2019-08-03 - We Need to Talk .. That Came Out Wrong

Having already lined up people to work for him over the holiday weekend Easton is free to relax. And now that it's not forced resting of his leg, it is actually relaxing. And one of the benefits of cohabitating with Bennie is that he's starting to get a hang of her schedule, as hectic as it is. So he knows that she should be getting off soon. He texts her a picture of two pints of ice cream on the counter >> ChocolateChocolateChocolate vs. Sea Salt Caramania. Two pints, one winner. By now Bennie has probably gotten used to the fact that his apartment is only stocked with meal prepped foods and booze. There might be the occasional bag of popcorn, but it's very light on anything snacky or sugary.

There is the merry jangle of keys in the door before Bennie is breezing in. This time she's wearing her apron from the diner instead of her EMT uniform and she's peeling it off the second she knocks the door closed with her foot. "What's the occasion!" She must mean the ice cream, because she knows good and well why he's home. "Usually the only thing in the freezer is the Jagermeister." Grinning, she thumbs off her sneakers and arranges them near the door along with her work boots. "Not that I'm judging, most of my meals are either from the diner or the station, and I haven't gotten a hang of this whole grocery shopping thing that adults are supposed to do."

The doors to the balcony are open, blowing in a warm summer night breeze. Easton is dressed down casually in a soft gray tee-shirt one that is getting raggedy and worn-through and a pair of joggers. At the door opening, he shuts off the TV, playing some sports highlight show of mostly baseball clips. Boston lost. Again. He pushes up off the couch, much smoother than it has been in the past week or so and comes to greet her. "Grocery shopping is easy. I just buy the same 15 things every week and prepare them ahead of time. It's like a battle plan. For food." And about as joyful too.

What's the occassion?

"We should talk." Easton's smiling when he says it though, until he realizes the phrase he just said and how it probably sounded and he recoils at his own words. "No! Not like 'bad talk' or 'serious talk', I just meant.. uh. I missed you and thank you for healing me and sorry I was a mopey bitch about other stuff, kind of talk." He cuts himself off with, "I got ice cream." Like he's very proud that he managed to do that.

It's a good thing he's quick to clarify, because Bennie's eyes are rounding out in that obvious indicator that the blonde is about to panic on some level. "Oh. Okay, phew. Because I thought for a second there you were going to kick me out, and I haven't even been back to the trailer to clean up the destruction that those goons left behind and I have zero idea so far as to how I'm going to fix the sofa or..." She realizes she's rambling. "Ice cream. I. Love." Careful there, blondie. "Ice cream. Like, a lot. I'll get the spoons!"

She takes a running start and sock slides into the kitchen. "For what it's worth, I found you neither mopey or bitch like. I mean, no more than I was when I had a broken wing."

Even going so far as to raise his hands at the realization that he's about to derail his good vibes night before it even begins Eastons relieved that he manages to backpedal out of it. He says firmly, "Nope. No kicking out." He takes in the information about not having been back and says, "Tomorrow. We'll go clean it up tomorrow." The sofa? Well it can get tossed as far as he's concerned but he says nothing about that yet.

"I had a minor freakout about you living here. My last major relationship didn't go well at that phase." He's never really talked about past relationships, only the fact that he was sleeping around a lot immediately before they got together. He adds, "But I'm glad you're here. I just need to stop playing red string conspiracy nutjob in my head and over thinking things."

Bennie turns her head to give him a faux smug look over her shoulder, one eyebrow quirked, "Do I get to say I told you so?" She already told him it was a bad idea for them to live together, citing her own reasons although none of them had to do with their actual relationship. "Look, this is going to take some getting used to, for the both of us. I've actually never had so much as a roommate, unless you count summer camp counseling and sharing a cabin with five other girls. So. There's going to be some kinks! But kinks can be fun." She assures as she comes back into the living room to tackle that ice cream dilemma. "First rule: if we do something that annoys each other, we talk about it?"

Easton smiles and pokes back verbally at her 'told you so' with "You were standing fully clothed in my bathtub. I stand by ignoring that." He wraps his arms around her from behind as she comes in with the ice cream and spoon and awkwardly walks behind her to the couch. He agrees, "But you are right. It's going to take getting used to." He sits down on the couch, sideways so that she can cuddle up to him. They thankfully both seem to accept that there is no such thing as personal space equally so that's good.

The first rule causes his eyebrows to go up. He opens the ChocolateChocolateChocolate before he responds, digging out a spoonful first. He says in a confessional tone, "I fucking suck at that." He gives a half-shrug at the admission and says, "I will try. But. That's ... been a thing."

"Rule two. We are living in crazy pants town. It's dangerous, and we will take precautions and not do dumb shit, but there are things that need doing."

Before Bennie cozies up, she strips off her polo shirt with name tag still attached and tosses it over the side of the couch with a mental note to pick it up before she goes to bed. In a black tank and her shorts now, she curls up her legs and scoots into the cradle of his body, grabbing his spoon wielding hand and directing the first bite to her mouth to steal it. "I think you're going to suck at number two, too." She grins and garbles the words around the ice cream as she lets it melt on her tongue. Then, "Frankly all I need is the answer to three questions to know whether or not this is going to work out. You ready?"

