SWEETER THAN HEAVEN, HOTTER THAN HELL

[DENVER CARLOS HURLEY]

you've got me buried with your every move
YOUR FINE LINES HAVE ME AT A LOSS OF MEMORY

Time just seemed to be as nonexistent logic. Denny knew it was Christmas morning, but minutes and seconds just turned into this big blur and all he could count time by was how many times his hand moved up and down against her skin. Time just ceased to exist and honestly, Denny didn’t mind it. He was slightly lost in thought, lost in listening to whatever he could hear, lost in holding and being this close to Annie. Denny didn’t know he’d know what to do if he ever fell in love like this, but it seemed like whenever something came up, he knew exactly how to handle it. It was pure instinct after a while. He’d never had anyone to treat this way, and though he was learning as he’d expected, some things just came naturally. Like the need to touch Annie – whenever he was near her he had to have a hand on her. He didn’t understand why, but he wasn’t questioning this instincts. Animals didn’t do that – they impulsively acted and followed what their body and minds told them to do. The thing about shifters was that they were only half animal. Especially in Denny’s case, his human half weighed in on a lot of his movements and decisions. So, to be honest, his need to hold and be close like this to Annie was more than just his human emotions playing with his mind. It was honestly his entire being wanting to be this close, wanting to hold her like this.

Even if Vultures and Kalaks didn’t exactly fit together, Denny and Annie did.

As the time moved, Denny just ended up not saying anything. He’d said it all – what else could he say that he hadn’t already? Anything he thought of sounded insignificant useless, and plus….he was content with this quiet. It wasn’t awkward like he would have expected a year and a half ago. It was nice, peaceful and just full of words that had so much meaning but were so easy to say. The air around them just held all of the feeling and emotion behind every word, and it calmed Denny to the point of being completely content. This was why everything was perfect for him. The fact that they’d had an argument but were able to rebound back from it started everything for him….sort of. The fact that she let him be this close, the fact that they didn’t need to be sexual to feel flames, the fact that they obviously loved each other so much – all of that was why this was so perfect to Denny. And he knew he told himself and Annie over and over again how he would never ever want anyone like he wanted Annie, that there would never be another girl for him the way Annie was for him, but this was why exactly. Especially with Denny, love only came around once, and with the intensity and speed of their relationship, he knew he would never, ever have another chance at finding a fraction of what he had with anyone other than Annie. He really meant it when he said there would never be enough room for anyone else like this in his life.

Slowly but surely Denny felt Annie just letting go. It wasn’t like she was really letting go of anything, but her grip on his hand just lightened and her hand that had been rubbing his arm slowed down until it halted all together. He could feel her breathing on his neck, and by the way that it was so rhythmic and timed, he knew she was asleep. He kept his hand moving against her leg and realized just how worn out he was himself. He wasn’t particularly tired because in order for that to happen his mind would need to be shutting down. But he was fully functioning mentally – thoughts and words and emotions were running through his train station like that bird from the old Cartoons with Wiley Coyote. They were fast, they were attention consuming, but they were exactly what he wanted to think about. For once, his life was complete in a way that he knew he’d want to hold onto for the rest of his existence. So the fact that he was worn out instead of actually tired didn’t really do anything to his mood. His body felt stiff again in that glorious way, like it had been put to good use, and his eyes were beginning to droop, but his mind was stuck in this perfect little mindset that he wished would always stick around with him. To some extent, it would, but to other extents, Denny knew change was inevitable, even in the littlest ways.

He sighed, but the sound wasn’t anything less than the way he was feeling. Denny turned his face once more and kissed Annie’s cheek, then turned back and gently started to angle the both of them towards his pillows. He situated Annie first, making sure she’d be comfortable when she woke up. Then somehow, without waking her up, Denny slid himself just beneath her, wrapping his one arm around her shoulders until he could reach her hand with the ring again. He didn’t know why, but he was just drawn to holding that had, not that he really needed an explanation. The fact that she was wearing it, the fact that she liked it even brought him enough sense to just want to hold her hand at all times and never let her go. That’s what forever meant, right? Whatever; he wasn’t too concerned with it. His mind was starting to slow down, and he knew in no time he’d be asleep. All he had to do was focus on one thought, and that thought happened to be just how much he loved Annie. He’d scream it from the top of his lungs if he had to, even if Annie just wanted him to. Everything about him was about her, he’d do anything for her, and all he wanted was for her to be happy and happy with him.

In no time, his eyes were closed, his breathing matched Annie’s, and his dreams were all centered around Christmas with her.



1040 -- lyrics to there for tomorrow, words to me duh, image from me. -- UM DENNY IS NOT CURRENTLY WEARING ANYTHING. -- seren/annie and that's it :) -- sleeping sharp cheddar

[ANNABELLE MARIE HURLEY]

there's a drumming noise inside my head
I SWEAR THAT YOU COULD HEAR IT, IT MAKES SUCH AN ALMIGHTY SOUND.

Annie’s breathing had grown into a sense of time, and her fingers moved slower against his skin. But she when she did slow the movements her fingers kind of grapsed him a bit more. When his arms were tight around her middle, holding her securely to him, it was easy to feel safe. The thought og him letting go, at any time and in any place, killed her, just ripped her through the middle. It stung to think that, whether he would do it physically or mentally. But it also hurt to think that because she thought of when he had asked her why she was so convinced he would let her go and hurt her that way. She didn’t know why, but now that was at the back of her mind. Sleep chased it out like a dog that wanted a bone, and with his arms tight around her and his fingers on his leg, and his warm chest behind her it was easy to just… drift off, content with everything that had gone on that night, reassure that he wouldn’t leave. She felt like that had been all that the conversations had been about, how he wouldn’t leave. But he had convinced her enough for her to let go of her mind and just sleep. Sleep in his arms, because he wasn’t letting go.

Annie only dreamed occasionally, and sometimes her dreams didn’t make sense. Most of the time. And this was one of those times. Annie hadn’t visited the beach since she first moved to this town, and yet here she was, standing on the dunes of one of the beautiful beaches of Cape Cod. Although, it wasn’t looking so beautiful in that moment. The sky was overcast, full with bludgeoning clouds hanging low and pregnant with a storm. The wind whipped around on the dunes, the sawgrass looking like waves on the shore, rippling waves that would crash a boat… or maybe a bike, considering they were overflowing onto the path to the beach. And the actual waves were just as infuriated, the wind cajoling them into this frenzy as they pounded furiously against the jetty, the long line of rocks dipping into the sea and jutting up from it like the pointy, blood thirsty teeth of a sea monster. And Annie stood alone among this fury of nature. Even though it was winter, it wasn’t snowing. She couldn’t tell you what the season was, she just knew that it was cold from the wind and angry from the sky. She stood on the beach, her toes dipping into the sand. Sometimes the beach was full of life, hermit crabs scuttling from hole to hole, sand pipers tip-toeing on the small, rippling waves, and all sorts of sea birds screaming over head. But today was a very different day, and Annie’s breaths were the only ones that the wind stole.

Her hair was pinned back in a weird way, like a mother might pull back wisps of hair from her little girl, twisting them into pretty, fishtail braids along her scalp, leaving the ends to whip around Annie’s face as she looked out at the water with an unnatural fascination. But Annie had never word her hair like that, because there had never been anyone to do it for her. The water wasn’t Annie’s place; she preferred the forest much more. So much more that she tended to forget about the ocean, and forget about the sky. Maybe that’s why she was here, with absolutely no cover of trees or safety of solid ground. Her eyes looked sadly on the water, or maybe they were just sad in general. This little sundress she was wearing was also being whipped around by the wind. It billowed from her waist down, and was tight around her stomach, but not in an uncomfortable way, more like a flattering fit. That was what held it up, not little spaghetti straps. It was red and had small printed flowers with blue and yellow petals, like calico fabric. It was the kind of dress that a mother would buy her young daughter on a whim, a nice dress for a cute vacation.

But Annie had never had anyone buy her dresses like that.

