On a dark desert highway... |Helena&Khiyyi|

"On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
'This could be heaven or this could be hell'
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say..."

Humming an Eagles song to himself, Sam wandered about the library- putting books back where they belonged and such. It had been a few months since he had gotten a job here, and Samuel found that it was taking a little bit longer to move in then he expected. He still had a few more boxes to unpack where he lived, and just hadn't found enough time to do it yet. The temptation of using his power over air had wandered through his mind every now and then, but he found that it would be kind of ridiculous to even consider that- risking breaking things and so on. It wasn't like he didn't trust himself to do things correctly, he just preferred to do things manually.

"Welcome to the hotel california
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the hotel california
Any time of year, you can find it here"

At the time being, it happened to be a little bit after 12 o'clock and Sam planned on eating the lunch sitting on his desk after he finished putting up the books he had been pushing around on a cart. Heading over to the section about plants, he began to put some books up when his right leg started to hurt. Pausing for a moment, Sam sighed and stopped his humming- sitting down in a chair nearby to massage his leg. "What a nuisance," he grumbled- closing and then rubbing his eyes. 'Just sit for a few minutes then you can go eat,' Samuel thought to himself; moving his hands back to his leg- the source of his pain being being mostly his calf for now.

Helena was far too aware that the peaceful school would soon be filling up with rowdy students intent (maybe) on learning as much as they could in the short school year. While Helena always enjoyed teaching others the subject which had so captured her heart, she was definitely going to regret having to have an actual schedule again. It was so very hard to work all hours on a Sweet Dreams Draught when one had to teach every day of the week. She was therefore trying to take advantage of the last few days of her freedom by taking her meals in either the library or her office, trying to get the mood-altering brew just right. Today she was taking her (self-made) lunch of grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches along with a big thermos of tomato soup into the Library. It wasn't perhaps the best place for a slightly messy meal, but she was always careful around the books and Samuel had yet to kick her out of the library.

Speaking of which, the handsome librarian was sitting nearby, at his post as always. She smiled at him, advancing on the table he was currently sitting at and wondering at his treatment of his leg. "Hurts, huh? Whatever did you do to it, anyways?" Despite having known Samuel for almost a year, she still knew hardly anything about him, even though she tried desperately to pry information from him at every chance she got. "Will you spill if I help?" She set her paper-bagged sandwiches and thermos of soup on the table, then sat down next to them, her brown shorts tightening slightly as she squished her butt against the table. She had no sleeves to roll up, seeing as he was currently wearing a teal tank top, but she mimed doing so anyways, then shooed his hands away with her own. She began moving her hands up and down his calf, applying tough but gentle pressure to his obviously painful muscle. She didn't even consider the possible awkwardness of her actions. His leg hurt, so she was trying to make it not hurt. She meant nothing by it. 'Sides, he was off limits.

Khiyyi hummed softly to herself, as she rearranged her classroom for maybe the sixteenth time that week. For whatever reason, perhaps nervousness (she'd never admit to it), she just didn't like the way her classroom was set up. Too many desks now. Later there wouldn't be enough. Not enough floor space. Too much floor space. She couldn't seem to reach a lovely medium between all of her problems. After readjusting the desks into a sort of against-the-wall style, she sighed. No, this wasn't working. She needed to get out of the damn classroom and go do something else for a little while, get her mind off of the students that would soon be a pain in her neck. Giving her headaches. Stupid people.

Tugging lightly on the end of her braid, she realized that she was starving. In fact, she'd probably been hungry for the past week and had simply let it go unnoticed. Knowing Helena might have been taking better care of herself, she headed off to find her best friend and steal food from her. She wandered in the general direction of Helena's office before realizing that the familiar scent of her friend was leading in another direction. The library. Curious, she carefully opened the door and stepped inside. She wasn't wearing any shoes, which was typical, but she had pulled on a short, black handkerchief skirt and a peasant top, which billowed nicely as she walked.

Khiyyi spotted Helena sitting on the end of a table, her food left unattended and defenseless. As she passed the goodies, she snatched up a half of a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich and then slipped her arm around her friend's waist. "What are you up to, lovely lady?" And then her gaze fell on Samuel. Khiyyi tilted her head and took a bite of her sandwich-half. "Ah, yes. Him. Hello, pretty man."

