Fan Fiction
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Hephaestus – Chapter 11
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End Flashback
Carmen pushes the “stop” button on the mixer and gets up.
“Alright. Lunch time”, she says at the microphone, “See you in two hours”.
Then, she grabs her purse and heads towards the door.
The world outside has gone on without my help, Carmen thinks putting on her sunglasses and walking towards her car.
She’s rummaging into her purse, looking for the keys, when she sees it.
A single red rose under the windshield wiper.
An anonymously grey car, a grey reflection on the windshield, a grey street and this stunning red rose, with its long, green stalk and four leaves spread like welcoming arms.
She stops in the middle of the sidewalk, her lips slightly parted in surprise.
A low voice whispers into her ear, tickling it.
“Hi rosebud… Would you have lunch with me?”.
That unmistakable scent. That unmistakable tension in Carmen’s body. That unmistakable heat behind her back.
She closes her eyes and turns around, blindly, embracing Shane.
Shane rests her chin on Carmen’s shoulder and smiles gently, watching distractedly the cars passing by on the street.
“Hi…”, she repeats, laying a soft kiss on Carmen’s neck.
“Hi”, Carmen mouths soundlessly, her eyes still closed and that overwhelming emotion running through her whole body.
She pulls away a little and caresses Shane’s cheek.
“I didn’t think you’d come…”, she tells her.
“Why?”. Shane frowns.
Carmen shrugs slightly.
“I don’t know… I thought you were mad at me for saying no to your proposal…”, she admits honestly.
Shane’s hands rest on her hips.
“I am not mad. I understand your point”.
“Do you?”, Carmen asks sweetly.
“Yes, I do”, Shane nods, half-smiling.
”And all of your rosy scarred up wrist binds
Make me crucify you more
With all of your blood encrusted small finds
Kiss restraint and it’s just ‘cause
So see the survivor in control now
I’m the whore you knew I was
Look at the changed girl good and pure
On Tracy’s floor…”
They drive towards a small restaurant without further words.
But they share those little gestures they used to share before everything went to hell.
They keep holding hands. They glance at each other from time to time.
They kiss at the red lights and laugh when the cars behind horn at them.
They enter this tiny restaurant where the lights are dim and the tables are small and rounded.
They sit in a corner and spy each other when they should be looking at the menu.
They talk.
They talk, feeling that inevitable, chemical desire to tear each other’s clothes off and trying hard to ignore it.
“Tell me something I don’t know about you…Something that has happened during the last three years”, Carmen murmurs, resting her chin on her palm and slowly chewing a leaf of salad.
Shane blushes a little and scratches her temple.
“Well… Not very long ago I had to do hair for a wedding…”.
Carmen stops chewing but her smile doesn’t disappear.
Shane puts her fork back in the plate.
“…There was this huge mansion, many guests, and a lot of work to do…”.
Carmen raises her eyebrow.
“I can imagine…”, she smirks, and it’s not clear if there’s a pun intended.
Shane sighs and bites nervously the inside of her cheek.
“There was this bride… Her name was Madison… She started to have doubts about the wedding. And I don’t know why, but she spoke about that with me… “. She shrugs.
“I don’t know why… She didn’t even know me, after all”, she repeats.
Carmen ducks her head and grabs Shane’s hand on the table, squeezing gently.
“You have this effect on people. They always want to know you more. They could reveal you all of their secrets”.
Shane moves on her chair, uncomfortably.
She clears her voice.
“I don’t know… Anyway, she told me that she wasn’t sure about what she was going to do. She was already wearing her wedding dress and all the guests were waiting for her. And… As I started talking to her, as I started telling her that what she had wasn’t that easy to find, suddenly… and unexpectedly…”.
She closes her eyes for a second.
“What, Shane?”, Carmen whispers.
“…Unexpectedly I saw you. For a second, she became you. She became you in your wonderful wedding dress… In that wedding dress I’ve never had the chance to see”.
Shane blinks and shakes her head.
“She didn’t look like you a lot, actually. But she was so beautiful, and scared, and young, and innocent… That I couldn’t help but tell her that she reminded me someone I used to know a lot”.
Carmen smiles. She seems genuinely touched by Shane’s words.
“…And right then, right there, I had been missing you so much that…”.
Carmen gets up and walks around the table. She cups Shane’s face and kisses her on the lips. An unhurried, gentle kiss.
Shane sighs in relief and brushes Carmen’s hips.
“Thank you”, Carmen says, simply, resting her forehead against Shane’s.
”I’ll come running
I’ll come running right back to you
I’ll come running
I’ll come running right back to you…”*
“Carmen”, Shane asks throaty.
“Yes…”. In a whisper.
“Are you my girlfriend?”.
Again that expression into her eyes.
Those baby eyes full of loneliness and disorientation and fear.
Unconsciously, Carmen bites her bottom lip as her fingers run across Shane’s nape.
She nods.
“Yes…”.
Shane purses her lips and her eyes are now smiling, sincerely and unexpectedly.
“Yes?”.
“Yes”.
“Really?”.
“Really”.
She gets up immediately and squeezes her strongly, picking her up for a second.
Then she pulls away and grabs her shoulders.
“Let’s go home”, she says, staring at her.
“Do you mean, at the hotel?”, Carmen chuckles.
Shane chuckles and shakes her head.
“No… I mean home. Let’s go back to Los Angeles. Do you think you can, with your job and all?”.
Carmen is caught off guard. She raises her eyebrows.
“I don’t know…”, she exclaims, “…I guess I can, yes…”.
Shane pecks her on her forehead.
“Great…”, she murmurs, thoughtful.
“What do you have in mind?”, Carmen asks, amused, playing with her necklace.
“I want to apologize to Jenny. And I want to find a new apartment for the two of us…”.
She coughs.
“…I mean, if you think, if you want –“.
“You can move to my place…”, Carmen cuts in, slowly.
Shane blinks, speechless.
“Are you serious?”.
“Aaaw baby… You’re so questioning and curious, today…”, she jokes and then.
Then Shane sees it.
Carmen is looking at her like she used to do.
Like that day at the Quincaneara party.
Like the day Angelica was born.
She stares at her, mouth agape.
“…The answer is yes, I am serious. You can move to my place”.
Carmen’s eyes.
Two dark universes and Shane feels safe.
She can only get a glimpse of stormy, cloudy thoughts, but they’re buried so deep inside, so deep inside, that she immediately forgets about them.
**
SOUNDTRACK:
* “Tracy’s Flaw” (Skunk Anansie)
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Aww, what a sweet chapter. They are so cute together. Did I mentioned that I love this story? ;-))