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the picture prompt meme

1. comment with your character.
2. others will leave a picture (or two, or three...)
( 2a. if you like, link a visualosities post in your top level comment to give people material to work with! )
3. reply to them with a setting based on the picture.
4. for an idea of how this works, see bakerstreet, which is where i stole this meme from!
5. THIS IS A SLOW BURNING MEME IF YOU SAY YOU'RE LATE I'LL SLOW BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN

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Edited (THIS ONE IS BETTER) 2013-06-27 07:44 (UTC)

[ Friendship isn't easy.

It never is, but it's never been like this, either. Not for Nelson. He's friendly, he'd always been friendly, sociable and charming, but close friends were something he consistently lacked. Close friends who reciprocated his sentiments and shared the way he shared, always bursting onto someone emotionally like a volcano of lonesome distress.

Lil, though. At first he'd thought of her much like Sally, a casual confidante that he could relate to over the little things and the big things all without ever truly speaking their name. Then--

Then.

It's impossible to know if things are better, the way they are. They're closer, certainly, she's closer to him than any woman has ever been (with the possible exception of his mother), fulfilling the role that he'd always known a woman was supposed to for a man (at least in most ways), and it's safer, that way.

But he's vulnerable that way, too, not just beneath the world but beneath her, too. He wonders if she's unhappy now, he wonders how he can make things better, because it's hard to believe things aren't different even if it's just in some small way. And then he thinks about how unusual it is, that he worries about her problems too in tandem with his own. Does she ever resent him, for how things turned out? Or are her problems simply something he can't fix? He doesn't know. He doesn't know how women think and Lil is the closest he'll ever come.

The next time they meet, he brings her flowers, just in case. ]

[ At some point, it had occurred to her -- instinctively, at first, then consciously -- that she loved him. It was a platonic, comfortable sort of fondness that bred loyalty and a fussing concern, occupying her time and her mind to the point that it was almost enough, if a somewhat ill fit for the gaping emotional hole that other kinds of loving had left in her. A precarious anchor, maybe. Or at least something to lean on, to keep her sane, even if only just.

She tried not to let her mind go to unhappy places too often. Their friendship wasn't perfect. But nothing ever was, right? If she let herself dwell on certain things too long, she'd get crazy. Resentful. Angry. Loneliness was safer for her to feel. Her loneliness couldn't hurt him. But the other things -- they could.

The little gestures though, they help. The flowers make her smile. It's warm when she folds them carefully into one arm and wraps the other around him, squeezing as gently as a woman of her size and strength can before letting go. ]

Hon, y'shouldn't have. Ain't even a holiday or nothin'.

Sure I should have. That's what friends do.

[ He relaxes a little, smiling and trying not to be nervous -- it doesn't seem fair, that he's more nervous around people he's really close to than in his more detached friendships, but that's how it always is. When there's something you might lose, it's impossible not to ever think about it, especially when losing people is something you're used to.

He doesn't want to lose Lil. Of all his friendships, there's a weight and reality to this one. They listen to each other, even if they don't always help. Can't, always, but it does more than describing their problems to a brick wall. Nelson just never knows what's enough and what's too little, or maybe too much; he's never had a girlfriend before. He puts his hand on her shoulder briefly, before he decides to move it to her arm. ]

Especially boyfriends. You deserve to be treated properly, Lil.

[ It's bittersweet that Nelson is more thoughtful towards her than any man that ever claimed to love her, or any man that had ever seen her with her clothes off. Some days it upsets her deeply, and some days it only makes her smile. She smiles now, nudging her nose lightly against the flowers to take in the smell of them before answering easily enough: ]

You're a real gentleman, hon.

[ She reaches to briefly close her hand over the one resting on her arm. She used to feel so starved of physical affection. Every gesture seems more meaningful now. ]

Y'deserve it too, y'know. Bein' treated properly, I mean.

I do -- I do get treated properly.

[ Though he's a little uneasy, saying it, a little uncertain. Things certainly are good enough where Lil is concerned, but even when he's not sure how happy he is with Hooded Justice he finds himself unable to do anything but come to his defense. Such is love. He pats her arm again, nodding his head. ]

I think about it every day, how lucky I am. Y-you're just as-- you're very important to me, you should know. I think I'd go out of my mind without someone I could talk to, Hooded Justice doesn't really like talking to me. [ Nelson thinks he doesn't, at least. ] Flowers are really the least I can do. I know you've got a lot of pressure on you.

[ Lil used to pick fights with her husband -- partially because she was so angry all the time, so tired of being rejected, and partially because a part of her took satisfaction from him being forced to deal with her. It was acknowledgment of her existence, of the fact that he wasn't rid of her yet. It made her feel real.

It means something, that Nelly would just say it to her -- that she's important. Wanted. It intensifies her feelings towards him. The protectiveness. The loyalty. ]

Ain't nothin'. Y'know I'm a big girl. [ it's not unkind when she goes on: ] You're the one I gotta worry about, y'know? Havin' somethin' t'hide ain't easy.

[ He leans a little closer to her, lips still pinched tightly in his unease, and shrugs his shoulders a little weightlessly. It's a little hard to articulate or understand where to start, even for him, even knowing Lil has plenty of experience with at least feeling like a fool for someone. Part of why the two of them click so well, he imagines, because it's certainly how they came together in the first place. ]

Maybe not. But if I didn't have something to hide that would probably mean I was alone. So... [ He bites his lower lip. ] You have to make compromises. You know-- what else can you do?

[ Lil recognizes his unease -- not because she's even been particularly clever that way, but because her affection has always made her attentive. She dwells on it a moment, the way his face looks, before setting the flowers aside to reach for his shoulders, smoothing over them with her hands. ]

As long as y'think it's worth it, I s'pose.

[ It isn't as if she has room to criticize. ]

I jus' don't want y'compromisin' too much, hon. Compromisin' ain't a one man game.

It can be. I... well... it's possible to expect too much sometimes. You know, he doesn't have anyone else. I couldn't abandon him now-- not that I want to.

[ He exhales a little and puts his arm around her waist, smiling reassuringly. He doesn't want to complain, he doesn't imagine it's fair to. Not when she's alone right now, and he's somehow miraculously not. He imagines he should try to be more positive, given the circumstances. ]

Would you like to go somewhere? We could get some lunch, maybe. Or whatever else you might like to do.

[ She purses her lips at him a little, like she thinks maybe he might be making excuses, and there's an argument just on the tip of her tongue that only dies because of the arm around her waist, the suggestion of lunch -- those little gestures again, the ones that appease her and subdue her contentious impulses. ]

Y'know I'm jus' tryin' t'take good care of you. [ That's all she ends up saying instead, seeming willing now to let the subject go, if that's what he wants. She scoops the flowers back up into her arms before going on: ] I'm gonna put these in water first. Then you an' me can get lunch.

[ Lil's long legs carry her in easy strides to the kitchen where she takes down a vase from one of the upper cupboards, setting it in the sink to fill. ]

All right. Just let me know what you'd like. I'm not too picky, myself... I think just getting out will be nice.

[ Nelson crosses his arms and leans a little against a wall, waiting for her for a moment before he decides simply to follow her into the kitchen -- better than shouting across rooms.

She says that, but he doesn't know who's taking care of Lil. He adds: ]

You don't have to -- we're friends.

But I do appreciate it.

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