Charicature of Intimacy [Dee]

[Tamika Dombrovski]

Outfit

At 3.22am on the morning of December 23rd, the entire area of Orchid Hill Academy and Cardsdale was quiet. Very quiet. There was little movement except for the odd animal or drunken husband returning home from the local pub. Activity at the school was limited; some students still studied or spoke to their friends, but mainly in the comfort of their own dorms. There was one student who didn't adhere to this though. She had far too much on her mind to waste time on something as silly as sleep. There was a soft deck chair on the roof which she had sat on for the last three consecutive nights and an ash tray nearly spilling over from the amount it was being used.

Tamika sipped from a black styrofoam cup periodically. It was filled with black coffee which had lost most of its heat a few hours ago. The movement wasn't even registered anymore, it had become a habit. The snow fell around her from soft white clouds in the dark night sky as she sat on the roof of Orchid Hill Academy. She had a rather glum expression, the type women in the village said would be able to turn milk sour. Tamika didn't really get that phrase, nor did she appreciate it. In her years attending the school though she had learned to ignore their comments and just smile politely. That's if she could understand them; being Russian was hard in a Scottish village.

She glanced down at the cigarette in her hand. It had nearly burnt down, but not quite yet. Tamika took a draw from it then shook some ash into the ceramic ash tray beside her. It was something Josh had bought her when she been smoking for a year. An anniversary present he had said. Tamika smiled at the thought. Although it looked like a child had made it, the ash tray was cute. It was a round one, painted a lime green color with a couple of poppies and her name painted on in bright red. Over the years it had been chipped and broken, but it was always glued back together and brought wherever Tamika was going. She set the cigarette down with the butt in one of the grooves on the side, then put her coffee cup down beside the ash tray on the ground.

Tamika got up from her deck chair and walked over to the edge of the roofs flat area. She looked first at the school grounds, then tried to make out further afield towards acres of forest and farm land. The task was made a little harder by the blue Wayfarer's she was wearing, but they were a staple part of her outfit out of class. They hid bags and tears oh so well. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and then sighed. Her mood had been so dire the last few days she had even considered inventing a new way of communicating in sighs. A few of her friends had told her they were worried and asked why she was so down, but Tamika was saying nothing.

Sure, she should have shared her feelings, but it was all a little New Moon if she was honest. She was hopelessly in love with a boy who was going to leave her. Except she was sure Jet wasn't a vampire, and she hoped she wasn't a Mary Sue. And unlike Bella, Tamika knew when her beloved would leave. He was leaving in - Tamika glanced at her watch - eight days, nineteen hours and twenty-eight minutes. Part of her was freaked out by how unnecessarily creepy that way. It wasn't a big part though. The big part of her was mainly blank. Like the stare into space and not pay attention to conversation blank. Actually, that was Tamika in a normal mood anyway.

She stepped back and returned to her seat. Tamika pulled her feet up and began to play with the laces at the bottom of her boots. In between pulling them, she lit a new cigarette too. It briefly crossed her mind she would have to buy more soon. The stock supply she kept in her closet was dangerously low. With her elbow on the arm of the deck chair, Tamika rested her forehead in her palm and smoked steadily at the cigarette. Her mind was filled with Jet shaped thoughts as she stared at the brickwork of the wall, willing the sun to rise so she could have a distraction.

[Dimitri Hashfield]

