tampered | Log; Ongoing

When; Sept. 3, afternoon
Rating; PG-13 for possible language?
Characters;

hundredflowers
Summary; Hong Mei needs to tell Sam some things about herself. Or push him off a cliff. One of these two things will happen.
Log; Sam really had no idea what it was that Hong Mei needed to tell him about herself that was so big it might be a problem. The only things that Sam could really think of that might make her balk is if she were a transgendered guy, a transvestite, or a Decepticon. The third option would explain the cliff setting, but if she really wanted to kill him, she probably could have done it before now, although Bumblebee had just left. At this point, getting pushed off a cliff might be a mercy.

He had mulled over it the entire ride out to the area, taking his Vespa as far as he could go and then following on foot. His hoodie was pulled tight around him to ward off the chill of death and the ocean breeze.

Seeing Hong Mei, he picked up his pace and hurried over to her.

"Just so you know, I've left three people know where I am," he joked. "So if you're going to push me off, you're never going to get away with it."

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Sam watched as she mulled over what he said. It was kind of cute, how she scrunched her nose up and played with her hair. And he liked that she was actually thinking about this stuff, that it was really serious to her. It showed that there was a lot to her, more than meets the eye.

The question caught him a bit off guard and he recognized that she was maybe avoiding some things. She might have been looking for a way out which, frankly, felt kind of sucky. Sadly, Sam was not a stranger to girls he liked trying to get rid of him.

But, it was a fair question. You wouldn't want to start a relationship with someone who would up and leave you any day if the right person came into the City.

"No, I wouldn't," he said without really hesitating. "I thought about that. A lot. But I'm dead, and it wouldn't be fair to her to expect us to be together. Because then what if her future boyfriend or husband showed up? It's just better for her and I to move on with me being dead."

Her finger still tapping against her lip, then later the edge of her jaw, Hong Mei finally sighed deeply and laid herself back, no longer staring at the waves crashing against the rocks, breaking into a million bubbles, condensing into foam. Instead, she stared at the endless sky above, wisps of clouds painted here or there. The ocean had a beginning, and an end, and it was limited in the way the sky wasn't, and sky and earth never quite met, no matter how much they tried. She reached up with one hand, sketching along the edges of the clouds, expression blank--the sky was eternal. Maybe kind of like her own life.

She was being selfish, thinking so much about how to protect herself when she didn't even spare a thought of how to protect him. When she was willing to put his own feelings in danger for the sake of guarding her own. Her eyes narrowed, squinted at the sun.

That was another funny thing. Being able to look directly at the sun. Her eyes always healed.

"If... you say so," she nodded, dropping her arm down and closing her eyes, almost as though in sleep. If things were doing to be difficult, she'd make it as simple as possible for herself. Go with the flow.

Sam felt like he needed to bang his head against something. He felt like it would be a good literal representation for his metaphorical situation. It would be nice if she would have given him a clue that she felt one way or another about his answer. Sam would have just given up by now if he didn't think she had something against relationships in general and not just a relationship with him.

Sam reached into the pocket of his hoodie and pulled out the tickets to the party on the 7th. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. He probably should have asked Hong Mei before he spent so much money on the tickets. Shoving them back into the pocket, he stared back out at the water.

"Look, you know how I feel about this," he said. "And I don't know if you're scared of getting into something or just don't want to or what. But I don't want to force or push you. I'd rather not get into something with someone that... doesn't really want to be with me."

"It's not you, you know," Hong Mei replied frankly, without hesitation. "It's not like I think you're unattractive. Actually, I think you're one of the nicest guys I've met since coming here, and I like spending time with you, and... I brought you all the way out here--that's got to mean something. I just feel like my entire existence is one that isn't really... made for relationships, but. Then again, I feel like my entire existence doesn't really fit in the City. I'm not just trying for you, though--we haven't known each other for that long. I'm also trying because this... friend of mine, Logan, he's also the type who always heals, who can't die, and he said that I should really think more about myself and stop denying everything good that might happen to me."

She turned, still lying on her back, in the direction of his pockets, where she'd seen him stuff the tickets, out of her peripheral vision.

"You've been very honest with me. I like that. So... I don't know. If you think you can be patient, I think that I can definitely go to the dance with you. Is that some kind of start?"

"I know it's not just me," Sam said. "If I thought it was, I would have probably left a long time ago."

Sam really had no idea what to do in the situation. He liked Hong Mei and thought she was fun, attractive, and smart. But he also didn't want to stick with her just because he wanted her to know that someone thought she was worth it. That wouldn't be fair to her. But he did like her and he did want to get to know her better.

"It's a good start," he said, smiling. "But I need to know up front if the real you is the type to show up to somewhat nice parties wearing something like, I don't know, a Mickey Mouse costume."

She arched an eyebrow suddenly, picking herself up to her elbows--and wincing a bit when the grass burned against the bottom of her forearms, razor-thin papercuts appearing and bleeding a bit of red until they sealed back up, only leaving the slightest traces of dried blood. Hong Mei gestured over the cliff.

"You're still at my mercy, you know. Say too much and I could just pretend to slip and nudge you over," Hong Mei pointed out, jokingly, before she allowed the tension to work out of her shoulders, just a bit. "But really, Sam? I work every evening at the Blue Light, singing on a stage in front of... the entire bar's customers. And employees. If I can make myself presentable like that every day, I think I can handle a party. I don't even really know who Mickey Mouse is."

Everything else, everything that they'd just gone over, was quickly being tucked away in the recesses of her mind for the moment. There wasn't anything more to say, to discuss, because things were in limbo and to push them hurriedly in any direction wouldn't serve either of them.

"It's a cartoon character," Sam said with a bit of a laugh. "It was a joke. I really need to learn more about your culture and time so that if you make references to things, I'll get them."

It was, hopefully, a nice way to segue into something that was not talking about their relationship and therefore not so confusing and all the other stuff their talk just was.

"Like, I didn't think China allowed women to join the army."

Log; Ongoing

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