fandomhigh | The Library; Wednesday [ 12/19 ]

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The Library; Wednesday [ 12/19 ]

Adah honestly couldn't remember the last time she'd actually listened to a record, but, for some reason, since the moment she woke up and started limping around to get ready to head down to the library for her usual neglecting of library aide tasks, she couldn't get songs out of her head.

Actually, scratch that. It wasn't songs; that was plural. It was the same damn song, over and over and over, and she didn't even ever remember hearing a song like this before in her life, but there it was, dictating the pace of her limp and a slight swaying of her head as she opened the library and put a few of the books. She thought she was lightly humming this mystery song (All I ever want-ted. All I ever need-ded) as she was shelving Darwin in the religion section again (Words like violence) when she realized that the voice she was hearing singing the songs (Break the silence) ...was that of her own.

"They can only do harm."

...Okay, maybe it was time to sit down. Because Adah Price certainly did not sing, but there it was, and even if she tried to stop, the song in her head wasn't going anywhere.

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It was only first period and, already, Adah has her forehead against the desk in hopes that the accursed song got out of her head. She tried to think of other songs. Even church hymns, but the damn thing was persistent and it kept making her lightly sing the lyrics if she wasn't paying attention to keeping it in check.

Enjoy the silence, her foot...

It seemed very logical, of course, to try to counter the adverse effects of random music that won't leave your damn head with the carefully paced rhythms of poetry, of course.

Nope. No such luck. And just when Adah thought perhaps some Shakespeare or Poe had vanquished the demons (But we loved with a love that was more than love/I and my Annabel Lee...perfect!), she had been mistaken.

But at least the song, though still unfamiliar, had seemed to have changed.

It was Wednesday, so River wandered down to the library, carrying an apple in her bag. Her steps had been slow and flowing, like the song in her head, with lyrics about music. She couldn't remember where she had heard it, but it stuck in her mind. Then when she entered the library, it changed.

Doe, a deer, a female deer
Ray, a drop of golden sun
Me, a name I call myself
Far, a long, long way to run

River frowned, shaking her head, trying to make it go away. But Adah was here, and Adah should be able to distract her from anything.

As she worked diligently in her head to reverse the lyrics that kept persistently playing (Try, you saw I thought, I think. Sing, you. Heard I that, thought I), she noticed River coming into the library in the corner of her attention, and got a wry grin on her face. Good. Someone else could be tortured by the music in her head.

But as River moved closer, Adah noticed the frown, the shake of her head, and tilted her own. She seemed distracted. Maybe she was already being plagued with her own insistent music.

Placing her hands on the desk, River leaned forward to give Adah a kiss, hoping it would distract them both from the insistent music, but even as she did so she couldn't help humming the annoying tune under her breath.

Eager for distraction from her own tunes, Adah couldn't help smirking when she noticed that, as River drew away, she was humming. Adah may have also tried to pay close attention to what River was humming; if it was different, perhaps it would allow her to change hers a little. Of course, a dangerous game that. She wasn't sure from just the humming what song River was thinking about and it was potentially more annoying that her own. At the same time, however, it was different. She looked at the other girl, tilting her head questioningly, as the stands of choosing my confessions and oh no, I've said too much drifted through.

"When you know the notes to sing
You can sing most anything"

River granted Adah's wish, but frowned and shook her head. "Contagious." She sat down on the desk and dug the apple out of her bag, holding it up to Adah. Not that it would help much against unwanted music.

Despite herself, Adah quietly chuckled a little. Most of it was for the frown and the shake of River's head. Torture such as this took on an entirely new perspective when one realized it was share. She didn't think she knew that song, but, of course, she hadn't known hers, either, but at least hers didn't sound to annoying optimistic like River's. That, and it was kind of cute to hear her sing. Maintaining a weary sort of smirk as her song mingled in her head (But that was just a dream...That was just a dream), she held out her hand. It leveled, held up by her elbow on the desk, and looked toward River expectantly.