Dimitri wandered through the forest as was his habit. Since he couldn't really sleep he wandered the forest. The Carers and the rest of the groups had done brilliantly with fixing it up after Jack Trove had burned it down. Rumour had it that Will Wright hadn't been in the least bit amused by it. Then again, who would be?
Branches snapped as he walked on them and the nocturnal animals scurried above and below him. Suddenly he felt uncomfortable being in his human state and decided to change into his incorporeal state.
And then the scent drifted past him.
"Amy..." he breathed in and sighed, "No...Amy's dead. Tamika!" and with that he followed the scent to the edge of the trees and saw her up on the roof looking out. Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew him. But that thought brought him to another thought.
What is she doing up so late? And why the hell is she up on the roof? Looking closer he saw she was alone but had a very depressing look on her face which made his heart sink a bit. Her eyes were tight and even though she had glasses on he knew she had been crying.
He floated up towards her and saw her sitting back down on a laid out deck chair and lighting and new ciggarette while drawing from it and taking a sip of her near stone cold coffee. Eugh, cold coffee. Not nice. Why doesn't she use her powers to warm it up, I wonder.. He knew she would see him, which took the fun out of scaring...no it didn't. he was behind her and she was looking the other way.
He crept up behind her as silent as the night and smiled and just as he was about to make her jump he stopped himself and frowned further. She didn't looke depressed. She looked like hell.
So he came up around her so as not to scare her, "Tamika? What on earth are you doing out here? Why aren't you in bed?"

[Tamika Dombrovski]

Outfit

It took a couple of seconds for Tamika to register than someone was beside her, or that the person had even spoke. She turned her head slowly and glanced over the top of her sunglasses before she even realised who it was. "Oh, hey Dee." His questions turned into an after thought. She drew from her cigarette then took a second to wonder what answer she would give him. Would it be the 'Oh, time of the month' crap she normally gave people or the 'family problems' she had come up with a couple of days ago. Both were equally uncreative, so it didn't matter really.

She dropped one leg to hang over the chair then sipped her cold coffee. There was strange taste that came about when the coffee was cold, but she couldn't quite pin if it was a good or bad taste. "Sleep didn't seem like much fun. I might not want to wake up if I go to sleep..." Tamika mumbled, before coming out with "Give me to drink mandragora. That I might sleep out this great gap of time my Antony is away." She wasn't much of a Shakespeare fan, but he did have some good lines. They were studying Antony and Cleopatra in her English class, and she always enjoyed looking at Cleopatra's quotes.

"So what are you doing out here?" Tamika asked. There was probably an obvious answer to do with his ghost/human thing, but it seemed like too much effort to think of what that was. She unbuttoned her cardigan and shrugged it off, throwing the clothing to the ground. All of a sudden she was far too warm. 'Early menopause, wahay,' she thought, failing to even make a joke in her own head. She looked down at the Smashing Pumpkins t-shirt she was wearing and started to pick at the lettering on the side of it. "Staying at the school for Christmas?" She asked, uncomfortable with silence now, however brief it was.

A really strange part of Tamika always wished she were Jewish just so she could throw Hannukah into a conversation casually and think nothing of it. She had tried a couple of times before and it had ended in a weird look and subject change. Good times. She wasn't sure if she knew any Jewish kids, there probably were some at the school, but it wasn't really obvious. 'How would it be obvious you bigot?' She mentally scolded herself. That was happening a lot lately. Tamika said or thought something and she would get told off by herself. It was like self-sufficient schizophrenia.

[Dimitri Hashfield]

Dimitri's frown increased. His 300 or so years of being on this planet wasn't really needed to know that something was bothering her very much.
"Eh..You do realize I'm part ghost, right? I can't really sleep..well I can but I don't need to. Unlike you." he stared pointedly at her, "And yes, I have nowhere else to go as it is with us loners. But I don't mind it. Orchid is quite homey, what about you? You spending it with Jethro?"
And somewhere in the midst of asking this a sudden though occurred to him.
Wasn't it her boyfriend's last year here? And wasn't Tamika a year behind said boyfriend? That could be one of the many reasons why she was down. OR maybe it was a girl thing. Maybe she was saying 'Hello Mr. Tom'.
He cringed inside at that. No matter how long he lived..girls were better left to discuss those sort of things. Men just didin't. They would rather- they just didn't.
He cam and kneeled down in front of her.
"Tamika? What's bothering you?" he carefully put his hand on top of hers and left it there.

