2019-11-14 - Busiest Bathtub in Town

Yet another rainy Gray Harbor day. It is cool and drizzly, with low hanging clouds. The damp is loved by the moss and mushrooms, though, and there are several patches of both growing on Alexander's lawn. The front of the house looks freshly cleaned, and there's a new mailbox, although there seem to be an unusual number of small, broken eggshells around at the base of the walls. Alexander is inside, with Luigi on his shoulder. He's playing the Nintendo, and the bird is singing along with the theme music. Blue Bell is on lookout - i.e. she's sprawled on the windowsill to the window, looking out at the lawn with blue eyes. The house smells like coffee - there's a fresh pot being brewed, perhaps put on when Bennie said she was coming over. Alexander is dressed casually, even for him - just an oversized t-shirt and pair of gray sweats.

It's not hardcore raining, at least now, but given it's Gray Harbor in the Fall, that could change on a dime. Bennie takes her bike over to Alexander's, bundled against the chill in the air with her purple polka dotted rain coat over the bulk of a sweater and fleece leggings stuffed into knee high boots. She parks her two wheeled transportation up against the side of the house and pulls her hobo bag purse out of the basket, trudging up to the front door as she slides her hood down off her head and pulls her loose bun out of the elastic holder to shake the wavy locks free. Hands otherwise busy, she raises her knee to depress the doorbell. Hopefully the man inside will hear it over the chirp of Luigi in his ear.

It's the cat that alerts Alexander before Bennie gets to the door. Her ears perk and her head swivels to follow the movement of this person who looks vaguely familiar. Alexander stands and makes his way to the door. As she's kneeing the door bell (which, sadly, does not work), he's already opening the door and gives her a warm smile. "Bennie. Come in." He gestures for her to come inside, while Luigi scrabbles along his shoulder to hide behind his neck, giving her a suspicious, beady-eyed look.

"Hi." Bennie gives a somewhat winded greeting as she steps just inside the door to plop her bag near her feet. Her finger gets raised like she's about to say 'Red Rum' but it's just a little wave to the bird without getting in his beak snipping space. Or Alexander's for that matter.

She tries just shrugging out of her coat, but it gets caught somewhere around the elbows, so there's a moment of flailing before she's able to get free of the confines of her damn raincoat offering it over for Alexander to hang up while she wobbles on one leg, the other crooked at the knee and resting on the opposing one so she can work the long zipper. She's trying to be polite and not track rain into his home, but it's a literal balancing act.

Alexander watches the balancing act for a moment, blinking. There's a moment where he takes a breath, before he says, "Let me help you," and reaches in to offer her an arm to stable herself on, and a free hand to help pull off her coat, then closes the door behind her, hanging it on the hook behind the door. "It's okay if you're wet, you know," he says, with a smile. "Carpets dry." The bird, meanwhile, just turns his head almost all the way upside down so that he can use one beady eye to watch her hop around.

"Woo, thanks!" Bennie says as Alexander steps in to help, hand resting on his forearm while she manages to strip off her boots which she leaves just inside the door. Her yellow striped socks wiggle around the toe area as she stretches her feet. "Such a pragmatic man." She reaches down to pluck up her bag now that she's sufficiently stripped out of her outerwear and the Blonde starts marching through the house, bypassing the living area completely to head in the direction of the man's only bathroom.

"I try. Would you--" Alexander pivots as she walks past him and the living room to the hallway leading to the bathroom, "...like...some -- well, I guess I'll let you handle that, then." He lets out a little huff, but he's not going to follow a woman to the bathroom. Which is about the same as she remembers it, stained tub and all. Alexander goes to Luigi's cage and coaxes the bird into the enclosure to play with his toys. The shrill ringing of a bell can soon be heard. Then?

Then he walks to the hallways and peeks around the corner to look at the bathroom. "Is there anything you need?"

The door to the bathroom has been left suspiciously open, and that's because the Blonde didn't go in there to take care of any business besides crawling in the tub to sit in the basin with her legs dangling over the side. "Some of that coffee would be amazing. " She responds merrily enough, voice lofted so it can carry back to Alexander's cautious position.

