Well...not entirely perfect [Tulio]

[Deleted]

It was perfect. Well, not entirely perfect, but it was certainly better than any other idea she had come up with in dealing with her ever growing harem (did it still count as one when there were men in there too?) since New Year’s. Admittedly, yes, she looked like a freak, with a hat and sunglasses indoors while she was buying popcorn, but it was a hell of a lot better than having the guy who was selling it to her drooling all over her, right? She didn’t even flash her usual smile as she thanked him, because she wasn’t a hundred percent sure if just not seeing the top half of her head would be enough to ward off the spell, and she did think her smile was one of her best features. Couldn’t risk it.

Taking a deep breath, she left the concession stand, passed the butter pump because that was like ordering a heart attack with your popcorn and her eyes shifted as if she were worried that her “clever” disguise wouldn’t be sufficient. Honestly, all she wanted was to have an afternoon where she could be out and still not get followed around. She figured that if she kept her face as invisible as possible, then sat in the back of a dark theatre, then she wouldn’t have the least bit of a problem. Hell, she would have a good movie to talk to someone about when sanity returned to her life when the day was over.

Still, she wished that it didn’t have to come to this. Now that she actually had the freedom to talk to whomever she wanted, she had become something of a social butterfly. She thrived when she was talking to a charming stranger, for example, but now she really couldn’t do that, could she? Again, she supposed there were far worst things to have happen, but she really didn’t need to have everyone fighting over her like she was the last human standing between a hoard of zombies. It was more than a little disturbing when a bunch of total strangers were professing their love for her too, if you wanted her to be honest. Yes, she wanted to find love again, there was no question about that, but would it kill the gods to send her someone that she had a conversation with, at the very least, before they got to the L word, and could it at least be of their own free will instead of a weird thing in the water at Tintagel?

And now there was just one little problem about wearing sunglasses as the lights grew dimmer nearer the actual theatres in the building. You missed things. Especially when you were lost in your own thoughts, and that was why the door to the theatre she was walking towards managed to hit her squarely in the face. Her sunglasses now lay slightly broken and crooked on her face, not to mention she was stumbling back a bit. Thankfully it took her a few seconds at most to process what had just happened, although she unfortunately took off her glasses for a second in order to examine her now cracked glasses.

“Well, there goes that plan,” she muttered before she realized that the guy who had opened the door was still staring at her and she resisted the urge to groan as she tried to race past him. “Sorry, I’m a lesbian, not interested.” Okay, so that was a half lie, but maybe that was what it took?

“Well hey, I’m openminded—“

“I said no, now good day.” This time she managed to race inside the dark theatre, almost tripping down the aisle. In other words, this was far from the discrete entrance she had in mind…this whole thing was turning her into a genuine klutz.

[Deleted]

Unfortunately for Hermia (as if she needed more misfortune), she wasn’t the only one having a klutzy day that day. Tulio had come to the theatre looking for a place to sit in the dark, in relative solitude, and think. More accurately, he was looking for a place to worry, probably too much though he would deny that vehemently.

The theatre was perfect. Not only could he sit and worry about Miguel’s sudden return and all that came with it, but he would also worry about his feet sticking to the floor, the fat content of the popcorn he would be consuming, and just how terrible the acting/plot/special effects/etc were in the film that was playing. What he hadn’t expected to worry about was the girl that suddenly came careening into the room. Of course, being at least somewhat of a gentleman when situation required, his first instinct was to reach out and catch her to keep him from falling. Fortunately, she had managed to keep her own footing and was no longer in danger of falling. Unfortunately, Tulio noticed this too late. As he was still stood in the aisle, just throwing his jacket onto the back of an aisle seat, he turned and caught her, but only managed to get his own lanky limbs tangled up in hers. With is hands on her arms he couldn’t even flail properly to keep his footing and in one screaming mass they wound up in a painful pile on the floor.

For a moment Tulio could only lay there on his back, eyes squeezed tightly closed, unable to breathe as the girl falling on top of him had knocked all the air out of his lungs.

