all apologies

[ibiza]

Who: Margo Hanson and Seth Gecko
What: Margo has an apology to give
Where: Around the Love housing
When: Sometime tonight
Warnings: Language, most likely


Margo knew she’d messed up long before she’d spilled the beans tonight. Sleeping with Quentin had been a mistake to begin with, but not being open about it with Seth back when he’d asked about her friends had been one mistake compounded with another. To top it all off, there was no good reason for letting it all out in the open on the network. This was a colossal, explosive clusterfuck of a mistake and it was giving Margo one hell of a headache. She had a lot to apologize for.

It didn’t surprise her that Seth was nowhere to be found around the house. If it had been her on the other end of this mess, she would have needed some space, too. Still, this left Margo with a job to do – hunting for her boyfriend. Maybe her boyfriend. She wasn’t really sure about their relationship status after this incident.

Having only given a glance to Leo, Margo stepped out of the house, stretching her legs and preparing to do a lot of walking in search of Seth. In fact, she did do a lot of walking, looking here and there and checking out his favorite spots before she saw a familiar silhouette. She let out a tiny sigh. At once she was relieved and tense. How receptive would he be to an apology? Margo had to at least try. Her tiny legs moved quickly to catch up with him.

“Can we talk? Please?” It was a very rare occasion that Margo said ‘please’ to anyone. She hardly ever had to ask for things and when she did she demanded them. Seth had to know this was a special situation.

Comments

[darknstormy]

They were trapped on an island although Seth had good mind to take the ferry somewhere and get shit faced. He couldn't abandon Leo or he might've gone. After the news he'd gotten about Margo, Seth did need to get himself some distance. First he headed to the hot springs as if to stew in his feelings. He'd forgotten the springs were a gift from Love and found himself forgetting his girlfriend's slight.

He left the springs ready to get back to Margo when the effects started to wear off half way home. Seth detoured and decided to sit out by the water not far from their house. He dropped down as she spoke to him. Eyes stared out over the water, thinking about how he once planned to retire on a beach with a beautiful woman. --One that wouldn't betray him.

Truth was that there really wasn't much of a betrayal unless the threesome took place while they were together. Margo didn't even betray him with a lie. She just hadn't told him the entire truth. ...Seth could only hope that was all of it. He instantly tensed at the possibility that there was more to her duplicity.

She choose to find him, attempting to talk to him. Yet he wouldn't look at her. His eyes remained out on the water. "Oh, now you wanna talk?" he scoffed and shook his head bitterly. His words were unfair given he'd been the one to disconnect from the call but neither was the position that she put him in.

Seth sat with his knees bent in front of him, arms folded together that somewhat held his knees to his chest. "Talk all you want. I ain't got shit to say," he continued with no apology. Her use of 'please' hadn't been missed but neither did it soften his disposition.

[ibiza]

Margo’s face sunk into a frown. The gravity of her mistake was beginning to become clear. She felt it wash over her. It was an awful feeling. Her eyes held onto him for a moment, simply looking him over in silence. Big, brown eyes full of regret. She didn’t think he’d ever seen her eyes look that way before.

She took in a deep breath and tried to summon some kind of metaphorical armor to protect herself. “Yes, I should have told you about Quentin. I’m sorry. I should have told you Eliot and I used to…” Margo raised a hand, gesturing as if she was having trouble finding words. “Have… Exploits. We were never really together, but we… Well… We were there together.”

“Do you know…” She let out a humorless laugh. “I didn’t even sleep with him because I wanted to. It was a spell gone wrong. It messed with our emotions.” Margo skipped over the damage that the threesome had left in its wake. Quentin’s relationship with Alice, Margo’s friendship with the blonde… All ruined over some stupid bottles of emotion.

“That’s all over now.” She looked at him very seriously. “It’s been over for some time because I’m committed to you, Seth. I haven’t been running around having threesomes behind your back, I’m not sleeping with Quentin now. The past is the past.”

A quiet sigh passed her lips and she reached out to touch his arm lightly with her fingertips. “I love you.” Her voice was low, but could be heard.

[darknstormy]

He'd seen a glimpse of the expression before on Margo. It was early in their relationship. Seth had kept her at a distance, indecisive between wanting her in his life or out of it. He paid out on a place in the city for a year and stayed away over six months of it. The distance had pushed her to screw some other jackass... jackasses.

