2019-10-17 - Long Month, Long Day

It has been a long month. It's been filled with ups and down, and more than one middle of the night awakening to vomit or via screaming from a dream. It's been long, but things felt like they were on an upswing. Dahlia had gone on a short walk yesterday to get some air and some alone time. She hadn't told Declan about the strange woman she came across along with the small group of others. Not for lack of wanting to, but she wasn't sure if she should. Clearly she had something to do with the weird stuff in this town and Declan really didn't seem to be a fan. Hell, Dahlia wasn't either. At least not right now. Not while she was trying to keep things simple and stress free.

Early evening is setting in and Dahlia, either out of boredom or a childish whim, has concocted a fort out of a couple of the dining room chairs, the couch, and a few extra sheets. Declan had run out, maybe to do a little work, maybe to pick up dinner. In any case, he wasn't home just yet. So when he did come home, this is what he'd come home to. Dahlia, watching television while sitting in her new fort and continuing to work on their pillows. She was proud of the pillows! One was done already. She had finished it not too long ago and was excited to show it to Declan when he got home. Now, she was working on embroidering the second one by hand before it got filled with stuffing.

Clomp, clomp.

Boots are smacked on the concrete outside. Declan opens the door a moment later. He was indeed out, called away for a late job. An emergency. That doesn't happen very often. Regardless, he puts the boots just inside the doorway, breaths a sigh of relief, and begins to strip off his pants when... there's a fort. Oh, and Dahlia making a pillow. Despite the mud, he keeps his clothes on. "You built a fort?" Smirking, he leans against the doorway and focuses on his girlfriend. "I like it. Could probably work on squaring those walls a bit better, though." He winks.

Dahlia looked up, a little startled when she heard Declan. Having been rather focused on her work - so much so that she nearly forgot the TV was on too. Then she flashed him a bright smile. She was looking better too. Put a little weight back on, was holding down food easier. "It's a good fort. You could come inside if you want. But - no dirt allowed." Pointing towards his clothes, and then chuckled. She laid the pillow case, needles and thread to the side, starting to crawl out and get back to her feet. "How did the job go?"

"You make it easy." Declan unbuckles his belt, kicks off his jeans, and pulls his shirt off. Hair a slight mess, he tosses them both onto the floor, near the dirty clothes, and scoots towards Dahlia. She gets a brief kiss before he makes his way to the dresser. "Yeah it was muddy," he replies with a laugh. "Otherwise fine. Had to lay some pipe, rained everywhere. But we got the burst fixed and got paid, so. Can't complain." Shorts and a shirt are put on quickly before he turns back. "How're you? I'm guessing you got bored?" Declan's head tilts as he asks the question.

Dahlia returns the kiss, sitting on the arm of the couch and shamelessly watching him as he moves to get dressed. "Getting paid is good. " She looks towards the fort and then back to Declan. "A little bit. Didn't feel like walking again since the weather was icky. Definitely don't want to catch that flu that was going around. Who knows if it's still a thing." Yeah. The last thing Dahl needed was to get sick all over again. "But, look!" She jumps off the arm of the couch in a little burst of energy and pulls out the finished pillow from under the fort. Dark blue on one side and sea foam green on the other. The blue side had a green D on it and the green side had a blue one. "One down, one to go!" It was somewhere between a decorative couch pillow and a decorative bed pillow in size, rectangular in shape. Holding it out to him if he wanted to take it.

"Yeah, pretty soon I'll have put away enough to make another good investment. I might make it there by next summer." Declan smirks at her, noticing the linger look, and walks over as she dips down back inside the fort. A hand touches her hip when she holds it up. Taking it, Declan flips it back to back. "That's gorgeous." He smiles at her. "Our pillows are going to be..." he bends to give her another kiss, "perfect. And if you get sick? I'm sure they'll come in useful for keeping your head or legs propped up." Declan remains close. "Sorry you got bored. Do you play videogames? I can go buy a console, if you want. That'll probably help."

"That's great! What are you thinking of investing in? Upgrading equipment or expanding out some? Something else?" Dahlia seems pleased that he likes the pillow, returning the kiss as she loops her arms around his waist and rests her chin on his chest to look up at him. "Honestly? Never really been into trying them. Maybe a deck of playing cards or something? That way I can play cards for real and not just the little things on my phone that are definitely rigged." She mused, brushing another kiss to his cheek this time.

"Three quarters goes into investments. I have a guy who does that for me. The rest will go into either the house or the business, yeah. I've thought about selling this place and buying another cheaper so that I can fix it up and do the same thing. But now... yeah I don't know." Declan looks around, then back at Dahlia. "What, really? Huh. Yeah, sure. Cards are no big deal. I'm sure I have some around here, somewhere." His eyes close when she kisses him again. "Speaking... of. Any idea if they found a way to cure that strange illness going around?"

"Like that show, about flipping houses and stuff? That could be something fun to do. It would be doing something you enjoy too right? Something to think about." Dahlia looked around the house for a moment. It really did feel like a home to her. Ever since the first day she walked into it. And if he could do that to other houses, have other people feel that sense of home? Well Dahlia thought that would be kind of great. Those bright green eyes focused on him again. "I'm not sure? I think people are getting over it at least? I saw more people out and about on my walk yesterday than I have in a while. I'm glad neither of us caught it. And, if you want to get a console, I'll give it a whirl. I'm just saying you don't have to get one just for me."

"Yeah, like that. I'm not sure how good at it I'd be. And in this market, I'm not sure if it's worth the risk. But I might give it a go. Maybe." Declan kisses her forehead one more time before moving to check out the inside of the fort. He crawls on in, then sits down, lets crossed. "That's a relief. I meant to call and ask Eve if she and Eli were okay." He rubs at his mouth, then gives his head a shake. "Yeah, I'll see if I can find one reasonably priced. I know I'll probably never play, so. But who knows? Maybe we'll end up playing together." Declan pats the floor next to him. "This fort is awesome." He smirks at her. "You build a lot of these growing up?"

