Galatea

Galatea Chapter Twenty Four (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta...the email inundation will stop soon! I promise! InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink, and Dracena are loverly for archiving/hosting. ProPhile gets a nap for his smutmuse work. And Morgan is lost somewhere... Readers/Reviewers: I know I said this was going to be a Kurtty chapter, but someone pointed something out to me and this is for Ucchan. *G * Thanks!

Theresa sighed and stood straighter as if preparing for battle. Sam was hunched over some book, muttering to himself and highlighting pertinent chapters while Rahne hung upside down off the couch, either asleep or pretending to be a vampire bat. "Sam, got a second?"
"Huh?" He looked up through a fringe of blond hair, squinting before he smiled. "For you, yeah. Rahne, get."
"Get what?"
"Get!"1
She flipped over onto her knees and struggled to her feet. "Remember this next time I tell you to bugger off," she grumbled, wandering off in search of somewhere else to be for the time being.
Sam smiled more brightly at Theresa. "So...whatcha need?"
"Well, I've been thinking and...um..." She edged into the room and curled into the corner of the couch furthest from him, eyeing her nails as if considering picking at them. "I'm sorry for being so pushy with you."
He felt his eyebrows creep up in confusion. "Huh?"
"I mean, we're not even going out, really, and I've been hanging all over you. I just wanted you to know," she said with growing conviction as she pushed herself to her feet. "I mean to stop that immediately. It's too forward by half."
Sam closed his book and slowly lowered it to the floor only to let it drop with a thud a few inches short of the destination. "You know," he began, then cleared his throat of the dreaded high-pitch, "you know, I really don't mind the hanging on and all that."
"Well, it's not...not..." She closed her eyes and frowned for a moment. "It's just not." She nodded firmly, pleased with her lack of adjective. "I just wanted you to know. So, um, get back to your homework. I've got some citizenship interview to study for...Or something."
Sam nearly killed himself trying to get over the couch before she made it out of the room. "Theresa, wait!"
"No, Sam," she sighed, dancing out of his reach. "Go finish your homework, I have to study. We'll see each other at dinner."
He managed to get in front of her and block her way. "What's the matter lately? You've been distant for the better part of two days and now you tell me you're sorry for...stuff?"
Theresa attempted a smile but felt it was more of a grimace so she settled for shrugging. "Well, I've been thinking and I've been too pushy with you lately. Bossy. And I just want to stop being that way."
"How the Hell you've been bossy?" Sam felt his accent and syntax slipping but did nothing to stop it. He was too irked.
She gestured in frustration, her face turning pink as she strove to maintain some semblance of cool calm. "Just, you know... Practically attacking you the other day and dragging you into the coat closet downstairs... Telling you what movie we were going to see... Not letting you get pepperoni on the pizza."
"Okay, that last one kinda bugged me but you know, I have sisters. I'm used to bossy girls and I know how to deal with 'em. And trust me, Theresa," he added, stepping closer, looking only slightly down to meet her gaze, "you're nothin' like Paige, even on her worst bossy day."
Theresa managed to hide a snort but turned her face away when he tried to kiss her. "I have to go," she murmured.
"Are we still on for movies in the basement tonight? Jono said..." he paused, sighing as she ducked around him. "Jono said he's got some good horror movies."
Theresa opened her mouth to affirm her previous agreement, but exhaled softly. "Sorry. I have to study."
Sam nodded assent and managed not to groan as she headed out of the library's study area and out into the hall. He fell backwards over the couch and swore under his breath, his head inches from the floor as he stared at the low table. "Hey, Rahne's right...this *is * comfortable..."

Jamie smirked as he caught sight of Rahne scrubbing at a random stain on the knee of her jeans. Her feet were propped on the coffee table in the rec room, a book open beside her but ignored as the pressing matter of appearance took precedence. "Hey," he said, flopping down next to her and displacing her text.
"Hi," she mred,red, still rubbing at the spot.
Jamie blinked in surprise. Normally, he thought, she would be leaning against him or holding his hand already. Instead, he was the one to initiate contact. He laid his arm across her shoulders and pulled her close, trying not to let her sigh hurt him. "What're you up to?"
"Storm said we're going to have a pop quiz in earth science this week, so I was pretending to study."
"Well," he said with a smile, leaning to kiss her, "I can help you with the pretending part..."
"Hmmm?"
"If we're making out," he explained patiently, pulling her hand away from the spot on her jeans, "you won't be studying at all..."
Rahne smiled faintly and permitted him to kiss her briefly before turning away to examine the pattern on the sofa's fabric. "So much in this place is brown, have you noticed?"
"Rahne," he sighed, already exasperated, "I'm trying to show affection here!"
"Oh, Jamie," she said with a slight sigh in her voice, "don't feel obligated just because I'm always pawing you."
He felt deflated. He did not take his arm away from her shoulders but he leaned back against the cushions and stared at the wall for a long moment. "Are you mad at me again?"
"No...Do I need to be?"
"No," he snorted. "I'm just asking because I know you get kind of frustrated that I want to wait and..."
"Jamie," she said kindly, laying her fingers lightly over his lips, "I'm not mad at you and I know you want to wait and you know I said that's okay."
"Then why the pushing away?"
Rahne winced at the plaintive tone of his voice. She felt guilty for making him sound like that and pursed her lips in silence, trying to think of the best possible explanation. Finally, she came up with, "I just need to give us both some space."
"You want to..." he swallowed hard, "break up?"
"No! Oh, no no no no no!" She turned and laid one hand on his chest, leaning closer in her urgency. "I just feel bad always pawing you and slobbering on you so I'm backing off."
"Bad euphemisms, Rahne," he sighed, placing his hand over hers. "I don't mind it."
"Mmmm." Regretfully and a bit slowly, she extricated herself from his grasp and picked up her book. "We'll talk about it later, okay? I have that quiz to study for and some guy from immigration is coming to talk to all of us tomorrow..."
Jamie did not have a wide array of experience but he recognized a brush off when he heard one. "Okay," he replied easily, rising. "So...later?"
"Sure, sweetie, later..."
Jamie wandered into the kitchen and sat down across from Kurt. "Girls are weird," he opined.
"Ja, tell me about it..."
"What's with you?"
"Have you ever thought," Kurt paused, searching for words, "that girls are an alien species?"
"Now I do..."
1 Get...Southern for "Go!"