Well, at least he had something else to add to his list of things to worry about.

[Deleted]

The good news for this new genuine klutz was that she had, indeed, managed to stop herself from actually falling into the remains of soda and crushed candy on the floor. Which of course meant that the world had to throw a well-meaning but equally clumsy person her way. Mia had never thought she would bemoan the fact that chivalry was far from dead, but the fact that she was now falling onto some random guy in the middle of a movie theatre, letting out a cry of surprise that had her being shushed by moviegoers that were far too eager to hear about the latest Marvel/DC/Whatever movie preview was de-romanticizing the notion of someone catching her when she fell very quickly.

Thankfully it didn’t look like she was hurt, although she would soon wonder if perhaps he had been, seeing as he still had his eyes closed. But her first priority was getting as far away from him as possible, seeing as the whole point of this little endeavor was avoiding human contact, you know? Especially now, since those glasses were broken, so it was entirely possible that he would see her properly if she didn’t move fast…so why wasn’t she moving fast?

Well, because frankly, it didn’t take long for her to recognize the poor guy she had fallen on and it surprised the hell out of her to see Tulio again, not to mention now her conscience was really getting in the way because she considered Tulio as a sort of potential friend since they had run into each other at the café. Forgetting about the unfortunate circumstances that would…well, maybe not be so unfortunate this time around, because really, she had thought that Tulio was very attractive when they first met, and he certainly still was…wait, no! She wasn’t going to use this whole situation to take advantage of him, that would just be wrong…

But then again, just leaving him there without at least making sure he was okay would be pretty wrong too. “Oh gods, Tulio?” She started to pull herself up, at least enough that she wasn’t crushing him, but she was even hesitant in that. Her whole plan was failing miserably, and she felt like kicking herself for the part of her that was almost glad that she had run into Tulio under these conditions. Because that was not okay. Still hovering over him a bit, she whispered, having lost her rationality in the chaos, “I didn’t kill you, did I?”

[Deleted]

Well this was just wonderful. All Tulio had wanted was a night alone in a crowd of strangers to mock what would probably be another terrible movie, and to worry about his life without anyone interrupting him, but could he have such a simple thing? Of course not! Apparently it was his destiny to be constantly tortured and abused, sometimes literally. Like now. His back hurt, his ribs hurt, and he didn’t even want to think what was in his hair from even coming into contact with the disgusting theatre floor.

And just to make matters worse, the girl who had caused the whole catastrophe apparently knew him, or at least knew his name. And she was also apparently more than a little bit slow. This night just kept getting better.

“Yes, you did. I have died-” Tulio started to reply, as sarcastically as humanly possible, but he cut off quickly when he finally opened his eyes to see the vision of loveliness that hovered over him. Those eyes, that nose, those lips... he had never seen such a face, never seen such beauty... or at least had never noticed it for, he realised with a shock, he knew her as well. How had he overlooked her beauty upon their first meeting? The second she spoke to him in the cafe he should have declared his undying love and whisked her away. He could do that now! But what if he was too late? That was weeks ago, and a girl... no, a woman of such startling, undeniable beauty could not remain unloved.

“...and gone to heaven, for it is an angel that I see above me, come to sing me to my rest...”

He no longer sounded even remotely sarcastic, just absolutely sincere and starstruck.

Lovestruck, more accurately.

[Deleted]

Honestly, Mia had nothing against sarcasm, at least not when she was in a good mood, or, in this case, when it signaled that her sort of friend was alive and well, if a bit grouchy. She couldn’t even blame him for being grouchy, I mean, this whole thing wasn’t exactly an ideal situation. Which actually reminded her, she really should’ve…Wait…ohhhh no no no, Tulio, if you enjoy feeling sane, please close your eyes again… But she could tell fairly quickly that it was too late, because she had grown very good at sighting the very obvious love struck faces. The cheesy completion of his originally biting response only sealed their fate.

