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Post by maya on Sept 17, 2009 13:08:06 GMT -5
It was a wet fall day in La Push. The whole week had been bleak and both Maya and her mutt Darcey had started growing anxious. They usually spent any waking moment they could outside, but she hadn't been in much of a mood to do anything since she got back from Portland. It seemed like everyone had their own things going on now and she hadn't seen much of anyone around the res she remembered. She had only been gone a few years, but so much had changed.
She woke up in a foul mood and knew the only thing that would help her clear her thoughts and re-center herself was a hike. She threw on a pair of torn jeans, a faded yellow tank, threw on her hiking boots, leaving them untied, and grabbed her bright red knit hat and gray hooded sweatshirt before dashing out the door with her keys and day pack, Darcey following close behind, his tail wagging like an idiot. He knew what her hiking boots meant and was in the Jeep before she could even climb into the driver's seat.
She tore down the back roads in her black jeep, feeling the wet air finger through her long umber hair. She smiled and inhaled the fresh damp air. When she got to the trail head, nothing more than a parting in the trees, she pulled over and turned off the engine. Darcey jumped out before she could open the door for him and she laughed at his inpatients. She knew exactly how he felt. He took off down the trail and she took off after him at a brisk pace, with her mini day pack on her back full of some light snacks and her canteen and maps (though she knew these woods like the back of her hand).
The forest smelled wet and familiar. The trail was really a trail so much as a deer path, worn down over a hundred years by wildlife and native hikers. This was one of the less known trails and she rarely encountered someone out here, especially when the weather was as wet and cold as it was this week. She smiled as Darcey ran huge circles around her through the woods. No need for a leash. Darcey had grown up with the freedom to roam and always stayed within barking distance.
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Post by Paul Lahote on Sept 17, 2009 13:35:33 GMT -5
It wasn't the best day, but the rainy weather helped Paul cool off. His temperature was high, as usual, and since he had just finished a patrol, he was going to have more trouble cooling down. Once he put his pants on, and shoes -- for once -- he began to walk through the woods. The small drizzle truly was refreshing as the raindrops fell on his bare chest.
It was quiet today, then again, who would want to be out in this weather? Paul liked it this way. After a long night of patrolling, and having to work today and take care of Rachael . . . in between everything, this walk was the only moment of peace he would get. He enjoyed it, and the only thing that would make it more perfect is if Rachael was with him. Hopefully she was getting a lot of rest. He hated the night long patrols; having to be away from her the entire night. All he had was a baby pager in case there was some sort of emergency.
Her eagerness to get home forced him to walk faster. He decided to walk through a trail that he did not usually take. Perhaps it was fate that made him decide that for once he started walking, and another person came into sight, he stopped dead in his tracks. He stood there, shocked that this person, was here . . . right now . . . on the same trail as him. He would have gone closer, had he not been so surprised to see her. "Maya?!" He said, now able to verbally express his shock, instead of it just being apparent on his facial expression. He had not seen this woman in so long! Both of them had changed . . . he had phased, and therefore grew in height more than any normal human being . . .and she? She looked amazing. Though now, he could say it without feeling attracted to her. He had Rachael . . . . . . . . but Maya?! Here?! In La Push?! How would she react to seeing him? He would soon find out.
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Post by maya on Sept 17, 2009 13:47:42 GMT -5
Darcey returned to hear side in a flash, so she knew she was not alone. He always saw someone long before she did. She didn't know who, or what for that matter, was on the trail with her. But Darcey wasn't acting aggressive, instead he was wagging his tail and walking at her side. She squintted was she could make out a figure down the trail from her. It was a massive male figure. He was familiar but unfamiliar at the same time. She she got closer she heard her name called out. It couldn't be...
"Paul?!" She said, completely shocked, not only to come across him out here after years, but at how different he was. No longer was he the teenager she knew before, but he was HUGE. He had turned into a man overnight it seemed. Once she was close enough to be sure it was really him she beamed. "Oh my god. It's really you." She said shaking her head and walking toward him. Darcey bounded ahead of her, recognizing him as an old friend and getting to him first, tail wagging and circling Paul's legs.
{{OOC: Wah! Short! I promise it will get better after the greeting.}}
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Post by Paul Lahote on Sept 18, 2009 8:43:26 GMT -5
She was smiling! That was definitely a good sign. He went closer to her, not as hesitant, but still unsure what she thought of him right now. He smiled, crouching down in front of Darcey and giving him a few pats. "Hey there boy. I missed ya like crazy. . . so did Murtaugh." It was too bad Paul was coming back from patrolling and not from walking his dog. He stood up again, grinning as he looked at Maya. "Its been a while," he said, feeling bad that they had lost touch, with with the dramatic turn both of their lives had taken . . . her moving and him busy turning into a wolf, it was understandable.
