Arizona - Cold and All Alone

[Ellia St. Claire]

Ellia raised a brow.

"Really," she said dryly, not making a question out of the word. "You really just happen to be driving to Chicago. Right." She chuckled a bit and shook her head, draping her arm casually around Winry. "Look, you really don't have to go out of your way for me. You've done more than enough, I mean it."

Smiling, Ellia looked over to Axel and was a bit surprised by the sternness of his expression. He kept his eyes locked on the road ahead of him, but there was a tightness around his eyes, and a stubborn set to his jaw, that Ellia knew all too well. There'd be no changing his mind, even if taking her back to Chicago meant going miles out of his way.

And, in all actuality, Ellia was a bit touched. There weren't a lot of true gentlemen out there any more, after all. Most guys would have gladly just dropped her off at a bus station and been done with her--at best, any way--and even more would have tried to somehow take advantage of her. True, Axel didn't exactly look like one would expect a knight in shining armor to, but Ellia had learned long ago that appearances could be deceiving.

She was sure that, despite his gruff exterior, Axel was a good man, and one of the few.

"You know what," she said finally, after a few moments of silence as she'd studied him, "I think I'll take you up on that after all. And when we get to Chicago, I'll come up with some way to reward you. Deal?"

[Axel Maverick]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: dddddd; border: #cccccc solid 8px; width: 420px; padding: 15 5 15 5px;] THIS HATE THAT YOU GAVE KEEPS SAYING THE SAME THING The Words: 615 The Outfit: coming soon Tagged: Ellia St. Claire Great. Why did he have to tell her that he’ll drive her straight to Chicago? He’s got to deal with her now in his truck and Axel didn’t do very well with others. He was putting everything that he needed to get done aside to help out one useless woman. Awesome, just plain friggin awesome. Behave. And be proud. You’re doing the right thing.

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Axel couldn’t help but roll his eyes to himself and then glance down at the only friend that he’s had for five years, and that was Winry-Ann. She seemed quite comfortable with where she had her head resting in between the two of them. The German Sheppard was actually very much enjoying the attention that she was receiving from Ellia. Winry-Ann nuzzled her nose into her hand, begging for her to continue to pet her, she even gave Ellia a little kiss. Axel couldn’t help but think that his dog was a suck up. He scoffed a bit, glanced at Ellia, and then looked forward.

“Hn. Fine.”[/b] Honestly, you want to know what Axel planned on doing when he finally reached Chicago? He was going to drop off Ellia and then take off again. He didn’t do well with others and he wasn’t going to allow her to break down the walls that he had spent ten years putting up after his mother brutal death. There was currently too much going on his life and where were times where he had thought about losing Remy’s cell phone number, or changing his name so that the only friend that he did have couldn’t find him.

Why? Because that was the life of a hunter, especially with a life that was so… screwed up like Axel’s. He had too much going on at the moment to get himself involved with anyone else but himself. He needed to find his “father” and give him a piece of his mind about their situation, and then he needed to go and hunt down the demon that was plaguing his life. Actually, he could stop his hunt for Dante and just continue on being a normal hunter. But demons were his specialty and after what he had been forced to witness, how could he not want to search and destroy this demon that not only murdered his life, but murdered any kind of humanity in Axel and destroyed the life of his uncle.

There was a small part of the hunter that believed that Dante had returned and possessed his uncle after the death of his mother. Why did he think this? Well, simple. Axel didn’t just decided suddenly to cut ties to his uncle, after all the only existing family that he had left was the one that bought him the leather jacket that he was obsessed with wearing. On his mother’s birthday he had decided to go and see her gravestone, and then he stopped in by his uncle’s house and found that the place was trashed and his uncle was nowhere to be found. Yeah, that was convincing enough for him.

Taking a glance at the blond stilling next to him, he made another face and his eyes were directed to the road as he pulled onto the highway. “Where in Chicago are you headed?”[/b] Believe it or not, Axel had a very good memory and he was highly confident that he could get the two of them to Chicago without any trouble. Well, he was sure that there was going to be trouble from Ellia, not your usual trouble, no. Trouble as in she was probably going to want to talk to him, or listen to the radio, or something[/b].

Awesome.


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created by ADE! Pb-ified by WILL

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[Ellia St. Claire]

Ellia was half-lost in snuggling with Winry when Axel asked her where in Chicago she was heading.

"Oh," she said, returning her attention to Axel and smiling. "It's a little new-age shop called 'The Light Within,' nestled against Lake Michigan. A friend of mine and her mom own it, and I've been staying with them for the past few months." She shrugged, going back to petting the dog. "I'm not usually big on staying in one place for this long, but I'm sort of helping my friend out. Her wife died, and she's trying to raise this little girl, and... It's just been hard, that's all."