As Helena advanced upon him, Sam smiled politely toward her- always the mysterious kind of man without even meaning too. Obeying her hands, he moved his away and ended up folding them together "An accident," he replied to her simply- his eyes taking on a slightly distant look as she began to massage his leg. A few seconds passed though, he quickly snapped back to reality and looked back at Helena "Is that good enough?". About a minute after he spoke though, Khiyyi appeared and he offered another smile toward her- the kind that would cause anyone to get paranoid "Hello pretty lady," he retorted with a wink. Of course his charm was unintentional, but Samuel had a bad habit of flirting with the various female teachers every now and then- including Helena and Khiyyi. Turning back to Helena, he shooed her hands away just as she had done to him; "It's fine now, really." He said to her in almost a dismissive manner, standing up just to prove that fact. "I had just been on my feet for too long."

Helena cocked an eyebrow at Samuel's curt answer, though she hadn't really expected anything else from him. He was just so damn mysterious. Oh well. She locked this new information away in her mind. An accident. Not exactly enlightening, but it was more than nothing. And the way his eyes got kinda far away after he answered was even more than more than nothing. So that was something, right? She shrugged, "Yeah. Good enough, I suppose." She didn't feel like pushing him for answers now. After all, that hadn't ever worked before, so why should it work now? Her fingers were starting to get hot from being rubbed against the fabric of his pants, but she ignored it. She'd stop in a minute anyway.

Helena's eyes lit up as her wifey's hand wrapped around her waist and her fingers halted in their massaging. Apparently Samuel also thought it was time to stop, pushing her hands away after he'd given Khiyyi a saucy wink. Delicious. She let herself be shooed away from his no-longer-hurting leg and instead wrapped an arm around Khiyyi's waist. "Enjoying lunch, dear? Would you like some soup?" She unscrewed her thermos with one hand, her fingers extremely dexterous from their practiced delicacy from all of her alchemy work. She took a huge gulp of the soup right out of the thermos then offered it to Khiyyi. "Did you pack lunch Sam-well, or would you like to steal my other sandwich?"

Khiyyi's full lips curved in reply to Samuel's wink. If he only he truly realized that he had long since been claimed. That day...The day when she'd first seen him from afar. That had been the day that she had decided he would be hers. She didn't know how, she didn't know why, but one day their beds would be one and the same. And there was nothing he could do about it. Between Helena's love and Sam's attractiveness, Khiyyi figured that her life would be a very long and very happy one. Well, that is if she could continue to refrain from murdering one of her students.

An arm wrapped around her waist broke her from her thoughts and Khiyyi took another bite of her stolen food. "Yes, quite a bit." Her gaze narrowed on the thermos, her expression taut with desire for the soup within it. When Helena took a drink, Khiyyi's gaze fell to the line of her dear one's throat and watched her swallow the heated goodness. She wanted some of that. Once it was offered, she took it and swallowed some good, thick tomato soup herself. Setting the still very full thermos down delicately, her attention returned to her prey. "Your leg was bothering you again? Tsk, tsk. Be more careful."

"No, thank you darling," Sam replied simply to Helena's offered food. As Khiyyi spoke, her eyes as predatory as ever; he grinned at the woman and lightly pinched her nose "I already have a mother, Kiwi," he said to her in a teasing manner as he walked by both Helena and Khiyyi and over to his desk that happened to be just a few yards away. Shaking his lunch bag at the both of them almost in a mocking manner, he sat down in his reclining chair and pulled an apple out- chomping down on it just as he realized that he hadn't bothered to push the book cart back over to his desk. Sighing heavily, he waved his hand as if calling someone over to him- and just as he did the metal book cart that had been by Helena and Khiyyi immediately flowed over to Sam and stopped when he held his hand up.

Helena shrugged again, that just meant more sandwich for her. She just hoped he had brought something to eat or else she would probably feel horrible eating in front of him. She was really hungry though! She fished the remaining sandwich out of the bag and stared at it for a moment, then glanced at Samuel. Then back at the sandwich. Why was life filled with such complicated decisions? She sighed heavily, then took a large bite of the sandwich. She looked guiltily at Samuel as he got up, but her guilt didn't last long. It looked like he'd brought lunch along after all. Well that was good. She took another bite of the sandwich, squishing her teeth into one of the warm tomatoes, then washed it down with a gulp from the thermos that had been put back on the table by Khiyyi. She stopped mid-chew, her eyes widening, as she realized what Samuel had done to the book cart. She swallowed her food quickly, tilting her head as she processed this information.

"That was not wind." she said, then congratulated herself over stating the obvious. She set her sandwich back on the table and licked her fingers slowly. "He's a double then, isn't he?" she said, giving a sly smile to Khiyyi. "I didn't know that. How come you don't tell anybody about that, you silly man?" That was a huge piece of information to add to her mental Samuel folder. Accident. Far-away eyes. Closet Metal powers. This day was turning out to be more productive than she'd originally expected.

