased lightly, her shoulder bumping his side lightly as they walked. It was a growing familiarity and confidence that had allowed Adaryn to do as she just had, making the joke at his expense and knowing that he wouldn't be offended by it in the slightest. He made it easier, truth be told.

But as he moved from the hallway and into his bedroom, removing his boots and shifting the conversation towards her, the Empath resisted the urge to sit beside him. Instead, her hands reached into her pockets as she answered, glancing at his form momentarily before speaking up. "I think I may graduate fully this year," She said. It was only February, but Adaryn had realized that her headaches were practically nonexistent and her ability to stay in a crowd wasn't as weak as it was before. At this rate, she would get the hang of it all. "And there haven't been anymore nightmares, so I guess I could say pretty good."

Which, as Monroe probably knew, was a first for the brunette.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"You're probably right," Monroe mused. He was a pretty messy person. It was weird, seeing the carpet. He lightly bumped her back with his shoulder before they'd reached his room.

There. The only thing littering his floor were his combat boots. He brightened at what she said next. "That's great." After all, Monroe was sure he should have been the one who was held back. Somehow he'd had good enough grades...it was just his power training that was lacking, which he was working on almost full time now. "I'm so proud of you." He held out his arms, wanting her to come closer as she was lingering a few feet away. This was probably the best Adaryn had felt in a long time, and while he couldn't help but think it was partly because of him, he knew she'd done a lot on her own to make her own happiness. "You'll be graduated and I'll still be going to Hammel for training."

[Adaryn Breslin]

She was well aware of the way he was more than likely feeling, especially considering his modest upbringing. His style reflected who he was - simplistic and idealistic, whereas Eloise lived in opulence, the world always at her fingertips. Funny to think how they came from the same parents (on the same day, no less) and they ended up being so different. "Probably?" She knew she was.

But his immediate elevation in mood, both physically shown and inwardly felt by the empath, gave her own mood a slight uplift. It wasn't as though she felt she was deserving of praise, given that it was something she should be doing anyway, but it was nice to see him smiling. That was, until he spoke about his own attendance at hammel and how he'd still be there. The way he said it, even though she was sure he was supposed to be encouraging, almost sounded like he was making it seem as though he was a failure.

Adaryn saw his open arms and she took them, placing herself in his lap comfortably before his arms closed around her. "I had more time to train, plus I have a power that a lot of people have seen." Adaryn said quietly, ruffling his hair in the process. "And as I see it, you're looking pretty rested." The bags under his eyes were disappearing and he seemed more alive than he usually was, rambling as he usually did but with a little more excitement. More life.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"Yes, probably," Monroe repeated. "I'm capable of cleaning." Sometimes when he couldn't sleep he'd go on binges of cleaning, but that was mostly when he lived at Hammel, now he had a job he worked most nights so he wasn't stewing around his bedroom restlessly most of the night.

"I know. I wasn't comparing myself to you," he told her, although he'd definitely done that without meaning to. "You're you, and I'm me." How philosophical. "I know my power isn't as well known, but I also had lots of time to train, maybe not as much as you, but I kind of wasted my time. I mean, I ignored dreamwalking by staying awake all the time. I'm completely unhealthy." It was the truth really. He smiled as she played with his hair, it was easier to maintain shorter. "I guess I do." He shrugged. That was really thanks to his trainer making him sleep and Candence giving him impromptu naps, but he'd take it. "Sleeping is so hard. I feel like I forgot how and I'm learning all over again."

He settled back on the bed, pulling her with him.

[Adaryn Breslin]

He always rambled, attempting to explain everything in a single breath. She found that the more he spoke, the more she smiled when it wasn't about his worth or his lack of control over his power. At this point, her lips turned down in a sympathetic gesture. "You..." She paused, hoping that this didn't sound hypocritical in any way, "can't keep beating yourself up about what happened before." It was a lesson she was still trying to put into place into her own life, but it was something that was actually working for her. Living for the past would bring her nothing but looking at what was right in front of her was the thing that made her happy.

Because as it so happened, the guy right in front of her made her so very happy.

"Well if that's wh-" Adaryn started, but her voice trapped in the back of her throat as she felt herself laying back, Monroe's arms still around her. There was a light squeak of surprise that came from her figure as she moved back, but immediately she shifted to a more comfortable position beside him, rather than against him. "Thanks for the warning," She said lightly, but her cheeks went red in that moment as she realized how close he was and where they were at. She could blame it on the shock of getting pulled back, but she doubted he'd buy it.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"No, but I can keep learning from what I did wrong, and that means by working extra hard at mastering dreamwalking so that I can finally be free," Monroe explained. He didn't see it as beating himself up, but as reminding himself of all of the hard work he had to do and why he was doing it. He needed to, otherwise he'd slip back into avoiding it all.

She'd started talking, and he hadn't meant to cut her off, but she seemed rather startled by him pulling her back into bed. He chuckled lightly in her ear. "What?" he asked as she shifted and ended up in a more comfortable position. To Monroe it seemed like she'd shifted away from him. He hadn't realized how big of a deal it would be to pull her back into bed with him to cuddle, to be close to one another. "Did you....was that not okay?" He didn't want to make her uncomfortable and yet he just really wanted to be close to her.

[Adaryn Breslin]

Being Free. What did that truly mean? Would they ever be free of the things that haunted them, ailed them, made them who they were? Empathy was a curse, it made the girl fearful of many things, and despite the fact that she felt confident that she had it under control, Adaryn wasn't free from anything. Maybe it simply meant letting go? But that, just as being free, was a hard concept to visualize in itself.