[Tamika Dombrovski]

Outfit

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that part," she mumbled. Since acknowledging his presence with a look, she hadn't really looked up at Dimitri again. Her attention was grabbed by some moss growing up the wall. It split off at certain parts into little paths that joined up again, pretty cool actually. "Oh I don't need sleep. I'm quite fine without it thank you," she snapped, jerking to look at him for a brief second before staring at the wall again. "Sorry," she sighed. She continued to pick the t-shirt and stare as Dimitri replied until he asked about Jet. She inhaled a sharp breath and bit her lip. Her eyes teared up as she nodded. "Yeah, I guess," Tamika replied, her voice wavering only slightly. "And Mikhail too." Her voice broke at the end of the sentence and a few tears ran loose. She wiped them again quickly, the rubbed her make up stained fingers on her jeans.

When Dimitri knelt down in front of her, she felt a little awkward. It was a little patronizing as opposed to comforting, but she really wasn't in the mood to have a b!tch off with someone right now. "I - I don't want to talk about it," she said softly. Instead she laced her fingers with Dimitri's and swept some hair back behind her ear with the other hand. "You should come hang out with us on Christmas day," she said, trying to change the subject, "I don't like the thought of you being all alone." It was weird; she hadn't known Dimitri that long and really didn't like him for the first part of it, but she still didn't want him to be without company, or describe himself as a loner. That was another one of those can't be bothered bringing it up issues.

[Dimitri Hashfield]

"Hmm, I don't know if that would be such a good idea if I'm to be honest." he paused as he stared at their interlaced fingers, "Don't ask." He sighed inwardly and looked past her up to a star.
"Tamika, it's better if you do talk. I've been around for a very long time and it really isn't healthy to bottle what you're feeling, up. I've seen many bad things happen to people who have done that,"
He held up their intwined hands and looked at them and then to her face. Something felt strange. He wasn't sure what the niggling feeling was so he pushed it to the side and concentrated at the matter at hand. For some reason, he felt more compelled to help this girl than he did anyone else. Maybe it was because she was nearly the spitting image of Amy or it could just be her personality. Whatever it was, he couldn't ignore it.
...Then again, he was supposed to be her Spirit Guide.
Well, whatever.

[Tamika Dombrovski]

Outfit

Tamika shrugged when he rejected her offer of hanging out on Christmas. She was a little hurt, but didn't want it to seem like she was bothered by it and so just said nothing. Probably a good thing they didn't make plans, she could already guess how Christmas day would be for her; she'd hang with Jet, cry a little bit, go see Mikhail and fight with him about their mother then finish the day with a bottle of whiskey in Joshua's living room. 'Most wonderful time of the year I disagree,' she muttered inwardly. Tamika made a decision that the next person she heard singing that song was going to get punched in the face.

She rolled her eyes and then scowled at the ground. She wished people wouldn't interfere. "Yeah Dee, I know that myself thanks," Tamika snapped at him without meaning to again, but this time didn't apologise. Instead she slid the elastic bottom of her glove up and showed him the litter of little white scars she had from the smashed vodka bottle incident. After she made her point, Tamika pushed the glove back down with the arm of the deck chair and then stared at the ground. She frowned at the memory of when she had got her scars. That had been when she found out about Joselie, and Will and Brad had been there. 'Brad, oh God...' Yet another one of Tamika's boyfriends to abandon her. Why did she even bother with men?

"Dee, can I have a hug?" She asked, looking at him with a quivering lip. She wished she hadn't thought of her previous relationships. Bad, bad plan. Tamika had encountered Pavel a couple of days ago too. That had been awful. He glared and then started cursing at her in Russian. "Why can't someone just be there?" She all but whispered, a tear sliding slowly down her cheek. "Why does everyone leave me..." Oh hello self pity, it had been quite a while. She sighed and put both her feet against the ground, rolling the balls of her feet so she could hear the snow crunching.

