My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder

[Alice Hobbs]

Gazing at the blonde with a scowl which was seemingly normal for the brunette, Alice rolled her hand and sighed, "You know," she said as she leaned against the locker, both her hands now crossed over her chest. "The worst part about school starting again, is all the idiots we have to deal with." She wasn't sure if Rox would appreciate her cynicism, but then again, it wasn't like Alice really cared. The blonde knew where the door was.

She cast a glance towards the blonde though and her lips turned upwards into a snarling smile, "What are you going to study anyways?" She had probably asked the blonde a million times already, but eh, Alice had never claimed to be a good listener. She very rarely listed to other people's bullshit and she surely wasn't going to start now. Okay, so maybe she was acting like a total bitch, but who the hell cared anyways? She had the friends she needed and she was perfectly content with keeping the rest of the world on an arm's reach. It was less chance of them getting to her that way.

She cocked her head though and swirled a curl from her hair around her finger. Absentmindedly chewing on her lower lip, Alice sighed. She liked Rox. Well, she liked her sometimes, anyways. The girl was easy to be around, sometimes, and didn't retort to emotional drama, like so many other people did. It was nice, in a way. But the girl also had a way of making Alice explode which was oddly addicting. It was probably why Alice kept her around. That had to be it, anyways. Alice wasn't built for human companionship. She was a lone wolf, and very much preferred it that way.

[Roxana Strix]

Roxana was getting a few things out of her locker with Alice, a girl she had met in town a few months back and they sort of hit it off. Well, hit it off was a bit of a stretch to say with how things had gone. Roxana was her usual self and while things had originally been going pretty well, she ended up pissing off the other girl, and the next thing she knew well things happened. Things that left Roxana confused since she still did not understand the whole thing in general. She knew how to do it of course, she done it before, but on order. Never because she pissed someone off, but it was still enjoyable and by this point it was not really that big of a deal to Roxana. She didn't have time to worry about such things and really didn't dwell on things in general. She glanced over her shoulder when Alice started to speak about the worse part about school getting ready to start up again

Dealing with the idiots. It was like Alice to see everyone as idiots and Roxana could not help but to be a little sarcastic with the other girl. "As pleasant as ever." Roxana said simply, only the sarcasm behind her voice as she folded up a shirt to be put in the bag she had brought with her in order to swap out clean clothing for some dirty ones. Roxana didn't see everyone as fools, sure there were those that were dumb, but they were teenagers and that was to be expected. The question of what she was going to be study was asked, something that Alice has asked her many times before. Roxana could not help but to let out a sigh as she tossed the shirt into the bag and looked at the other girl. "The answer is the same as it was the last seven times you have asked me. Art." Roxana said simply, but her eyes did hint at being disappointed in either Alice's lack of hearing or her lack of paying attention.

She turned back around then to focus on her locker, but figured she should still keep the conversation going. "Are you going to move into the college dorm or live in town?" Roxana asked, figuring it did not hurt to ask since she would be staying on campus and if Alice was then maybe they could be roommates. That might not be good for our roommates. Roxana thought to herself with the whole Alice and her occasional blowing up when she would deal with Roxana. You would think a pixie girl would be a lot nicer.

[Alice Hobbs]

Rolling her eyes, Alice sneered, "Not all of us can be living unicorns that vomit glitter," she fired back. She couldn't really blame her though, because being around Alice was all but pleasant. She had a cynical view on the world and the people? Well, she thought they were all selfish, herself included and that no one really did anything that didn't benefit themselves. Was it a fucked up point of view? Of course. But Alice had also had a rough and fucked up life. It was one of those things that could only be explained as a domino effect. "Uh huh," she said and nodded her head. Art. Right. "So, you're going to paint flowers and naked people? Nice," she said and rolled her eyes again.

Roxana's question had Alice pursing her lips, "I'm most likely going to remain living at home," she said. Not like she really had a choice. Their father couldn't exactly take care of himself. "I might arrange so that I have a college room I can use during exams. Would make things easier," Alice said and drawled. If Alice could have decided and didn't have obligations to stay, she would have gone to Yale, Harvard or one of those schools instead. She had the grades and she was smart enough. Sure, she didn't have the money, but had she tried, maybe she could have gotten a scholarship. How hard could getting a scholarship for medicine on one of the top schools be?

