ellectrical | (no subject)

(no subject)

There's been a lull just long enough for Elle to grow restless. If anything good came out of being so exhausted so much of the time, it was that it had kept her occupied.

So to cure this newfound energy, she's turned to practicing. She's had plenty of opportunity to train with her abilities, however – the one thing she doesn't have to do anymore is run away. And as she'd been reminded, she could stand to be faster.

Jogging, it turns out, works to make her physically exhausted. But when collapses, still panting, close to the shoreline of the lake, her mind is still as loud as it was before.

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Sam shakes his head.

"That's the thing. I tried, and it didn't work. I ignored who - what - I am, and people died. I'm not a normal guy; I can't have a normal life."

No matter how much he might have wanted to.

"So yeah, to answer your question - I do feel different. And I get what it's like to be on the outside looking in."

Her arms unfold, shoulders slipping, as though every word were weighing her down, or just making her tired.

But once he's done, Elle raises her hand again, and reaches out to touch his shoulder.

It's probably meant to be something like reassuring, anyway.

Probably. He chooses to take it as such, anyway.

Sam's smile is warm, and he stops walking, turning to face her.

"So. What about you?"

Idly, he reaches out to tuck a lock of blond hair behind her ear.

"Do you want to be like them?"

"I -"

Elle doesn't look over, and her expression doesn't change. But her answer cuts off when he touches her, and for a moment, she can't seem to think long enough to remember what she'd meant to say.

Eventually, she stammers out, " - I don't think I - want to be like them - exactly."

"Okay," he agrees.

"Then what?"

Elle turns, shaking her head a little like she's trying to clear her thoughts.

"I - don't like feeling like I'm - outside. Like I'm just watching them. I always - know what I am, and they always know, unless I'm - pretending to be someone else. It's - not just that I don't want to be like them -"

Elle cuts off just long enough to breathe before she finishes, "- it's that I can't."

Sam's quiet for a second, thinking that over.

"So it's more like... it's not wanting to be like them, but it's more wanting to be comfortable with who you are. Is that it?"

"Who I am kind of sucks, Sam."

She doesn't sound angry or upset at this. Elle says the words with a kind of wonder, like a switch has flipped in her mind.

"It's not my life, it's me."

He starts to speak, then stops without saying anything, studying her expression.

"Are you saying you want to be someone else? I mean, to be you, but change somehow?"

"I always wanted to be someone else," she answers, quietly.

"The person I - could have been or was - supposed to always seemed real. Like she was close to me and I was - mad that I wasn't her."

"Could you be her now?" he asks, just as quietly.

She looks away, as though she could look over her shoulder and see this unreachable woman just a few feet away.

"No," Elle murmurs.

"So maybe I should stop being mad about it."

"Hey."

He touches her shoulder; a gentle grip, meant to be comforting.

"There's nothing wrong with being upset about wanting something else."

Her head turns, as she glances to his hand, then up to him, then quickly down to the ground.

"Maybe there is with wanting to be someone I'm not."

"I don't know about that. I mean, it's okay to have regrets."

He squeezes her shoulder again, then lets go.

"I don't - think it's that," she answers, looking up again.

"I think it's -"

She says the word carefully, like she's experimenting with it. "- envy."

"Of her? Or people who can live like her?"

"She's real."

Elle's not quite repeating herself.

"There's someone - like her. Who is real. Who I could've - been like."

He nods, not arguing.

She's right. There's someone out there who Elle could have been, in a normal world; just like there's a law student out there who could have been Sam, if things had been different.

"For what it's worth, Elle... I like who you are just fine. And I'm sure others do, too. Like X."

Elle hesitates, but then gets a small smile.

(And decides that's a story she doesn't need to share right now.)

With a small, playful sort of punch to his arm.

"Is there anyone you don't like?"

"Sure," he deadpans, pretending to be staggered by her punch. "Lots of people."

"Right."

She sounds genuinely sarcastic.

"Then why did you like me?"

(For once, she doesn't ask it with anything like angry suspicion.)

"Because..."

The single word draws out, as if he takes long enough to say it the next words that he needs will somehow appear.

"... well, at first it was because turning away from you would have, would have been like, like ... like turning away from myself, you know? And all the other kids like me - like you - like us. So I, I just kind of ... "

He trails off for a second, then offers her a rueful smile.

"... I'm kind of stubborn. You may have noticed. So that was part of it, at first. But pretty soon after that, and now, too - I like you because you're likeable. In a lot of ways."

Elle hesitates, then shakes her head.

Still smiling, "Nope, you'd just like anyone."

"No I wouldn't," he counters, grinning back.