#these are likely gonna stay as sketches and i dunno if i'll do stanley's part

[chellustrates]

cue "you're nothing without me" from the city of angels musical

[beck-hartman]

How could he not smile when she said things like that? It was impossible. Her touch brought only an increased pull at the corners as he murmured, "in that case, you know I can't tell you no." Pressing his lips to her thumb before giving it a playful nip, he almost laughed as he replied, "baby, I'm never forgetting that incredibly effective etch-a-sketch. --Well, wait, I mean, it could require regular maintenance..."

The mood lifted a little, just for a moment, and Beck clung to it like a life preserver for a drowning man, especially as she laughed. "Yeah, baby, we're gonna be sliding down the banister of that staircase. The adventure never stops." Running this thumb over the back of her hand, he brought in another movie reference, "if you ever do, I'll write it all down and read it back to you." She was the one he loved, that made pictures of her further extensions of that love. He nodded as she got the point, a slight grin returning as he softly joked, "MJ isn't the only artistic one. It wasn't about taking a picture of her, more a picture of something--a state of being. It was so peaceful in that spot, and from that viewpoint, how calm everything was, everything was so sort of stripped down to...the root of perfection, I guess. No shame, no expectations, human and nature in a symbiotic wholeness." He drifted off, shrugging as he probably said more than he should have about a photo they were both trying to forget she'd seen, "I dunno, it's kinda dumb."

He wanted to be her stabilizing force, even when he knew he wouldn't always do or say everything perfectly. He knew how to hold her, that much he was sure he could do. Gripping her tighter as she rested against him, he gave her a kiss to her forehead. "Overwhelms me too," he said softly, "in a good way. It's soul deep, ya know, so it doesn't stay localized to the heart. I feel you everywhere." As he caressed her face, he nodded even though her eyes were closed. "I can do that. This is a forever thing, so really, it's already done."

There was a surge of joy as she laid claim to him, her playful feistiness got him everytime. "You bit it so it's yours?" He teased. Despite how close they could have come to it going away, it still brought a spark back into his eyes. Lights that had gone out coming back on one by one. "Sorry, missed that last part?" He prompted, just to hear her say it again.

Holding her gaze once it returned to him, he was a little surprised she knew that number, mumbling, "huh?" Not that his girl wasn't brilliant, but she wasn't a human calculator either. But then he remembered what she'd said before: Seven months, thirteen days. She'd counted. "Right, of course you know," he admitted. Sometimes it felt like he'd only stumbled into getting her back--that he was so close to losing her forever--then she said stuff like that and he was reminded she had been as aware of his absence in her life as he'd been about hers in his. "Okay," he repeated, filled the confidence he'd just promised to have for both of them.

And then he had to keep talking. Which, in actuality, he did. This would be worse if she heard it from anyone else, like one of the Bella Stanleys of their world. He winced again when she pulled back, not just to look at him but to create actual distance. Technically, more like nine years was caught by what little filter he possessed from brain to mouth. Instead, he just nodded, averting his eyes with a quiet, "that's the one." She also watched them when they were older than that, but again, he had some sense of self-preservation. He didn't need to nitpick, especially when that made things sound worse.

He remained silent, giving her the moment to process. Despite the strong urge to argue something, he didn't actually have a defense for this. No matter how much Camille's husband did suck. "Not really anymore," he answered, debating if he had any ground to be cute but deciding to try, "there's this smokin' redhead that takes a lot of my time now." He dared to find her eyes again. "Just ran into her at the beach the other day, and we shared a joint and caught up. It's honestly nothing you have to worry about, I swear, okay? It was just something stupid for a really short period of time."

"Well, don't be. That's my baby." Shosh said, a little smile on her lips as she cupped Beck's face and smoothed a thumb over his cheek and across his lips. Would she have rather not seen that? Absolutely. But she had, though that didn't have to change anything. He had a past, just like she did. "Of course you don't. I etch-a-sketched you, remember?"

"Yeah, we will. Just you and me. This life and the next," She took his hand, kissing his palm before intertwining their fingers. With his explanation, she nodded, laughing a little and swatting him playfully as he called her hot. "I want to remember every moment with you; I don't want to forget a second of it." And given that was apparently the only picture of a woman in his albums, that wasn't what he had been thinking about with her. "And...that picture seemed to be more about the...aesthetic."

Shosh shook her head as he pulled her hands away from her face because she did not like this new crying thing she was prone to do. But as he pulled her closer, she took in a shuddering breath and rested her head on his shoulder, allowing him to ground her. "Sorry, I just get, I don't know, overwhelmed by the way that you feel about me sometimes. Blows my mind a little." She let out a little sigh as his hands came to her face, closing her eyes at the feeling. "Just need you to not give up on me, to keep loving me."

"Good," Shoshanna said with a giggle, "Cuz you're mine." Emphasizing her ownership, she bent her head and bit his shoulder. "I'm glad it turned out to be with you, too. Not all that surprised, but still glad. Cuz I'm yours, too."

With his gentle touch on her chin, Shosh brought her eyes to his again. "Two thousand nine hundred and twenty," She mumbled under her breath. While math wasn't her strong suit, that was a question she knew the answer to off the top of her head. She had done that specific equation more than once. "Okay," Her reply was quiet. Shosh didn't quite know how to respond to him, still trying to believe that she was the person he thought she was. But she was going to be that person. If not for herself, then for him.

As Beck went on to answer her question, she nodded along. "Oh, that's kind of a crazy coincidence." She acknowledged his comment about Aisha briefly, allowing him to continue on. But when he brought up Camille, Shosh had to pull back to look at him. She was too shocked to say anything, so she just listened until he was done. Scooching back some more, she stared at him for a minute before she replied, "Camille? Ten years older than us - who used to watch us when we were five?" That...gave her an icky feeling that she couldn't quite describe. Probably the same feeling he got when he realized how much older Frank was than her.

Shosh held her hands up, needing a second to process what he had just told her. This was someone Shosh was going to have to see around town. It was a relief that nothing physical had happened between them, that would have been an entirely different scenario. And she didn't enjoy the fact that Beck had been flirting with a married woman. And he had clearly seen her somewhat recently if she knew they were together. "Do you guys...hang out a lot?" She asked, fighting to keep her voice calm.