Damn Loompas.

[acts_of_gord]

Some days are longer than others. Days where the weather outside is rainy and bleak, and an attempt to get to the target range involved several falls and a lot of scratches and mud, and the sleep the night before had been poorer, thinner stuff than usual are a fine example of this. All Gordon wants at the end of a day like this is the chance to get warm and put on dry clothes.

There is, however, a slight problem. Namely: the door to room 287 is not there.

And the replacement, a life-sized, hyper-realistic sculpture of Han Solo encased in carbonite- which appears to have been made from dark chocolate- does not seem to have a knob or handle of any kind...

Comments

[acts_of_gord]

"Um," says Gordon. "Sure?"

Who knows, maybe it'll be something harmless.

[vance_prime]

Since when has Gordon Freeman EVER been that lucky?

Alyx chews her lip, trying to think of how to phrase this.

"How do you know when you're attracted to someone?"

[acts_of_gord]

Once. When he was eight. It involved cookies.

It's Valerie all over again, isn't it. Maybe not as extreme, but...

"Well," he says, trying to sound like this is perfectly normal everyday conversation for who is he kidding, this is the kind of thing that happens to other men entirely, but he's going to try anyway even if he has to keep his eyes on the floor the whole time, "for one thing, you notice them more than other people, whether you mean to or not. At least I do. For starters?"

[vance_prime]

"How do you mean?"

Alyx sits down on the edge of the bed. This sounds like it's going to take a while.

[acts_of_gord]

"Well-" Gordon runs a hand over his hair. "In a crowd or a group of people, if you're not actively trying to look somewhere else, you wind up sort of drifting your attention their way more often than anybody else's. You don't necessarily mean to, but it happens. Uh, you probably notice more about the details of how they look or sound or move than other people, like I could pick out the way you walk from other people-" That might be a bad example, since it implies he's been watching, but it's the first thing he could think of. "You might, um... there's physiological responses, too, but that sort of implies more than just being attracted, usually."

[vance_prime]

"Like what?"

She's not offended at all, just curious. She doesn't have the cultural context required to be offended.

[acts_of_gord]

The logical thing to do here would be to treat this as if it were nothing but a classroom situation. Slight problem: Gordon stinks at classroom situations. Ask anybody who took his freshman year physics class at Boston University. It just wasn't meant to be.

"The, um, accelerated heart rate, for one, that's pretty common," he says instead. "There's the pupils of the eyes, those tend to get bigger when you're looking at or thinking about the person in question. Sometimes-" He looks down at his hands and his expression goes very rueful. "-sometimes there's localized sweating. And the odd feeling in the stomach, sometimes. Not always."

[vance_prime]

Alyx is silent, taking this in.

( "Oh, and by the way? Nice to finally meet you.")
( Wow, that's the first honest-to-goodness smile she's seen on his face since he got here. )
( "--Hey," she adds as Gordon steps through, "take care of yourself." )
( Alyx wraps one arm around Gordon's, partially to steady herself on the madly shaking platform, and partially because--well, just because. )
( He looks good when he smiles. He should do it more often. )

"...I. Um. I think I might be feeling that. About you."

[acts_of_gord]

Ladies and gentlemen, we have Coke can match.

"Thanks," he says, and tries to remember that his shoulders do not, in fact, belong anywhere in the vicinity of his ears.

[vance_prime]

Alyx isn't blushing quite that much, but she's still an impressive shade of pink right now.

"I'm not doing this right, am I?" she murmurs through her facepalm.

[acts_of_gord]

"I'm really not the one to ask," Gordon admits. "I'm not- even by my time's standards I'm not good at this. If it helps at all, I'm almost as at sea as you...?"

[vance_prime]

"Mngh." She lifts her head just far enough to look at him. "At least you have some idea of where to start."

[acts_of_gord]

That draws a smile, at least, even if it's on the self-deprecating side. "True," he says. "You're a fast learner, though. You'll catch up soon enough, I'm sure."

That much is true, and not worth getting embarrassed over. The color's receding already.

[vance_prime]

And there it is. That smile. Is this the 'odd feeling in the stomach' Gordon was talking about?

She smiles back. "Thank you, Gordon."

[acts_of_gord]

"You're welcome. It's the truth," Gordon says. And finds himself a little bit at a loss for words; he lets out a huff of breath, trying to think what ought to come next-

"But as long as we are coming at this from such-" He waves a hand vaguely. "Different directions? Positions?... anyway, could you do me a favor? Warn me if I say or do something that's... you know, not what you were expecting to hear? I'm not used to talking things through."

[vance_prime]

Alyx lets out a little nervous giggle. "I don't really know what I am expecting, but okay."

[acts_of_gord]

"Thanks," says Gordon, relieved. "We'll figure this out eventually, I'm sure."

Well, he hopes, anyway.

"And... now I'm at a loss again, I think. Where were we?"

[vance_prime]

Good question. "Deciding who's going to sleep where?" offers Alyx. "I can sleep on the floor if you want, I can get a good night's sleep pretty much anywhere..."

[acts_of_gord]

"No, it's your room," says Gordon. "I'll take the floor. I don't mind."

[vance_prime]

"No, really, it's fine. You're used to sleeping in beds like this. I'm not."

Dammit, Gordon, I'm trying to do you a favor here! Take the freaking bed!

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon glances doubtfully at the bed a moment; it doesn't sit right with him to be someone's guest and turn them out of their own, but... well. "If you're sure," he says, "then... all right, I guess. Thank you, Alyx."

[vance_prime]

Alyx nods. "Don't worry about it."

[acts_of_gord]

Another small, uncertain smile, but it's a real one for all that.

He'll think of a proper way to thank her in the morning.