Annie’s mind wasn’t thinking, except about the sky. You think she would be paying attention to the ocean, because it seemed like one of those things that would demand almost all of your attention. But no, Annie watched the sky; she thought about telling Denny that she had been a bird, a mocking bird. She thought about telling him the story of how, when she was little, she would run through the huge flocks of them, and watch them twist into the air like little rockets, screaming through their small beaks. To Annie, mocking birds had no identity. To Annie, mocking birds were a lot like people. They were sometimes obnoxious and brash, but if you saw them in the right light, at the right time, they were perfectly beautiful, the kind of beautiful that people wrote novels about. But mocking birds didn’t have a sound; one bird found a sound from another kind of bird, like a cardinal, or a blue jay, and he would say he liked that sound. He would say that it would sound good from his mouth. And so he would start sounding like that cardinal, or blue jay. And the other birds would like the sound, too, and they would pick it up and it would spread through the whole group like wild fire until they all sounded like that one cardinal, or blue jay. But no one would think of the origin, and by the time someone might have wondered, that song was gone and in it’s place the birds were talking like canaries, or nightingales.

That reminded Annie of people, because she didn’t know where originality had gone.

Annie walked quietly into the ocean, feeling the water swim around her feet. Panic should have risen in her throat, should have made her scream. Any person in their right mind wouldn’t have gone to the ocean on a day like this, much less step in it. But Annie was, Annie was taking bigger steps into the sea, feeling it swirl around her dress and up her thighs. She didn’t really like the cold water touching her legs, she would rather still have Denny’s hands there, because she had really liked that. But now there was this water, and the roar of the waves was so loud that Annie was convinced they were the sound of her thoughts, they were attacking her mind and she couldn’t think and so she kept walking into the water until the water touched her hands, and then it touched her hips and the middle of her stomach and then her breasts and then her shoulders and her neck and her ears and then Annie was under water.

Then her body realized what her emotions had been feeling but her brain still wouldn’t listen. She panicked in the water, and took a breath.

And then she woke up. She took a huge wild gasp, and her eyes opened wide, but as soon as they did she narrowed them again. It was late in the day, and sun light streamed in from above her painting everything the colors that it should be, rich colors of Denny’s room and of their bodies and of his sheets. It was such a stark contrast to the colors it had been when she had fallen asleep, the monochrome blacks and whites and blues of moonlight, soft and kind of appealing to her eyes. This golden was nice too, but just a big change. She closed her eyes all the way, and took a calmer breath. Her head wasn’t on a pillow and instead was on Denny, rested half on his chest and half on the dip between his shoulder and collar bone. His head rested on her’s, pressed against her hair. She was snuggled up against his side, and his arm was snaked along behind her shoulders, and rested on her stomach. Both of her hands were there too, holding the one of his that was on her mid section.

Annie didn’t know why, but whenever she woke up from nights like the last she always felt really naked laying in his bed. Maybe it was because waking up with him the morning after seemed kind of more intimate than the sex itself. Because Annie didn’t stay the night when it was her job, didn’t even leave the party when she was in high school. But with Denny she never wanted to leave his arms… want and need were two different things though. Last time she had given in to what had felt like the need, and she had gotten dressed, but now she just opened her eyes and forced herself to stay there. She knew it would hurt him if she moved. She took a deep breath, not quite sure if he was awake or not, and turned her head so that she was resting the side of her face on his chest.

Her mind was all mixed up from the dream, and she her mouth felt dry and salty.




1,548 - LOL ANNIE IS IN HER BIRTHDAY SUIT. - lyrics to florence and the machine - like this one.

[DENVER CARLOS HURLEY]

you've got me buried with your every move
YOUR FINE LINES HAVE ME AT A LOSS OF MEMORY

Sometimes Denny felt like a prophet. His dreams were just….crystal clear and almost always held some relevance to his life. Like when he had the dream with the fire and the sky crumbling, that had obviously signified hard times. But Denny had flow through all of it, as impossible as it had seemed. He’d managed to survive, and he was sure if he’d stayed asleep any longer he would have survived to see a new world. All of that dream had been about his life before Annie, he was sure. Well, his life right after she’d walked into it. Or maybe he’d had the dream because of what he’d said to her right before he’d fallen asleep. That made a bit more sense, because at one point during that day, their entire world had been ripped apart and built back up. Annie had told him about her eating disorder and Denny had told her that he accepted her anyway. Then later Annie had almost been forced into telling him about her prostitution past, even though it hadn’t been Denny forcing her into the explanation. And again, Denny had told her that he accepted her regardless of what she’d done before. He’d found himself to be more accepting of that than of someone bringing it up, which was actually logical for once.

Then he’d had another quite prophetic dream. He’d been flying, as free as he’d ever been, with Annie running just below him. The running and the flying had come to an end at this meadow, where Annie and Denny had come together – and that much was easy to understand what it had foretold. Well, Denny saw his dreams in this light. After every dream, something that had a certain source of relevance to that dream occurred in his life. So he’d waited patiently for another future-hinting dream after he’d fallen asleep, but what he’d dreamed about hadn’t really seemed like it would happen in real life. Some odd vision of a little girl that looked scarily like Annie was running around a huge Christmas tree in a quite…suburban home. The tree was lined with presents, lots of them, and in a few distorted but quite spacious cages were too many animals moving around to count. A tiny, furry puppy yipped beside Denny’s feet, and another, larger, more waxy-coated dog rumbled on into the room at a slow pace. Denny stood too still in the center of the room, taking in the green furniture and blue walls, noticing how they clashed so horribly but understanding what the colors meant: blue for the sky, green for the trees.

This was his home. This was Annie’s home. That little girl was by no means the product of his sister, ruling out niece as a possible title for the tot. Another little voice came from behind Denny, but he didn’t clearly understand what the voice was saying. It was tiny, too high pitched to be Annie’s, as if it belonged to someone as tiny as that girl around the tree. When he turned around, there was a little carbon copy of himself with a hint of Annie across his face – he had her nose, her eye structure, her smile. Without really thinking about it, Denny leaned down and picked the small boy up, smiling without really controlling himself. He realized he was having a very out of body experience, which was odd because his last two memorable dreams had been composed of in-body experiences, whether he liked that fact or not. In any case, he held the boy close to him, then turned back to the little girl. They looked only a few years apart, the girl looking older than the young boy, and he wondered quickly where Annie was.

The animals in the cages that lined the oddly colored walls moved in crazy patterns, leaving colors Denny couldn’t identify along his vision. The colors from the tree, the little girl running around it screaming things Denny couldn’t understand, and the little boy in his arms didn’t add up, especially not with all of the animals against the walls and the two dogs. Everything seemed so domesticated and….so much like his family before the accident had happened and he felt a sad sense of nostalgia wash over his entire being. However, despite this nostalgic wave, his face stayed smiling and he spoke a language he couldn’t even understand to the boy and the girl. Things didn’t make sense to him, but the way he was watching this, obviously something did make sense. He just had to figure it all out. And then another noise was made, and it wasn’t words he didn’t understand or the sound of a rattling cage. It sounded much like a backdoor opening, then he could hear feet and instantly the two children before him turned into little animals. One became a little Cardinal, the other had morphed into a little Boston Terrier, and suddenly Denny couldn’t tell the difference between the two of them. They were so tiny and fast he had to run to keep up with them, and before he could blink they were both back in their human forms, hugging another human form.

That form…….was Annie.

The little girl was a spitting image of Annie and suddenly everything clicked. If Denny had control of what he was doing and saying, he was sure his jaw would have hit the ground so far that the floor would have cracked. With the way the girl looked like Annie and the boy sort of looked like both of them, there was really no denying what was going on in this dream. And that was why Denny doubted it was prophetic. Denny just….. Well, while he could see himself marrying Annie and really had every intention of doing so, he couldn’t see Annie as a mother. His wife, sure; she didn’t need to be domesticated to be his wife. He took her as she was, animalistic tendencies and all. He didn’t need her to change, didn’t want her to change, and having children would be cause for change. The mother of his children seemed so less likely than being his wife, and so to Denny the dream was just a dream. It didn’t really have relevancy. And that was the scariest part.

Still, the dream continued. After embracing the two little ones, Annie moved pas them, right to Denny. The children moved back into the living room while Annie just wrapped herself around Denny, and suddenly the whole dream just made sense. Just as it made the most sense, when Denny leaned slightly to be able to kiss Annie, he was waking up. The dream became blurry and all of the sounds that came from it just started to fade out. Slowly but surely he was waking up, and he couldn’t help it. He could feel the light before he could see the tint of it behind his eye lids. It was warm on his face and arms, but maybe that was just Annie. She was still there, which put a smile on his face before his eyes even opened. She hadn’t gotten up and left, not that he thought she would. After last night, he knew she wouldn’t, at least not this time. This wasn’t like the morning after he’d told her he loved her. This was the morning after…..well, he didn’t really have words for what had happened. It was just Christmas, because technically it wasn’t morning anymore, was it? In any case, Annie was there, and his dream was just starting to fade into the back ground. What mattered to him was waking up and knowing that Annie was still there. “Morning,” he mumbled happily, not really thinking too hard about his actions or words, not that he seemed to need it right now anyway.