[Dimitri Hashfield]

"Eh..sure." but instead of giving her a hug, he saw the tear and picked her up. He then turned around and sat down on the chair and held her as she lay on top of him, "Tamika, it was going to come sometime. He is in the year above you after all." he wiped the tear away with his finger and held her close.

"It's alright Tamika. There is someone who won't leave you..who actually won't be leaving Orchid for a quite a while." he smiled down at her, "Come on, it's nearly christmas, cheer up." and with that he started to sing The Fairytale of New York in barely more than a whisper. If he knew something, that song usually cheered everyone up, that or In Dulce Jublio.

It was sad really. When girls cried it made them look vulnerable. And that was what Tamika looked like right now. Dimitri held her close-ish and just gazed at the stars, "Tamika, when is he leaving? I hope you don't mind me asking too much but maybe I can help. Don't ask me how." he wiped away another tear that was making it's way down her cheek. Then Dimitri felt how cold she was and took of his blazer jacket and put it around her in an attempt to keep her even slightly warm.

[Tamika Dombrovski]

Outfit

Tamika sighed as Dimitri held her and buried her head in his chest. It was ironic really, she was upset about her boyfriend going and her she was cuddling some other dude. She glanced up as he spoke and sighed again. This sigh wasn't as much of a pleasant sigh as her first one had been though. "I know it was going to happen. I just..." She broke off from her sentence to consider her next words. "I didn't think it would come so quickly. Since I came here I haven't kept a boyfriend for long and Jet... I thought it would be different with him. I know it's not his fault he's leaving but... Oh hell, I don't know..."

For a minute or two, Tamika thought Dimitri was referring to Mikhail. He was only in fifth year, so he still had a while to go yet. Then she caught on he was referring to himself. "At least I have you, Dee," she replied, trying to sound happy. It was a hard task though so it ended up being more of a neutral voice. "I don't like Christmas now I'm a teenager. It's not as fun or magical," she huffed, although with a small smile on her lips. It was true. Everything was too serious and stressful now she was nearly an adult. She felt bad for Mikhail in that respect, he never really experienced childhood Christmas like she had. Poor kid.

Tamika lifted her arm to check her watch. "He's leaving in eight days, nineteen hours and four minutes," she replied without emotion. A part of her was considering sabotage of this plan though, but setting a train on fire seemed drastic even to her. "Thanks," she smiled as he put his blazer around her. She didn't actually feel the cold aganst her skind, and if there was any it was her own fault for taking her cardigan off, but it was a nice gesture all the same. "Should you not be doing your teacher planning things in your spare time?" She yawned. Sleep was catching up with her now she was all curled up with Dimitri.

[Dimitri Hashfield]

"Hahahaha, probably but then again, I don't need to sleep do I? I've got all night to do it." he smirked at that, "Oh Tamika..." what did he say now? There were a lot of pointless things that wouldn't help her and she'd already know. Nothing useful of any sort which annoyed him quite a bit for some reason. As he held her, she yawned and Dimitri nearly awed out loud.

"Go to sleep, Tamika," he said softly kissing, inappropiately as she was somebody's girlfriend, the top of her hair, "You're tired and you need to sleep. Unlike me, you can't live without sleep whereas I never need it." and he never would.

[Tamika Dombrovski]

Outfit

"So do you never sleep? Or do you do it occasionally if there's nothing better to waste your time with?" There were a bunch of questions about Dimitri's abilities that she should probably know about for being a medium but it had never occurred to her to ask until now. "What are you teaching tomorrow?" That felt weird to say. Hanging out with Dimitri made Tamika feel like an uber nerd, on the one hand he helped to teach, on the other hand he was a good friend. 'Too much thinking...' She mentally groaned, shaking her head.

