>>"What? I mean, sorry for what? I'm sorry...?"

Maya backed away a few inches to look at her; she was flushed and confused, and probably nervous too.
Nice job, Maya. Real nice.

What was that thought again? The moment before she said something that messed the moment up?
Oh. Right.

"I love you."

Yea. Talk 'bout messing things up.
Oops.

Maya turned deep red, fighting for a long moment against the urge to bury her face in her hands, or sit back and bang her head against the wall. The whole thing just rolled off her tongue so easily. It was just that kind of a night.

"I... I'm sorry, beacuse you had to, had to hear it from them." she muttered, looking away "I didn't want to say it otherwise...."
...whoops, wrong turn again...
"... I mean, I did, just, not now, with the, you know, not rushing and all, but, it's not right, hearing stuff like that from some psychopath instead of your... whatever I am..."
... niiiice, real smooth...
"... so, I mean, you don't, y'know, have to say anything."

Yeah. The wall looked very inviting right now.

Two words were much easier to deal with, Twyla decided. Less is so much more sometimes. Cue intense blushing.

I. Love. You. Holy crap. Holy crap a million times over. Those three words were what Holy crap wanted to be when it grew up. Twyla wasn’t equipped to deal with ‘I love you’s. It was true that she had almost been prepared to ask about the whole thing about love that the twins had admitted when they were dissecting Gawain in front of everyone...but she’d decided that she didn’t need to know in that moment and that she didn’t want to make things weird.

They were weird. Twyla felt weird. Something in her stomach was jumping up and down and something else in her stomach was trying its hardest to drill a hole through the bottom of it. Oh my god....I don’t even–I can’t even....process. Holy crap. At first, the blond said nothing, her mouth drooped open slightly and she stared at the pattern of her comforter. When she looked back up, Maya was beet red and sputtering. Twyla felt the blush on her cheeks increase to levels decidedly not human and decidedly in the wall color range rather than the pink color family.
With a mostly blank face she watched Maya explain herself. The girl didn’t even notice that she wasn’t responding, it didn’t occur to her. She was in some kind of state of shock. Her mind came back on after it seemed the other girl was done talking and she had a bit of time to process everything.

“Um...” She started our hesitantly, licking her lips and blinking a few times. I want to go back to sleep now. “Um...” A deep breath and then Twyla captured Maya’s hands inside of hers in an attempt at a comforting gesture. “Look,” she licked her lips again and brought her eyes to the pair across from her. Twyla didn’t even have to look down to know that her powers were creeping down her face and down her shoulders to cover Maya’s hands under hers as well.

“I really like you, if I didn’t we wouldn’t even be having this conversation–but I don’t know if I’m in love with you. I have no idea what that feels like--” A nervous giggle and a smile Maya probably could barely see. “But I know that I like you, a lot and I like spending time with you and you’re decidedly hot...” Another nervous giggle. “I appreciate you being honest, so I’m gonna be honest and say that I don’t know and it freaks me out a little bit that you...love me but it makes me kinda happy too and--” Confusion crossed her masked features. “I just...I don’t know. I really do really like you.” She squeezed Maya’s hand.

Holy crap.

>>“Um...”

Yeah, that was exactly the reaction she had been expecting. Not like she had been expecting anything. She wasn't usually thinking that far ahead.
Yeah. Um.

>>“I really like you, if I didn’t we wouldn’t even be having this conversation...”

Holy crap.
Doesn't this girl need to breathe sometimes, or what?!
Also.
'Decidedly hot'?
Gawain used to have a special grin for that.

Maya took a deep breath to keep herself for running for the closest reflecting surface, and looked up at Twyla instead.
She stared.
She blinked.
She stared.
Her gaze followerd the wall-and-comforter pattern from where Twyla's face probably was all the way to where she felt their hands were. Blush came in various colors.

Maya started to laugh.

It started as a low chuckle, and Maya bit her bottom lip to hold it back; there was nothing funny about the situation, really, it was rather tragic, she broke all unwritten rules that had ever been invented about dating and relationships, and she messed up big time, and it was very, very late, and Twyla had comforter patterns on her arms.
The chuckle turned into laughter.

Maya threw her arms around her girlfriend, and fell back onto the bed, dragging Twyla down with her, laughing all the way till she ran out of breath.

"I'm... I'm sorry..." she gasped, trying to calm down "'tis just... we really... really suck at this... don't we..."

Now why the hell do I feel so happy?...

