i remember

[Johnny Wood]

It was eleven thirty-nine, and Johnny was roaming as usual. Clad in nothing but jeans and a t-shirt, his bare feet had already led him halfway across California. It was his inability to sleep that made him resort to these near-midnight strolls, going nowhere in particular, no destination. It was ludicrous how, no matter how tightly he shut his eyes, sleep wouldn't bless him. He could have easily blamed it on karma, or blamed it on the saying 'How can you sleep at night?!' that was often yelled at someone who had done something wrong in movies. But instead, Johnny chose not to blame anything for once, and just let his half dead body somewhat sleepwalk its way into the pool house.

Johnny's dark eyes scanned the flaccid water, clear as crystal all the way down to the bottom of the pool where the lights were turned on for the convenience of midnight swimmers. He never grasped the point of swimming, probably because he hadn't had a lot of experience with it. Living at home, pools were forbidden- Kenny always had drowning scares. He did suppose he had a bit of knowledge of what it felt like to have water all around him, as he was usually the one to dive in and rescue his mentally challenged brother when he decided like giving everyone something to scream about.

With a decent sigh, Johnny allowed himself to lay down in one of the many lawn chairs set up beside the pools. He leaned back, the heels of his hands pushing into his sore eyes. Pathetically, he begged for sleep, and almost on command, it seemed to come. Johnny drifted a bit, his mind blocking out the world for a good few minutes as he lay hidden in the shadows of the night, away from the pool lights. And just like that, he was awake again, groaning with frustration and grogginess as he sat back up. Out of habit, he pulled a cigarette straight from the pack in his pocket and popped it between his lips. He lit it with ease and took a puff before forcing his now half-asleep body to stand and get ready to begin his trek all the way back to his apartment.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Mai Valentine.]

turn me on and off and make me say ,
it's magic , yes it's magic to me .

----- When you were new to town, it was easy to pretend that you didn't know the rules if you were caught. Simply smile at the officer, bat your pretty eyelashes, and act as blond and perky as Jessica Simpson. Even though, the world of California knew Mai to see her, or hear her. It wasn't hard to guess that she would never act unintelligent and . . . perky. Especially not with a police officer. Which brought another problem to her currently situation. She was breaking three rules at the moment, and if all three were found out, she could be in some serious shit with the law.

----- For starters, the twenty year old female was trespassing on land that wasn't hers. Something she was accustomed to doing as a teenager and up. A small sign that stated she wasn't allowed on the grass only made her want to, just to piss people off. Secondly, she was using the pool without it being open, and without a life guard handy-- as if she'd forget how to swim and sink to the bottom. And, thirdly, something that wasn't that much of a surprise coming from Mai's past, she was also naked in public. Skinny dipping, more like it, her pile of clothes hanging on one of the many lawn chairs on the outside of the pool.

----- There wasn't a reason in particular as to why Mai had chosen tonight, of all nights, to come swimming. She, luckily, hadn't had to work before hand, and had only been strolling by when she caught sight of the water's shadows along the roof of the pool house. Curious, and clearly not worrying about being caught, she stripped off her clothes and dived right in. A towel wasn't needed. The heat on the way to her apartment would dry her off just as well as the fabric of a towel would. It wasn't like she minded being wet with clothes on, either. Showing with all your clothes on wasn't that unbearable, after all.

----- Sucking in a deep breath, Mai's head went back under the water, her eyelids clenching against the chlorine. Her hands moved in front of her, feet elegantly kicking behind her as she moved down to the floor of the pool, looking for any money someone might have lost. Happened all the time in other public pools, right? And money was money. As much as Mai hated to admit it, she was almost on the verge of sleeping with her boss to get a much needed raise. The apartment bill was raising, even though she was only renting it for now. On top of that, her Chevy impala was starting to get worn down, and she'd be dammed if she sold it off instead of replaced what needed to be replaced. The model was, after all, a classic, and extremely hard to find in good condition.

----- Opening her eyes when she reached the eight foot drop, Mai looked quickly around, hoping she wouldn't have to actually hurt her eyes and make them an unattractive reddish colour, just for the sake of spare change. A shadow caught her eye from the top of the water, her eyebrows pulling together in confusion. Kicking off the bottom of the pool, she slowly rose to the top, her oxygen thinning within her lungs as she went. When she reached the surface, she sunk until the rippling water was just under her nose, allowing her to breath without being that much exposed to whomever it was outside the pool.

