➹BEEPER

[intheblanks]

"It had better be an emergency."
→ PAGE
→ TEXT
→ CALL
→ ACTION
→ TROLL

Comments

[dignity_misery]

[She smiles lazily. Christmas has never meant anything to her. A rich brat with no particular interest in her family, it had been just one of many chances for them to fritter their money away at her to no effect. (Perhaps that's a lie, however, her father once purchased her a computer she enjoyed.)]

It's all puerile.

[She'd still kept the card Chase had given her, until the old apartment had been cleared out and left to Lewis. He's gone, and she's got the keys again. It's still empty. She's not sure what she'll do with it.]

[intheblanks]

[As if anyone made the effort to maintain the Christmas myth for Chase. Christmas used to mean something, but that was thanks to the religious orders who were more of a family than his own. Santa's an attempt to hijack whatever meaning there is left.]

It's all-American. [And he looks a little sly.] Not planning to sit on anyone's knee and make wishes this year, then?

[dignity_misery]

[She is being purposefully cruel to herself when she answers, her own expression turned thin and sharp, a heavy-lidded smile.]

I know better than to make wishes, by now.

[intheblanks]

[Cruel to herself, maybe, but the mistake was his.]

Slip of the tongue.

[It's an apology. He takes a second snowman, decapitating it easily and offering the spoils to her.]

I wasn't going to ask you for a gift list, anyway.

[dignity_misery]

[She accepts his apology silently, reaching out for the cookie and eating it herself.]

You're capable of finding something ugly and useless without my guidance.

[intheblanks]

I know a nurse who fits the bill if that's what you're looking for.

[People he'd make that joke to who are currently in the city: possibly 3]

[dignity_misery]

Sounds entertaining.

[She promises not to disembowel said nurse, only to eat her out.]

[intheblanks]

[If she weren't fictional it would be interesting matchmaking, but he'll settle for a moment's amusement.]

I'd have no idea how to wrap her.

[dignity_misery]

Chloroform will help with that.

[Yep yep yep.]

[intheblanks]

Chloroform's just going to wake her with a bitch of a headache, it's not going to make her flat and square. [What. Is this conversation.] I didn't say I'd have a problem knocking her out.

[dignity_misery]

Ball gag. Big roll of cellophane.

[She makes a motion, hand over hand, for wrapping the gift up in plastic.]

Red bow.

[intheblanks]

Asphyxiation.

[He checks the point off on a finger. Just the one point but kind of a biggie.]

Maybe someone less unwilling.

[dignity_misery]

You're taking the fun out of it.

[Which is only a true statement when her mind is bleeding and her heart is screaming. She hasn't been driven into such convulsions recently.]

[intheblanks]

[He butts her foot with his under the table.]

Isn't that supposed to be my job?

[dignity_misery]

[She nods lazily. Peanut is drawn by the movement and comes to nibble on Chase's shoe.]

Professional buzzkill.

[intheblanks]

[He spreads his palms]

Hire me for something else.

[dignity_misery]

I hear you're an alright--

['Doctor' was where she was going with that, but. You know. Mistletoe. That's why we're here. It's been creeping in through the window for a while now, and she's pushed her knee up onto the table to lean cleanly over the tray of frosted cookies.]

[intheblanks]

[Well.

The sentence still works, and this may have been something closer to what he had in mind. He doesn't spare an upward glance for mistletoe, curling a hand at the back of her neck and drawing her down instead.]

[dignity_misery]

[Well. Hello, Robert. She arches her back as she presses, both hands balanced on the table, otherwise she might've grabbed his shirt. She is vaguely annoyed by being compelled into this, but she supposes she's enjoying it now and might as well get over it this time.

Peanut warbles and tries to scrabble into her now empty chair, but is entirely too small to scale his way up.]

[intheblanks]

[Sorry, Peanut, it must be confusing that the blonde visitor who smells like disinfectant and late nights in smoky bars and the salt that hangs in the air at the beach is so much less squirmy when he's letting Carla lick his face. She doesn't even get lectured for climbing on the furniture.

Chase pulls back enough to grin and tilt his head further, looking up at her.]

I haven't had many complaints.

[dignity_misery]

An alright doctor.

[But no, she's not currently complaining and she lifts one hand to his collar when she tugs at him in order to bestow another kiss.]

[intheblanks]

Of course.

[Less a reply, more something murmured low in his throat as he kisses back. Either both of them get cricks in their neck or one has to give, and she's got her hooks in him first. A hand laid over hers on the table, he pushes himself up, leaning over it.]

[dignity_misery]

[She pulls her knees in under her, sitting with her legs splayed to either side of the cookie tray behind her. He's very accommodating, that doctor, and she lets go of his shirt-front to loop an arm around her shoulders.]

I have been looking for this thread for so long - not realising this post had a page 2...

[intheblanks]

[An aptitude for accommodation is one thing Chase would count as a talent (sometimes a curse), but accommodating the cookie plate is a step too far. It's going to have to get knocked to make enough room for him to climb on the table and push her back.]

he's a very popular young man

[dignity_misery]

[She'd be distressed about the cookies, if they had any of her attention. Instead she's being re-positioned, boots knocking against the wooden table top.

It's still strange, not to be met with rejection. A little disappointing, maybe, to those still-sick corners of her mind that reveled in such vindications. They're easy not to listen to as the rest of her thoughts focus in on him, honed sharp and bright. It's an intentness he's seen before in her pretty sixteen-year-old face. She lights up in the thrall of an obsession and she's very much wanted tap into that thrill for a very long time now. For years and years and years.]