Maybe her shift was a way to shift away from him both physically and emotionally on a subconscious level, but as she saw it, Adaryn was simply uncomfortable laying on him in the way she was and decided to correct that. His uncertainty made her frown, and she tried to reconcile by finding his hand and interlacing their fingers. "Why wouldn't it be? It's just laying like that wasn't that comfortable so I moved to get comfortable."

As if it were that simple.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

As her hand found his own and she intertwined her fingers with his, Monroe relaxed slightly, but questions were still in his mind. "If it was fine, why were you so quick to move away?" He didn't want to push her into anything she wasn't ready for and yet he was worried she didn't want anything more. It was confusing. Frustrating, even. "So I'm not comfortable? Am I too bony or what?" He'd pulled her to him in a way to have them be close and cuddle...isn't that what couples did?

He hated that he was feeling insecure in the moment, but he was.

[Adaryn Breslin]

The tension, the unease, circulated about the air as though it were a blanket of haze surrounding the two. Adaryn, being the empath that she was, had felt far worse, but in that situation, she couldn't help but feel uneasy about it within herself.

Adaryn was always royally screwing things up, no matter how hard she tried not to.

"No, no it's not that." Addie tried to diffuse the tension through reassurance, but when the small words that she had offered did nothing to help, she offered a small sigh instead. Because really, nothing she could say would probably ease his mind, and Addie was not the spontaneous type, so actions may not have worked out well.

"I figured it'd be more comfortable for both of us or something," She said, looking over at him and the slight pink peaking behind the overall unease, "I don't want to be away from you, i just.. I don't want to make you uncomfortable by being too close." Because lord knew Adaryn wanted to be as close to him as she possibly could, and it wasn't as though she was used to feeling like that. Normally the brunette would look for a way to be as far away from someone as possible, if she could help it. This was a new feeling, and the way she seemed to have made him feel bad about that made her feel even worse.

"Im just not used to feeling like... this."

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

Well, if it wasn't that then what was it? More comfortable for both of them? "Okay," he mumbled awkwardly, although he wasn't really sure that was the reason. "I'm not uncomfortable being too close." Is that what she thought? "I like when you're close." He'd said that really quickly. But he couldn't take it back. "I'm worried it's the other way around and that you're not comfortable being too close." His eyebrows scrunched in confusion. He was sure he'd been showing her through his actions that he wanted to be closer...so he wasn't sure why she would think that.

"Like what?" he asked her, not quite understanding.

[Adaryn Breslin]

Like what, really? There were feelings surging through Adaryn that she had not yet encountered before and she was still trying to figure them out. However, in a situation such as the one they were in, those feelings had begun to surface when he touched her, like she was hyper aware that his arms had circled her waist.

"I-" She said, her words instantly cutting off as the empath attempted to form words that registered what it was she wanted to say. "I-It's like... lavender but buzzing like excitement does. And there are spots that are darker, just flecks. Like they only show up briefly but I know they're there."

Adaryn knew he couldn't tell what she could see, and how she could describe the emotion using color far easier than she could with any words. They were dominating all at once, which wasn't uncommon, but in the mixture in which it presented itself to her, it most definitely was.

"It's like... every time we start to kiss and it's like I really can feel where your hands are, where they been. I'm not used to the feeling of being close to anybody, but when I'm with you I start feeling whatever that buzzing lavender with flecks is and I don't want it to stop...I'm just not used to that."

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"I'm not trying to push you," Monroe assured her after a moment. "I'm just trying to understand." Communication was a huge part of a relationship. And it only made him think of his parents who obviously weren't the best example of how to communicate effectively. He knew she was used to explaining how she felt and how others were feeling in terms of colors. That was how her power made her perceive things. And so he tried to understand how she described it, but it only made him more confused. Lavender with darker flecks... Excitement. He found himself chuckling and then realized how awkward it could have made things if he didn't explain. "I feel excited when I get close to you too," he muttered, knowing that it sounded as weird aloud as it did in his head. "I don't think it's a bad feeling though, that you need to stop yourself from feeling."

[Adaryn Breslin]

It wasn’t as though she wanted to confuse him, but the colors were the first and sometimes only method in describing her feelings because it was what she could see on a daily basis. He understood that, though, and there were few times when she was drawing she would give him an example of what she saw. In fact, she had been meaning to ask to draw him for an art project that she had, which would involve coloring his emotions into the final product.

In that respect, she figured, her power worked well. She was an artistic person by nature, and if she really was optimistic, her power was as well. However, when it hindered her ability to interact with people so situations like this became even more difficult, it could only be considered a nuisance.

It was then that he laughed at her and her lips pursed slightly, and he seemed to pick up on it considering shortly after he corrected himself and explained. The explanation did little to ease her nerves, but at the same time, it felt incredibly satisfying to know she wasn’t the only one who was feeling what she was.

She returned to him, slowly as if not to bump him or make herself uncomfortable, but fast enough that it didn’t seem like she was forced to do so, because if Monroe enjoyed her being there, and she enjoyed being there as well, there was little that should stop her. “I don’t want to stop feeling it,” Adaryn admitted, “I’m just not used to feeling it.”

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"I'm not used to it either," Monroe admitted. He wanted her to know that this was all new to him as well and she wasn't alone in it. It was exciting, but also terrifying and he knew she felt that as well. He smiled as she moved closer, glad that she'd made the decision to do so. He settled in with her and let out a sigh.

He wanted to just relax with her, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized they had a lot to talk about. Like the fact that Adaryn soon would be done at Hammel too, or the fact that he still hadn't talked to his dad. His dad. He didn't know how he felt.