"You look great," he added, still smiling. He wasn't sure if she would feel comfortable with him hugging her. Why was Paul so cautious? What did it matter. He went for it. He leaned forward and gave her a short hug, controlling his excitement so that he wouldn't crush her. When he pulled away, he was still smiling. He couldn't seem to stop. She had been such a good friend of his, and here she was! "How long have you been in town? I would have expected you to call me the second you came back to La Push," he said teasingly, but also couldn't help but wonder if she was avoiding him.
[Hahaha no worries! Mine are a little short too  ]
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Post by maya on Sept 18, 2009 9:00:04 GMT -5
As he came closer, Maya could see how much he really had changed. Once only a couple inches taller than her, he now towered over her at an inhuman height. And he wasn't just tall, he was highly muscled and lean. He face had grown up too, no longer did he look like a boyish teenager.
He leaned in and hugged her and she wrapped her arms around his thick neck giving him a little squeeze before he let her go and stepped back. He was being so cautious. She was a little embarrassed she hadn't called him. Her mom had kept her posted on the reservation goings-on and had informed her Paul was now very much in love and had a child. "I've only been back for maybe a week." She shrugged. "To be honest, I wasn't sure if you would want to see me." She said looking a little sheepish. "I mean I practically dropped off the face of the planet without saying goodbye and..." She stopped with a shrug.
She had gone off to school on a whim to peruse ceramics. Once she got through a couple years of classes she felt like an idiot for thinking it was something she could make a living on despite critical acclaim from her professors, classmates and art journals for the work she was doing. She was her biggest critic and nothing had been good enough. She was practically failing her academic courses to focus solely on her art anyway and would have needed more than the traditional 4 years to graduate. She felt like a failure now, returning to the res with nothing to show for her years of work (with the exception of a few odd boxes of pieces she had kept, most had been smashed or sold for dirt cheap to fund her drive home). |
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Post by Paul Lahote on Sept 18, 2009 9:08:54 GMT -5
The fact that she had returned his hug was easing his paranoia. "You kidding? How could I not wanna see you?" He would have further teased her about being here a whole week and not trying to see him, but then again, he knew that this wasn't that great of a topic to tease about. Ever since he had imprinted, he made annoying people less of a habit, and for once . . . well, in special circumstances, he thought before he spoke. He paused for a few moments, knowing he couldn't tell her about the wolf thing, even though a part of him wanted to. "We just both got so busy with our lives . . . makes sense that we lost touch I guess." He looked down at Darcey again, smiling at the pup's excitement before returning his gaze to Maya.
"So fill me in on your life," he said, as he started to walk so that they would not be standing awkwardly . . . that, and Darcey seemed to have an abundant about of energy. "How was college and what not? Tell me everything . . . few years worth of anyway." It was better than talking about what he had been up to: fighting vampires.
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Post by maya on Sept 18, 2009 9:35:00 GMT -5
She held herself back from bursting out laughing. He had gotten busy with his life, she on the other hand was right back where she started. "There's really not much to tell." She shrugged as they walked. Everyone had been so excited on the res when she had won that scholarship to the Pacific Northwestern College of Art and to think how she had wasted it. It was a sad story. "I went to Portland... and things just didn't work out." She said simply.
She used to be able to tell Paul anything, knowing out of anyone he would understand. But for some reason now she felt so ashamed, especially since he was in a successful relationship with a child and a steady job. He had everything going for him now. It wasn't like she felt the need to compete, but in reality she was in the same place she was 3 years earlier.
"Hey, what about you? Rachel Black, huh?" She grinned with a teasing nudge to his ribs. "How did Jake take that?" She said secretly hoping he would divulge more. All he mother had told her was that they were together and had a kid before Maya had hung up. Her mom liked to call her and remind her of how successful everyone else was at her age, how much more successful they were than her. If her mother had her way, Maya would be married by now with little quil babies. Sometimes she wondered if her mother was right. |
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Post by Paul Lahote on Sept 19, 2009 9:09:50 GMT -5
"Oh yeah?" He asked. He would have hesitated as he didn't want to pry if she didn't want to get into details, but he went on to ask. "How come?" When she had lived here they had been close, and he really did want to re-establish that if it is was indeed lost after not having seen each other for so many years. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're back and everything . . . you just seemed real excited about going away before."
When the topic switched to Rachael, he beamed. He wasn't paranoid over whether it would be awkward to talk about his current girlfriend with his ex girlfriend. Rachael was more than that to him, and Maya -- he still considered to be -- a very good friend of his. Paul chuckled as he remembered Jake's reaction. "He went insane. Blew up actually. You know him and me never really got along. But Rachael and I are pretty serious now." Pretty serious was right. She was pregnant with twins! Was that a good thing to bring up right now? "I guess its kinda funny how things worked out -- " Thanks to imprinting -- "You should come over some time and meet her. We got our own place." He was going to wait for her reaction and see if it was a good time to bring up the baby thing.