"What? That was a rule for you." Yea, idiot Easton didn't really think about that one reflexively and when he does he grumbles, "Probably." He would like to think that he would be fine with it, but who knows. He doesn't seem offput by her stealing the ice cream though and just tries to scoop at her pint. "Three questions?" He starts to agree, "Ok shoo.. wait." He stops digging at the ice cream and says very seriously, "I swear to God, if this is a cosmo quiz? I'm break up with you."

"I know what you mean." Bennie is obviously intoning about rule number two, because it takes on a bit of a somber edge. "I won't try to talk you out of going to the other side. If someone needs saving, that's the sort of thing I admire about you. I imagine it's part of the reason why you joined the marines. Because you'll run towards trouble, instead of away from it." Her smile reforms fully and she nabs his chin and directs it down for seal a kiss against them, "Not a cosmo quiz, but good to know where you draw the line. This is an Bennie original. Okay. First. Does Pineapple go on a pizza. Second, is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable. And third: is Die Hard a Christmas movie."

"I'm sorry. I know it's a good thing that you care." Mentally Easton does know that, "And I like your reason better. I joined the Marines so that I didn't end up exactly like my father and all of the terrible people I grew up surrounded by. I wanted to do something that mattered." He says this part very seriously before adding with a smile, "But I like yours better. Lets' go with that one." He is drawn into the kiss and lingers there. He very slowly, reluctantly pulls away to get the list of questions that decides their fate. When it comes out, he does a good job of not looking surprised. "Okay. No, a fruit and yes, of course it is." He says that with full confidence but only a second or two later he asks, "Wait, if I get those wrong does that mean you arent' staying?" He really should have asked the stakes first.

Bennie gets sort of lazy smile on her face when the kiss parts, like she's tempted to pull him to bed in that instant instead of just reveling in the moment. She tempers it down, and sates herself with sneaking a hand beneath his shirt to run her nails lightly over his skin while they talk. "That might have been the reason that you thought you joined the Marines for, and as true as that may be, you also would have washed out if the other weren't true, not stayed in for six." There is a dismissive shrug to his answers, "Nothing I can't live with!" Clearly they are just random things she's thought to ask him and never had a chance to, so they were compiled into a list much like her rhymes for pretzel.

Realizing there isn't a rigid requirement for correct answers just causes Easton to roll his eyes off to the side and laugh. He takes another bite of ice cream before sticking the spoon into it and setting it aside. There are too many hands involved in eating ice cream and he's rather use them for other purposes, specifically running them over her legs and sides. He smiles at her and says, "So we're doing this." It's a firm statement of purpose but his eyes are alight, not fixed in determination.

"You are the best thing to happen to me in a long time."

"I mean, you're completely wrong on all accounts, but I can live with it." Bennie says on the tail end of his laughter, her own eyes alight with amusement. She doesn't expound though, because he's setting the ice cream aside, his palms leaving a little rise of goosebumps in their wake when it hits thigh. "We are doing this. So long as you don't tense up when I say that you're the best thing that's happened to me...ever. I know I haven't told you this yet, but you're ...you don't look at me like I'm broken. That quip about my brother issues aside."

"I can also live with that." Easton smiles back, an easy grin that causes crinkles around his eyes, just enjoying the warmth of her smile and the warmth of her body against his. He doesn't tense up when she says that. In fact he just accepts it easily and kisses her, not the light lingering kiss from earlier but a more serious, pressing hard against her kiss. "I get it. Obviously. But you know I'm in fuckin' awe of you. I've seen hardened ass marines knocked down for good by less than what you've shouldered. And you're still standing. And smiling..." He kisses her neck and only stops to add, "I love your smile." Ooh. Now who needs to be careful?

"I love you."

Apparently not Easton. But he does wait to see how she'll react. It feels like they've been building to saying that for a while now, but maybe that was just escalating in his head. And this isn't like upping the ante with Geoff in a bro on bro strip tease. The stakes are just a bit higher.

That crinkle around his eyes. Bennie's in awe of it. She raises a hand to thumb at the line of them, her own eyes searching his face like she's trying to memorize his features before she melts against him with the kiss. It causes a flutter in her chest that doesn't slow when he compliments her, even if her first instinct is to refute it. "I'm not strong..." She murmurs. It's true that she sees herself as a coward, about to add something else as he mentions her smile and that very expression can't help but stretch across her features again. But then the statement morphs and Bennie blinks.

Once. Twice.

Then without warning, she launches herself up exuberantly, going from a cuddled lean against him to a full out tackle of Easton against the arm of the sofa. "I love you too!" The prefacing 'OHMYGOD' implied.

The blinking is just long enough to cause Easton's brow to drop almost imperceptibly as he starts to question if he somehow misread this whole conversation. The tackle back against the couch causes his legs to raise up as he's tipped back. He lets out a very undignified "Wah!" as he falls back with an "Oomph" But he soon recovers as his fingers of one hand dip into the waistband of her shorts, running along her lower back. His other hand reaches up, entangles itself in her hair and pulls her to him for a kiss that is all business. The tackle having apparently signaled a shift form cozy cuddling to much more serious affairs. He breaks that kiss only give his thoughts on her reply, "Good." Before his mouth once again finds hers.