----- With her hands bracing the ledge of the pool, she stared up at what looked like a shadow of her past. Blinking, she glared in disbelief. Her lips pulled together sharply under the water, her breathing increasing a notch. He appeared to be sleeping, a drunken mess. Just like how she remembered him. Blinking back a tear, she lifted her chin, and told herself she was being silly. There was no way that Johnny was there with her. He hadn't known that she was going to be there . . . it was impossible. Unless it all happened by mistake? But what were the chances? Gliding across the wall, pulling herself with her hands, she moved until she was right in front of him, her eyes level just above the edge of the wall.

----- As soon as he woke again, and light his cigarette, Mai knew it was Johnny. Her past lover. Someone she thought she could actually make a living with. Pushing herself back over towards the stairs, hoping he wouldn't notice the movement of light on her glistening pale skin. Reaching the stairs, she pulled herself up the first and stopped, remaining within the warm water. Her clothes were near him, opposite side of the stairs. Mai wasn't about to expose herself to Johnny without a good reason. Sighing silently, her form moved back to where she could see him best, amazed he hadn't seen her yet.

----- Swallowing the lump in her throat as he started to stand, she couldn't fight back the thoughts within her mind to speak to him. To say something. It had been nearly three years without any contact with him, without any thought at all. And here he was. She couldn't just let him walk away without anything to think about as he returned to wherever to get drunk. Lifting herself slightly, making sure that he could only see the tops of her breasts, instead of her entire chest, she leaned against the edge of the pool and looked up to him. "Amour," She cooed in a challenging voice. Amour. The french word for love. A name she had often called him, unaware if he knew the real meaning of the word or not. If he would answer to it again, Mai was also uncertain. She was most likely just another face in the crowded past of lovers he had had. For all she knew, he could have moved on completely, and was actually trying to hold down a relationship.

----- Deep down, way deep down, Mai hoped that wasn't the case.

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status: completed !
notes:

[/color][/font] no need to match the length, deary .
tagged: johnny .
word count: 1019 words.
outfit: click .
lyrics:[/color][/font] hold me like a microphone - aerodrone
template to:[/color][/font] KARI BEAR !? of caution 2.0[/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Johnny Wood]

Johnny's difficulty with sleeping was deep seeded and rooted all the way back to his childhood. His inability to just close his eyes and fall asleep like all the other children didn't start until after his father had passed away. Then again, everything about Johnny's current personality, attitude, sleeping habits and what have you didn't start until then.

Passed away was never the term Johnny chosen to use, though. When asked about his father, he would use the most blunt and brutal way of explanation- he blew his brains out. Johnny, as what a young age he was, was the one who curiously burrowed down into the basement to discover the bits of skull and brain scattered across the gray cement flooring. The blood spatter on the wall resembled a sickening smiling face, and Johnny had never forgotten that. What kid could sleep after a sight like that?

When he was younger, he had gone through a period of sleepwalking as well, which explained his habit of roaming around when he couldn't sleep. If a bit of rest, just a moment of shut-eye finally did bless him, it soon followed with sleepwalking which led him into places hard to return home from. By mid-afternoon he had always found his way back, and his family had yet to notice. That being said, whenever Johnny moved to a new place, he knew the entire area within just a few nights.

Johnny groaned, his brain half asleep, his body nearly disfunctional from fatigue. It was a challenge just to hold his cigarette to his lips long enough to take a drag. Little did he know, between those few moments of wonderful sleep, someone had taken it upon themselves to claim the pool, and with their naked body. This would have been clear if Johnny had been alert enough to notice the clothes hanging very near to his head. But as it stood, he felt as though he was barely alive anymore. His face cupped in his rough-skinned hands, the cherry of his cigarette between his fingers began to burn a bit of his hair. Not even the smell of burning hair folicules stirred him, but a single word did.

"Si, mi flor..." He whispered back, and froze immediately after. His tired brain had spoken for him, more of a natural reaction than anything else. Pulling his hands away from his face, Johnny blinked and groaned. What had he just said? Within moments, he found himself turning around and staring into a very familiar pair of eyes. "Oh fuck." He whispered, closing his eyes and turning his back to her to toss his cigarette down, unfinished. He was even too tired to smoke, and that was saying something.

If there was one thing he hated more than anything else, it was running into ex girlfriends. Long strings of profanity were running through his groggy mind as he stared into the darkness before turning around to face his past again. Fuckin' Mai Valentine. Even though most of his memories of her were long faded, he still remembered her name at the drop of a hat, at one fleeting glance of her almond-shaped eyes. They had managed to last for quite awhile when they had been together, but that may have been because Johnny wasn't around enough for them to fight or break up.

