After that one-minute embrace, when it seemed as though even God couldn't have torn them apart, Nick and Lina were content to just be around each other. Now it was A.J. who looked as if he'd just taken a happy pill, not quite sheilded from the happiness they weren't showing to the rest of the world. Lina soon noticed and tossed an olive at him.
"Snap out of it Aje, you're dreaming of Amanda again." They all laughed and A.J. grinned sheepishly, strengthening his sheilds.
Howie laughed with the rest, but in the back of his mind, he was considering this enigma of a woman Nick loved so deeply. He believed now that she did love him back. Nick's story, added to the picture he could not shake, of Lina crumbling from anger to despair in the hospital, convinced him of that. And yet she pushed her love away until his heart was breaking.
She could sit here and casually hide the whole history of that love, making sure others didn't give her away. Even little things, like taking a seat across from Nick instead of next to him... would that be so bad? Inadvertently, the question rose to his lips.
"Why sit there?" he asked. All eyes turned to him. He shifted uncomfortably but continued, "Rok, you could move. Or I could move and Nick could sit here."
Lina went pink. She glanced at Nick, then down at the table. "It's okay," she murmured, her voice dropping to an embarrassed whisper.
"It's no problem," Howie assured her, still pushing the issue.
She sighed, then seemed to gather her courage. "No Howie, I prefer to sit here." With an effort, she made herself look at A.J. instead of Nick, upholding the lie. "You forgot, huh Aje?"
"Um?" A.J. figured it was safe to look puzzled.
Lina reached up and did something to her right ear, then laid her hand on the table. Resting in her palm was a small appliance that resembled the in-ear monitors the Boys wore in concert.
"I read lips," she explained, her voice still soft.
The Boys stared at the clear plastic mold, attached by a small piece of tubing to the light beige of the hearing aid itself.
"It's not *bad*," she went on, mainly to fill the silence. "I can get through a day without it. I just say "excuse me" a little more."
Nick's hand covered hers. "S'okay," he said with a grin. "This way I get to stare at you all I want."
Howie watched the woman who had bawled Kevin out without blinking turn a deep rose at the implied compliment. Lina ducked her head and waited for a response from the others.
"Hey Lina, y'think Kevin could borrow that thing?" Brian suddenly piped up.
"Huh?" Kevin blinked at his cousin.
"He's an old man," Brian continued in a stage whisper. "Sometimes his ears ain't what they used to be!" He got a dinner roll in the face for his pains.
That bridge crossed, Lina faded into the background like any other visitor. She was present and listening, part of some of the discussion, but as much as the Boys wanted to interrogate her, she had to remain simply Nick's latest crush as long as they were in public.
The two of them didn't get any real alone time before the show. The closest they came to that was a round of MarioKart in the games room, sitting crosslegged on the floor away from everyone else but still too close to say much.
"How long can you stay?" Nick asked her, figuring it sounded like a natural enough question.
"When are you leaving?" seemed the safest reply.
"Around seven tomorrow. Nobody's ready for three am bus travel again." He shuddered.
Lina paused the game. "Nick, I'm...sorry."
He nodded without looking at her. "So'm I."
After an uncomfortable minute of watching a still screen, he asked again, "So, how long can you stay?"
"We'll see."
"Tease."
"You knew that before you met me. Or didn't A.J. tell you *anything*?"
"Oh, he told me plenty," Nick teased, a sudden gleam in his eye. He could use this to his advantage.
"Really?" Lina had a pretty good idea where this was going, and had no out. She decided to go along with it. "And what did everyone's favourite match-maker say?" Jokes within jokes. She'd never really allowed herself to flirt with Nick before. Now that she was in a situation where everyone expected it, where she *had* to, to keep things believable, it was fun.
"He said you were smart... funny..." with each adjective Nick leaned closer, let his voice drop a little lower. "A good writer... and beautiful." His eyes flickered over her face.
"Beautiful?" she repeated softly, mesmerized.
"Okay," he whispered back, tracing her jawline with one finger, "so that was my word." Gently, he cupped her face in his hands and pressed his lips to hers.
Nick wasn't entirely sure how Lina was going to react. When he felt her kissing back, he lost himself in the moment, savouring her sweetness, her warmth, her softness, but most of all, her nearness. He slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer - and heard an explosion. MarioKart had come unpaused and someone had died. Lina began to giggle against him and the moment was lost. Nick growled with frustration, pulling away a little. She just laughed harder.
"You think that's funny, do you?" he grumbled, before giving into laughter himself. He pounced, tickling her until they were both hysterical and breathless. When breathlessness turned into a coughing fit for Lina he let up, supporting her until she could manage to inhale properly again.
"See how easy it can be to just let go, go with the moment?" he whispered into her ear.
"Yeah," she sighed. "And then look what happens."