Chuckles and smirks made it impossible for River not to smile too, and she sliced the apple in half - not peeling it this time - and placed one half in Adah's hand, letting her fingertips tap the rhythm to Adah's tune against her palm. "Just a dream?"

She wished that it were. It was the strangest thing; Adah couldn't even tell River what the last record she listened to might have been, and now she had a song stuck in her head, one she'd never heard of before but could still manage to hear distinctively. She did like it, though; that was a bonus. It was different. It didn't rhyme and was unpredictable. Cynical and angry but still with a good, catching beat. Well, clearly it was catching. So she'd like it even more if she could focus instead on something else, like her poetry book still open to selected Poe pieces.

She took the apple and crunched a first bite, focusing on her teeth piercing through the fruit's flesh to distract her from the tortured repetition of try, cry, why try? pushing against her critique that it didn't rhyme.

River could think of plenty of things to do together with Adah that would be distracting, but most of them were not suitable in a library. Besides, these songs seemed to cut through anything. "Perhaps going with the flow is the key," she whispered, then stood up on the desk, arms outstretched, apple in hand and sang:

"Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things"

Adah snorted, head ducking with the back of her hand pressed against her smirk to keep herself from spitting up apple. Trying not to laugh turned her face a little pink as she looked up toward River with apologetic eyes. She wasn't laughing at River; not at all. In fact, she was thinking that River had a very beautiful singing voice. But the song. Seriously? Adah's enduring cynicism almost forced her to laugh.

She wanted to hear more. She could already feel the tune digging into her brain, finding a spot, pushing out that girl in the corner, in the spot.light losing her religion. It would get terrible droll and old after more than an hour, but Adah had to admit, if the other verses were so infectiously bubblegum sweet (and illogical, because winters melting into springs were muddy, and mud stained white dresses), then she could work on concocting her own with a nice bite of how ridiculous it was.

Yes,the song was silly, but Adah seemed entertained so River continued:

"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things"

She waved her arms to the rhythm, swaying a little, then bent forward on one leg to place a kiss on Adah's head.

Eyes drifting up as River's lips planted lightly on her forehead, Adah kept herself from snorting again, but her amusement at how whoever wrote these lyrics had to have been terribly insipid and easily entertained shone through. It did have a tune, though, that was for sure and Adah, a moment later, once inspiration had struck, reached for her notebook. River would be able to hear her singing it in her head, of course, but she wanted to write it down for preservation.

Warm bleeding sunsets the bleed like fresh gashes
Rebirth and death, it's ashes to ashes.
Carnivorous birds with bright colored wings
These are a few of my favorite things.

Adah's version was a lot better of course, and much closer to what River actually did like. "Skeletons and knives," she said. "Even tentacled monsters." But there was another verse, and he continued:

"Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things"

[Yay! Adah rewriting Sound of Music! :D]

Nose wrinkling at another passing verse that didn't meet Adah's approval (the apple streudel she could accept, and perhaps the geese if they were in shooting range), she tapped her pen against her notebook thoughtfully. Hmm. Let's see..

Skeletons, knives, even tentacled ~~monsters~~ creatures
Dancing on rooftops and daughters of preachers
Brushing back hair and fingers that cling
These are a few of your favorite things.

Edited 2007-12-19 17:05 (UTC)

River sank to her knees on the desk and laughed. This verse was clearly a lot more appropriate, and she repeated it herself, singing with more enthusiasm than before. Then she leaned in to kiss Adah, a 'thank you' for the much improved lyrics, and perhaps even a hint about other things she definitely liked.

[Sorry, work interrupted and then I went home. *loves Adah's version*]

River had kisses that always made Adah feel like she didn't exactly need those mind reading powers that River had to know what she was thinking. She grinned lightly, straining her neck to return the kiss and thinking that working those into the lyrics would be a little more difficult, she was afraid. Despite her efforts proving otherwise, she never did think of herself as much the poet, and, unbidden, trails of the song's actual lines were filtering through her head, despite the fact that Adah was pretty sure she didn't even know them. When the dog bites, when the bee sings. When I'm feeling saaaad.