Why had he answered her? How did he even know how to pronounce something in Spanish, a language not his own. He had only begun replying to her when she called him that when he had finally figured out what she was saying. Amour. It meant love. Perhaps Mai really had been in love with him when they were dating, but Johnny never returned those words, even in a different language. 'Si, mi flor' meant 'Yes, my flower', which he had to find out from the nearest Mexican on hand.

With an obviously frustrated sigh, Johnny gave an unhappy looking smile towards her, and an awkward wave.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Mai Valentine.]

turn me on and off and make me say ,
it's magic , yes it's magic to me .

----- It took several moments, and blinks, for Mai's eyes to stop playing tricks on her. From the time apart her and Johnny had had, she had nearly forgotten what he looked like. Even his bone structure in his torso, and legs, had vanished from her memory. But now, here he was, standing right in front of her, giving her a good look at what she had almost missed entirely. His face was the same, a little thinner in fat, though stronger, as if he had grown another reason to hate the world. His torso was more shaped, not even needing to see his bare skin to tell that his upper body was more toned than it had been before. The same went for his legs. Almost made her wish that she hadn't called it off and ran away . . .

----- With his figure- regretfully, mind you -back in her head, Mai tried her best not to narrow her eyelids and memorize the new lines marked on his face. His skin looked more golden, even though in the light he looked more pale than he would under a normal florescent light. Johnny's eyes were hard, but tired, his insomnia clearly still there. At least they still had that in common. Of course, their reasons weren't even close to being the same, Johnny's more traumatic than her own. Blinking for a moment, Mai found herself actually giving the male before her a full inspection. Was he eating right, her mind would ask, and her eyes would delay the answer but seeing that he looked healthy in the places she could see him without his clothes getting in the way.

----- As soon as his voice carried, and his usual response pushed into her ears, her body tingled within the water. A chill ran down her spin, as if the warm water had just started to turn to ice. Shuddering, she clenched against her breasts and the edge of the pool, trying her best not to tremble from the memories that were rushing through her mind. Johnny had been the first male that she had actually had a relationship that lasted more than a month, which was surprising for her, as well as Johnny. The first male she had actually trusted enough to know about her family, and as to why she hated everyone she was related to. They had shared many nights, just laying with another, discussing anything that came to mind, while the hours of the late night, and soon early morning passed before their eyes started to pull to a close.

----- Oh yes, Mai remembered everything. Ever word he muttered or screamed at her. Even pulse of his heart that she had been able to feel, or listen to after one of their "late nights" together, back at her condo. The way their bodies molded together during sex. Never making love. It was only sex. Clearly she wouldn't forget how much he hated her, the way she had manipulated him in the very beginning. His mind hadn't been easy to crack, and it had been insanely difficult to keep up with. One of the main reasons as to why she let it go, and stopped trying to get into a place she didn't want to be. They had nearly torn each other apart with their words, and sometimes actions. But it had always lead to sex in the end. Sex. At the time, Mai didn't care. He felt good inside of her, her mind wasn't thinking about the future, about what would happen when Johnny finally pushed her over the limit, and she walked out the door. Now, she wished that she could change a few things, even if they were small.

----- Things were different now. Johnny had changed, it was visible in the way his eyes finally caught sight of her. Mai had changed, too. She highly doubted he'd notice. Was even surprised he had even bothered cursing, instead of walking to the exit and leaving her to her thoughts. The way he turned, sluggish and almost unwilling, made Mai's throat burn. It was almost as bad as rejecting her proposal to look ahead of their past together. Why was he even trying to be nice? His acting certainly hadn't gotten better int he time they had spent away from another. Shock and surprise there.

----- Tilting her head down, she narrowed her eyelids finally, her arms crossing in front of her, hiding any skin upon her chest. All of a sudden, she didn't feel so big. Her smart ass attitude seemed to fade, even for a moment, as his hand lifted and he gave her a half hearted wave. What was that supposed to mean? His smile only made her stomach clench, and Mai was relieved that she hadn't gotten drunk like she had planned. All the yummy alcohol would've came up, and then she would've been sober. Though, at the moment, she could use something to wash away the dryness of her throat. "Don't pretend like you're a seven year old, and being told to be civil to your great aunt."