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Post by maya on Sept 19, 2009 9:26:38 GMT -5
She frowned a little when he inquired further about her time away. "You know me Paul." She said with an eyeroll. "I can never seem to finish anything." It was true, everything she started seemed to fall apart just as things started to get good. Every relationship she'd been it had fallen apart because she couldn't handle commitment, every job she'd ever done she had quit right as she started succeeding, the list went on and on. Paul knew that better than anyone.
She smiled imagining Jake and Paul in a scuffle over Jake's oldest sister. She wished she would have been here for that. She noticed how Paul lit up when she brought up Rachel. Seeing Paul so in love made her happy. She was glad he had someone when she picked up and left. She didn't know Rachel very well. She really didn't know any of the girls on the res very well, but Rachel had always seemed like a nice girl. "I would like that." She smiled when he asked her to come over sometime. She felt a slight twinge of protectiveness Paul. He had once been the closet thing she had to a brother and her best friend. She wanted to be sure Rachel was good enough for him. "So she's 'the one'?" She asked finally. |
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Post by Paul Lahote on Sept 19, 2009 9:50:32 GMT -5
"Is there something specific that happened over there?" Paul asked. "Is there someone's ass I need to kick for you?" Despite the fact that he had imprinted, and therefore become significantly less angry all the time, did not mean he would walk away from someone who had hurt a person he cared about. When Paul had started to grow, and began phasing, he had taken advantage of his height, strength, and ability to heal rapidly. But now, all these things were just something he would use to intimidate someone more so than encourage them to fight him . . . . . of course, this wasn't always the case but it was more of a frequent occurance than it had been a few months ago.
When he seemed genuinly happy for her, he was completely relieved. He felt that even though they hadn't seen each other in years, they were still able to maintain that closeness they had before she left . . . only, in a more friend orientated way. "She definitely is. I mean, we've been going out for a few months, but I guess I knew from our first date." He thought back to when he had asked Maya out, and how convinced he had been that it would be something really great, since they were already good friends. But now, well, a part of him was relieved that their intimate relationship didn't last because he definitely did not want to end up in the kind of situation Sam had been in with Leah and Emily. "It's settled then. You need to come over for lunch or something. I would really like it if you two meet." He paused for a moment before going on. She's pregnant. We're expecting twins," he blurted out, though smiling when he said it.
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Post by maya on Sept 19, 2009 10:25:21 GMT -5
She laughed as he went into big brother mode, something he used to do back in high school, even though she was older and perfectly capable of taking care of herself. "No nothing like that." She said shoving him lightly as they walked. There really weren't any guys in Portland. She went out on a few dates, had a few one night stands, but of course nothing stuck. She was too busy for a boyfriend, to involved in her work.
When he blurted out his big news Maya stopped dead in her tracks and turned to him, mouth gaping. "You little dog!" She said laughing and smiling, not relizing how accurate and ironic her jest had been. "Twins?!" She said shocked before scooping him into a big hug. "That's so great." She said as she hugged him. She let go and continued to walk. "Tell me everything. When is she due?" She asked. |
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Post by Paul Lahote on Sept 19, 2009 10:36:23 GMT -5
"You sure?" He asked, slightly raising an eyebrow. "If not that, then what? Come on, you can tell . . . its me you're talking to here." He wanted her to feel comfortable discussing anything with him. "Something happen at college?" He was going to keep prying. Paul was too curious to just let it go, and too concerned that it was something really serious.
Paul wrapped his arms around her, this time in a more confident hug than the last. He still had to watch his strength, and so kept it to a minimum. The last thing she needed was to be crushed to death by a massive wolf man. "She's due pretty soon. It happened before -- " He had to stop himself. He was about to go into detail about the battle that threatened to kill them all, and due to an over whelming amount of emotions and the fear of losing one another . . . they had become far more intimate than they had ever been. But Paul couldn't tell her this, and he found that difficult. He was so used to being completely open with her, and telling her everything about him and his life . . . but now, he wasn't able to do that.
"Before we got married, or even considered marriage, so you know, some people were kinda freaked, but most of our family was pretty good about it." They understood how it had happened, since Rachael was usually very traditional and no one expected things to happen the way they did. "Can you believe that I'm working as Deputy of Forks now?" He asked, chuckling at how Paul was an enforcer of law. It was easier to avoid wolf talk when he talked about his other job.
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Post by maya on Sept 19, 2009 17:43:47 GMT -5
She listed as he told her about him and Rachel. She could tell by the way he talked about her that he was completely smitten. She was looking forward to meeting Rachel. If she could get along with Paul perhaps Maya had a chance with having an actual female friend. He paused at one point and she wondered for a second if he was hiding something but saw no reason he would.