Lapsing into silence again, Ellia let her eyes wander to the truck's stereo, wondering if Axel always drove in silence, or if he was just trying to make it easier for them to converse. Ellia actually snorted at that thought. Yeah, right. Still, a bit of music might be nice...

"Ummm... You mind if we listen to something? Or, I could sing for you if you want? I'm pretty damn good, honestly." She said the last with a bright, honest grin. She wasn't bragging. She didn't need to. In fact, if anything, she was being modest. "I mean, I don't have any of my instruments with me or anything, but..."

She let the statement trail off, shrugging again and watching Axel as he drove. She could see this becoming a very long, very quiet trip.

[Axel Maverick]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: dddddd; border: #cccccc solid 8px; width: 420px; padding: 15 5 15 5px;] THIS HATE THAT YOU GAVE KEEPS SAYING THE SAME THING The Words: 570 The Outfit: coming soon Tagged: Ellia St. Claire Music: Night of the Hunter Notes: None. He took in the information like a sponge took in water. He had no idea why, but there was something that was just… captivating about this young woman. Axel couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he had a feeling that this woman was never going to be able to get out of his life after this. He kept taking side glances, trying to figure it out as she spoke. Her skin was light, but well taken care of, her hair was blond at the average length, her eyes were sparkling, and the way that she had her arm wrapped around his dog was a kind and loving gesture. And as soon as he put everything together, he had finally realized why he was drawn to her… She reminded him of his mother. Her kindness seemed to radiate off of her and Axel could feel it. That was a feeling that he hadn’t had in over ten years, and there was a part of him that was glad to feel it again, the bigger part, the visible part, was clearly mourning for the loss of his mother all over again. There were flashes of her beautiful personality teaching him that he shouldn’t take life for granted, to love everyone and protect those that you love. He tried that, protecting the people that he loves and look where it got him, alone with a messed up nerve system, a demon on his tail, and no home. It hurt just having to remember his mother, and he didn’t even realize that she had asked him a question before Winry had pulled away from her new best friend and nudged the hunter with her nose. “Hn.”

[/b] He moved his arm away from Winry-Ann and then turned his attention to his passenger, a different emotional frown appearing on his face before he had turned away from her. “Go for it, I don’t give a shit.”[/b] If there was any other time, he would have told her no, but at the moment he was currently plagued with the thoughts and the memories of his wonderful mother, the only friend and family member that he’s ever had in his life.

Well, that’s a lie, there was his uncle, Mark Maverick Jr. Right now, he was currently missing and Axel had a pretty good idea on where he was. Not really, but he was pretty damn sure that he was being possessed by Dante and wandering around the country side somewhere. When he had first met his uncle and when he was first possessed, Axel should have taken him somewhere so that he could get an anti-demon possession tattoo like his mother made him do when he was of age. Did that thought come to him at the time? Of course not, he had just lost his mother, and he had to live with the fact that he had watch her die with no power or control of the situation.

Winry-Ann sensed the brooding in his stage and she couldn’t help but nudge his shoulder. He glanced at her from the side of his eye and gave her ear a loving scratch before she was content enough and knew that he was going to be okay. She then snuggled back up to the passenger in the front seat and put her head down onto the console.

“Is there an address for said shop?”[/b]

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created by ADE! Pb-ified by WILL

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[Ellia St. Claire]

Leaning forward, Ellia flipped on the radio and scanned through several stations before finding something she liked. They were still pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and there wasn't a lot to choose from, but you could never really go wrong with a bit of classic rock. As Journey's "Wheel in the Sky" blared out of the truck's speakers, Ellia couldn't help but smile and feel a little more at ease.

Stifling a yawn, Ellia gave Axel the address to the shop and settled back in her seat, propping her feet up on the dash and closing her eyes, one arm behind her head and the other draped over Winry, fingers buried in her soft, warm fur. Sighing in contentment, she tried to forget about all of her recent troubles, and to just live in the moment, like she used to.

Ellia could sense the tension flowing off of Axel as he was lost in his own thoughts. She was a projective empath for the most part, but even though she wasn't particularly gifted at receiving emotional ripples from people, she was still more sensitive to empathy than most people were. So she knew he was troubled, and she opened one eye to watch him as he drove, his own eyes fixed firmly on the road ahead.