"What about you? Are you staying or getting an apartment?"

[Roxana Strix]

Roxana half chuckle at the comeback Alice fired back. "I would say that is a good thing then. Glitter tends to be hard to get rid of." Roxana responded back simply and yes glitter was very hard to get rid of and it seemed like no matter how many times you cleaned up that some glitter would still remain. Roxana had worked with it before and never again would she use such a thing in her art again. It was just a mess, all over the place and she was pretty sure that it took weeks until she didn't see a small sparkle on her hand when it would hit the right light. Roxana grabbed the last few things out of her locker and tossed them into her bag as Alice basically insulted art. How dare she? Good thing it takes more than that to actually get under Roxana's skin but she did not take insults to art well. "And sculpt things that you’re little imagination could not possibly come up with." Roxana insulted there just a little bit, closing the locked door and moving to zip up her bag.

She still paid attention to what Alice said, talk about staying at home and how maybe she would arrange living at the dorm for possibly for exams. Roxana didn't understand why Alice would stay living at home when she could easily live on campus and not worry about traveling the distance to get to her classes. she knew a little bit about the girl, probably more than Alice wanted Roxana to know about her, but Roxana was in the world of gathering information on people in the school and Alice and her sister were in the school so Roxana knew about them. "Could always just bother any friends that you might have to stay in their dorm too during exams if you really don't want a room." Roxana said still in her normal tone, she never really had much feeling behind her voice when she talked about common topics. The question was returned and Roxana had a quick reply back.

"I'll be living here." Roxana said as she left her bag and moved over towards the sinks in the locker rooms. She didn't have a choice in the matter; she had people to watch here at the school.

[Alice Hobbs]

Grinning, Alice nodded, "That might be," she said and shook her head before sighing, "Just because one doesn't do art in the way you do, does not mean one have a little imagination," she pointed out dully before drawing her breath, "No, I much prefer my piano." She didn't hold any ill feelings towards the blonde for that. They were different in that area and Alice was okay with that. Her interests and hobbies weren't something she felt the need to really grow all that much defensive over. She already knew she had a huge imagination and she already knew she was smart. Why would she be offended if anyone said otherwise?

Friends? Ha! As if. She even snorted at that, "No, thank you," she opted to say, "I can only take so much of people at once, and I'd rather prefer having something of my own." She did smirk though and leaned in a little bit closer to the blonde, her arms still crossed over her chest, "Why, you offering?" she asked and winked before laughing. Their meetings had ended in very interesting ways some of the times, but even Alice knew that the two of them living together, even for a short amount of time would end in a disaster. It was chaos waiting to happen. Well, either that or great and amazing sex. Whichever came first, really.

"Ah," she said then and nodded. Alice followed the blonde with her eyes, but didn't move. "Well, at least I hear the college dorms are nice." They were probably just exactly the same as every other dorm room at the school, but whatever. The rooms, from what Alice had seen, was fairly nice. Much, much nicer than what it could have been.

[Roxana Strix]

Alice words about art was a very good point and Roxana would give her that much and say that Alice recovered in her books. She might have sort of insulted art, but clearly she had meant just specifically for Roxana. Just a peach, but Roxana was again used to dealing with these kinds of people. The most common one being Elsa, the girl who was just so full of sarcasm that Roxana felt like she would have to start carrying around a water bottle to just have Elsa drink it with how dry her tone was. With Alice it was more her being blunt about how she felt about people and things with the occasional losing her cool every now and again. Roxana was still learning the girls buttons and like always with learning she had to push those buttons every now and again and see if there were new ones. She always found learning about a person was best when you said things a certain way just to get a reaction out of them. "You have a point there and sometime, I would like it if you played a song on the piano for me." Roxana said, purposely saying for me instead of saying 'when I'm around'.

