| stranger and herself
Author: Minervacat
Kissing Karl is nothing like kissing her brother. Why should it be? She's not Eowyn, he's not Eomer, and Karl is not even a distant relative of hers. He's a virtual stranger, except for the fact that they've been filming together for weeks, and she had spent her time pretending she didn't see him staring at her because somehow he didn't feel like someone she could be interested in that way. Which is why his short dark hair under her hands surprises her, because it is nothing like Eomer's wig, and why his mouth, hot and wet and absolutely addicting, surprises her, because she did not expect to know these things about it. They are kissing in the front seat of his car. When she got up to leave the pub tonight, he shoved his chair back at the same time and offered her a ride home. Orlando stumbled up, slurred that he'd be happy to take Mirry home, if she knew what he meant, and she'd patted him on the head like you would a faithful but overeager puppy and told him she'd rather get home in one piece, but thanks. Orlando is good looking but unreliable, and when he's sober Miranda can't compete with Dom, so she simply chooses not to go there. She smiled at Karl and said that'd be lovely, and she whispered to Dom on the way out that maybe someone should try to take Orli's keys before he wrapped his car around a tree. They come up for air, and the street lamp outside her flat is casting shadows on his profile, making him mysterious and moon-drawn in the darkness. Mirry is struck by the fact that for all the work they've done together, she knows almost nothing about Karl himself. She could rattle off countless facts about Eomer, but the man behind the helmet is a stranger to her. His face is relaxed now, and when he turns to her, she thinks that they could be siblings, maybe, same mother different fathers, and knows that Peter has cast them for that reason, among a multitude of others. Karl's a welcome calm amidst the storm of filming, and she kisses him gently before she climbs out of the car. She doesn't invite him up and he doesn't ask, and they have an agreement about this without having to say anything at all. He rolls down the window and says, "Pick you up tomorrow morning?" Kissing Karl is like kissing a stranger and herself all at once; Miranda thinks that might be how all this romance stuff is supposed to be. When he drives off, his face still in shadows, she decides that tomorrow she'll ask him to stay. |
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