“Sleep well?” That was his lame attempt at making small talk, something he really wasn’t all that good at.


1328 -- lyrics to there for tomorrow, words to me duh, image from me. -- UM DENNY IS NOT CURRENTLY WEARING ANYTHING. -- seren/annie and that's it :) -- whew that was. that dream. i can't even.

[ANNABELLE MARIE HURLEY]

there's a drumming noise inside my head
I SWEAR THAT YOU COULD HEAR IT, IT MAKES SUCH AN ALMIGHTY SOUND.

Annie kept her eyes closed, unable to keep a good hold on which emotions she wanted to portray. It was hard to when her body felt like this, when her mind couldn’t decide on the dream. The more time she spent awake, the more sense it started to make. Or, rather less. She was able to see small devices in it, as if the dream were a fine novel, but it was just really confusing. What about all the allusions to a child hood she had never had? The dresses that had been nonexistent, replaced instead with hand-me-down jeans from anywhere her dad could get them, and the beautiful fish tailing braids that had been so intricately designed on her head? Annie’s hair had always done what it wanted, she let it tangle and knot because it was easy. Part of her wanted to reach up and touch her head to see if they were still there. But she knew that they weren’t and it would be stupid to check.

She was broken out of that thinking when she heard Denny’s breathing change, felt it against her head. Mumbled morning, asked her how she slept. There were a couple ways Annie could answer that. She bit her lip. She had this weird feeling about it, and she tilted her head off him so that it was still on him, but her face was no longer against him. She looked up at his ceiling. ”I had this weird dream…” she started, not really sure if she would go into detail about it. But she didn’t know what else to say, and she kind of wanted to see what he thought about it, so she took a breath.

”I was on the beach, which is weird, because I haven’t been to the beach since I first moved here from Boston. And it was really stormy and crazy. Like a horror movie, or something. And all of the animals were gone.” She didn’t know why she had thrown that in there, because if it was dark and stormy off course the animals were going to be gone. ”And there were no trees. Just the sky and the ocean. And the ocean and the sky were angry. Not at me. Just… you could feel fury in the air.” That didn’t make sense. But sometimes Annie forgot about her human bits and used simple words. To animals the simplest, and most-childlike explanations could mean the most. ”And I was watching the horizon and thinking about the one time I shifted into a bird and how much I just absolutely hate mockingbirds, and then I walked into the ocean and I think I drowned.” That was actually a lie; Annie knew she had drowned. But to say that was weird. She didn’t know how she could phrase it. She frowned in a frustrated manner, and picked up her left handing, reaching over to her fingers inbetween his ands nervously sliding her ring around her finger a couple of times. It was a quirk, she didn’t even notice it. But it was good because it meant she was already comfortable with the ring.

She took a breath. ”But… but the weirdest part….” her voice sounded far away, like she wasn’t in this room anymore, or like she was trying hard to listen to music in another room. ”The weirdest part is the way I looked. I was wearing this dress, like a little girl’s sundress, but not like one because it fit me. But it was the kind of dress someone would buy with their mom, or even a dress their mom would make. It was like calico, like the fabric in fabric stores, not something really machine made, you know?” Annie wasn’t sure if she was making sense, but she wasn’t even aware that she was talking to Denny anymore. She was thinking out loud. ”I never had a dress like that.” She whispered. Because she hadn’t. ”And my hair… it was all braided. But not like this, not the way I do it. It was really nice, lots of little intricate braids that were looping in and out and in this really pretty pattern. Someone else did it.” She closed her eyes and sniffed. ”I looked pretty. Too bad I drowned.”

In Annie’s words, there was one lingering sort of thing that she wouldn’t say. Her mom. Annie never had a mother. She liked to think that if she had kids she would be different. She wouldn’t abandon them. Annie never really let on that what her mother had done got to her, but that was because most of the time it didn’t. Sometimes, though, it got to her. It got into her subconscious and dragged it’s infected nails in her brain, making her want to scream. Sometimes it made her confused and nostalgic, and wondering if she would be different if her mom had been. She wondered if things would be different, how her life would be. Would she think she was prettier, would she be softer, less abrasive? How different would her childhood have been? She knew that she wouldn’t be nearly as animalistic… or at least she liked to think that. Sometimes she imagined the mother she could have had, the life she could have had. Sometimes she imagined her mom like some mom straight from a perfect sitcom-family. That type of mom wouldn’t have let her shift all the time, like her dad had. She would be much more stable and human-like, able to sustain herself in normal society without growing these deadly vices that she had. She wouldn’t want to rip herself up all the time. Maybe she would be something close to normal.
But her mom had left, so Annie would never know.

She shook her head from her thoughts. ”But, anyway, what about you? Have any interesting dreams…?”


981 - LOL ANNIE IS IN HER BIRTHDAY SUIT. - lyrics to florence and the machine - LOL EXPLORING ANNIE'S PAST TRA LA LAAA

[DENVER CARLOS HURLEY]

you've got me buried with your every move
YOUR FINE LINES HAVE ME AT A LOSS OF MEMORY

Being out of dreamland made it increasingly difficult to understand dreams. Or rather, it made it hard to follow along with the events within dreams. Because outside of dreams, there were dream readers and there was the comprehension Denny had on his own dreams. But it was becoming this increasingly difficult puzzle to lay there and listen to Annie’s dream without a) becoming a paranoid freak and/or b) being totally lost. And at the moment, he was both, each with obvious and quite logical reasoning behind the mental progression within his process of listening to this. All of it just twisted him up in the worst way possible, though he knew it was just a dream she’d had. Still, he felt pretty useless because of the fact that it was a dream. He couldn’t do anything to change what she’d seen and he couldn’t sit there and pretend like nothing was going on in her head. Well, this wasn’t really anything new. There was always something going on in Annie’s head. There was always going to be something in her head he couldn’t fix, at least not right away, and so he’d have to teach himself how to be more patient than he already was. If that was possible.

Really, all he could do was listen. Sit and listen, that was it. It made him feel kind of horrible, but not in the worst way he’d ever felt. It was more of the fact that he had to lay there, static and calm, while he listened to Annie about monstrous storms and drowning, and he couldn’t do anything to stop it that irked him the most. He really just had to suck it up and realize that some things just couldn’t be fixed the way he wanted to fix them. That, and he had to understand that this was a dream – he wasn’t going to understand it unless he’d been a part of it, which was mostly impossible for Denver because he wasn’t really able to jump through people’s dreams like that one episode of Spongebob he’d watched years ago, when he had nothing better to do. He just had to let it go for now, act like he cared, but like he knew he couldn’t do anything to help. Well, that hit a pride issue within him. You see, even if Denny wasn’t the most confident person ever, he still had his pride to uphold, and when he had to agree to give up the right to be able to do something, especially when it came to helping Annie, his pride was shot. Or maybe it was more of a confidence thing; maybe both. In either case, admitting that he was a very unnecessary tool at the moment was not on the top of his list of things he wanted to do today.

The hardest part about the dream for Denny to hear was definitely the part about her drowning. Just thinking about made him want to run to the beach and get a job as a life guard. He wanted to trade his shifting abilities for the power to control the weather, just to make sure the sky never turned into a horrible storm the way Annie was describing. But this was winter in Cape Cod, and that trade off was impossible. Annie wouldn’t be caught dead at the beach in a dress this time of year, especially not if she wanted to get into the water. Not that anyone would want to go into that water in the middle of December. Denny didn’t think Annie was that crazy, not unless she had a death wish like the first guys that had jumped off of the Titanic in 1912. Honestly though, he couldn’t speak for Annie. He’d like to be able to in a situation like that, but Annie was her own person, and she had her own mind and made her own decisions. However, if it did come to that particular decision, Denny would be the first to admit he’d be on the scene, ready to knock some sense into her before she stepped into the icy freezing water. Besides all of that, and besides all of the modern technology that could do all of only God (or whatever higher power anyone believed in) knows what, there was no way Denny could give up his genetics for a new set of genetics that would make him 100 percent human with the ability to jump through dreams.