Roxana had even said her words carefully with the whole friend’s things, saying the word 'might' as a way to hint at that she didn't really know how Alice had made any friends. Sure she knew the girl had to have some, everyone did but she most certainly would be on the fewer end of them with that mouth and short temper of hers. Alice responded as Roxana had expected words about not being able to tolerate people for very long and how she would rather have a place of her own. Roxana nodded at that, understanding the desire for your own space and with Alice's personality how she did not want to be around people for long. Roxana sis raises an eyebrow at the question that followed about offering, the wink and the laugh caused Rox to shake her head, figuring that Alice was joking. "Considering you said you don't want to be around people long and want a place of your own, it would be foolish of me to offer you time in my room." Roxana said and even if she wanted to, she would not because of the things she had in her room. No, no one was allowed inside of Roxana's room.

Roxana could feel Alice's eyes on her, and it unsettled her a little bit to have her back towards someone knowing that they were watching her. Did Alice want something that she was keeping her eyes on her? No Roxana didn't have eyes in the back of her head, but training let you just know a few things. "They are, I have seen them. They pretty much look like the high school ones. I'll show you sometimes if you desire." Roxana said, not looking at the other girl as she splashed water on her face and ran her wet fingers through her blonde hair and making it stand up a little, drying off her face as she turned around and leaned back against the sink to look at Alice. "Question. How are you and your sister doing by the way?" Roxana asked, and yes the question was a bit random but relevant in Rox's mind. Instead of using her finger to make her points, she crafted a crystal dagger between he fingers and held it up. Making crystal daggers was a habit she did when she felt slightly threatened. She knew about Alice's power but still not in great detail and she was naturally suspicious when someone did certain things for a length amount of time. Like watching her, she didn't like for someone to keep their eyes on her the whole time, made her get edgy and start going into 'mission mode'.

[Alice Hobbs]

"I can do that," Alice said. She didn't mind playing in front of an audience, least of them not Roxana. She actually quite enjoyed the blonde's company; Well, when they didn't piss each other off, anyways. Roxana was one of the few people Alice felt she could be herself around. When they didn't fight, they talked among themselves as friends, and that was great, don't take her wrong, but when they weren't friends, there was so much passion, so much chances given to the pixie girl to blow off some steam, and once she had, they went right back to being friends again. Oddly enough, that was exactly the kind of friendship Molly needed.

Looking over at Rox, Alice pursed her lips. "Yeah," she nodded, "I think so too." As much as she liked being around Rox, a prolonged stay would most likely drive her mad. It was nothing bad against her, mind, Alice was just a lone wolf who couldn't be cooped up with the same person for a longer amount of time. Her sister and father were the exceptions, but that was also because she didn't really have a choice in the matter. Someone had to take care of them, and that someone just happened to be Alice. Who else would they turn to? No one. No one cared.

Maybe Alice had to coo Molly into marrying some rich, old dude so she could pay all the bills. It wasn't like Molly would ever get a job or something, anyways. Well, at least not now. It was more important that the younger Hobbs sister focused on school and getting an education.

"I figured as much," Alice said and nodded. Roxana's next question had Alice's eyes averting. Frowning, she turned around and kneeled down in front of her back. "We're okay, all things considered," Alice said and lifted a hand to brush her hair away from her face. "Molly does what Molly does," there was a hint of amusement in Alice's tone whenever she spoke about her sister. That amusement quickly grew to adoration; Even as much as her younger sister annoyed her, Alice truly did love her. In fact, she loved her more than anyone else in the wide world. Everything Alice ever did, said or planned to do, was all for her sister. Getting her medical degree? It was to get a high paying job so that she could financially support her sister once she finally decided to get to college.

[Roxana Strix]

"I'll look forward to it then. I'm sure you will inspire me to create something." Roxana said since music was a big part in what gave her creativity and inspiration. She really did enjoy listening to music and did it often during the times she was alone. To have someone play her something, that would make her really happy and she would make it up to Alice in some way. That way all depending on what Alice wanted from Roxana and the mood at the moment. Roxana personally could say that she enjoyed Alice Company on many levels, even when they would have their little fallouts. Roxana could not really just stay angry with a person and Alive was very interesting girl for more than just her power. Her personality always intrigued Roxana and she certainly was interested in Alice's power. She still had so much to learn about the other girl and she was looking forward to testing the waters when she could.