Maybe the way he'd acted then decided her actions when Seth asked if her guy friends were just friends. Margo had been defiant when caught with another guy, not apologetic. They were closer now than they had been back then. Close enough that Seth had to stop himself on the network before saying something he'd regret. The same reason why he closed himself off and walked away than confront her and yell how he had before.

She explained how it happened between her, Quentin and Eliot. Seth felt his body grow rigid with anger. He finally did glance at her when she laughed about it. Seth understood how she meant it, wanting to let out his own bitter laugh at how they ended up with her fucking around between them again. How could he look Eliot or Quentin back home in the face?

And then... “I love you.”

"That's not fuckin' fair! You don't get to say that now. Not now!" Seth immediately lashed out. He tried to be angry. It all left him with her uttering those three words. Instead, he was wounded and... fucking pathetic, as his father would call him. Seth looked at Margo with pleading eyes that were close to tears.

His arms had let go of his knees in front of him, a hand reaching out to pull her in. Seth pulled her onto his lap. He pivoted a little with the move. Margo had her knees in the ground, straddling his lap after his legs straighten out in front of him. He wrapped his arms tight around her petite form. Holding onto her, refusing to let go.

[ibiza]

She put up absolutely no resistance as he pulled her close to him. Her own arms wrapped around him and she drew in a sharp breath, feeling as if she, too, was on the verge of tears. Margo was a strategist and cunning to boot, but saying those words had been anything but a power move. It was unexpected sincerity on her part, and perhaps bad timing, too, but she was sticking by her declaration.

“I’m sorry.” Margo murmured, burying her face in his shoulder. In that moment, she knew she never wanted to hurt him again. Had the cynical voice in her head been alive and well, Margo would have reminded herself that every time she slipped up, in major and minor ways, she’d always told herself that she would never hurt Seth again. This time it felt different. Maybe it was the atmosphere.

Tilting her head so that she was facing him, Margo kissed his jaw. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, Seth. That’s not what I wanted.” She held onto him, running a hand up and down his spine. This was what she wanted, just to be near him. It was reassuring, gave her the hope that she hadn’t just completely fucked their relationship up.

After what felt like a very long pause, she pulled back just far enough to see his face. They were kissing distance apart, but Margo made no move to kiss Seth. Not yet. Instead, she looked into his eyes. She wanted to read him, but couldn’t find the answers she wanted in his eyes. She wanted to go one step further and spill her thoughts to him, but held back.

Margo gave a barely perceivable head shake. Her eyes still held a certain glassiness to them as if tears could spill over at any given moment. It always seemed like her mistakes blew up in her face in grandiose fashion. Hey, she was a drama queen, it suited her, right?

[darknstormy]

'Please', 'I love you' and 'I'm sorry' almost all at once from Margo was nothing he expected, even if they were genuine. People liked to say that action spoke louder than words but that didn't mean words were unnecessary. They were words that Seth seldom heard in life. He couldn't say it but he needed to hear them by someone that earnestly meant them.

Being with Margo sometimes felt like karma in a bad way. They both had a tendency to keep secrets, stupidly loyal to friends, stubborn and headstrong. She offered more than apology. He could see and hear the pain she felt at having hurt him. Seth found himself holding her for as much her well-being as his own. He was content sitting and holding onto each other for a spell.

There was no anger left in him as she kissed his jaw and caressed his back. She was the first to move, shifting until pulling back and meeting his eyes in the moonlight. Seth brought a hand to cup her cheek. There was more she seemed to want to say but wasn't. He swallowed thickly, smacked his lips to moisten them. "It only hurt cuz I'm crazy about you. You know that, don't you?"

It wasn't easy to admit he'd been hurt just as it wasn't for Margo to make the admissions she had. Seth caressed over her cheek with his thumb as he spoke. "I don't want anymore shit between us. I love you too, okay?" he uttered before reaching to the back of her head and pulling her in for a kiss.

The kiss didn't get carried away, just enough to support his claim and accept her apology... maybe even give one of his own. Seth pulled back, his hand from off her face down to her hip. "What is it, Babe?" he asked quietly, referring to the silent look she'd given him.