And now that he thought about it, he’d rather be a vulture. It just made more sense to him.

As soon as Annie’s dream ramble was over, his mind ramble ceased too. He had to look at what he could see of Annie to make sure she hadn’t just gone back to sleep or something, like he couldn’t believe she’d just stopped talking about her dream. That was it? She’d just…drowned? She hadn’t fought? But what about – wait. Denny had to stop. She’d been talking about the dress and how someone had never bought her a dress and her hair and how no one had ever done her hair that way. Surely that had nothing to do with Denny. Regardless of the bit where she’d turned into a bird before (which Denny found himself being momentarily but infinitely happy about, as contradictory as that seemed), this whole ordeal started to sound less and less like the signs she’d been seeing had been pointing at him and more and more at someone else. But he didn’t understand who, and that’s really what got to him at that point. Someone Annie had been missing. With that small explanation, it was easy to see why he’d thought even for a second the dream had possibly been about him – Annie had been missing him for nearly nineteen years, until she’d finally met him and he’d met her and their worlds had meshed together. But now that he recalled more and more of what she was saying, he realized it couldn’t have been about him. Denny couldn’t do a braid to save his life. He didn’t even know the basis of hair braiding, let alone making them nearly as intricate as Annie had made them seem from her depiction.

Denver had no time to really make any verbal interactions with Annie’s dream. Between the time that Annie had finished explaining and the time he’d finished mentally examining, she’d already moved on to asking him about his dream. But what did he say? What could he say? First of all, he was a bit too preoccupied with the fact that Annie had just told him she’d drowned in her dream, which, if his prophetic dream theory reached out to her, was not a good sign. Second of all, he wasn’t so sure telling her that he’d seen her as the mother of his children was really all that good of an idea. Annie hated being touched, except by Denny, and once again although she had told him she’d marry him, he wasn’t so sure that she wanted to be a mother. Denver didn’t really know too much about Annie’s mom, just that she hadn’t really been around or something along those lines. If she’d told him, she hadn’t gone too far into detail, and Denny hadn’t pushed the subject in fear of losing any and all contact with Annie. At that point (the point in which the subject had come up), he would have rather stayed her friend since he had none than lose the only friend he did have over a stupid conversation that didn’t exactly need to be addressed. So in any case, he wasn’t s sure that talking about their children, even in a dream world, was the best idea.

But Annie had asked, and it wasn’t like Denny could really deny her anything. It might be a real issue one day, but Denny found it harder and harder to say no to Annie. It was one of those ‘I don’t want her to hate me by saying no, even if I know it’s the right thing to do’ type deals, and he knew one day it would get him in more trouble than actually saying no would, but for now…..well, it wasn’t dangerous to say yes. It was actually harmless to say yes, which meant saying no was invalid and void. So he cleared his voice and thought about where to start, seeing the colors and the sounds that he didn’t understand blend back into his mind. “Well,” he started, trying to find the right words as to not set her off or anything. Plus, he didn’t want to push himself too far after having worried so heavily on a subject that Annie had almost passed over herself. “I saw us…..a couple years or so in the future I’d guess. I mean, it was Christmas but…there were people.” Denny felt so horribly awkward at that point. He just didn’t know how to get around explaining the children in his dream. “Lots of animals in huge cages. Not the kind you’d look at and think the animal’s in jail or something either. We have better sense than that.” That much held relevancy due to their species. Animals just didn’t cage other animals, keeping in mind that trapping and caging are two different things.

“But the two people….. Well, one looked just like you. The other sort of looked more like me but somehow still like you.” He just wanted to punch himself in the stomach. He felt the awkwardness of what he was trying to say seep into his thoughts and his words, out through his mouth and into the air. It almost infuriated him, had it not been such a downer. “At first it was just me and these two people and two dogs. I’d guess the smaller one was yours but what do I know? Not how to tell Annie you had a dream where she was a mother, that’s for sure! Denny ignored his own mind and went on. “Then you walked in from the back door and the two people shifted, one into a bird and one into a canine and then bolted towards you like…. I don’t know. Like they were running a race or something.” Denny was surprised Annie didn’t want to hit him for being so awkward. “These two people just like…hugged you and then they were gone, and then it was just you and me.” and that was that; the end of his dream, the end of his story, and unless Annie asked any questions, the end of his explanations. “And that was it.”



1778 -- lyrics to there for tomorrow, words to me duh, image from me. -- UM DENNY IS NOT CURRENTLY WEARING ANYTHING. -- seren/annie and that's it :) -- wow denny stop being so weird.

[ANNABELLE MARIE HURLEY]

there's a drumming noise inside my head
I SWEAR THAT YOU COULD HEAR IT, IT MAKES SUCH AN ALMIGHTY SOUND.

Annie licked her lips. ”Like our kids, you mean?” It was phrased as a question, but not really. That was just the connotation that Annie would take from it. Denny was awkwardly tripping around some words, looking for substitutes. His hesitance at certain sentences led her own that there were things missing. And Annie was smart enough to connect the dots. She wanted to laugh a litte. His repetition of “people” was taxing, and giggle-worthy. It was just… Annie wasn’t sure. It was awkward, but in a cute kind of way. Like she wasn’t mad or irritated with the awkwardness of it, it was like she just wanted to smile and kiss him and laugh with him. But that didn’t make sense right now – or maybe it did but Annie was just preoccupied. She wasn’t sure how to make a reaction to this right now so she just kind of kept looking at the ceiling, thinking. What did that kind of dream mean? Why was she even looking for any meaning in it?

Some little part of her was jealous of Denny. Why did he get to see their future children and not her? She wanted that small little porthole to a life that she couldn’t stop thinking about after he had given her the ring last night. She wanted to see what he did, she felt like he knew more, now. Admittedly, she blushed when she thought that. Maybe she shouldn’t have been jumping to conclusions. Maybe it was just a dream. Maybe their actual children wouldn’t look like that at all, or shift into those things. Annie might have been carried away though, her and Denny might never have kids.

Maybe Annie would never have any children because she would be a terrible mother.

She didn’t want to think that though. Annie knew she wouldn’t be a perfect mother by any means, because she just wasn’t cut out to be perfect at anything that required being human. She was terrible at it, and it was unfair to stick someone with her as a mother, she knew that. But it would be sad to take that away from Denny. Annie’s mind was reeling, going too fast, but she knew that Denver would be an amazing father. Anyone could see it. But maybe she was just jumping to conclusions again because maybe he didn’t want kids. She felt guilty, but for once her mind didn’t jump to thinking about him leaving her. It more just felt terrible for being the one he was stuck with and she wouldn’t be able to provide a functional family for him. But maybe she was still jumping to conclusions, maybe he didn’t want the family she kept thinking he wanted. Annie’s critical view of herself was just shoving ideas down her throat, and she just felt like she had to give him so much, ad that was the only thing she could think. That she would have to sacrifice pieces of herself to give him this dream family that he might not even want.

Part of her knew that he didn’t want her to give up any of this, but it was ignored as her mind spiraled out of control like a crashing plane. She was quiet though, inwardly panicking as she just closed her eyes softly and continued to twist her ring around her finger. She was panicking over something that wouldn’t happen for years, may never happen. But both of those reasons made her sad, and she couldn’t even think as to why. It just… it had this overwhelming sobering effect that left Annie a little out of breath and a little far behind her thoughts. She didn’t know what to think about all of it though, she was just so tired of all of this, and it was starting to hurt her head, running in mental circles like this.

So somehow she took a breath, and started to speak. It was weird, because she didn’t know what she was saying. It felt like she was in one of those movies where you watch everything from the perspective of the main character, like their eyes are your eyes, but you still can’t control what happens. ”I think… I think I might be a good mom.” She wished that this was a TV and she could just change the channel. She felt like this was going to be a trainwreck, and she felt like she was dying, and inside she was hyperventilating, but on the outside she was calm and kept talking. ”I mean, I wouldn’t be perfect but I don’t think anyone wants a perfect mom… do they?” Annie didn’t know what kind of mom she wanted. She didn’t know what kind of mother her’s might have been. She knew she didn’t want one anymore. And the more she thought about it, she wasn’t really that mad at her mom for leaving her. She was sure she would have been a terrible mother. But it was a good motivation to be different than her mother had been. It was a good fire to think about what she would do.