Dahlia chuckle again, watching him crawl into the fort and then crawled in to settle beside him. Carefully wrapping up the needle and thread in the half-finished pillowcase of the second pillow. "I haven't talked to either of them in forever. Honestly feels like I haven't talked to most people in forever." She snuggles up to him a bit. "Mm a few. Mostly with my youngest older brother when we were really young. He's two years older than I am." She reached up and lightly poked at the sheet ceiling. "It's something new and different at least. A good viewing spot for the TV." Flashing Declan another smile.

Declan wraps his arms around her and lets her settle in his lap. One arm goes onto a leg, and the other wraps around her stomach. "I know. We'll get you out soon, though. I can tell, you're nearly back on your own two feet." She'd been around a lot longer than he anticipated... but Declan hasn't seemed to mind. Visibly, at least. He kisses her shoulder. "You'll be back to normal in no time." He chuckles when she talks about her brother. "Yeah, I think you mentioned before that you guys were close when you were younger. That's the way we were... yeah. Anyway." He smiles back and glances off to the TV. "It is."

He's quiet for a spell. "So..." this is how he almost always pops The Question. "... how are you feeling? I mean really. Last time you were still sick on and off."

"I hope so." Dahlia agreed. "I feel bad that you've been playing babysitter for so long. And as much as I love sewing and stuff, I'm ready to get back to work. Both of them." She's been going a little stir crazy lately, wanting to get out of the house more - even for short periods of time for fresh air and such. So Dahlia's sure that Declan's got to be feeling at least a little similar on some levels. She watches him a moment as he starts to speak again.

The Question. Dahlia had grown sick of it pretty quickly. But by now she'd gotten mostly over her annoyance with it and just answered. Because she knew it was just because he was concerned. "I'm really feeling a lot better." She assured him. "I'm still tired some days and feel like I don't have any energy to do anything. But over all? I'm feeling more normal than I have since this whole thing started."

"Nah, don't feel bad. It's been... hard? But in some ways good." Declan gives her a short hug. "And I know you are. I'm kind of excited as well. I know all this downtime kind of sucks, and I think you'll have way more fun once you're out of this place." He breathes a sigh. "I'm mostly just glad it seems to be working. No one's killed anyone yet. You're clean." He grins at her and squeezes again. "Feeling closer to the old Dahlia, with all those curves I like."

But then she's answering the real question. "Okay... okay. Good." He clears his throat. "That's good." After breathing a sigh, he looks back at the TV and quiets again. "I promise, the day I stop asking that is coming. Swear to god, it is." Maybe.

"I think I will too. And it's great not feeling like an outsider in my own body." Dahlia returned the grin. "And, she's starting to feel a little frisky again too." Mischief dancing in her eyes as she taps his nose lightly. Because she definitely hasn't been in the mood for much of anything while going through all this and so it felt like it'd been way too long in that department too. She looped an arm lightly around his neck and kissed his cheek. "Pretty sure it's gonna be more like, one day we'll just realize you haven't asked me in a while. But until that day..." Chuckling softly as she nuzzled into his neck.

Declan lifts up his head so that she can snuggle closer. "Yeah, I can tell. I thought about asking a couple days ago. Didn't quite get to it." A leg runs up her thigh. "But... pretty sure I'll have the courage tonight." He laughs at her prediction. "You think so?" Declan glances down at her. "I'll try to stop soon." He clears his throat. "It's kind of hard to, but I'll try." Before the moment can get too dark, he pinches her thigh. "I'm guessing you don't want to eat first."

"I really don't mind it much anymore. It's okay." Dahlia gave his lower jaw a little nip. "You've guessed correctly. " She chuckled. Her other hand toying idly with his shirt. "We could slide into the shower, see where things go? Or see where things go and then slide into the shower." Though she's content to stay snuggled up to him like this for a few moments longer at least. Fingers brushing up under his shirt a bit to feel over bare skin.

"Okay." Declan clears his throat. She can probably already feel where things are going. Unless her rear has lost all sensitivity. "I already know where things are going. My hand is fucking tired. I'm not complaining... okay, maybe I am... but I want to get laid." A hand slides right up her shirt with no warning, looking for favorite curves. He doesn't shy away from her touch. "Hopefully you reinforced the foundations of this pillow and blanket fort." Declan bends to kiss her ear, then her jaw, moving slow.

Dahlia laughed, leaning into Declan's touch, pressing a kiss to his neck as he kissed her ear and jaw. "But bringing the house down would be so much fun." She teased as her hands slid up further as well. Nails gently scratching against his skin. She tilted her head so she could catch his lips in a passionate kiss. "I've missed you so much." She murmured against his lips. And she had. Mentally she'd been ready to try things at least a couple weeks ago. Physically? Just wasn't going to happen. Tonight though. Tonight they were going to be making up for some lost time.

"Would it?" Declan asks with a smirk. Her lips are electric across his skin, and he tenses noticeably as the moments pass on. When his lips are snagged, he grunts a little and kisses her deep. "So have I. I mean," he kisses her briefly, "you know. You've been right here, but also..." No one liners come. Weird. He grabs the other thigh, turns her, and lays her down right down on the floor. A second later, he's on top of her and resting on his elbows.

The home within the home doesn't fall while the TV plays. Eventually, they move to the bed. Later on in the evening, they take that shower... and then finally eat. Assuming she feels well enough to. The night turns interesting again after, at least until it's time to sleep.