Roxana didn't mind what Alice thought of her, didn't care if she was used as a way to blow off steam or just interesting company to keep around. None of that mattered to her since none of that ever got in the way of her job that was still all that mattered at the moment. "The offer is still there however if and when you want it. I know it runs the risk of us killing one another, but I'm confident by now that I can handle that." Roxana said with a small smile that went away after a moment since smiles didn't linger on Roxana's face long unless there was a certain topic involved. I actually need to buy her something. Roxana realized since they had fooled around more than once, it was at least custom to give the other girl a gift. She had of course given Alice something made out of crystal like she typically did, but now she felt like purchasing the girl something was well overdue.

"Good to hear." Roxana said in a simple tone, able to tell the hidden feelings behind Alice's words as she said that. Even more feelings as she brought up her younger sister and Roxana envied Molly for a small moment at her older sister’s love for her; making her wonder if her older siblings still loved her that way. "Molly is lucky to have someone like you as her older sister." Roxana said as she moved closer to Alice now, reaching out to touch the other girl's soft hair, Roxana actually enjoying touching peoples hair but didn't get to do it too often. "Once you get control over your little temper I can see you being a force to be reckoned with." Roxana added after a moment with a small smirk at the other girl. She knew of Alice's felid that she was going in and anger was no place for such work, and once Alice master that she probably be set. Alice probably knew that already but Rox was going to point it out weather Alice wanted to hear it or not.

[Alice Hobbs]

Smirking at Rox, Alice simply shook her head, "More like me killing you, or me killing myself. I don't know, Roxy, you don't strike me as the murderous type." As much as Rox could piss her off to no end, Alice still enjoyed her company. She kind of always had, because it was just so darn simple. It didn't matter how many times one blew up on the other, because in the end, they got over it and moved onwards. There was no drama, and well, everyone who knew Alice knew that she loathed drama. Oh wait, she loathed people in general. Riiiight.

Shifting her glance, Alice's brown eyes flickered about for a moment before they finally stopped back at Rox, resting on her face for a moment. Drawing her breath, the brunette smiled, "Well, she doesn't have much of a choice." After all, Molly was kind of stuck with Alice as there was no way her sister would ever be capable of taking care of herself.

Which she had proved over and over and over again.

Frowning a little, Alice's eyes dropped to Rox's hand, which was now tangled up in her hair. She didn't mind the contact as much, it just surprised her. "What temper?" she snorted. Of course she knew exactly what Rox was referring to. How could she not? Anyone that had ever met Alice and gotten past the awkward 'cool and reserved' attitude of hers (not many did, mind) would quickly learn that Alice was a no-bullshit-no-messing-around kind of person, which she took great pride in too.

[Roxana Strix]

Roxana could not help but to scoff and slightly roll her eyes at Alice's words, having found them to be amusing. It was just like Alice to have that sort of response with such a bold and daring meaning behind it. It seemed that Alice underestimated what Roxana was capable of, which was a good thing because that meant that Roxana was not giving too much away. Still, Roxana didn't like to be counted out with this sort of thing and oddly enough she really didn't want to be counted out of such things when it involved a person like Alice. "Did you forget my ability? I could fill you with crystal daggers at any moment, why you are going to drug me with your dust?" Roxana asked, pointed out, and then asked another question.

Neither of her questions was meant to receive a response since they were rhetorical of course. Roxana of course didn't think she would ever kill the other girl, even if they were stuck living with one another. Roxana only killed on orders. Roxana's gaze was on Alice, so could see the other girl looking around before she looked back to Rox. Rox didn't mind Alice having wondering eyes and it just providing Roxana with subtle hints and clues about Alice and the way she thought. Roxana knew a lot about the girl, but she still had things to learn about who Alice as a person was. Sure she still knew a lot there, but there was always more to learn. Apparently Molly didn't really have a choice, according to Alice and Roxana understood a little bit of what Alice was getting at. She could not really fully understand or relate because she was the youngest out of her siblings so did not understand how an older sibling felt about their need to look after their younger ones. "Well, she could run away but that would be foolish on her part." Roxana responded back simply, enjoying playing with Alice's hair.