Khiyyi settled onto the table next to her wife. They'd been together for all of eight years, but already she was very protective of Helena. Should a man ever take interest in the younger Elessarian, he'd have to undergo Khiyyi's scrutiny, unless he was already a pre-approved person. Which was not exactly the most common thing to come by. Due to the fact that she had not had anything to eat in a little over a week's time, she hadn't stopped to think that Samuel might not have food either and came close to guiltily offering him the remains of her half-eaten sandwich. When he pulled out a lunch bag of his own, she visibly relaxed and leaned against Helena.

And then the book car moved. Khiyyi sat up, spine rule-straight as she watched the metal contraption move. It was heavy. While Helena stated something that Khiyyi had already realized (she is an air element, after all), her own eyes focused on Samuel. A sly smirk filled her features and she nodded in response to her friend, although her eyes stayed upon her future lover (where does she get the right to say such a thing?). Metal...How interesting. "You're an interesting person, candy-man. Does this mean you're edible too?" Amusement licked at the edges of her tone.

As realization hit him, Sam let out a long dreary sigh. "It's not a favorite thought of mine," he said to Helena; dissatisfaction making his tone seem a little irritable. Setting his lunch down on his desk, he stood up and placed his hand on the book cart; eyeing both Helena and Khiyyi "And I would prefer not to be reminded of it," with those words his fingers dug into the metal he had been holding onto and as he let go- what was left was simply his handprint. His feelings for his power over metal was simliar to that of a person who was maybe taller or shorter then they liked- he /disliked/ it, but there really wasn't anything he could do about it.

Sighing once again, Sam walked over to the two women- looking both of them up and down before speaking. "Now, am I the only interest you two women have at the moment or may I aid either of you in finding a book?" he looked at Khiyyi for a moment- having choosen to ignore her remark for the time being.

Helena's brow wrinkled in concern at the scorn that Samuel seemed to have for his ability. She sort of got where he was coming from, though. After all, she had been very reluctant to use the fiery side of her powers because she had wished for them to have instead been earth, like her father's. "Huh. Maybe you should be a little more careful about showing it, then. The students round here can be damned perceptive." She picked up her sandwich again and took a small bite, then brandished it at Khiyyi, "Remember when that one guy, Rolf, broke up with me a couple years ago? Those Fingon girls could just tell. Heavens, that was creepy." She looked back at Samuel. Helena thought the whole molding metal thing was spectacular. She probably would have given her right foot to be able to do stuff like that; what with how much it would help with her alchemy. Alas, that was not a choice she could make. She was probably better off not being right-footless anyways.

It was a pity he was unhappy with his power, though. Otherwise she may have been able to talk him into helping her, instead of offering up her right foot to the gods of power-giving. Hell, she might do it anyways. Chances were she'd forget he didn't like being a metal-power, that is if she didn't forget that he even was a metal-power to begin with. She straightened up her back as he approached them, nibbling at her sandwich some more. She was pretty relieved that he hadn't answered Khiyyi's question one way or another, since that probably would have resulted in her testing her man-candy hypothesis. "Well you are a pretty interesting study, Mr. Weire, but I was actually here to try and find and old manuscripts you have on the Egyptian preparation of papyrus. I've got no idea why this one's here, though." She gestured at Khiyyi with her sandwich.

Khiyyi pursed her lips. He didn't like his power? How very intriguing of him. Personally, she couldn't understand such thoughts at all, after all she lived for her element. If there was no Air, there might as well be no Khiyyi, either. She couldn't envision herself with another ability and she would never want a different one anyway. She had long ago decided that two many abilities would be a bother and she liked her singularity. The young woman blinked when a sandwich was brandished at her, thus returning her reality. "I remember that. Whenever I went to talk to you they'd all be hanging around you all...sympathetically." The obvious distaste in her voice left no doubt that she'd thought them silly little things for interfering in her job. She finished up her stolen sandwich and grabbed the thermos, eager for another drink of life-saving soup.

Samuel's question pulled Khiyyi's gaze back to him. She met his eyes for a long moment, a challenge in her gaze. What the challenge was would never be spoken allowed or admitted to. Flipping her attention to her best friend, she stuck her tongue out at Helena. "I am allowed to be wherever I wish to be whenever I wish to be...I came to find you, dear one, for I was starving and thought I might die without sustenance." The shorter woman turned to the librarian a gleam of excitement in her gaze now. "Although, now that I'm here...You wouldn't happen to have any of the latest human-fiction books would you?"