"I don't want to sleep," Tamika muttered, sounding not unlike an annoying little child. "I've been doing perfectly well without for the last couple of days." She hated him bragging like that. She wished she didn't have to sleep. When Tamika wasn't feeling desolate like present, hours of free time would be perfect for her art class. "Do you not get lonely? With the whole sleepless shabang. Or do you ever feel a little, I dunno, crazy because of all the spare time or something?" It had officially turned into stupid question night in Tamika's head.

Tamika was quiet for a few minutes before she suddenly came out with, "I need your help with something, Dee." She pushed herself up with the deckchairs arms so she could look at him while she spoke. "There's this weird little Scottish ghost who used to follow me around talking about a key and the moron is back again. If I show you him one day could you find out what he's talking about?" That guy was really annoying. She hadn't seen him for nearly a year and then he just suddenly appeared in her dorm room on Hallowe'en night. This time there was the added fun of hunt out the lock to go with the key. She was pretty sure the guy was off his head, but she couldn't understand his accent enough to know what the f*ck he was talking about.

[Dimitri Hashfield]

Dimitri didn't know which question to answer. He didn't want to overload her brain with the complexity of what he was at this time of night. Plus, she was so d**n tired no matter how much she tried to deny it. He could see it nevermind being able to tell when someone was lying to him or not.
"Well, I can't really sleep. It's complicated but let's just say I don't need it. At any time. And sparetime..no, I have better things to do than to sleep. Again, I'm not getting into that," he stared determidly at the stars above them.
"As for the teaching, I'm not. I'm giving everyone a free period. It is coming up to christams afterall, it wouldn't be fair to make you all work." he smiled as he imagined the cheering and smiles and the parties that were innevitably going to go on tomorrow, "Though if some of them want to work then they are free to do so. I know the feeling of happiness you can get from working on any of the arts."

As they lay there together, Dimitri felt her starting to warm up. That was a good sign to him and made him relax a bit more. Catching a cold at this time of the year wouldn't do.
Her next questions took a little more thought than the previous ones. But that was because he didn't exactly know what to say to them. It would be easy to give straight answers but then she'd probably ask the reasons behind them, as was normal in human nature. The inquistive monsters.
"Yes and no." he sighed, "It's kind of...difficult. I don't really feel lonely at any one time because during the day I'm surrounded by humans and at night I can converse with the spiritual side like yourself. As to the crazy, no. Not at all. I have plenty of things to think about and to do to keep myself preoccupied and the spare time is actually a good thing. It means I can get more of what I want to do, done without having to rush." he nodded as he finished explaining. He felt that was a suitable reply to her questions.

Dimitri had to bite his tongue to keep him from laughing out loud in front of her face at her request.
"A ghost prattling on about a key? Hmm, Tamika? Do you have any idea what sort of key he is talking about? Is it a metal key to opening a door or a spiritual key? There are many, many different kind of keys out there in the world. I can't exactly help you or him if I don't know what sort of key he's talking about." he smiled.
And then as he wiped away another tear that had fallen from her eye he turned her face toward him. And then, without thinking and realising what he was doing until the last second, his lips connected with hers.
Shít.

[Tamika Dombrovski]

Outfit

Tamika yawned, but midway through the sentence started to reply. "I really should have know that, shouldn't I?" She covered her mouth and shook off the yawn. "Sorry..." She smiled sheepishly, suddenly aware of how rude she was being. "You think they cover it in one of my classes? It should be in the medium class, right?" The again, Dimitri's abilities didn't seem to be that common, so having a section of class dedicated to it could be a waste of time. Although it could be useful for her Shine. 'I'll have to bring it up with my teacher...' Tamika decided, adding it to her mental calendar. "For real?" She asked, starting to grin. "Aw shucks, you're just too awesome of a teacher." Dimitri was her third and fourth period teacher. It'd be nice just to have a couple of periods to chill out in the middle of the day. "You think the art rooms will stay open over Christmas? I'm not going home so it would be nice to have somewhere to go hang out..." And somewhere to get away from her little brother. She adored Mikhail to high heavens, but my did he ask a lot of questions.

