The Power Of Chaos - Running Around

Title: Running Around
Author: Tori Deathangel

Pairing: Pov You/Hannibal
Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be, the only thing I own is my mind and even that tends to wander away on me.
Distribution: Take it if you want it

You've been dating this white haired devil of a man for the last four months now, having the time of your life when he is around. He told you he was an actor. Ok that wasn't a lie, he is the Aquamaniac and quite the character, which that alone can take him away from you at long stretches, but you found out about a month ago that he was part of the A-team, in fact their leader. You hadn't even considered it till you saw him talking to a man with a Mohawk and lots of jewelry, a man like that you don't forget about. You went home to check on the net to see if your suspicion was true and sure enough, the eyes on the screen gazed back with a look of warning a protectiveness of his crew.

You hear his voice behind you and you nearly jump because you hadn't even known he came in.

“John”

“Not really a flattering photo.”

Relaxed, good, calm.

“Face saw you leave.” He deadpanned.

You remember that picture, hell you remember all of them now with crystal clarity. Now you are there with a live version of one of the pics. You tried to leave quietly, but apparently not quiet enough or stealthy enough anyway.

“So…” You hadn't a real idea of what to say to him, you feel guilty about spying on him even if it was accidental, he left without his wallet and you chased after him in your car so he wouldn't be caught short where ever he goes today and that's when you saw them causing you to back peddle out to your to check your suspicions.

He cocked his head slightly waiting for you to finish. “So?”

You expected him to be angry, not calm and collected, but you should know by now that he never lets his emotions fly off.

“I…” you're still unsure what to say and you trailed off again, getting up, you cross the small expanse of the room to window, look out and decide to go further, adjusting your ponytail as you speak. “I didn't expect this.” You sigh and he sits collectively still waiting for you to continue. This only serves to frustrate you further as thoughts right now are all jumbled and you have no clue where one starts and the other finishes.

“I just followed after you cause you left this,” you try to hand him his wallet, but he doesn't take it and he doesn't speak either only looks from the wallet and then back to your face, still saying nothing. You set it down and turn around, maybe hoping the words of your mind and heart are printed on the walls and you don't have to go fishing for them in your head. You clutch your head, to many thoughts, words piling one on top of another. Fear rising in the pit of your stomach; What if he leaves now that you know the truth, Thinks you are a spy for the military, can't trust you, but the biggest underlying fear is that he'll hate you now. Tears threaten to spill, but you have no right to cry, you are so caught up in this that you hadn't even noticed or felt it when he pulled you towards him in a comforting embrace. The feel of his chest rising and falling with his breath and his heartbeat was all you needed to steady yourself; the fact that you are in his arms right now reassures you that he still cares.

You lift your head up and cautiously look into his eyes, to find them staring back at you in adoration and care.

He caresses your cheek, “You ok?”

All you could do was nod your head, still torn up somewhat.

“Liar.”

He knew you all right, you could never tell a lie good enough. He pressed you back onto himself, holding you, reassuring you with his embrace. He picks you up and takes you to lie down upon your bed.

The next you remember is waking up, alone and cold. You sit remembering the events from the day and right now all you know is that you are alone and figure that in the end he did leave you. Falling back into your bed you cry a bit, feeling loss and abandonment. You hear the phone ring in the distance and in an automatic move you go to retrieve it.

“Hello.”

A pause follows and then a concerned voice floods the receiver, “What's wrong?”

It takes a moment to realize who it is in your state of mind that you gather yourself up again, “John, no, nothing. I just got up a few minutes ago.”

He knows enough that this wasn't your sleepy voice, but he wasn't going to accuse you of crying, “Sorry I had to run off, but we have a job.” We, as in the A-team. “It's a quick little run and then when I get back you can ask what you want, no more lies. Ok?”

Hope. “Sure.” You sound a bit more chipper then before.

“Baby.”

“Yeah?”

“Love you.”

You smile into the receiver, “Love you too.” The line went dead and now you felt better then you have ever been. Mind body and soul seem to be at some ease now and you decide that you will work out at the gym till he returns so that you don't feel the pain of his absence in the mean time.

About a week in you are jogging on one of the many treadmills and old guy gets on the machine next to you. He stares at the gadgetry in front of him and calls out to you.

“Excuse me young lady.”

You suspend your workout to help the old guy; you look up at him and into his eyes. His eyes, those eyes, the ones you have stared into time and time again, the same eyes belonging to the Aquamaniac. You can't help smile, your actor came home and he wants to play, so be it you decide. (Authors note: he is dressed up as a really old man)

“Yes.”

“This infernal machine doesn't seem to want to start.” He tries to emphasize the fact by trying to make the tread move manually.

“Well its not that kind of machine, if you press the start button located in the bottom right corner of the keypad it will give you onscreen instructions on how to set it up.” He gazes back at the control panel and still looked confused.

“Here let me show you how to do it on mine so you can do it.” You re-input everything and begin jogging again and decide to leave Hannibal to his own devices. Out of the corner of your eye you see him work away at the panel and get it started. He starts jogging and then it got faster and faster and he started to lose his footing, so you bang on his stop button to halt the machine and you bang on yours as well.

“You ok?” You say coyly continuing with your little game. He pants rather much like an old man to get the effect across.

“The thing almost killed me.”

You smile back at him and lean in really really close, where your lips are mere millimeters apart. “Well if you had a heart attack,” you lean in close to his ear to whisper, “I'd just have to give you mouth to mouth.” You pull back and grin; you start to gather your towel and water, when he grips your wrist.

“I may need it after all.”

You look back at him giving him that all knowing smile that you give him when you bust him on something, “Well since my boyfriend is out of town I suppose, I'll have to give it to you, but since I'm not qualified to give out CPR I'll just get the attention of Vivian over there,” pointing to a really scary old and haggard lady. “To distribute it to you.” Folding your arms over your chest, you watch as he stares back at Vivian and then back at you.

“You wouldn't dare.” His true voice coming out.

“Watch me,” you take 2 steps in her general direction and get yanked back.

“So how did you know?”

“Know what? About CPR or…” He cocked his head and I get caught off from my sentence completion.

“How did you know. It. Was. Me?” he punctuated the last three words to give emphasis to them.

You smile changes into another one, that of one the clearly expresses your love for the man under all that make up. “Your eyes.”

“My eyes?”

“Yeah,” You take the moment to illustrate with your own, “I'd know those eyes anywhere, I've stared into them enough.”

“C'mon let's get out of here.”

“Yeah, lets.” You give him a lip lock that grosses many of the other guests at the gym, because they don't understand, that your man is layered, that though they see the old man on the outside, they really don't see the man under all the makeup and charades. You both leave out hand in hand.

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