She did realize that it probably was a little bit weird, but Roxana like textures and she did actually enjoy touching people’s hair. She just never really got that close to too many people in order to play with their hair, but she figured that Alice would deal with it. Roxana slightly chuckled at the question about a temper, as if Alice didn't know that she had a temper. "That raging bull in a China shop temper you have, that can be so easily triggered. It reminds me a little bit of how pixies are in actually folklore. Cute and appear nice, but slip up a little bit and you have some dangerous little winged people after you." Roxana said as she recalled a book she read about pixies who literally ate people.

[Alice Hobbs]

"Having an ability that can kill someone and actually being capable of such an act is two completely different things," Alice pointed out. Not everyone with the ability to burn someone to a crisp would ever be able to do something like that. Just as Alice had the ability to make everyone at the school high for a limited amount of time, she didn't. In fact, her abilities kind of scared her since she had no control over what she made people see or experience. It terrified her and she wasn't sure if she'd ever be capable of dealing with it if she ended up hurting someone without meaning to.

She was closed up, sure, but not that closed up.

In a way, having Roxana play with her hair soothed her. It reminded her of something of a forgotten past and well, it was Rox, and Rox was perhaps not someone she would consider a friend... But she felt comfortable around her. It was a lot more than other people managed to get out of the brunette. Arching her eyebrow in amusement, Alice chuckled softly, "Raging bull in China, eh?" she said, musing. Well, okay, so maybe she did have tendency of exploding and spreading horror everywhere when she did, but with everything, who could blame her? Oh wait, right. Few people actually knew. Right.

"Maybe I should start reading up on that and start acting like one of my own kind," she said and nodded. Well, it did sound kind of fun, no?

[Roxana Strix]

“You make a valid point Alice.” Roxana said with a small nod since Alice was right on every level of what she was saying. Just because you had an ability that could easily kill someone did not mean that you could kill someone. Killing someone was easy on terms of the ways you could do it, but having it in your mental will to do such a thing was hard. You either had to have training, be messed up in the head, were trying to ensure that you lived, or it was an accident. There were more out there that could also play a role in if you could kill someone or not, but Roxana knew mainly those. “Let’s just say that I’m confident in my abilities.” Roxana said simply and left it at that, not wanting to give away too much even if part of her wanted Alice to understand that Roxana was not really someone to be messed with in that department.

Roxana didn’t understand or know of how Alice felt about her own power, but if she was a mind reader or Alice ever told her about it then she could understand on some level. Making people see things and not really having control over what they could see would be scary. You could make someone live through their worst nightmare and what if they ended up hurting themselves? Roxana’s power at least was in her control in terms of what she could do to people in the ways of hurting or helping them out. Roxana kept playing with Alice’s hair, enjoying the feeling of her fingers running through the long strands. Practically each stroke gave Roxana the same feeling she got when she would draw something, the desire to draw Alice lingering in the back of her mind. Roxana simply nodded at the whole raging bull in a china shop part, smirking a bit.

“I would have to strong recommend against that. I’m not sure neither I nor the masses could handle if you acted like an actual pixie. All that high energy one moment and then the next ready to rips someone apart, fits with how fast your mood changes but I super happy and high energy would…concern me coming from you.” Roxana responded as she stopped playing with Alice’s hair and moved to grab the bag that she had packed up earlier. It was not that she did not want Alice happy, she could just not see her happy like she was high off of rainbows or anything. Someone under Alice’s power, yes she could see that but not really on Alice herself. With that Roxana had everything that she needed and turned to look to Alice.

“Did you want to go do something at all or were we just having a chat?” Roxana asked in a simple tone since she had nothing more to do here and unless Alice wanted something here or to go do something then she was not going to keep bothering the girl. Even if Alice was still tolerating her now, Roxana didn’t tend to overstay her welcome with anyone. She had other things that she could end up doing if someone didn’t want or need her around. Roxana would not mind of course just hanging around to chat here or anything else really. Alice just had to tell her what it was because Roxana was one for orders and if there was no real plan in mind and she was not given orders then she would either draw or do something else that she had orders on.

[Alice Hobbs]

Grinning, a raw laughter fell from Alice's lips; So, okay, yeah, she had to agree with Rox on that. She couldn't picture herself being hyperactive and cheery either. It seemed like her sister had gotten all the happy genetic and Alice had gotten every aspect of being moody and grumpy. They were so different it was almost funny. The only thing that made them look at all like siblings, were the vast appearance similarities. "God," she said, shaking her head. "I would become my sister." She actually grimaced at that and continued to shiver. "No, I think I much prefer just being the moody villain, and not some hyped up moron."