For reasons completely unknown, it surprised Tamika that Dimitri could speak to spirits too. In hindsight, it was completely obvious he would be able to. All spirits could communicate with each other. Maybe it was lack of sleep making her stupid. 'Maybe your stupid all the time,' a light voice said in her head, with more than a hint of laughter in it. 'You're such a f*g, Mik. Get out of my head or I'll spread rumors. You know how gossip in the hospital goes down,' she threatened back to her little brother. It was total lie of course, no one could really care less in the hospital wing. They were always too busy. It worked though, and he left her be. "Do you ever miss being..." She trailed off, unsure of the right word. The first thing she had wanted to say was normal, but a- that was plain rude and b- no one at the school was normal, so she couldn't really talk. "Being a human? Or does that never cross your mind?"

Tamika frowned for a moment, mulling over Dimitri's words. "d**n you're good!" She exclaimed. For all she knew the old man wanted her to send him to the other side, and a medium was the metaphorical key he needed to achieve that goal. "But what is all the lock crap about then?" She thought about it, then her eyes widened, "Maybe he killed someone and buried them on the grounds, so he's been locked out of the heaven he percieves and he's going to burn in hell..." Now it just sounded like an episode of Medium or Paranormal State. Nonetheless is was a good change of thought for the teenager. She was gloating in her little figuring out of the ghosts problem when another tear slipped down her cheek. 'Woah, what?' Tamika hadn't realised, but all the time she was thinking her eyes had welled up. Dimitri wiped the tear away though, and when he turned her head she smiled thanks to him. It caught her completely off guard when he kissed her in the next second. Her immediate reaction was to jump back and ask Dimitri what he was playing at. For some reason though, she didn't. She gently kissed him back, all the while mentally cursing herself.

[Dimitri Hashfield]

Ok...that was not the reaction he was expecting; a pushing back and screaming or the slap of all slaps but not the kissing back thing. And to make it even worse, it felt like she was enjoying it. Which in his opinion, was good for him, bad for Jethro Foster and also herself. She'd feel guilty as hell afterwards. But none of these matters stopped him. He like kissing her too much to let them stop him. Instead, he kissed her harder and slightly faster.

Also the fact that he was three centuries older than she was..well - no.
He pulled back and looked at her.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have." he apologised and looked down towards the ground, "And as for the 'miss being human' thing. Not at all. Because I am human. I can eat, breathe and do all the things that are essential for humans to stay alive. Tamika, I can choose if I want to be living or dead. It's not really a problem." he laughed.
That explanation usually freaked all the girls out but he somehow doubted it would freak Tamika out. Not because she was used to seeing ghosts or anything because she was strong. She was accustomed to magical beings.

[Tamika Dombrovski]

Outfit

Words couldn't describe how Tamika was feeling at that moment. She felt like a cheap, nasty hussy who didn't deserve either of the guys that had her affection, but when she kissed Dimitri she felt elated, like it was something she had been waiting to feel again for more years than her heart even cared to imagine. She felt deja vu with the kiss. It just seemed to perfect to have been the first time her lips had met Dimitri's, but she knew they never had before. 'Unless...' Tamika started to remember the visions she had when she first met Dimitri, about Amy, about how like her Tamika was. She pushed the thoughts away as Dimitri pulled back from the kiss, not wanting to cloud her head with them.

She glanced up at him from under her fringe when he apologized and blushed. How did she respond to that? Did she apologize too? 'Hey Dee, sorry for enjoying your kiss so much. I'll just start crying about my boyfriend again.' 'Boyfriend,' she repeated in her head. Eesh, that was a stinger. 'How could you! Gloopey, gloopey ryebyenok!' Tamika went on to further curse at herself in Russian, but tried to pay attention to Dimitri talking again. "Awesome..." She mumbled, but then a question occured to her that she couldn't help herself but ask, "Do you need to breathe if you're in ghost form?"