”It’s weird because everyone thinks I’d be a bad mom ‘cause I don’t really like kids or people or anything, but I think it would be different with o- my own kids.”Annie wanted to say our but for some reasons she felt like she was crossing lines. Why? What had stopped her from saying it? That’s what the dream had been about, and if they were going to stay together forever, shouldn’t that mean his kids, too? Annie took a huge breath and felt her whole body just shrivel up like a thousand people were watching her, but of course that wasn’t really happening. ”…our kids.” she amended, quiet as death, suddenly terrified. She wished she hadn’t said that. She wished she wasn’t talking.

But she was.

”I mean, I would buy our -” there was that word our again, but she didn’t even notice. If she had, she most likely would have died. ”- daughter those pretty dresses, and braid her hair nicely so she would feel good about herself, you know?” All Annie really knew was that she would be different than her mother had been. Her voice was starting to get softer, and sadder, and she was just so glad that Denny was there. His arms around her and his chest under her kept her warm and little confident, like she could say what she wanted and needed without feeling awkward and sad and scared. Because he didn’t care about that so it was easy for Annie to overlook it. Clearly though, she was getting distracted. But his arm there and him bring right next to her was great. She didn’t want to move the entire day, she just wanted to stay there next to him and never move.

She felt like she was dripping into a sludge anyway, and everything was getting slower and Annie felt like she still wasn’t in control and that Denny holding her was the only thing keeping her in her body, like she was just going to float away, as silly as that sounded. She wasn’t sure why it sounded so weird, but it did. All she could do then though is keep talking. “I would be there.”

Annie turned onto her side, causing her to let go of Denny’s hand and leaving it to rest on her hip. She pulled her hands to her chest and leaned her head against Denny, tucking it kind of. She closed her eyes because suddenly she didn’t want them open. Suddenly she had worked herself up to this place that she didn’t like at all. It left her feeling… weird. There were a lot of words that could have fit there, vulnerable, nostalgic, sick, anything would fit. She just closed her eyes tight because suddenly she felt like she was going to cry. Sometimes Annie hated her mood swings, because they left her feeling like this, one moment calm and collected and the next this trainwreck of emotions who could even protect herself, she had to curl up against Denny and see if he would fight her monsters for her.

She wished she could have stopped, but she never seemed to stop when she needed to.

“I wouldn’t let her do the things that I have done.”

1,401 - LOL ANNIE IS IN HER BIRTHDAY SUIT. - lyrics to florence and the machine -ugh shit got real again

[DENVER CARLOS HURLEY]

you've got me buried with your every move
YOUR FINE LINES HAVE ME AT A LOSS OF MEMORY

Denver wasn’t exactly astounded that he couldn’t keep the fact that those two people in his dream were children from Annie, but he was a bit surprised she’d caught on so fast. It wasn’t that he thought she was slow or something, but he’d just tried to keep it under wraps in order to avoid her exploding or something. He had to sigh and just mumble a, “Yeah, I guess.” He couldn’t deny Annie anything, let alone the recognition that she’d been right. That was just……something Denny found impossible to execute. He wasn’t really mad that he couldn’t, and he wasn’t really mad that Annie had figured it out. He was more curious because he had been scared of her reaction to the world ‘children’ before. It had twisted his mind in a way to make him just refer to the kids as people, like they had no place to call their own and they were just running around the place him and Annie would call home one day, but they didn’t belong to him and Annie. But that part of the entire thought as invalid, and Denny had been able to tell that by the way the kids had appeared, the way they’d shifted so easily, the way that there was no one else in the dream except for the two figments, him, and Annie. It all just made sense, but at the same time Denny didn’t see the relevancy, which was sort of another reason he was scared to tell it to Annie.

He didn’t want her freaking out, thinking that he wanted kids immediately when really he would be content dying without offspring, as long as he got an ending quite similar to that of Noah and Allie in The Notebook. Denny would give up the chance to have children if he could lay down and go to sleep with Annie in his arms, one day when they were both too old to even think straight, and never wake up again. Why would he even want kids if he just wanted to put them through that? They’d get to grow up with a feral mother and a father that didn’t really know how to handle children all too well and was probably more occupied with their mother than their lives anyway, and then they got to watch their parents die on the same night at the same time, and all they’d get to do is keep going on. He wouldn’t be a perfect father even if they did have children, and some part of him just kept seeing him running around after the kids, cleaning up everything while trying to find Annie among all of the mess. He didn’t want to believe that would actually happen, and because of his dream it was easier to believe just that, but the image was still there, replaying itself over and over again in his head.

He really did have more faith in Annie than he knew. That image was just….a cautionary image, sort of like in those old cartoons where you’d see a conscience sitting on someone’s shoulder in an angel outfit, telling them what the right thing to do was, and then on the other shoulder was the same form of a conscience in a devil costume, speaking words of the opposite persuasion. He knew the image was the angel, but he didn’t particularly think his faith was the devil. It wasn’t the opposite, but it was almost as if they were both working on the same team for two different reasons. He had to sigh to let all of his thoughts go, to just be able to listen to what Annie was saying. He didn’t know why he’d let himself get into such a cycle in his mind like that all the time, especially when he knew his feelings for Annie was based on his faith in her. He couldn’t really help it sometimes though, and once it started he just needed to find something to distract himself from the jumble of thoughts.

By the way she was speaking, almost as if she was too distant to really remember Denny was there (but almost being a key element in that statement), Denny could tell there was something going on in her mind. This was something different than the usual circle of issues running around; this was something that he didn’t think he could do much about outside of talking. What was she even saying? Denny didn’t think she was crazy, even though that question could have suggested such an accusation, but he just wanted to know where all of this had come from. He’d just had a dream, that was it, and he saw no temptation to start a family from it. A dream was a dream, a mere figment of his imagination, and the only reason he’d shared the entire story with Annie was because she’d asked. If she had just gone on about her dream, he would have, also. Of course, thinking about that just made him think of Annie drowning, which really was just not something he wanted to be thinking about on Christmas. Honestly he’d rather just be outside throwing snowballs, but at the same time he wanted to stay in and cuddle all day. In either case, the thoughts and dreams and analyzing were all things that he didn’t want, but that the moment they just seemed inevitable.

And so, because of the fact that he just didn’t want to be talking about all of this anymore, because he could tell some of it was upsetting Annie, he just needed to respond and get it all over with. “I don’t think you’d be a bad mom.” Most of him agreed. That little image started to pop up again, but Denny used all he could to push it back to the depths from which it came. He didn’t care to see it now; he had to believe Annie. He had to believe himself. “No one’s perfect, Annie. I wouldn’t expect you to be a perfect mom.” He kind of wanted to twist himself so he was looking at her, but for the moment their static positions were okay with him. Physically, he was content as long as he was holding onto her in some way. With her images that she was painting, Denny couldn’t help but smile a bit. He could see it all, despite that little image. In fact, the little angel image was starting to diminish in size as Denny could see Annie being a mother more clearly. It just all coincided with his dream, and it filled him with a sense of something that he couldn’t even name. It just sort of made him feel like a family with Annie was possible.

But at the same time, he felt the need to let her know he wasn’t going to put pressure on her to start a family. And again, simultaneously, he didn’t want to potentially crush Annie’s hopes and dreams of having a little girl that she could be there for. It wasn’t his place to cut in and tell her he wasn’t going to give her a daughter, even though that wasn’t what he wanted to say at all anyway. So he just let her turn as he thought of ways to say what was on his mind. He needed to just let her know that he wouldn’t be mad at her if they never had kids, just so that she wouldn’t freak out and think he’d leave her over it. “I think we’d need to try, but I think we’d make it work. We’d be the best parents we could be,” he said so in such a sure way that he felt his own confidence in his parenting skills, though he’d thought hey were nonexistent, rise just a bit. With her turned this way, his hand that had been wrapped around her shoulders traced across her back, giving him leeway to be able to just sit there and think. “Annie just know…… Just know that even if we never have kids, I will always love you.” He wanted her to look at him and see the sincerity in his words, but with her eyes closed that was kind of impossible. Denny didn’t care either way; she’d heard it, and that was enough. “If that’s what you want, we can try whenever you’re ready. If it never happens, I’m not gonna sit here and hold it against you.” His head fell a bit (not his face) and he kissed the top of her head, still tracing little circles across her back.