She laughed out loud when he told her his current job. "YOU?!" She teased. "You, the most notorious trouble maker in La Push?" She said remember fondly the time they had made it their personal mission to rescue all the frogs from the science lab in middle school and ended up with a months detention when they let them loose on the football field to set them free. "Wow. You've really grown up." She said with a smile, half teasing but also noticing how mature he had become while she was gone. She had a feeling fatherhood probably had something to do with that. "So whens the wedding?" She asked boldy. He hadn't mentioned if there were plans for a wedding or not, but she couldn't think of a more 'sensitive' way to ask the question. She hoped it wouldn't come of as presumptuous. |
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Post by Paul Lahote on Sept 21, 2009 13:16:34 GMT -5
Paul grinned proudly. "Well, its still in the making. I gotta do some tests and stuff before its all official and everything . . . but yeah! Imagine me, in that kinda position of authority." Paul hated authority . . . until his best friend became the leader of a wolf pack. Then, he didn't mind as much. Her next question was a little more difficult to answer. Paul would be lying if he said that marriage hadn't crossed his mind . . . he knew it must have crossed Rachael's since she was more tradition. "I dunno. I haven't exactly asked yet. I know eventually I will . . . I'm just trying to focus on her and the babies right now. And being able to get enough money to support them." Suddenly, all the stresses came flooding back, and he had to keep his emotions in tact before he phased right in front of her.
"Enough about me though. Tell me what else is going on with you? You with anyone right now?" It would have felt awkward to ask her this just a few moments ago, but now, after talking about Rachael and seeing Maya's positive reaction to it, he felt better asking more personal questions regarding her love life. "And if so who is he so I can make sure he's good enough for you."
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Post by maya on Sept 21, 2009 13:36:02 GMT -5
Maya could tell marriage was a sensitive subject and made mental note not to bring it up when she met Rachel. She had tried to start making mental notes like this as she got older to control her mouth. Sometimes she still forgot and ended up in trouble. But often it did help.
When he asked if she was with someone she rolled her eyes. "Hardly!" She said shaking her head. "Nothing has stuck... not since... well, to be honest, I haven't been in a meaningful relationship since we had a thing." She said wit ha shrug, a little embarrassed. Sure she had moved on, she really had, but it was still kind of embarrassing she never seemed to settle in with someone.
Her thoughts wandered to the other day at the beach. Duncan. They CERTAINLY weren't together. She wanted more than anything to hate him and never see him again. But why was there something that was pulling her toward him. She looked for him everywhere she went, hoping she would turn a corner and see him there. AT the same time she couldn't stand him and his big green eyes, chiseled features and california looks.
Realizing she had drifted off momentarily she blinked and smiled innocently. Trying to keep the conversation light she added "and even if I had, how would you decide if he was good enough for me?" She teased. |
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Post by Paul Lahote on Sept 23, 2009 8:43:07 GMT -5
Paul went back to wondering just how serious their relationship would have been had she not moved away. Because they had been friends, they had a solid foundation to their relationship . . . of course he couldn't compare it to what he now had with Rachael. He was curious to see where things with Maya would have gone, but the relief he felt that he didn't have to hurt her trumped the curiousity he felt. "I guess that's good," he said shrugging. "You never know when and how you'll meet someone . . . like with Rachael. It's like I woke up one day and saw her differently than I had before." He was obviously not going to get into the details.
He then grinned when she asked her next question. "I have my ways. Mainly, beating the hell out of him, seeing if he can stand it, and if he's tough enough to, he passed the first test." He felt a protectiveness over his friend. It wasn't as strong as the one he felt over Rachael, but it was strong enough for him not to let anyone hurt or disturb her. "Is there actually someone? Come on, you gotta tell me. La Push is small. I'm gonna find out anyway." He paused. "Speaking of which, how long you here for? You gonna stay or is this just a visit?"
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Post by maya on Sept 23, 2009 9:22:18 GMT -5
"Seriously Paul..." She said rolling her eyes. "There isn't anyone. I ran into a guy at the beach a couple days ago and TRUST ME. It's not going anywhere." She shook her head. "The mere sight of me made him puke and almost go into convulsions." She said half laughing but at the same time mortified she could cause that kind of reaction. Duncan. She didn't have feelings for him. How could she? He was rude, repulsive and obviously hated her. How she had sparked such disgust with only a few words, she had no idea.
She shrugged. "Oh I don't know. I guess I'm here indefinitely for now." She said, creating a contradiction that made sense to her. She had no idea how long she was staying, she had no plans yet. She would stay here until something new came her way. "For now I'm watching some of the neighbor kids after school for a little extra cash." She figured she would probably travel again eventually, but she would no doubt return here to her home to "settle" if that ever happened. |
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