----- A scowl formed on her face, her eyebrows pulling viciously together. Her confidence was back, and the mean growl that pushed from under her breath only proved that she had grown in that aspect. Pulling her arms back, she pushed from the wall a little, treading the water, knowing that the darkness as well as the ripples within the pool would make it nearly impossible for him to get a good look at her naked figure. As if he'd be interested in old news, anyways. "Giving me the finger would've done the job. I didn't mean to make you annoyingly raise your hand and wave at me." Even though she had hoped he would. Mai just wanted to be acknowledged. For Johnny to know that she was still there, and wasn't dead, or passing off with another jackass.

----- With a deep sigh, Mai flicked her wrist out of the water to smooth her blue and black locks from her pale face. Closing her eyes, she tried to act like he wasn't staring at her with those hateful eyes. But as soon as her own opened, she saw the gaze that had put so many in their place. If this had been when they were together, she would've froze. Not now, however. She was stronger. Backpacking around the world gave her street smart, and her upper lip had stiffened quite well along the way. Johnny was just another bully, and a ghost from her past. Moving her hand, she gestured towards her clothes, hoping he would at least be so kind and drop them near the pool for her before her turned to leave. If he left. Secretly, she hoped he wouldn't. There was much she wanted to prove before he took his cocky self back to wherever he was living.

----- Oh, yeah. Hi."

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status: completed !
notes: once again, no need to match the length. xD
tagged: johnny .
word count: 1156 words.
outfit: click .
lyrics:

[/color][/font] hold me like a microphone - aerodrone
template to:[/color][/font] KARI BEAR !? of caution 2.0[/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Johnny Wood]

Three whole years ago, him and Mai had managed to withstand some kind of relationship. Often times, he had told Mai she should consider herself lucky. Johnny was never quite sure how he had ended up in a relationship with a girl like her, with oddly colored hair and so much make up that it made her resemble Jeffree Star. Mai's type had never been his first pick, as he usually would have just stood aside and laughed at her sense of style and drag queen features. He couldn't remember what had drawn him to her, or even what posessed him to get into a relationship with her. It had been a one time only thing, obviously, since he hadn't been together with someone as long as her after that.

Two years. A whole two years he had stayed with this outrageous looking girl. Looking down at Mai's eyes, he started to remember just how long he had endured her. Even with how sleepy he was, he was beginning to to remember all they had. Watercolor memories kept rushing in, and he recalled living at her condo for at least a year of their relationship. Johnny hadn't been as much of a deadbeat back then, being an employed tattoo artist. You wouldn't believe how many women came in, paying to be inked in the most provocative of places. Who was Johnny to deny a lass when she was begging him to brand her with a cupcake on her left vagina lip? Needless to say, he brought home a lot of friends from work.

Johnny never was a faithful man, never committed in a relationship, whether it be out of fear or just because it wasn't his thing. Johnny would be Johnny, bringing home 'work friends' to soil the bed him and Mai shared. While Johnny worked during the day, Mai worked as a dancer in the clubs at night, giving him plenty of freedom to play with his work friends while she was gone. Generally, Johnny wasn't secretive about it, but Mai had always been in denial.

Jesus, that was so long ago.

The midnight air felt blissful on his thinly clothed body. Any other person would have simply been put to sleep by the feel of it, but Johnny could only dream. He stared down at his ex girlfriend in the water with blank brown eyes filled with a nagging fatigue. When she spoke, it sounded as if he had water in his ears, but he didn't remember being in the pool. After finally realizing what she had said, Johnny managed a tired chuckle. "I'm not gonna fight with you, Mai. I was done fighting with you three years ago." He spat at her and then was somewhat alert enough to notice her silent request for her clothes. He glared back at her. Didn't she know that he wasn't considerate enough to do something like that for her.

Johnny turned on his weak legs to travel back into the shadows and retrieve some clothing that he assumed was hers, hanging over a lawn chair. He resumed to the illumination of the pool lights, and stared down at her once more, a mocking look as he held her clothes in one hand, a few feet from the pool's edge. "Come get them." He hissed.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Mai Valentine.]

turn me on and off and make me say ,
it's magic , yes it's magic to me .

----- A person’s memories were exactly what they made them out to be. They weren’t anything specific, or anything unusual, unless the holder of the memory claimed them to be. For someone like Mai, it was hard to choose between her memories being the past life she wished she still had, and the life she knew that she couldn’t run fast enough from. From the relationship with Johnny, to the sickening job she had to support herself with. Mai didn’t even want to think about Johnny’s old work habits, and how he used his work time as his “mating” time as well. To this day, she was still in denial, telling herself that as long as she never actually walked in and found Johnny in bed with another woman, that it wasn’t real. It wasn’t true. Memories usually came and went, randomly appearing out of a small task that she was doing that had trigger the memory, and then she’d move on to something else and put it behind her.