Well this certainly complicated matters, didn’t it? She really wished that she hadn’t realized so quickly that the reason people were starting to fight over her didn’t have all that much of do with her winning looks and personality and more to do with the fact that something was screwy, as it often was around here. If she were still clueless, she could at least enjoy the fact that someone who was, again, pretty hot, was willing to pull out a line that was undeniably cheesy and would probably have all of his guy friends teasing him relentlessly. What was worse, however, was the fact that her conscience was once again getting in the way, and she found herself helping him up off the floor.

“Uh, if I’m going to be singing, it probably shouldn’t be in a movie theatre, Tulio,” she pointed out, trying to sound lighthearted, when honestly, she was nervous. Nervous about how love struck Tulio would act, would anyone else try to get their mitts on her and bring out a rather violent side of him…but more importantly, there was the part of her that was trying to say that this wasn’t such a bad thing. I mean, really, he was really good looking, and now was looking like he’d walk on white hot spikes for her…when was the last time she felt like someone would do that for her?

Gods, no! This wasn’t real, she shouldn’t be feeling really glad that he was saying all of that, it was just wrong. Swallowing back all of these crazy thoughts as much as she could, she asked, “So you’re sure you’re okay?” Maybe she would walk away as subtly as possible and he wouldn’t even know what hit him…that seemed to be how it worked, because she hadn’t gotten a single stalkerish phone call since this whole thing started, and she was sure that if the spell remained, they would have gone through great lengths to find her again. But she had to at least be sure that the most brain damage there was had absolutely nothing to do with the fall.

[Deleted]

When she moved away, Tulio wanted nothing more than to pull her to him and never let her go. He didn’t care that people could see them, and he didn’t care how disgusting the floor was that they were sitting on, he just couldn’t bear the thought of letting her slip away.

Well, maybe he cared about the disgusting floor a little bit. It was really sticky, after all.

Gladly accepting her help up, they were barely on their feet again before he had his arms around her. “Then let’s go somewhere else. Anywhere! To the ends of the earth as long as we’re together!”

The proclamation was made loudly, grandly, and several people just as loudly tried to shush him. “Do not shush me! I will not be shushed - love cannot be shushed!” For the briefest moment he had looked away from Hermia, but he simply could not keep his eyes off of her. Her skin, so flawless, her hair so silky. He just wanted to run his fingers through it.

So he did.

“Am I okay? I am more than okay! I am... I am...” but he couldn’t think of a word that could fully express how much more than okay he was, so he went a different route instead. “Had I died right then I could have died happy with a vision of such loveliness to stay with me for eternity!”

[Deleted]

This was beginning to seem like an exercise in no good deed going unpunished, although Mia was still debating whether this was necessarily a bad thing…

No! Bad Hermia, stop fantasizing about taking full advantage of this, this is the sort of thing Helena would do…what are you even doing thinking of Helena anyway? Like you’re not stressed out enough at present, let’s not dwell on the damn past! Was it possible for your own conscience to give you a headache? Because if it weren’t for the fact that she wanted to keep up some appearances of being happy to see Tulio (which she was, honest, she just didn’t want him fawning over her…right?), she probably would have grimaced as her inner voice just kept screaming at her. Like she didn’t have enough to stress out about, indeed, why couldn’t her conscience realize that it was not helping matters and just shut up…

Wait, she was really thinking of her conscience like it was a whole different person, wasn’t she?

Thankfully she didn’t have all that much more time to dwell on her mind, because Tulio was actually holding her now, insisting that they could be anywhere as long as they were together. And unfortunately that was drawing all the more attention from the rest of the audience. Thankfully she managed to have the presence of mind to cover her face with her hands, not quite out of embarrassment. It was more like, ‘Let’s see if I can protect random civilians’ sanities at least’, because it looked like Tulio was a lost cause at this point…again, why wasn’t this bothering her more? Especially now that he was running his fingers through her hair, and she actually shivered just a bit, inadvertently…to be fair, it had been a very long time since anyone did that, and against her will, she realized that almost hurt, realizing that.