"I simply remember my favourite things..."

There was another kiss, and then River sat back, her legs crossed. She took a bite of her share of the apple.

"Did you ever lose your religion? Ever had it in the first place?"

As River settled back, Adah deflated slightly, if only because now, when there was hope for a new song to take it's place, the religion one had firmly weaseled it's way back in. Still, though, River had a valid and interesting question and, as the song continued on in her head, she considered it, and then slowly shook her head.

Probably. At one point, before she could see, before she could open her eyes and view her place in it and decided that it wasn't for her.

"People cling to different ones, and same ones that are opposites." Another bite of the apple. "I attempted to fix the Bible once, but it proved undoable. Turned to paper." She smiled. "I don't need symbols like that." She stretched out one leg and let the tip of her toe nudge Adah's arm, giving her a look that contained all those things River liked to do with Adah in more private places than libraries. "Other things make more sense."

Adah watched quietly, carefully, as River moved, likening the other girl to a bit like a squid, octopus, or whatever, herself, in the way she moved, the smooth and flawless extension of leg as she spread over the desk, over taking the books and notebooks, like the spreading of tentacles over a seabed. Her eyes drifted to where toe met arm, followed the length of the watery appendage back up toward River and that look, and felt a slight disruption of the her spinal chord, a little shifter striking it.

Almost anything made more sense, but yes, she understood what River meant. Give her something tangible, something real. That could be her religion.

And her eyes drifted away for a moment; she'd wished the thought of that for her religions exam. Damn. That would have been good.

"Would have," River agreed.

The conversation she had had with Kerrigan the other day returned to her mind. Only half a year left. Then again, in another perspective that was a long stretch of time, filled with uncountable moments like this. "Precious memories," she mumbled to herself, then said: "Will you stay for Christmas?"

Adah gave River a small, apologetic smile. She wouldn't be staying, no. Spending this Christmas alone would probably be one of the worst things for Orleanna right now. The daughter she'd left behind was the only daughter she'd have left, so Adah planned on returning to Bethlehem after her finals, and would probably stay the week.

River had assumed that to be the case, so there was hardy any disappointment in her eyes. In fact, she had been prepared. She pulled a small box (http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8055945) wrapped in aluminium foil from her bag and pushed it towards Adah, smiling a little.

Tilting her head at the box, Adah considered it a moment before looking back toward River. She hadn't gotten her anything.

...Yet, anyway.

There was still time, should Adah want to, and even if she didn't River wouldn't be upset. She had enjoyed chosing a gift for Adah, though. "Not the plague this time."

With a wry grin, Adah wondered, at first playfully, if she should open it elsewhere, then. Just to be safe. But the truth of the matter, as her hand drifted over to the box and shifted it, pushing at its base at the corners as if straightening it, watching it, was that she wanted to wait. Until she was alone, because, then, she wouldn't have to worry about first reactions, because mentioning Christmas had slipped her into a bit of a darker mood, settling into the realization that it was going to be a very different Christmas in the Price household this year, even more somber and depraved than Christmas in Africa. She didn't want that tainting her reaction when she opened it.

When and where she opened it was Adah's choice. River took another bite of her apple. "My goal for Christmas is to get Kerrigan to dance again." She and Roy had managed on Thanksgiving after all.

An interesting goal. Adah's head tilted thoughtfully, taking into idle consideration River's faint obsession with getting people to dance, with a brief detour down the line of whether or not she managed getting anyone dancing the way she got Adah to, and then back on track with thinking that, well, just so long as the Lieutenant didn't have a headache. She pressed her lips together thoughtfully; was having a goal to accomplish, like a New Year's Resolution on shorter notice, something tradition of the holiday in River's time? She tried to think if there was any goal she ever bothered with this time of year. She didn't come up with anything, except the usual one to be a nuisance to everyone else if she found the time.

There was a giggle. "Not that particular kind of dancing," she clarified. "Not with Kerrigan." Or anyone else except Adah right now. "Not a tradition," she continued in reply to Adah's other question. "Just think that Kerrigan needs it even if she doesn't know. Might not be much time for it later." She shook her head, then looked straight at Adah. "I should never stop dancing." The memories of her future self had taught her that.