He didn’t know if telling her that he’d loved to have children with her was particularly the right thing to say after what he’d just announced. In some way, Denny really just wanted Annie to understand that he loved her more than anything, that it didn’t matter if they made more of themselves for the world to sit and watch; as long as he had her, it didn’t matter what happened. “But if we ever did have children, I’d be right there with you. I’m not about to let you go at something that neither of us are exactly experienced in alone.” He hadn’t before, with this whole new world that came along with the emotion of being in love, and he had absolutely no plans to change that. “Besides, it was only a dream. We don’t need to freak out over this right now.” Somehow, he knew she would anyway. That was just how Annie functioned, honestly.



1600 exactly -- lyrics to there for tomorrow, words to me duh, image from me. -- UM DENNY IS NOT CURRENTLY WEARING ANYTHING. -- seren/annie and that's it :) -- DENNY HUSH ALREADY GOD

[ANNABELLE MARIE HURLEY]

there's a drumming noise inside my head
I SWEAR THAT YOU COULD HEAR IT, IT MAKES SUCH AN ALMIGHTY SOUND.

Annie kept her eyes closed and her head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat and breathing, listening to his voice. Those sounds were gradually becoming the most important sounds in Annie's world, and her ears were immediately drawn to them. Denny had weird ways of saying things, at least when it came to Annie's attention, two definite ways that his statements took. He would either say the wrong thing and Annie would take immediate offense, or he would say just the perfect thing to calm him down. He would either work her up, agitate her nerves, or slow down her entire body and emotions, convincing her of what he was saying. And right now was a situation of the latter, Denny's voice was pulling the right tones, saying the right sequence of letters to get her in the right mindset. His words stoked her ego enough in her potential parenting abilities, but at the same time he brought her down from the panic. Annie was usually calm, but matters of the heart worked her up more than anything she could imagine. Sometimes even when he said the perfect things he couldn't calm her down, but right now wasn't one of those times. It was one of those times where what he was saying was working, like all his hard work was paying off. He deserved that, he had worked so hard just to get Annie in the same room as him, he deserved for things to be easy for once. His hand drew circles on her back and she couldn't deny that it gave her little chills that made her subconsciously move closer to Denny; not in a way that she was in pain from the bruises (because she didn't even notice they were there anyway) but in a way that she just wanted to be closer and feel his warmth against her arms and chest. She loved the feel of him finger-tipping down her spine. 

But that's just be because those were Denny's fingers. Anyone else's would have been bit off from her snarling words. 

With the words he said before his lips touched her head, Annie realized how absurd she had been sounding. She was sounding out there, and unrealistic. His voice was like a pair of hands pushing and holding her head so she had to look at something she had been missing. If that’s what you want, we can try whenever you’re ready. Honestly, it was a beautiful offer for her, and she would be sure to remember it, but Annie was only twenty. She still had years before her biological clock started ticking with the kind of urgency that would back her into having kids. Granted, some girls had children much younger than that, but Annie wasn't really concerned with just giving birth. That wasn't it at all. For her, it was starting a total family, complete with a quaint little house and pancakes in the morning, as unrealistic as it sounded for Annie to be providing some of those things. But she was only twenty and could barely sustain herself, not to mention she had the social skills of an autistic four year old, completely unable to participate in society smoothly, let alone able to teach other people how to. His words were just kind of the bucket of water poured over her head to straighten her out, to see what she had been saying and to knock her out of that weird mindset. Obviously, though, when it came to the whole family idea, Denny would be there to help - as he was saying right then by her head - but, honestly, she needed all of his help just to keep herself sane and stable... they both knew that was something she couldn't do by herself, she could only fake it. It just wouldn't be fair to ask him to do that and then somehow try to bring a family into the mix. Annie wasn't sure if his words were meant to bring that aspect of realism on her, but that's what they were doing. 

"Fuck, what am I even saying?" she laughed lightly, one of those exhaling kind of chuckles. It wastrel though; what had caused her to get so worked up suddenly? She asked that hypothetically, but she knew the real reason. It stared her down like a rabid dog; she just wanted to disprove a family like her's, give the world something it had with held from her. Annie probably wouldn't have wanted that from anyone else, but the idea of building a home with Denny just appealed to her. And when she thought about that it was blatantly obvious to see how her train of thought had taken that route; it was just too easy to get caught up in a future with Denny. She just knew she wanted a future with him more than she had ever wanted something else. It was enough to drag her head out of the beauty of the present and swept up into the ideas of what they could be, would be. 

She leaned forward, pressing her lips against the skin she could reach, and then opened her eyes, resting her head against him once more. His skin was inviting against her and under her hands. She sighed, and you could almost hear her smiling. He lifted her up to this level that no one, nothing, had ever enabled her to rise to The things he said had just really paid off, and now that she was trying her hardest to not to think about her mother it was much easier for her to let go of those thoughts and just focus on how many times Denny told her he loved her. He said it a lot, and not like he was trying to reinforce it and convince her, he just said it like he meant it. Sure, when he had first started talking Annie's mind had immediately looked for words, "even"'s and "just"'s to throw off his legitimacy. But the things he said - any time he spoke - they meant something. He didn't say them because he liked the sound of his voice or because he was trying to convince Annie with comfort. He was comforting her, sure, but it meant something. Something incredibly tangible and important. 

 Annie lead her finger to trace down his chest and then loop back up again, laying her open palm on his chest where her hand had stopped. "Thank you," she said, and you could hear the sincerity in her voice. It burned in between every letter with a fire you could see from miles away. His words and reassurance meant enough to say it, but it was the heat he was giving her that fueled the fire, it was just him laying there that had kindred it. "I love you, too."



1,148 - LOL ANNIE IS IN HER BIRTHDAY SUIT. - lyrics to florence and the machine -I JUST LOVE PTV.

[DENVER CARLOS HURLEY]

you've got me buried with your every move
YOUR FINE LINES HAVE ME AT A LOSS OF MEMORY

Finally, everything was in order. No one was freaking out, no one was worrying, and no one was making things into situations they weren’t. Denny didn’t need to lay there and hope and pray that Annie took his words the way he meant her to. He was doing this the right way. He had learned how to do things the wrong way for so long, that learning the right thing to do was just…almost new to him. It gave him a good feeling, better than a lot of things could. Knowing that Annie was content with knowing all of that made him feel less like a criminal and more like a normal person, regardless of his species. He knew that there were people out there being recruited by the government because of their abilities, being taken in and used as weapons against people like him and Annie, but none of that actually affected Denny the way his relationship with Annie did. No one was coming after them. They had each other, even if someone did; Denny wasn’t about to let anything happen to Annie, so long as he could help it. He didn’t care what the rest of the world thought about her – anyone with a complete mind would be able to realize he’d sacrifice himself for Annie at any point in time.

Being that full of everything between them should have made him feel sick. Logically, once he was too full Denny just felt like sleeping and only waking up when his stomach wasn’t turning. But he wasn’t eating these feelings. So, in a way, it was logical that he didn’t feel sick. Honestly, Denny didn’t know what to expect. Never having been in love before just set him up for surprise after surprise. He really only knew he was in love because he was acting like a crazy person without even realizing it. He was making promises that would last the rest of his life. He was committing himself to one girl for the rest of his life, and he was only twenty-two. He was planning out their future and dreaming about their children and he hadn’t even been with her with her for more than a month and a half, if that. He was starting to feel more and more like Hercules when he saved Meg from that pit of souls, then took her to the clouds and gave up his immortality for her. People do crazy things when they’re in love, the line went, a line he hadn’t forgotten since the movie had come out. It held so much relevance right now, more than his dream had if you asked Denny. He wasn’t quite sure why the dream was still so irrelevant now that Annie had started to think about it and draw pictures, especially since Denny had liked what he’d seen of them and promised her that if she wanted that, he’d give it to her. But he just felt like, for the moment at least, the quote held more weight.

So really, what was the issue? His mind ran blank when he tried to find one. There wasn’t an issue, not now that Annie had calmed down and everything was peaceful. Though some parts of his mind were racing with things that could go wrong, and more parts of his mind were racing right behind those parts to find ways to fix them already, things were pretty great. It took a bit for him to focus everything on the moment, but the instant that he had all of his attention on him and Annie Denny actually felt lighter. His mind wasn’t wandering, but rather was stuck on him and Annie, but really what was new about that? The difference between the norm and now was that now, all he had to focus on was the exchange of ‘I love you’s and the realization that they’d come to a sort of an understanding. “You sounded perfectly logical to me. Just…thoughtful.” And that was most of the truth. Denny left out the part where she’d sounded quite panicked throughout her little story of how she’d treat their daughter, regardless of how she’d almost referred to her as Annie’s own daughter instead of the both of theirs’. Denny just overlooked that part, not letting himself get butthurt over a simple jumble of words. Plus, he knew what she meant, even if she hadn’t said it.