Laughter was probably the cure for everything except maybe death. It was certainly the cure for awkwardness as Maya had begun to laugh. At first Twyla was very confused and mildly concerned and then there was no time to think as she was pulled down to the mattress in a fit of giggles and chuckling and happy sounds. What the heck?

Before she could think about it the blond was laughing as well. It started out as a nervous giggle and turned into a roaring laugh that rivaled Maya’s in its loudness. It was somewhere between midnight and morning and Twyla was tired and her brain hurt and she’d been jacked up on emotion for the last twelve hours and it felt so good to laugh–well, until her sides started to ache from laughing with such abandon.

There were tears streaming down her face when her giggles gave one last spluttering chortle and then died from lack of oxygen. Maya’s laughter started to die soon after and soon they were both lying on the bed and gasping. Soon the other girl began to attempt to speak. Her words made her laugh again–her point was so, so right. Everything that they’d done thus far, all the things that should have been easier...

“Oh my god, we totally do!” She was still giggling as she rolled over on her stomach, careful of Maya’s arms, so she could look the other girl in the face. Sleep and the pulling down had caused the bun on Twyla’s head to come loose and she was startled when a curtain of hair slid down hear forehead and obscured her vision behind wavy pink and gold locks. “I...I just can’t believe us...we’re defective or something...” There was still a giggle in her voice, and nothing angry or bitter. “Or maybe ‘unique’ is a better term?” She blew some hair out of her face and tried to look at Maya.

Maya was still gasping for air. Laughing made everything right again, and she was relieved to hear Twyla's laughter along with her own. She still chuckled between gasps for air, and the bruises on her sides hurt with every move. It didn't matter.

>>“Oh my god, we totally do! I...I just can’t believe us...we’re defective or something... Or maybe ‘unique’ is a better term?”

"Hey, talk for y... yea, unique is 'bout right." she grinned, lying on her back, hands on her stomach "What we are, Bubblegum, is we're seriously sleep deprived." she stated, looking up at her "And it's gonna bite us in the @ss tom... er, later today." she wrinkled her nose, then grinned again "Darn, I'm not even sleepy anymore." propping herself up on her elbow she brushed the blonde and pink locks out of Twyla's face and gave he a kiss on the nose "Soooo... now what?"

Sleep deprived? Twyla looked at the alarm clock on her bedside table; the glowing green clock face told her that it was 2:56 a.m. She blinked a few times at it and it changed to 2:57. For a moment that was almost funny and the girl found herself grinning at the clock before she realized that smiling at inanimate objects was decidedly weird. What wasn't weird was the fact that it was too late and too early to do anything, but was she still tired? Yes? No? Maybe? Kinda?

Twyla turned the smile from the clock down to the girl that was lying on her back. "Very, very sleep deprived." A giggle escaped her lips and almost turned into crazy laughter until it was silenced. "I'm not sleepy either--" Her hair was brushed from her face, funny it didn't occur to her earlier to do that, and Maya kissed her on the nose. Well--

"Now we either be 'responsible' and attempt to sleep." 'Responsible' was said as though it were a very stupid word.

Or we could--

"Or, we could do whatever it is that people do at three in the morning when they don't want to go back to sleep. I don't know what that is exactly..." This made her giggle again, but just a little bit. Part of her wanted to go to that place that they had been before five words got in the way, but another part of her didn't want to risk taking that path without knowing where it might lead them.

>>"Now we either be 'responsible' and attempt to sleep... Or, we could do whatever it is that people do at three in the morning when they don't want to go back to sleep. I don't know what that is exactly..."

"Well, as for attemptin' to sleep..." Maya smirked "... we'll need to figure somethin' out about this sleepin' arrangement. I mean, I kinda shift in my sleep, and you kinda struggle." she chuckled "'twill take some gettin' used to."

She left it at that. If Twyla wanted to start thinking about what she meant, she could always ask. Not like Maya was thinking about sleeping in her bed from now on. Like, every night. Definitely not every night. Not at all.

"People do all kinds of things at three in the mornin'" she mused. She'd done some herself. All kinds of things. Like hanging out in a bar, cleaning up after Rupert. Or running from... whoever.
They say three in the morning is the time when people get honest with each other.
She decidedly didn't want to go there again so soon after the...
Enough honesty for one night.

"Well. I'm guessin' ya don't drink, so the usual after-monster beer's out of the question" she grinned, and this topic also was left at that "So we can crawl outta bed an' look for somethin' else to eat. Or drink. Or, y'know, watch a movie or somethin'."

Movies. Blankets. Cuddling. Now, there's a plan.

