Her mannerism exemplified the frustrations she began to feel due to his perplexing love-language. The closest Anastasia has gotten when it came to displaying her needs of affection was towards Parker King, a man she began to fear the moment he had one of his bullets pierced through her right thigh. Even that the whirlwind of her and Parker, she never managed to explain to not one single person, especially towards Clark. If there’s a common denominator between both men which Anastasia could not and would never stand, it’s their blatant exhibition of not caring; the complete opposite of how she chooses to operate. She did not need him to authenticate how he feels in regards to her furthermore. His words reflected a crude attitude, however his actions did not, and that was appreciative enough for her. Importuning him with questions came to a halt, having her nails scratch against the surface of his arms as her eyes filled with bewilderment. Her mind.. became a little warped within the past several years of dealing with absolute torture in Red Creek. Having that mixed with personal issues from her former southern home did not mesh well with her, but Anastasia learned to balance the two. In this current moment, she did not feel disorientated in the slightest bit, but did feel overwhelmed with confusion and denial.
Anastasia felt him drawing back, prompting her to whisper soft coos in his ear as a form of comfort, all while peppering the crook of his neck with soft kisses. As much as she knew there was a strong desire to stop, a part of her began to not care anymore, tired of being restrained not just by him, but others, wanting to venture out towards her own path of personal freedom and liberation. There goes that nickname tumbling around the room Ana. Her lids that slowly began to open due to an increase of euphoria immediately took notice of their current state of environment, unable to dismiss the look of disgust that crossed his features. The consistent cries left her eyes to mirror being bloodshot, and gosh, the scent of nicotine became much stronger as time went by. Numbness filled her rose colored lips, almost feeling damn near bruised. He wanted her to stop. Yet Anastasia.. surprisingly, she did not want to. “Stop what, stop who Clark,” she murmured in a croak; vocals now strained due to the howls she threw at him minutes prior. For him to dare say that this isn’t like her, as if he ever challenged himself to explore parts of her that were not damaged goods, ignited a flame that did not need to get lit. “You don’t even know… don’t you dare go there with me!” That rush she feels when yearning to let out a fistful of tears happened once again, chewing the inside of her lesser lip to hold back spilling out another lecture for him to deal with, because even Anastasia knew how tiring that could be.
A glimmer of distress appeared. No other option seemed available at this point in time; she finally felt burned out to the max, and wanted nothing more than to finish his cigarette, soak in a hot shower, and sleep the night off. She felt beaten to the core. All of the notes appearing in her mind is exactly what she decided to follow through with, standing there in absolute silence as she smoked his cigarette, tossing the remnants at the forefront of his feet. “What’s your reasoning then? Sitting around in this household with a beer to drink all the damn time while lighting a cigarette, thinking ignoring all of your problems will make them go away?” Anastasia felt delirious. Miserable, as well. The mars comment became her last straw with him, taking that as a dig to insinuate that she’s crazy one insult she’s heard too many times from others, certainly not expecting to hear that from him, especially given their history. The rush appeared again, and boy, did she break. Anastasia made sure to waltz right away from him, dodging any potential touch from Clark as sounds went through one ear and right out the other. A couple of trips over air and she’s stumbling towards the nearest bathroom all while stripping most of her clothing, locking the door behind her, vision soon clouded. Mortified isn’t even the strongest word she could use to describe how she felt. Her stomach churned, and it churned violently, even pointing to signs that she wanted to regurgitate. Perhaps Anastasia is far off from mars and their worlds will never collide no matter how much she wants them to. She stood in boyshorts, finding herself mute, successfully muffling any cries that desired to be heard. Examining her small, gaunt frame in the nearby mirror allowed for sadness to transition to anger, and confusion to become comprehensible. The coldness of the floor seemed most comfortable to her, sitting there with her face tucked between her knees, shivering violently as she wanted nothing more than to disappear for her own good. Mars does not seem to be too far off from being her next destination, or at least in her state of mind.
A sheepish sense swelled within Clark, transmogrifying under a strange cadence as if he would be taking advantage of Anastasia had he offered any reverberated interest. There was no limit to how far his care stretched for Ana, but in the light she proposed — such waters were murky at best; the thought of said blurred and intrusive boundaries not something he ever gave much mind to. Anastasia, however, seemed to have paid far too much mind to the very idea, a noxious sense of vertigo near overcoming Clark as the kiss wrought an abject conclusion. Far more times than not, Anastasia seemed hellbent on excavating for feelings that were not there, sentiments damaged and shattered amiss years of emotional exploit; patterns of a love language Clark learned from his family and would soon seek in his own counterparts. He was a man of cruel-shapen habits, availed to amber liquor, cigarette smoke and meaningless one night stands, if he could help it. Connection was an imbalance to the male, a wretched means that would only end in lachrymose revelations and hearts broken once more. While a sense of fondness had sparked between Natalie, dare he say Thea and now Ana — he had related her more to a person of familial standing than of any romantic regards. Perhaps it was the line he envisioned in his head, or perhaps her moronic tendencies in which he had to save her from futilely that exhausted any efforts to blur affections ever. No matter, he froze, eyes near wrenched shut as if in disapproval of the kisses which peppered his neck, the actions akin to a million little weights hoisted upon his shoulders now.
It would be another interrelation to shatter, his aversion to any mental proximity fervent now as his extempore cut deep. Such severing was swift, evident by how she soon slackened in tandem with a sense of rigidity not archetypal of her, “I can’t —— have this with you,” a lump nestled amidst his throat, hands coming up in tandem to secure around her wrists as if to allow any further space between them. A poignant chuckle escaped from him, as if to dissolve any sense of prospective regret, “You’re right I don’t know, but I can’t know, I shouldn’t know.” Clark had known Anastasia well enough over the years to read between the lines of her colloquial word vomit, head bowed as her reaction reached bounds he was near praying to avoid. Another bundle of nerves allowed a second smattering of a chuckle to escape him, hand coming up to run through wild locks upon his head, “I’ve known you so long, Ana. I mean, I’m rash, I’m really fucking rash. If I wanted to go there with you, if I could go there with you — fuck, it would have happened a long time ago.” Syllables were presented under a figment of his own habits, knowing full well that most of his relationships were conjured up amidst a whirlwind of brash and reckless decision making which led to tumultuous ends soon after. The foundations on which he and Ana were built were simmered in their own trials and tribulations, yet they had still prevailed; a sturdy groundwork allowing them to have made it all these years.
A sharp inhale was the result of her backlash, scowling as every argument from any figure in his life was boiled down to his lack of drive. Clark pinched the bridge of his nose as she finally skulked away from him, shaking his head in tandem finality, “What the fuck is it with you people? Can’t I be left alone to drink and do nothing if that’s what I want to do. It has nothing to do with avoiding shit,” a half lie, the long life he had led leading to such inactivity in his current years. Words were rancid on the tarmac of his tongue, yet it was too late, any rebound to their former state severed under the premise of her scrutinizing his choice of lifestyle once more. He allowed her to storm off, not even so much as wincing as the bathroom door was shut in finality, standing there with eyes shut once more as if a means to calm himself. He could go for a cigarette, yet the stale taste still remained; a recollection he would like to forget near immediately, standing still and near focusing on his own breathing as the quiet swarmed him now. Clark could only stand it for so long, scowling once more as he made his way to her now fortress, the door apparently keeping her safe from any truths she could not face, “Can you just come out?” Inquiry was near timid, his own desire to abandon such virulent interaction in exchange of a drink more desirable; yet he couldn’t leave her alone.