It was as if Roxana's next words snapped Alice back to the presence. For a moment, she simply blinked and started blankly at the blonde. Then she nodded and the smile that had been lingering on her lips turned into a frown, "Yeah," she said and backed away, pulling her hair over your shoulder. "I should go." She wasn't sure why she had stayed for as long as she had, but the second Rox had pointed it out, Alice had felt uncomfortable. As if she was doing something that was so beyond out of character it was almost a little scary.

Gathering her things, she held them against her chest. Pursing her lips, she offered Rox a quick nod, "I'll see you around," she said with a dry tone and licked her lower lip. She hesitated for a moment before she started walking towards the door.

[Roxana Strix]

Roxana smiled at Alice getting the whole realization that her being hyper and happy would just be weird and that it really was her sister who was more like that. Not that Roxana would be upset or anything if Alive was every happy or hyper but it would certainly catch her off guard and she would be worried that something was wrong with the other girl. "You would and I don't know if the world could handle it. Certainly not those who have gotten used to how you actually are, it probably sends them into shock." Roxana pointed out as she chuckled a little at Alice's words. She didn't see Alice as some moody villain, moody yes but not really a villain. "I like you the way you are if that means anything." Roxana then said in a simple tone and with a small shrug. Sure she and alive were not like super close or anything and they had their 'fun' here and there but past all of that Roxana did like the girl in a way.

The mood then changed in a way that Roxana had not fully expected and caught her by surprise a little as she looked at Alice. True Alice mood did change pretty quickly normally but to this mood just seemed odd and Rox did not want to leave thing that way. She did not mean it as if she wanted Alice to leave or anything, she just didn't want to waste the other girl’s time. She didn't really understand if Alice liked to hang around and deal with her too long. Roxana didn't say anything first as her mind tried to work thought what was wrong with Alice and what would be the right choice to make in this situation. She was not really used to...cheering people up and was better at giving advice or doing something when it was asked of her. She was the kind of girl who took order to fully know what to do in a situation like this. The probability of her making a mistake was high, but she was willing to at least risk it.

"Alice..." Roxana spoke up as Alice started to walk towards the door. Rox dropped her bag and moved to step in front of Alice. Reaching a hand out to place on Alice's shoulder to fully get the other girl to stop and look at her. "You don't have to leave right away. We can go get a bit to eat or stay here and talk some more if you like." Roxana suggested as she looked at the other girl before letting go of her shoulder. She could tell that Alice was not really comfortable anymore and Roxana was not going to keep the girl here if she didn't want to be. She just wanted to make sure that Alice was okay. Kissing her would have communicated the same thing/ Roxana thought to herself as a kiss would have said that same thing without words, but Roxana tended to go with the whole speaking first over being physical in the regard. Plus she had not been ordered to kiss Alice so just kissing the girl out of the blue would have felt weird to her.

[Alice Hobbs]

When Rox stood in front of her, Alice frowned. She had to mentally curse at herself from keeping herself from lashing out. A low growl escaped her pressed together lips as she scowled at the blonde, eyeing her up and down. "Spare me the sentimentalities, Strix," she said coolly, both of her eyebrows shooting up in a challenging manner. She was glad Roxana opted for realising her. If there was something Alice didn't like, it was feeling caged, and by keeping her here, that was exactly what Rox did.

Blowing her breath slowly through her clenched teeth, Alice narrowed her eyes. "I'm leaving because I want to, so I highly recommend you get out of my way." Yes, Roxana had been dead on with the whole bull in China remark; Alice truly did have quite the temper and it changed quicker than someone could flick the lights of a lamp on. It was just how she worked, and as far as she was aware, had always worked. Molly knew it, Liz knew it, and she was fairly sure everyone who had ever met Alice, also knew it.

Stepping to the side, she moved past the blonde and held her breath. "Later, Strix," she said with a cold formality and once again, she continued towards the door. No, whatever had started to happen within these four walls, whether it was friends bonding or Alice growing softer, didn't matter. She didn't like it.