With that, all he could do was smile and sigh. If Denny had things his way, he’d lay there forever, just being near Annie without many words between them. Just emotion and action and expressions. That was all they were; two beings who cared almost too much for each other with an intensity that had no words to describe it, even without words or thoughts. With just the emotion, action, and expressions between the two of them, even a blind man could see how in love they were. It didn’t take Einstein to see the signs, and somehow that made Denny so proud of what they had. It surprised him, how proud he could be of something he’d had a hand in creating. That lead him to wondering how proud he would be of his and Annie’s children. If he loved Annie enough to feel this amazing about them, how much would he love their children and how proud of them would he feel? Denny really wasn’t all that much of a proud guy, at least with himself, even if he did have that typical guy pride thing he had to protect. Above all, he hadn’t really been this proud in something he’d done…..ever, and that just hade him wonder how proud he’d be of children. Well, he guessed, in the long run, that didn’t matter. What mattered was that he’d still have Annie, that they’d support each other in their journey through parenthood, and although thoughts like this had puzzled him moments before, now they made him feel a sense of something he really just didn’t understand. But that was good; Denny was content with knowing he couldn’t name it. He almost felt like putting a tag to this feeling would jinx. Entire feeling itself and make it disappear.

Instead of saying ‘I love you’ again, because he’d already said it, already enforced it more than he probably needed too, Denny just tilted his head forward. His smile spread a bit, though he had hardly even noticed he’d been smiling, and he just looked at Annie. He took her in, just being engulfed in what he was seeing. She’d pretty much agreed future children (although if she ever changed her mind, Denny would bring up that he wasn’t using it against her and that he’d only want children if she wanted them too), which meant, if this whole future they’d planned out worked, he’d get to be a dad one day. Annie was just making more and more of the things he’d hoped for when he’d pictured his dream girl in like…middle school come true, and that fact alone brought his smile to a new level. Seeing Annie with those thoughts in his head made him so unbelievably happy. All he thought to do to show that was lean his face towards her until their lips attached to each other. That was just the perfect way to get Annie to even begin to understand how he felt.



1236 -- lyrics to there for tomorrow, words to me duh, image from me. -- UM DENNY IS NOT CURRENTLY WEARING ANYTHING. -- seren/annie and that's it :) -- it took me so long because denny had nothing to say for once?

[ANNABELLE MARIE HURLEY]

there's a drumming noise inside my head
I SWEAR THAT YOU COULD HEAR IT, IT MAKES SUCH AN ALMIGHTY SOUND.

The night was taking weird routes. Annie plotted it out like a road map. First she had spent the day with Abby, and then shown up to Denny, on the tail end of a drinking binge, dressed up in ways she hadn't before. The incredibly small, jingling red dress had covered nothing but the bruises on her stomach, a nice perk that Annie hadn't even noticed. What she did notice was everything else that had been showing. Even just reminiscing over that made Annie feel self conscious again, wanting to cover up again, feeling too much of her body. But she didn't do it because she didn't want a repeat of the day after thanksgiving. Thinking of how sweet he had been though, telling her he wasn't laughing… it immediately calmed her out of worrying, just thinking about his hands around her waist and feeling his fingers on her back. It was becoming incredibly obvious how much she needed him, just with that. It would be catastrophic for him to leave her now; she was too attached. Annie had never been so attached to anyone or any thing. But now she was and it scared her. Her whole life would be concerned with keeping Denny around. But that didn't really bother her because she loved having him around. He brought feelings that Annie had never felt before and she didn't ever want to forget, or feel from someone else. She doubted she could, anyway. It was all just Denver. 

And then he had kissed her and pulled her close and Annie felt the ghost that kiss in the one that was happening now, as he watched her and his smile grew, coercing Annie's lips to mirror them until their lips were touching. Annie loved how Denny always let her feel what he was feeling, how easy it was for him to share it. But this kiss just built, where as last nights had been interrupted by the ring. Annie felt it on her finger, heavy. The promise seemed to weigh ten thousand pounds, but Annie was strong enough to carry it. Annie had always been a very strong person. A statement like that may have come to a surprise to either Denny or Abby, who had front row seats to her mind. But if you asked someone like Boston, he never would have noticed. And that's where her strength came in. Annie was unbelievably good at hiding her broken parts. Although, of course, now that Denver had seen past the walls he probably only saw the broken parts of her. 

But Annie had enough faith in him to find the beauty in her problems. 

The kiss in the present deepened, on Annie's part anyway. It was mostly innocent, but when they pulled back, Annie just made direct eye contact with Denny, and watched him. Her mouth was in a little o and she just watched him for immeasurable time, an unreadable expression on her face. Annie couldn't decide on her emotions, but some part of her just wanted to cry from the unreal beauty of this morning, of the day having Denny in it. Maybe it was stupid, but Annie didn't think so. It was weird and unrealistic. They had only been together for a month and already there was talk about what marriage and parenthood would be like. That was so... incredible. She didn't know why it had happened like that. But she did like how Denny hadn't used their time together as one of his excuses. It had this weird feeling of Romeo and Juliet but Annie didn't want to marry Denny just so he could get in her pants - besides, he had already gotten away with that. She also didn't want to die. There were probably more contrasts than comparisons for the relationships, so it was stupid for her mind to bring it up. 

This wasn't infatuation. 

This was more. 

When Annie's mind finally came back to now, she just closed her eyes and kissed Denny again. Her hands came away from her own chest and she put her palms on his stomach, and they pushed up, with a little bit of pressure against him, to his collar bones and then she wrapped them behind his neck, her hand with the ring on it grabbing in his hair. The movement pulled her up and against him more, pushing all the right places of her body against him, and she smiled against his lips, thinking of when she had tried to torture him by laying on him in her bra. It was funny, because he had been afraid to look or notice and now it was funny because he had total, overwhelming access to her entire body. The movement made her stomach muscles protest a little, though, but in a good way, like the bruises and pain were just kind of acknowledging what had happened the night before.  

Moving her hands and body to him also brought this weird feeling to the kiss, not really urgent because it wasn't that pushing, but kind of like it. Urgent was like fireworks being lit, explosive and in your face and only a matter of times until they burst into flames, but then it didn't last a long time. To Annie, this was more like lava or something, slow moving and harmless to someone uphill, but still hot, and with the right (or maybe wrong, depending on how you looked at it) moves would lit itself on fire, on that fire they were becoming so familiar with. She was paving the way for it, but it was up to Denny. He could make the moves that they couldn't come back from, or he could just kiss her softly and let the lava cool itself down and out. She would admit, if he did the latter, some part of her would be disappointed. She was hoping some heat could distract her from what had happened the last morning they'd had like this. But the more Annie thought about it, this was different. Especially since it had been his touch to set her off but now she just really wanted him to touch her, she felt like if he didn't that some part of her mind would just think he was disgusted with her, even though that was so illogical, especially with all the conversations from the last day. It was just easier for her to say that she missed his hands all up and down her sides. 

But it was all up to him. 



1,093 - LOL ANNIE IS IN HER BIRTHDAY SUIT. - lyrics to florence and the machine - idefk

[DENVER CARLOS HURLEY]

you've got me buried with your every move
YOUR FINE LINES HAVE ME AT A LOSS OF MEMORY

There’s a danger in starting a fire. You start it in this little pit on the beach or something, or rather the forest because there it’s even deadlier. With the beach, there’s so much water around that a fire could only last so long before someone got an idea. But a forest? Someplace that Annie and Denny knew best? Well, that made the forest an even better example. Because the danger was when you started it in a small pit and lost track of how much wood was around you. You lose track of how much wood you keep putting into the pit, and then the fire is bigger than you’d expected it to be. It’s hotter. It’s wilder. It feels like if you stand too close, you’ll be engulfed in hot, burning flames, and you’ll only get out if you’re extremely lucky. But not without consequences; your hair will never grow back because the follicles on your scalp have been burned off. Your skin will be pink and extremely sensitive for months, and all you can do is sit at home and watch the days pass by in wonder because you stepped into a dangerous fire. Your eyes hare no longer eyes, but rather just black holes because of the decision to get to close to the fire, and you no longer see anything the same way you ever did before.