[ibiza]

She gave a brief smile before the kiss. The truth was she was crazy about him, too. Was it possible to be too into someone? Not in a creepy Every Breath You Take kind of way, but in a fiery, passionate kind of way where you’re certain that someone was made with you specifically in mind? Maybe that was a little creepy, but Margo thought about it a lot. She was thinking about it right then as he kissed her. If there was a perfect match out there for her, Margo was certain it was Seth.

That look on her face hadn’t gone unnoticed. Her lips curved into a small smile and she shrugged her shoulders. “Sometimes I don’t know what to make of you. Usually I can figure anyone out, but… Not you. Not all of the time, at least.”

Margo had spent nights at the physical kids’ cottage, sitting off to the side while parties were going on. She could sit for hours at a time, nursing a drink and studying people while they were having a good time. It was how you figured out who was worth inviting back and who was just Brakebills trash. It might as well have been a zoo that Margo was visiting and she was Jane Goodall, studying the apes.

The point was, she was usually much better at reading people. She’d had a lot of practice doing it and it was something she found to be fun. Seth’s gorgeous brown eyes, deep and full of emotion, showed pain one second, then anger and then love. It was an interesting swirl to be sure, but Margo didn’t know what to do with it. Was she really the source of all of it? It took a pretty powerful woman to cause all of that in one man. What was she supposed to do with that?

For the moment, she bit her lip in a smile and simply looked at him. Her Clyde. As long as they were together, she’d have time to digest all that she felt for him and he felt for her.

[darknstormy]

"Yeah, well join the club," he teased through a husky voice. Seth had been on the edge of crying but didn't feel the need to hide it since Margo hadn't. She didn't seem bothered by the sign of emotion which was equally important to him. He believed what she said about being loyal to him after making the decision to be a couple.

Without having to ask or discuss it, he believed Margo knew that a third strike would be the end of them. Neither of them wanted that. Seth couldn't think of a more elegant way to admit his feelings for her but what he said seemed to do the trick. He held a genuine grin although it was a half smile.

"I can usually read people but you keep throwin' me for a loop." Seth rubbed her back and quickly added. "Not all bad. ...Tell me you love me again. I wanna see you sayin' it without lookin' sad. Then we can head in and finish makin' up," he quipped through the smile that couldn't decide to be happy or mischievous so it remained somewhere between the two.

[ibiza]

Honestly, Margo didn’t want to think of the hypothetical third strike. She might screw up again, she might not. As if it wasn’t already difficult enough to predict with Margo’s character, throw magic and hopping from world to world into the mix and you had a total crapshoot. Everything was up in the air. All she could do was hope for the best and live for the moment. The two of them were pretty good at that.

She laughed happily at his request, her face lighting up with a smile. That was real happiness. Seth brought it out in her so easily. Sometimes it felt like he had her heartstrings wrapped around his finger. Margo tipped her head forward slightly, still smiling. “I love you.” She reached up with her hand, cupping his cheek slightly. “Those eyes, this smile…” As her hand fell away, she let her fingertips graze his smiling lips.

“Your heart, your fucking devious mind…” She laughed again, leaning in to close the space between them with a quick peck on his lips. “And if there were ever any doubts as to whether or not I loved your body? Mmm…” Margo shook her head, looking him over with a closed mouthed smile. “I’d be happy to prove them wrong.”

[darknstormy]

As usual, Margo went above and beyond what he asked. She gave him what he needed. Every ache that had been in him at the notion of not being enough for her had vanished. Seth kept his arms wrapped around her, nudging the tip of his nose with hers.

"Time to go prove 'em wrong," he quipped before closing in and stealing a passionate kiss from her. It might have sounded like his only interest was sex but that was far from the case. Yet it didn't hurt to end things on the note that nearly broke them up. She gave him her heart and body, Seth thought it only right to give Margo the same.

He curled forward, still in a lip lock, using momentum to get up without separating from the love of his life. Seth could rely on Margo stepping in if needed but he liked to think he managed to easily carry her weight.

[ibiza]

The kiss Margo gave Seth was hungry and passionate. It was charged with the emotion she felt prior to making nice with him, that chaotic hurricane of love, despair, and need. Her arms wrapped around him and held on tight as he stood up and lifted her with him. She was used to this move, Seth carrying her off so they could carry on someplace more private.