----- Staring up at Johnny brought back many memories. Most painful, even more pleasurable, and a few that were actually stable. In between the painful and good meter. Even though Johnny was a hateful person, who couldn’t care about someone to save his life, he had his moments. Of course, it took a little looking into to realize that maybe he didn’t mean his words the way they had sounded. It took a lot of strength and stubbornness to figure out some of the things Johnny would tell her, or else she would get the wrong impression and it turned into an ever lasting fight that was only solved with a rough kiss and a rump in their extremely broken in bed. But Mai knew better back then, knowing that if she asked him about something he had said and if it had meant something else, she’d get a bunch of bullshit lies, telling her that she must be stupid and extremely deaf to be hearing such things. Though a memory stuck within her mind, one that he had yet to tell her if he thought she was retarded for remembering, or even hearing.

----- It had been late, almost four in the morning. Something stupid had been said, and Johnny had made a smart assed comment about it. Tired, and hungry, Mai complained and they both made a huge deal out of nothing. The fight progressed until Mai grabbed a shirt, tossed it over the bra she had been wearing, and left. Just for a walk, to let them both calm down, and to clear her head. Along the way of walking around the block, still wearing her uniform from work, Mai had an unlucky counter with three thugs. At first, she had ignored them and changed her route, cutting it short by taking a short cut behind a couple buildings. Bad idea. When she ran out of room to walk, by the time she had turned around on her heels to get out, they were blocking her only exit.

----- It’s not hard to figure out what they were thinking. With Mai cornered, and without any sort of weapon on her, she was left defenseless against them. It didn’t help that they all had a pocket knife, meaning that if she managed to take one down, the two left would have something to use against her. At first they had only toyed with her, smacking her around like the rag doll she was used to being. Although, being Johnny’s rag doll was much different than being a plaything for these males. It was frightening . . . By the time they were done taking turns, seeing how frightened they could make her expressions go, and how fast her heart could thud within her chest, the “leader” told them to hold her still so she could make her feel what a real man was.

----- The next actions had been unexpected, and very surprising. Johnny had rounded the corner, a look on his face like he was Satan in disguise. Fists clenched, jaw tightened to shit. He took them out like they were nothing, not even the small flails that they managed to hit towards him had gone unnoticed by the male. He didn’t rest until they weren’t moving. For all Mai knew, he could’ve killed them with his bare hands. But she was grateful. If she had enough strength to fall to her knees, she would have and kissed his feet. But Mai was weak, she was tired, and in pain. He had helped her walk back to the condo, arm around her waist, and with her arm over his shoulders. He cooed in her ear the entire time, and even though he wouldn’t look her in the eye, Mai knew that he had wanted to.

----- But memories were just fragments of the mind that a human wasn’t strong enough to let go of.

----- His words were ignored, not caring for what his opinion was on her apparent start of a fight. She bit her lip, holding back the urge to yell at him, tell him that if he really wanted to hear her start to bicker, she’d give it to him. He didn’t know anything about her tongue yet. These past three years had changed her, her personality a little with it. Mai wasn’t even sure if he’d be able to handle her wicked tongue anymore. But as he moved, her head tilted with interest, her eyebrows pulling together, concentrating on his movements. As he grabbed her clothes, she pushed up towards the side of the pool again, her eyelids closing half way as he stopped out of her reach. A scoff was made, followed by a frown of her lips. Such a Johnny thing to do. Bugger . . .

----- With a stern face, and a low grown of displeasure, Mai pulled herself out of the water a little, not caring if he got a full view of her breasts. Grabbing his hand, she shook her garments form his palm and pulled him towards the pool. As he gave her one of his famous looks, she glared back and pulled once more, hard enough to actually case him pain. Moving quickly, so that he didn’t fall into the pool on top of her, she moved herself away from the stairs, knowing that they could be used to his advantage with pinning her to yell at her. It was easier to hide in the deep end, even though it wasn’t exactly the safest. Watching him the entire time, Mai raised her middle finger from the water and licked the tip of it teasingly, her sassy attitude toying with her need to feel him against her again, as much as she hated to think about it.

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status: completed !
notes: once again, no need to match the length. xD
tagged: johnny .
word count: 1133 words.
outfit: click .
lyrics:

[/color][/font] hold me like a microphone - aerodrone
template to:[/color][/font] KARI BEAR !? of caution 2.0[/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]