tooprettytodie | (no subject)

It was time to stop hiding. That didn't mean she was going to fully integrate herself into island society again. She still wasn't going to go to her dance classes, especially not with Percy there, but she had decided to go ahead and live in her own place again. As grateful as she was to Charlie and Edmund for letting her crash at their place, she wanted to be back home.

She had left notes in the mailboxes of everyone that had gone home with everyone. They simply said I'm sorry. -Valkyrie

She wasn't sure what could be said beyond that. She hated herself for what she had done to them, even if becoming Darquesse had been to save them. In the end, she hadn't been strong enough to save her friends, not from herself. Not only that, but each time she became Darquesse, it was harder and harder to find her way back. If it hadn't been for the ending of the dream, she wasn't sure if she would have come back from that.

Then there was the fact that all of her closest friends now knew her secret. It wouldn't have been so bad except that her secret was that she had the potential to become some sort of crazy-powerful nut job without any conscience. Go her.

Sighing, Valkyrie curled up on her couch and hugged her knees to her chest. She'd just sit here for a while and try not to obsess over what happened. Later, much, much later tonight she would head to the ring and take out some anger on one of the bags and maybe go for a run along the beach.

[This can be set for any time between the 1st of June and now.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Been my curse my whole life. Other girls are lying about homework, getting hall passes for 'girl problems' from teachers. Me? I can't even take a grape from the bunch at the grocery store without my cheeks going to complete tomato red."

Bella leaned over and gave her hand a squeeze. "And I knew you were brilliant from the minute you showed up at my hut that day and we just couldn't stop talking." Her look got more pointed. "That impression hasn't changed, okay?"

Valkyrie smiled and squeezed her friend's hand back. She really didn't deserve people like this in her life, they were way, way too good to her. She was just selfish enough though that she wouldn't turn them away.

"I'm glad it hasn't. I wouldn't want to lose your friendship."

"Sorry to say it, Valkyrie, but you're kinda stuck with me. I'm like mold that way sometimes," Bella laughed, glad some of the sadness was out of her friend's face now.

"Mold? Mold is pretty gross and you're not gross. I think most stuff that's hard to get rid of is gross though, so I guess you didn't have a lot of choices."

She felt better for talking to Bella, a tiny bit of a weight lifted off of her shoulders for the moment.

"Yeah, if it was really cool, people would start looking at you weird for wanting to get rid of it in the first place, then offer to take it away if you seriously wanted it gone."

And that had never been her.

"Well, I wouldn't ever really want to get rid of you anyway," Valkyrie admitted. While she wouldn't blame Bella if she didn't want to be around her, she didn't want to lose her friend either.

"Good," she smiled wider. "That's settled. We're stuck with each other." After a beat, Bella cocked her head to the side, watching her reactions. "So, is your badass side now the elephant in the room that we don't talk about?"

"Oh, so now suddenly I'm not normally badass?" Valkyrie asked in mock outrage.

"And I'd rather no one else know about it, but you can ask me questions or talk about it if you want."

"Well, hell. Now I'm going to have to cancel the illustrated billboard I asked Craig to make," Bella said as deadpan as she could before the smile and blush killed her pretended indignation. She could tell, though, that Val wasn't entirely comfortable with the subject, even though she hadn't shut her down, Bella wasn't going to linger on the subject.

"You're incredibly badass every day and you know it," Bella smiled, shrugged. "I dunno. I guess I'm a little jealous."

"Why would you be jealous of me?" Valkyrie asked, mostly serious. She was vain enough to know that she had a lot going for her, but other than her magic (which she didn't have on the island) she didn't think she had much going for her that Bella didn't.

"Why wouldn't I be? I was pretty useless in the fight and that's here, where I've actually been able to learn something about self-defense. If I brought everyone home with me? I'd have to run everyone to the Res so we could all hide in Jake's little red house and hope the wolves were home."

"But you're learning. I've been doing this sort of thing since I was twelve."

She didn't mention though that, magic or not, there's no way she'd go cowering in someone's house, no matter how scary the vampires were. Even if it would be stupid to fight them.

"Besides, now you know how awesome I am magically, so you can just imagine me like that at your world. You care about people so much and would do anything for them. I know you would."

Bella's mouth curved into a smile, and a little red came back into her cheeks. "I'm actually kind of doing that already when the nightmares come. It's easier, considering I have more mainstream nightmares now. Your badass self shows up until the nightmare fades."

That shocked Valkyrie. She felt horrible that Bella was having nightmares, but she would never have expected that she would chase them away for her friend, especially since she had probably caused the more freakish ones.

"Are you saying that I chase the nightmares away for you?"

"In a way," Bella nodded. "The zombie ones, anyway. When the old nightmares come back...well, those aren't about anything that would scare anyone but me. The only thing that gets me out of those are when Craig's awake and notices. Some part of my unconscious registers that he's there, and the nightmare shifts into something more pleasant." She blushed a little.

"When the scary stuff happens, at least since we all woke up, I still sense that Craig's there and I know he's holding me through it, but in my mind, you're with me, too," she smiled, "fighting with me against that creepy couple, or Laurent, or Victoria."

"I will always be glad to fight for you, Bella," Valkyrie said, dead serious about it. Even if Bella was just a stranger, she would defend her from the sort of things that seemed to attack her, but Bella was one of her best friends. There wasn't anything she wouldn't do for her.

Bella hadn't ever been really tactile with friends but being here had changed so many things, and that was one of the first things. She leaned over and gave Valkyrie a hug. "Thank you, Valkyrie. I can't exactly say the same now, but I will say that I'll do everything I can to get better so that one day I can fight for you."

Valkyrie hugged Bella back, fairly certain that this was would not have been a scenario she would have predicted when Bella first stopped by. She wasn't unhappy about it though, not in the least.

"Don't sell yourself short. Being able to punch things in the face isn't the end all be all."

"Maybe not, but I'd rather that than running away all the time," she smiled back. "At least while I'm fighting human stuff anyway."

"And we'll get you there, I promise," she said. Bella had more drive than just about anyone she had met and she was proud of how far her friend had come.