<div align="center"><span class="bbc_u"><strong>Thursdy, January 11th - 8:15am</strong></span><br/><em></em></div><hr/><div class="floatleft">(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/Omari_Hardwick_on_BTVR_%28cropped%29.jpg/220px-Omari_Hardwick_on_BTVR_%28cropped%29.jpg)</div><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong>WHO:</strong> Kaine Brooks (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=316749.msg15291877#msg15291877)<br/><strong>WEARING:</strong> Open Hawaiian Shirt, Cargo Shorts, Boots<br/><strong>DOING:</strong> Having "The Talk" with Marley<br/><strong>NOTE:</strong> Chopping all the onions<br/><strong>TAGGING:</strong>Marley, Closed</span><br/><hr/><br/><br/><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">  He'd always been taught that when you loved someone; <em>truly</em> loved them. Their happiness, safety, and wellbeing were more important than your own. You'd die for them instinctively, even if they couldn't die. Because that's what love was; being there and giving all of yourself and then more. You'd even let them go if you realized that's what made <em>them</em> happy. So despite it being hard, and <em>lonely</em> and infuriating to basically love Marley from a distance, and only show passion hidden from Eric and the rest of the world...he did it for her. <br/><br/>But booooooy it wasn't easy, and finally opening up after so much time, it was like a small crack appeared in a dam that held millions of tons of water. It wasn't going to stay a crack for long. Soon, the water would beat on it until it ruptured, and all that was being held back was going to flow out. Kaine felt it welling up inside him as they spoke, and he was trying his best to keep it in, but even that first tear had felt like too much. For example, he had wanted to stay so bad. He wanted to stay at the Cathedral, and tell her, and just hold her, and hope everything was going to be okay.<br/><br/> But deep down he knew if he went out there and give it 200%. If he used all his powers to their fullest...they <em>would</em> be okay. And sacrificing that connection to save a remnant was like a sledgehammer in his chest. But he'd been right. With his help and lots of others, and herotic sacrifices, they'd <em>won</em>. And he knew he'd mattered in Earth's victory, so that meant he could live with what happened. He didn't have to like it, but he could live with it, because even sharing Marley and getting the shortest end of the stick, he still got to have her, and she was still around so...he dealt with it. "Uhhhm. I don't know. I don't <em>think</em> we did," was his initial response to her asking if they'd lost everything. <br/><br/>"I just think there's enough not there to notice. And knowing what we could have...and not having what we deserve... I don't like that." When she turned to look at him, evidence of her own salty tears streaming down her cheeks, he choked out a laugh as she told him it was okay to cry. "I hold back so much, Marley. I start cryin' all the time and the whole dessert's gonna be blue," he teased, getting a little of the old Kaine to come out in this hard time. She told him they didn't lose everything, or at least <em>he</em> hadn't, and he sniffled while she kept going. <br/><br/>Then she called him her soulmate, which made him feel amazing for a shining moment, and then the realization that for a year or longer, as her soulmate, he'd been relegated to booty calls in the dessert and shaking walls in one of the last Motel 6's in the country. All they'd had for this time since he returned was passionate arguments and mind-blowing sex. All the other stuff, good and bad, was off-limits to him. That thought kept mutating and twisting and churning over and over in his head; only serving to drive that knife deeper and deeper into his heart.<br/><br/> And the whole time he was trying not to feel like the asshole for shattering Eric's perfect little fantasy, but dammit he'd already given up so much. He didn't know how much he had left in the tank to give. "Yeah...and you're mine. I just never said it because...I mean how? When could I have before now, ya know? I always tried to keep it physical because I knew the <em>second</em> I wanted more, and got it...some shit like this would happen. I just hoped it wouldn't." As she explained herself, how she loved, he continued to nod. <br/><br/>Their love was so powerful that Eric's name, as well as Tia's didn't even make him miss a beat. He knew Marley didn't want to consign herself to just one person, and he respected that, even understood, as she wasn't the only woman he'd ever been with, and she wasn't the only who held a piece of his heart. He even still held out hope he'd see <em>her</em> again someday. Her heart was big enough for more than one person, and it was one of the reasons he could love her so much, because he could find love elsewhere, but hers would always shine within him. And he was the same way with her. <br/><br/>He sighed and squeezed her closer at her last big sniffle, because even without saying it, he could feel how tired this all had made her. He was exhausted too. So damn tired. "I know. This entire time, watching you two from a distance has been...just...sometimes it's harder than the war. To see you five feet in front of me, but Eric's holding your hand. And that...that reminds me you might as well be a million miles away. And you can't control who you love, or how many. It's only selfish if you don't let it be known from the start, but Eric's known. He's always known. He just never wanted to confront it and ask if Tia was the woman...was there a man?