On top of you burning within the flames, because of how big you let the fire get, wood and trees and small plants and animals around the fire also caught the flames. Things turn into a horrid, hurried sea of orange, red, and yellow, as well as a whole hell of an infernal around you. So not only are you black and bruised and burnt, but so is the forest. So are the animals. So is anyone that was with you. You can’t do anything to redeem yourself because you’re sitting at home, bruised and battered and horribly guilty. Maybe one of your friends passed away because of the fire that you didn’t control, and that was the danger in starting a fire. But when Denny thought of the fire between him and Annie, he realized there was some odd, omnipresent force keeping an eye on their fire. Because anyone could tell that they were not the ones sitting there, feeding the flames little by little. If it were up to Denny, he’d just keep it going forever, but there left the risk of over feeding the entire thing and having it blow up in his face. So he was glad that there was some invisible person keeping the fire at bay, keeping Denny and Annie so completely content that they got to have moments and days and mornings like these.

So as long as that force stayed right where it was, continuing what it was doing, the danger in starting their fire was erased. It made their fire safe, but just enough so that there were dangerous little tendrils flaring out every once in a while, daring Denny and Annie to take steps and make rash decisions without really thinking about the consequences. Knowing that, or at least thinking that he knew that, gave Denver the courage to actually make those moves and take those chances. So his smile didn’t fade, not even when Annie pulled herself away. He could have just sat there and looked at her all day, not really saying anything but really saying everything through their eyes and their hands. Sometimes, he realized, that was just how love worked. Sometimes you had absolutely everything to say and you held nothing back but the stuff that would tear the two of you apart, but other times, times like these, the only things that needed to be said could be said through looks and hand gestures. There didn’t need to be many sounds; just reassuring sighs and noises that pointed towards ‘Yes, you’re doing that right’ would suffice. That was why, while Denny was usually chatty around Annie like he needed to say everything that was on his mind, he was quiet, but not necessarily reserved. It was like he was in between his reservation that he found himself sinking into around people that weren’t Annie and his need to speak when he was only around Annie. He’d found this happy medium, and the thought kept his smile on his mouth.

Then Annie was taking charge – only to a certain extent, but Denny wasn’t complaining – and he had to admit he more than liked her with her arms around his neck, hands in his hair. His arm that was around, touching her back moved a bit down until he was just rapped around her, right under her bust line. His hand just hanged over the curve of her body, while his other arm scooted a bit lower, around her waist, pulling Annie as close as she could possibly get. His smile wasn’t washed away, even if he could feel that fire burning somewhere, making a quick comeback from last night. His hand on her waist moved up, then down, a lot like the way it had across her thigh earlier this morning. He could feel the difference between the last kiss and this one, and honestly he couldn’t get his mind to work right enough for him to make a decision. Natural instinct would do, he supposed, and so he let go of everything except for him and Annie, and his smile just….grew a fraction of a centimeter.

His hand that had been on her waist moved across her back and around, holding her like she was a teddy bear instead of a person. Denny couldn’t help himself but think about how tiny her waist line was, but he wouldn’t let himself worry. That was so out of context for Denny at the moment, that it was as if his mind had put a shield around itself. He wasn’t allowed to think things that would ruin this moment, mostly because he loved being like this, but also because he didn’t want to offend Annie. He was sort of apprehensive to the fact that if he let himself not think, that’s what he’d do, but he continued to not think knowing that his mind wasn’t going to let him reach that level. The only level he’d be allowed to reach wasn’t even in his mind – it was real, and it was tangible, and by the way Annie was moving and kissing him, he could tell she wanted it just as much as he did. So all he could do was move on, and keeping moving because that’s what instincts told birds to do. They moved. In the winter, they went south (ha, Denny never went south anymore), and in the summer they came back North, and in the fall in and Spring they hanged in the air, around the power lines, never really staying in one place most of the time. So, with Denny being a vulture and all, his instinct was to move.

Soon enough, all they were was a jumble of moving limbs.



1236 -- lyrics to there for tomorrow, words to me duh, image from me. -- UM DENNY IS NOT CURRENTLY WEARING ANYTHING. -- seren/annie and that's it :) -- not as long as i wanted it to be but i like it anyway

[ANNABELLE MARIE HURLEY]

there's a drumming noise inside my head
I SWEAR THAT YOU COULD HEAR IT, IT MAKES SUCH AN ALMIGHTY SOUND.

Annie was starting to get used to the fire. She wasn't sure how that worked; how did someone get used to burning? She wasn't even sure how, but with this kind of fire she was actually getting used to it somehow. It was scary, and it reminded her about when she had been afraid that she would somehow get used to this and get used to Denny and it would all just end up being terrible and useless. But it wasn't that. It was more like she was acclimated to the tempature so instead she could focus more on him, on her and Denny. It wasn't just like this huge bonfire that she couldn't control, it was like she was being able to see what was happening a bit more, like she could watch him and realize what was going on instead of just fire, fire, fire. But now it was like she could see through the flames. It was still hot, almost too much to bear, but almost better now that she was focusing. It was weird to think of it that way, because she had never had feelings like these. Sex had never been like that, none of this had ever been like that. She had never felt anything like any of this until she met Denny.

But then again, she had never met anyone quite like him.

After, Annie just kind of layed there and laughed. It wasn't the kind of laugh like Denny hadn't sufficed, like he wasn't good enough (because he definitely was). It was just this nice noise, like life was just brilliant right then. It was a full laugh, and Annie couldn't remember the last time she had laughed like that. Sure, Denny made her happy and made her laugh all the time in all sorts of ways, but this was just weird and new, just like everytime he touched her. There was always some kind of warmth and familiarity from him, but it was always like this shock, like she was reapeating it over and over, like the same day; she knew it was familiar but it shocked her time and time again.

And so Annie just laid next to him and laughed up at his ceiling, but her hand snaked down to hold his, and she held it really tight, like her knuckles were going to go white. Her fingers had his in this death grip and she had that weird sensation where it felt like the inscription from the ring was burning into her hand again. She really never wanted to let go. She couldn't afford to. "God, I really fucking love you," Annie whispered,laughing a little after she said it too. Because she just really did. SHe had never loved or wanted or appreciated anything like she felt all those things about Denny. There was just nothing or no one in her world or anyone else's that could ever compare to what he had done to her, in more ways than one. "Best Christmas ever, that's for damn sure."

Annie truely loved how they could be serious, and sexual and still fun. Now things were loose and she was relaxed and smiling and laughing. She had never smiled and laughed so much as when she and Denny had been together, even when they were just friends. Moments before things had been so sensual that Annie couldn't see straight, she just had to feel, and before that things had that dark and heavy atmosphere like they were sufocatingly somber and serious and eye opening. But through it all, they held reason for her. They held this concrete foundation that Annie appreciated, because it was stable. He wasn't leaving. He was reassuring, and he loved her mentally, emotionally, physically. He told her the right things, gave her cause to feel the right ways. There was nothing for Annie that wasn't something Denny could give her.

Speaking of giving and what she had just said, Annie's laughter stopped. "Shit," she muttered "I'll be right back." Because in all of that, she had forgotten Denny's gift. Between the ring and what had just commenced, he had more than deliviered for her, so now she needed to give him something. And that was what she had. And for a moment she felt terrible because that was just... not a very girlfriend like thing to do, especially when she claimed to love him too much. But instead of letting her mind harp on that, she just squeezed his hand so tight that her fingers might break, and then let go, rolling out of bed. Without clothes - which was different than the last time. But her demeanor when getting out was much different than it had been the time before, but that was okay. She would be back. And besides the fact that she barely noticed, cared even less... it added up to her feeling a bit better about herself. She hadn't noticed the lack of her waist or the excess that she might have dwelled on for Denny to hold - she had just noticed that he held her, and that had been enough for her.

Annie pushed through everything she had brought over until she found the strings, unwrapped and they looked kind of lack luster to her. She frowned at them but brought them to Denny, and held them behind her back. She sat in front of him, and wrapped some of the loose sheets around her back ike a cape or a jacket, because she was starting to feel a little exposed now that she wasn't under the covers with him, and he wasn't touching her. She couldn't help that her little smile had exposed into a wide grin. "Close your eyes..." she demanded.

959 - LOL ANNIE IS IN HER BIRTHDAY SUIT. - lyrics to florence and the machine - AND HAPPY ALMOST NEW YEAR