Sleeping arrangement? Girl say what? At first Twyla had been nodding to that statement and then...and then she realized that 'take some getting used to' implied more time spent on the 'getting used to' part which meant they'd be sharing her bed on more than one occasion. The nodding stopped and from her position on her stomach the girl cocked her head to the side and blinked at Maya a few times. It was like they were putting the fast forward button into overdrive on their just-started-officially-a-few-hours-ago-relationship. I love you. Let's move in together. Let's get married. Let's have kids.

It was almost funny, almost.

Whatever. Twyla didn't say anything--if Maya happened to be in her room around bedtime randomly that wasn't really a big deal, maybe it would help with the nightmares? Or at least with waking up from them. Twyla looked at Maya for a long moment and then she gave her a small smile in reply.

"I guess..." Images of burglaries as people at parties flashed though her mind. The blond didn't want to steal and she certainly wasn't in the mood to get all fixed up to go dancing so she'd leave it to Maya to find a more suitable option. She laughed at the drinking comment. "No, I still don't drink--and I prefer a post-monster make-out session myself." She smirked down at Maya and then sat up. "I betcha" cue heavy accent "somebody has left some good movie downstairs. I'm sure we could find something to watch." Before she could think anymore the girl had slid off the bed and was gathering up a blanket that had been nightmare-d off and pulled another one from the end of the bed.

"C'mon." The standing and walking had made her feel the tiredness again but soon Twyla and Maya were downstairs getting themselves settled on the couch.

Twyla gave her a look that almost made her laugh again. She didn't comment on the sleeping issue. The truth was she suspected the nightmare she had was not the first, or the last, and if she could do anything to make her feel better - even if it was only by being there when she wakes up - she was willing to do it, as long as Twyla allowed her.

>>"No, I still don't drink--and I prefer a post-monster make-out session myself."

Grin.
"I think I do too."
I know I do.
I hope another monster shows up soon.

>>"I betcha somebody has left some good movie downstairs. I'm sure we could find something to watch."

"Let's not watch horror" she muttered as she climbed out of bed too, following Twyla to the living room. She let her pick some movie while she made a comfortable nest from pillows and blankets on the couch. She could feel clouds of sleep rolling in - this usually happened a few hours after shifting awake. When the movie started and Twyla joined her in the nest, Maya wrapped her arms around her girlfriend, moved around a bit till they both were in a comfortable position, sighed, glanced at the tv screen, and fell asleep.

Twyla Ashby never watched horror movies on principle. When she was little they gave her nightmares, recently she figured out that there were things in real life that could give you nightmares. Horror was definitely out. Maya had given her free choice of the collection of movies that the Mansion possessed. It had taken a few minutes, but she'd found some drama film that took place in New York in the 1920s--the blond had never heard of it but she figured the costumes would be interesting and it probably had some sleep-inducing properties.

She was right on both counts.

Not long after the opening credits rolled the other girl was asleep, her deep breathing tickling Twyla's neck. When she realized Maya was asleep, the blond smiled and untangled herself so that the sleeper could be more comfortable and tucked her in on the couch as best she could before retreating to the floor. Despite the tiredness in her body, Twyla managed to keep awake for most of the three hour long movie--it was interesting and she was worried about the reappearance of her nightmares.

When Twyla finally fell asleep her nightmares were diluted by women in flapper dresses and men smoking on street corners. (The twins didn't look very good in period clothing and Cthulhu had no place in a speakeasy so the scary moments were few and far between.)

By the time Maya woke up on the couch, daylight already filled the living room, and Twyla was gone. She either went back to sleep in her own bed, or skipped sleeping altogether. Maya let out a soft, slightly disappointed sigh, and lifted her hand to rub her eyes.
Ouch.

Images of the previous day and night came flooding back, and they came with tangible evidence: every time she moved something, it hurt. Her sides hurt (they were bruised), her arm hurt (and there were dark stains on the bandages), her face hurt, and everything else hurt too, as she kicked off the blankets and sat up.

The images were not done replaying themselves.
Maya sat back, head resting against the back of the couch, and stared at the ceiling with a dreamy smile. The fingers of her unhurt hand traced her lips, then ran through her messy hair (and didn't do much good).

>>"I want to be your girlfriend. I need to be your girlfriend."

Oh yeah.

Maya closed her eyes, reliving the events of the previous night, and chuckled to herself. It was happyness, complete with butterflies.

Talking about the previous night...

I'd better go check on Ems. She should be awake by now...

Maya folded the blankets and left them on the couch. She'll give the back to her girlfriend later.

((OOC: events of the morning continue for Maya in What do you mean 'she's gone'?!)