Why shouldn’t something like this be hers? Why shouldn’t there be someone to not necessarily say all of that, but to make it clear that this was what they thought of her? Why did it take this screwy magic for it to work out for her?

“That so?” she sighed after his declaration, her smile wavering for the tiniest bit of time because of that rather depressing thought, but before long, it was back, probably just as lovely as he could ever want. Shaking off those thoughts as well as she could, even if there was a very good chance they would still be present, Hermia glanced around and then whispered, “Better get you out of here before they form a mob against you or something,” managing a weak laugh before she led him out…and yes, she did take his hand. Chances were she’d hate herself in the morning for it, but she did.

[Deleted]

Even when she covered her face it was too late, he was under her spell. The bashful gesture only warmed his heart further. Such humility! For the most beautiful woman in the world to be so shy, so completely unaware of how wonderful she was... why it was a crime! But more endearing than he could express, so for once he resisted the urge, though not entirely due to his own strength of will. No, it was made much easier by the fact that she had agreed to leave with him, to find someone private where they could express their love without all these prying eyes and angry, voices.

“Do not mind them, my love, they are merely jealous because you are mine!” Tulio replied, even as she began pulling him from the theatre. Her hand was so small, so soft, and he marveled at how perfectly it fit within his. He bet there were other parts of them that would fit together just as perfectly.

“By some miracle you have chosen me!” he continued, even as they reached the lobby and the doors closed behind them. “Me, a humble man with barely a cent to my name. I am undeserving of your love, but I shall battle monsters and make my fortune, all in your name! All in the name of love!”

So completely lost and smitten, the thought that he had told her he was a prince didn’t even cross his mind. How could he even dream of lying to her?

[Deleted]

Oh Gods, this was quite possibly the worst case she had ever seen, which was saying quite a bit, considering the first two people who had ever fought over her were very big on the dramatics, and this was just Tulio. She almost winced as he continued drawing unwanted attention towards them, but the last thing she needed was for him to think that she was somehow being hurt. He would probably start charging at some invisible figure or something. She would very much like to keep some amounts of Tulio’s dignity intact, thank you very much.

“Of course, of course,” she muttered, not exactly wanting to admit that there was a chance that he had a point. At least the door was closed now. The spell would wear off for any of the patrons that were unfortunate enough to catch a glimpse of her. Now it was just a matter of figuring out how to handle this particular situation. She turned towards him, looking up at his completely lovelorn, completely gorgeous face, trying to make herself forget, even if for a little while, that this was all based off of a spell. She could imagine that he was really saying all of this about her…you know, it warmed her a little, thinking that way, and her smile grew more genuine…

Then she tilted her head, though, because she could’ve sworn she remembered calling him Prince Tulio rather playfully at the café. Not that titles were at all important to her…and actually, if it turned out that he was pretending to be as a means of picking someone up or whatever it was…you know what? She didn’t want to know. Her life was complicated enough without trying to analyze what he was saying.

She merely shook her head, probably still looking like a picture of humility to him. “You don’t have to do that, Tulio, I’d never ask you to,” she assured him before her eyes wandered down to their hands. It seems that she had forgotten to let him go. Lifting her gaze, she vaguely remembered that deal that she had made with Bartok…that she was supposed to pretend that they were together in order to get their stalkers off their backs…but it was just an act, right? And Bartok wasn’t here, so there wasn’t even the risk of him thinking she was backing out. And as much as her conscience was trying to get in the way, she liked this.

“I can honestly say that hearing that is more than I’ve dared ask for in quite some time.”

[Deleted]

Even in his lovelorn state, a part of Tulio was relieved when Hermia said that he didn’t have to fight for her. He really wasn’t a big fan of fighting, nor was he very good at it. He was too skinny, all arms and legs; he was built for running away, not for fighting. He did still want to make his fortune, though; now more than ever. Not only did he want to be rich for himself, because gold had always been his first love, but now it would be his second, and he wanted to be rich so he could afford to shower his new most beloved with everything she deserved.