Frowning a bit, but unsure what to say or do to try and make him feel better, Ellia simply closed her eye again and dropped into a light doze. She didn't really like falling asleep around complete strangers, but she was just too tired, and everything had seemed to catch up with her all at once. The stresses of the past few months, the sound of the familiar music, and that comforting, soothing sensation of flying down the road conspired to lull her into a deeper sleep than she'd intended.

And, for the first time in what seemed like ages, she blessedly didn't remember the things she dreamed.

[Axel Maverick]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: dddddd; border: #cccccc solid 8px; width: 420px; padding: 15 5 15 5px;] THIS HATE THAT YOU GAVE KEEPS SAYING THE SAME THING The Words: 600 The Outfit: coming soon Tagged: Ellia St. Claire Music: Night of the Hunter Notes: None. Axel’s brain worked like a sponge, soaking up any new information that came his way, and that meant the address that Axel was going to have to drive this young woman too. Only for a second did he forget about when the radio broke the silence between the two of them, and made him wince a little bit. He wasn’t used to having someone else other than his companion Winry in the truck with him, let alone having the radio on. The man went everywhere in silence. This was the first time that he had ever heard music playing from his speakers. No, the hunter wasn’t a complete hermit, he has heard music before. The last time that he ever sung a song or listened to the radio or even channel surfed was when he was eighteen. He had been sitting on his ass for four hours making his way up to Salem Massachusetts with his mother to inspect demon omens. Yeah… let’s totally not get into that, Axel was already distracted enough with his thoughts he didn’t need to remember anymore than he already did. Winry-Ann snuck in closer, thinking that Axel wasn’t going to see her. Of course he did, he had eyes like a hawk and he couldn’t help but smirk to himself when the German Sheppard brought himself closer to the woman sitting in the passenger seat, her yellow eyes darting to the window. He knew what she wanted, she wanted the window down, but sadly, Axel had no idea if Ellia wanted it down considering that she was trying to sleep. Or at least that’s what it looked like on the outside. Instead of being an asshole, and waking up Ellia as they got onto the highway, Axel reached around behind his seat and pushed the window open a little bit for Winry, who in return, wiggled herself out from underneath the young woman’s arm, looked at the window, then looked to Axel, THEN stuffed her head back in Ellia’s grasp. Axel couldn’t help but glare at his dog, roll his eyes and put them back onto the road. He did however catch himself glancing at Ellia who slept in the seat next to him. She was a beautiful girl, very beautiful, and he could tell just by looking at her that she had a lot of potential to get somewhere in life. So why the hell was she stuck out here in Arizona? It didn’t seem like a place for her to be, considering that she was going all the way back to Chicago. He couldn’t help but think that she was an idiot. Out of respect for the fact that she sleeping, and for his ears, Axel gently turned the music down for her. He knew that he wouldn’t have been able to sleep with so much noise going on around him… then again the man didn’t get much time to do that, sleep was a luxury to him sometimes. But he did stop often because of Winry. She had different needs than himself, oh, and he’d stop by his friend Remy’s place ever once and again to restock on that cream that seemed to relax his nerves so that they didn’t go numb on him often. It still happened, but not as badly. Axel drove in silence, his hands holding the bottom of the steering of he had a look that screamed serious. His intentions were to get her home soon as possible, and while in the state, look for a job. Axel did like driving… but not as much as others. created by ADE! Pb-ified by WILL

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[Ellia St. Claire]

Finally, she was home.

Well, it wasn't home exactly, but it was the closest thing that she'd had in a very long time. She's spent the past several months living here, at Abbie and Lillian's shop, not to mention all the time she spent here years ago when she and Abbie had been dating. So yeah, it felt like home to her, even though her real home was back in Boston with her mother and sister, who she hadn't even talked to in years.

Axel had made good time getting here, driving all day and most of the night before Ellia had finally convinced him to stop somewhere so they could get some decent sleep. It had been a dirty little roadside motel, but Ellia had stayed in worse places, and something told her Axel had as well. After an early start the next morning and several long hours on the road, Ellia felt that she and Axel had started to develop a sort of tenuous friendship. She'd even managed to wrangle his number out of him, and she'd given him hers in return, making him promise that they'd get together sometime, once she'd had a day or two to settle back in.

Waving good-bye to Axel and giving Winry a kiss on her soft muzzle, Ellia stepped out of the truck and made her way into The Light Within, sighing and smiling at the familiar smell and feel of the place after so many days away. Lillian, of course, was there to great her warmly, and Ellia returned her embrace and promised the older woman that she was fine before wandering off to her usual room to get some much needed shut eye.

She'd call Axel in the morning, or wait on a call from him. She didn't know which, yet, and she was honestly too tired to care...

((Finished?))