<br/><br/> Was there anyone else? The answer wouldn't have killed him." When she said she should have chosen Eric when he left,but didn't because she couldn't give up on them, Kaine wasn't sure what to feel. His brain knew what she <em>meant</em>, but his heart was beating all up and down his rib cage. This is why he hated bringing up his feelings. When she told him she wrote a letter to his mom, he nearly barked with sudden, ragged laughter. It hurt, but it felt good too. "Ha. Hahahah. You know my mom was out there with me? Not always in the same fights, but she put in just as much work as me. My dad too.<br/><br/> They knew how much was at risk and were willin' to give everything up to save the people they cared about. The people they <em>loved</em>." A gentle squeeze came from him, signifying she was who he was talking about. "I just wish we'd said somethin' before. Or there was time to say somethin' when I got back." Even though he knew Eric hadn't done so on purpose, Kaine's emotional mind felt he'd waited until he was no longer there to talk to Marley, like he knew Kaine wasn't around to be an obstacle.<br/><br/> But he was upset right now, and things you could get mad at made the most sense, even when you invented them. "It's hard to see, but you're right. I spot patches of grass in the dunes sometimes. A bird that's got no business out in the middle of nowhere, which means it's got somewhere to fly home too. Gaia is slowly getting back to herself. As for me...my mind is getting better, slowly, but surely. Otherwise I'm so tough, it'd be unfair if I could heal fast and be immortal too. I would quite literally be unstoppable. Even I'm not comfortable with that much power. But if it meant I got to be with you for eternity...I think I could make it work. In fact, I wish I could."<br/><br/> The thought of him dying and losing her one day was actually one of his biggest fears, hidden behind that massively muscled strongman facade. He smiled when she mentioned kids. He'd always wanted kids. "Maybe one or two can be mine...<em>ours</em>. I think we'd make the prettiest lil' mulatto babies." The two of them sat, embracing each other, him covering her almost completely and loving every second of it; just the closeness, even if the topic felt like it was tearing him asunder. "I don't wanna go back either. I never wanted what that was, but having you was more important than having everything so...so I just had you, when and wherever I could.<br/><br/> Even if that was far...far too few times over this year." He could probably count on barely two hands how many times the two had been alone, while he'd lost count of how many times she'd been with Eric. And that guy <em>still</em> had the nerve to be upset and punish her when she'd given him basically everything from day one, while Kaine had to fight to hold her hand on supply runs. Finally, she said it out loud. He <em>deserved</em> it. He deserved more than he'd ever gotten, and she knew. <br/><br/>Again, that was a double whammy, because it showed she hadn't forsaken him. But it still meant in a way, she'd made her choice between the two men when there hadn't needed to be one except to spare feelings. He knew she couldn't please everyone, but he wished they could be like the other night. If not all the time, then at least more than once in a year. He'd gotten quiet at this point, but she could feel the slight vibrations of his body against hers as the tears finally flowed free.<br/><br/> Even the earlier kiss that had stained their lips was nothing compared to the neon droplets falling like rain to the ground, on his clothes, staining everything that beautiful shade of energon blue. "I want that too. I want more than I've been getting; as much as you'll let me have of you. But it's up to you to make it happen. You know I'd never force anything on you, no matter how much it hurts me. So...so you decide what we are, when we happen. What we do.<br/><br/>What you tell Eric. I'll abide by your decision, Marley." He was leaving it all in her hands. Even if one day she told him it was all Eric from hear on out, he'd abide. With enough tears to fill the reservoir on the inside, he would abide.  "Hehehe. Yeah well it was a spur of the moment gift. I didn't even know if you'd like it," he said in a raspy voice that made it obvious he was still trying to hold back the torrent of tears. "Maybe you could get me a pair of Yeezy's, size 15," he joked. "They're super collectibles now since Kanye didn't survive the Eclipse."<br/></span><br/>