She pulled away, nose still touching the tip of his nose as she looked into his eyes. There was a smile on her face that only lasted a second before she erupted into a happy burst of laughter. Margo couldn’t help herself. Her mood had done a beautiful 180 and she was feeling truly grateful that the two of them were able to get through another bump in their relationship.

Pressing her cheek to his, she kisses a spot just before she reaches his ear, then gets close enough to whisper.

“Believe me, I’m not gonna leave any room for questioning.”

[darknstormy]

It would've been better had he swept her off her feet and carried her like a bride but Seth went with the moment, keeping Margo face to face with her thighs resting over his hips. She was used to the dance and moved her gorgeous face to the side of his so he could see where he was going.

Her face was cheek to cheek, only fueling the warmth of affection he felt already. Here they were out in public and she didn't shy away from the display. Seth wanted to believe she never uttered that admission to any other guy but wasn't brave to question it at the moment. Maybe he didn't learn from his mistakes. It was a question he probably should ask if he wondered. Then again, the past shouldn't continue causing problems in the present.

She loved HIM now. It wasn't as if Seth never told another woman that he loved her. He'd gone as far as get married which Margo hadn't. Seth needed to hold onto what he had in every way possible rather than look for reasons to let go. He didn't want to live a life alone.

"Yeah? Just what do you have in mind, Baby?" he asked devilishly to match the whisper at his ear. She was already generating a physical reaction but Seth thoroughly enjoyed a good tease. He had good mind to have Margo make a believer out of him before giving in to indulging her.

[ibiza]

In all truth, Margo had hardly even said I love you to her parents once she’d reached the age of ten. Nobody who didn’t deserve those words got to hear them. Margo was very discriminating. If naïve, innocent souls wore their hearts on their sleeves, she would be the exact opposite. She played her cards close to her chest and no one got a peek at the hand she was playing. No one until now.

Seth was the first to hear the words. Right at that moment only Margo knew that. Only she knew exactly how special the utterance of those words was. Someday he’d know, though. She knew she wouldn’t be able to resist telling him forever.

“You really want to flip to the end of the book and spoil the ending?” She pouted jokingly giving him a brief kiss. “I guess I could give you an idea…” Margo let out a soft laugh laced with mischief. While her affection clearly came from the heart, she was also having fun.

“I’m going to worship your body with my hands, my fingertips…” She ran a hand up and down his spine, tracing just her fingertips along the path. “…My mouth, and my lips.” Margo leaned in for a kiss only to gently bite at his lower lip. She gently held it there, pressing down with her jaws using just enough pressure to make him feel it. This wasn’t about pain. Once she was finished, she drew the lip partway between her own pillowy lips and sucked gently.

She pulled away when she was finished, smiling at him with just a slight curve of her lips. It was almost a smirk, her expression daring him to ask for more. This was one area where Margo didn’t mind going the extra mile.

[darknstormy]

Few would've been the wiser now to know how much he craved hearing the sentiment. If they ever talked about it, Seth wouldn't consider Margo wrong; there were naive and innocent souls that carried their hearts on their sleeves. He remembered the time that he was just that. His mother would tell him and his brother. Hell, Seth told Richie and their old man. Those days were a distant memory but still a memory he could vividly recall.

Maybe being bereft of the affection in every way those years with Ray Gecko caused an insatiable need with the eldest son. Richie was a little different, possibly because he at least had his brother looking after him. Or maybe the younger held different memories than Seth. Uncle Eddie had been good with a supportive pat and man hugs but never exactly the use of that L word.

Seth hadn't lied when his immediate reaction to Margo confessing her feelings after a fight was it being unfair. He might never tell her the entire details as to why but in the brief time since she uttered it, he'd let go of the hurt she'd inflicted. That admission meant more than he could probably put into words other than uttering it back.

He wouldn't want her to ever say she loved him to the point where it lost meaning but Margo might hear it more than she might have expected to now that it'd been said. Seth could be a smart ass and manipulate conversations on a job but emotions weren't something he easily expressed. It seemed to be something they shared, regardless of the different backgrounds--they were both a little emotionally handicapped.

"Mmm... I might just take the long way so you can finish explainin' things," he quipped as she looked at him. Seth had stopped to make sure he didn't trip when she played her lips against his. There was no way he'd set her down now until they were able to make good on her words, Margo scoring a literal rise out of him.

His dark eyes met hers, silently stating 'challenge accepted'.