He would fight for her, though, if she did happen to ask... he was just really glad she claimed she never would.

Speaking of glad, he was beyond that at the moment. In fact, he was positively elated to hear that nobody else had spoken such words to her in a long time. He would have been terribly jealous if other men were telling her the things he was telling her, and then he would have to fight them, and while fighting other men was at least slightly more appealing than fighting monsters... well, see the above statement about his build.

“You can dare ask me anything, anytime, I’ll say it, I’ll do it. Anything you ask, everything, it’s yours. I’m yours,” Tulio replied. Pulling Hermia to him, he wrapped his arms around her again, just wanting to hold her, breathe her, drown in her.

[Deleted]

It was better for Tulio to not know what exactly she had meant. He really didn't need to know that, in fact, he had the entire sighted world competing for Hermia's favor and love, and she wanted to avoid as many reminders of such as she could. She wanted to just pretend that this was happening the old fashioned way, that a look, or some special moment had made it clear they were supposed to be together. That was the sort of scenario she wanted, and forgive her for playing the part.

So when he pulled her in, her tentative arms wrapped around him and she let her arms fall closed. She had forgotten how good this felt, being so close to someone. She couldn't tell you if she loved Tulio, but she knew she wanted him, and in a matter of speaking, as his vows to be all hers made clear, she had him. It sort of hurt in a bittersweet way, knowing all she did, knowing that it was a mere fantasy that stopped her from crying.

Well, if she was going to give in, in spite of everything that was telling her to just walk away, set him free, and to perhaps feel emptier than ever, she might as well do it thoroughly. Taking a deep breath, she pulled back just enough to take him in. Resting a hand on his face, she could only manage to whisper, "Same," with the mental postscript of, For now, although at the rate she was going, she was going to wind up heartbroken when he was set free.

But she wasn't going to let herself think of that. Instead, she kissed him, securing whatever she was fated to.

[Deleted]

Her touch was like heaven, or what Tulio imagined a heaven could be like if it existed and he had any chance of ever getting into it, which he didn’t so he really didn’t dwell on it much. But if it did, and he did, then it would be like this, his own personal heaven right here in her arms. He wished she would smile, for her smile was like the sun: illuminating, warm, bright. He wished she would speak, for her voice was like the sweetest music, the most exciting and beautiful sound he could even imagine. She was he embodiment of beauty, of love, of perfection, and if he were to die in this moment he would die a happy man.

Though he really hoped he didn’t, because that would definitely put a damper on things.

Oh, but then she spoke and his heart soared! A single word, a simple word, that said so much, that meant so much!

...what did it mean?

Did she mean he could ask her anything? Tempting. That she would do anything he asked? His spirit, among other things, rose at the very idea. Or did she mean that she was his? Her, a goddess, beauty incarnate, was pledging herself to him, a lowly - albeit very handsome, cunning, and charming - crook? Would wonders never cease?

Apparently they would not for a moment later she was kissing him and he felt like his heart would stop, or maybe burst. What was a guy to do? He kissed her back, fervently, desperately, as if her breath gave him life, as if this first kiss may be there last.

It was rather mindblowing, to be honest. He was certain he saw fireworks.

[Deleted]

The deep down urge to cry was certainly growing stronger as time went on, much as Hermia had been trying her very best to fight. So, she thought bitterly, this is how I get the first kiss I’ve had in millennia, is it, Aphrodite? Whether or not her goddess of love heard her was beyond Hermia. It seemed like the gods were very bad at listening to an Ancient Greek girl with modern sensibilities, perhaps she should consider sacrificing goats again. Otherwise she probably wouldn’t have been in this bittersweet, torturous, wonderful kiss in the first place.