Adah's single encounter with the Lieutenant had been brief, yes, but it left Adah, slightly smirking, thinking that River was right. On either account, for whatever method of dancing, really.

And as for the rest of it? That last part? Adah gave a slight nod. Especially, she added, perhaps taking on her own meaning to the comment, when you actually can.

"So many ways of dancing. Everyone have to find their own." Then there was a glittering in River's eyes and a smile. "Could stop by for dancing before you go," she suggested, tilting her head.

Adah let out a breath of a laugh, a slight snort. Certainly no lack of subtly there. And, despite herself, despite her desire to remain utterly nonchalant and jaded about the topic at hand, she was blushing. At first, just a little, but it increasingly grew deeper the more she became aware it was there. Biting her lip, she ducked her head, and it felt like perhaps the blush was meeting a pinacle as her hair fell forward over her face.

She'd probably be leaving Saturday. She might wait until Sunday, depending on whether or not the aides were to keep hours if they wanted during the break. Either way, though, River would know where to find her.

"Why be subtle?" River asked, not expecting an answer. But yes, she knew where to find Adah, and she would stop by before Adah left.

Adah blushing was adorable, and that was now, in this moment, not in the future. River reached out a hand and gently lifted a strand of her hair away from her face.

It was a good thing that River hadn't expected an answer because Adah, despite an effort to think of one, didn't actually have one. Not that she'd find suitable or that would stand up to evaluation very well, and she realized that the blushing was entirely from the fact that it had never really been all about the dancing before; the dancing seemed to occur as an aftereffect of something else. Lips still pressed together, she lifted her eyes toward River as the other girl brushed back her hair.

"In combination or by itself. Still good. Still important." Still a good memory. River met Adah's gaze, then slowly leaned forward to give her a soft and gentle kiss.

Still good. Still important. Adah repeated that in her head as she wondered why it left her, the Unflappable, so shy and blushing and overwhelmed with little tingly thoughts. Of course she knew, the Word that She Refused to Acknowledge, but she tried not to think about it. Her eyes dropped a moment as River leaned in, and then they slowly closed, and she leaned up to lightly (guiltily, although she tried to ignore it) kiss her back.

But words weren't always necessary, especially not for River. She looked into Adah's eyes, smiling as if they shared an important secret.

[Bedtime!]

"That's me in the spot. Light. Lo-sing my religion..."

It was unavoidable at this point, Adah decided, so she let herself sing, though not too loud. She wouldn't have to worry about the books, which she sorted on the desk based on which had the most annoyingly song-like titles, mentioning or caring or having thoughts on her singing voice.

"..thought I heard you laughing; I thought I'd heard you sing. I think. I. Thought I. Saw. You. Tryyyy."

"...I've got a love-ely bunch-a coconuts..."

Well, she had a sandwich and some strawberries, but the music in her head seemed to think otherwise.

Lunch had been a nice distraction, but now that there wasn't food, Adah really wanted that ridiculous coconut song out of her head. She was actually desperately trying to remember the ones from earlier, but to no avail.

There was a light at the end of this tunnel: it was the last period of the day. Adah might be able to find herself something to do (like stick her head in a hole in the ground, for example) to get the music out of her head. Also, the coconut song had gone. The others had returned. Others. Plural. It was as if her head was completely ambivilent to each of the song and was making a terrible flip-flopping mess of them. That was her in the corner, all right, but she wasn't losing her religion; that was her in the corner...and then? Words come crashing down, into her little world...

"Uuuuggggh."

When this period was over, she was crawling back into her bed and not leaving until the silence practically deafened her.

*totally doesn't revel in the first earworm post, nope, nuh-uh, not at all, la*

Should be mostly around today, but how the hell is it seriously already the 19th? *flails*

Post early, might crash soon, etc, etc.

Crash...into me babe.

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The Library; Wednesday [ 12/19 ]

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