She did everything she could to drown out all the images that she was trying her hardest to avoid, such as the natural comparison that popped up into her head…this kiss compared to the kisses she shared with her first love, the man that she was going to marry before he betrayed her. The man she had been spending the better part of two years insisting meant nothing to her, absolutely nothing. This was the sort of thing that should have mattered, the fact that she found herself kissing Tulio back with equal passion, the kiss of a dying woman, and in the strangest of ways…she was dying a little…because she just could not get how critically fake and wrong this all was. And tears finally started to break through her brown eyes through the first time she had been held onto in such a way…

It was just too much.

Gasping for air, she pushed Tulio away, her eyes no longer dry as she stared up into his, the ones that looked at her with such adoration that she wished she had the luxury of believing.

“I…I’m sorry, I…I can’t,” she said. It wouldn’t matter to him by the time she left. At that, she turned on her heel, heading towards the door out of the theatre, her eyes squeezed shut as everything about what had just happened rushed to her, hurt over how that was the first time she had kissed anyone, the first time anyone seemed to really want her in ages, the fact that it was all fake, the fact that she just couldn’t let herself go with it…it all came crashing down on her and it came out in tears that she hadn’t shed in years.

[Deleted]

It was everything he ever could have dreamed of, had Tulio been the type who was predisposed to dream of true love and amazing kisses, which he wasn’t, of course, because that would be girly and more like something Miguel would dream about. But still, the moment was like every cliché he had ever heard about angels singing and fireworks going off and heat and hearts beating as one. It was perfect.

And then she pushed him away.

Hurt and confused, he stared at Hermia for a moment, looking every bit like a kicked puppy. Why would she push him away? Did she not feel what he had? Did she not love him as he loved her? Did she not believe he would do anything for her, sacrifice anything to be with her and make her happy?

That was when he noticed her tears just as she turned and tried to run away. He felt strange all of a sudden, confused and disoriented, but he followed her anyway. Running around to cut her off, the moment he saw her face again those feelings left and he smiled that transfixed, dopey smile again before he was reminded of the tears that still streamed down her face.

“Why are you crying? Did someone hurt you?” he asked with excessive concern. “Tell me who it is. I will tear them limb from limb! I will make them scream for mercy for every tear that you have shed! I will... I will... I will do all sorts of other terrible things to them that I will inevitably think up later for even thinking of hurting you!”

[Deleted]

In Hermia’s experience, the minute that she actually left her suitor(s)’ sight, the spell was broken. At least, she figured that was the case, otherwise she would have far more of them following her home, sneaking into her bed, leaving her about 47 messages…ugh, now that would have been just plain creepy. As if she didn’t have enough trouble dealing with this, the last thing she needed was for the spell to last long enough for someone to actually—oh for the love of the gods, did he really do this? She wasn’t sure if she even had the right to say she had no luck. After all, there was a selfish part of her that wanted to take full advantage of him falling at her feet, but there was a severely wounded par t of her that saw this as further proof that this spell was the only way she could ever be truly adored. That was the part that was leaving her not knowing what to do besides stare at Tulio, tears still in her eyes. One of the worst parts was that here he was, offering to rip Lysander limb from limb. There were definitely days when she would have jumped at this chance…you know, if she had any idea of where Lysander was. There was no way she was going to bother going back to Athens to find him married to Helena or something.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, she managed to speak. “Tulio, as much as I appreciate that, there’s nothing you can do, I don’t even know where he is and…” She wanted to tell him that he should just forget about her, because honestly, once he let her go, that was going to be very easy. Yet there was no way he’d ever believe her, was there? Right now she was the center of his universe, which sounded all very well and good if it weren’t him and just about everyone else who laid eyes on her, if it didn’t make her feel like she was using another human being as a puppet to help satisfy a long standing hunger for romance. Still, in spite of herself, she reached out a hand to touch his face, wondering if maybe she could pretend this was all real for a second…but no. It just wasn’t going to work that way.

“I…I just can’t. I know you won’t believe me, but you deserve a lot better Tulio…” Then she tore her hand away from him, backing away. “I’m just setting you see that, that’s all.” One sad smile and a turn of a heel later, she was off again. At least she wasn’t crying this time.