Alexander stares for a moment. Then his head withdraws. There's some noises from the other room, the clatter of mugs and some sort of metal sound, and then here he comes again, carrying a cookie sheet instead of a tray, and the 'tray' holds two mugs of coffee, a small plastic bowl of sugar, a couple of flavored creamers, and a small plate of storebought brownies. While Alexander's culinary skills are growing, he clearly hasn't reached the 'baking' portion of the curriculum, yet. The bathroom isn't big. He drops the seat on the toilet and sits there, balancing the tray on his knees. "Sugar? Cream? Brownie?" Then a pause. "I have questions."

Bennie has pulled her large purse into her lap and is currently digging through it when Alexander reappears with coffee service. She flicks her glance up and a large smile blooms, bright and full. "Yes. To all of that." Managing to fish out a bag of Cracker Jacks and an Altoids tin, she balances the latter on the lip of the tub before swinging her bag back out of it. "I like my coffee to taste like a confection rather than...you know...coffee. I've been known to drink it black? But that's usually when we're like, sprinting out of the Bay to take a call and I don't have time to doctor my to-go cup. But then it's more about just the quickest way to get caffeine into my system, y'know, so I don't worry about taste." Phew! She takes a breath. "I. Might have answers?" She asks before pulling the tin to her and popping the lid off with her thumb to procure a joint from its brethren. "You want?"

"There's nothing wrong with the taste of coffee," Alexander mutters, even as he obediently dumps a hefty portion of sugar and creamer into one of the cups, and places it on the edge of the tub. "Don't knock that over." Then the plate of brownies is offered for her to pick her own. "I think you do, since the foremost is why are we hanging out in my bathroom, and why are you in my tub?" A pause. "And do you want a pillow? That can't be comfortable." A shake of his head to the offer of the joint. He does say, "Only have one, please. The smoke isn't good for Luigi."

Bennie's nose nudges upwards, "Flick on the vent fan for me?" She asks before she selects a brownie and balances it on her knee. "I am communing with my brother." As if that's actually an answer to any of his questions. The bag of Cracker Jacks is tucked down by her side, a joint scissored between the joints in her fingers as she takes up her sufficiently doctored cup of coffee and takes an experimental sip. "Perfection!"

She gives a little wiggle of contentment, turning down the offer of a pillow with, "I'm fine." Before launching into more of an explanation. "You ever see, in the movies and news, that tornados always seem to target the trailer parks?"

Alexander rebalances the tray so he can lean forward and flick on the vent fan. As the rattling whrrrr starts up, he takes up his own coffee mug. It's black, but he breaks off a piece of brownie, dunks it in the coffee, then nibbles on the soaked treat. The answer of communing gets a blink, but not an immediate denial or skepticism. There's a slow nod as she goes on. "Mostly, that's because flying trailers look very dramatic, and they shred very easily, so they make for good news photographs. But it's...wait. You're hiding in the tub because of tornadoes?"

"Mm." Bennie intones as she licks a little shred of paper that's sticking up from her joint to smooth it back down. "Close. So they say if you can't leave your trailer, the safest place to go, is the bathtub. So now take that logic, apply it to a little kid's mentality when there is any kind of trouble and..." She motions aside with her hand holding the lighter, then flicks it to life and leans into the flame.

"Like making sure your feet are covered under the blanket, well past the time when you know that it won't keep the monsters from coming after you anyway." Alexander doesn't say 'past the time you know the monsters aren't real', because...Gray Harbor. But at least he was able to make a parallel? He dunks another piece of brownie into the coffee, and nibbles on it, and watches her light the joint. "Okay. Next question. What's the trouble?"

There is an emphatic nod from Bennie as she's busy holding fragrant smoke into her lungs, and when she finally exhales she blows the stream away from Alexander and to the tip of the joint to make sure it's properly lit. "My brother. Or rather the Veil wearing my brother's face, is fucking with Easton." Her foot bobs up and knocks against Alexander's shin. "Why were you hiding?"

Alexander's eyebrows go up. "Yeah," he says, after a moment. "He mentioned it, a little, the other day. He looked rough. I offered to look into some things for him, but he hasn't said yes, yet." He nibbles on brownies as the fragrant smoke fills the room - the vent fan is old, and not great at pulling the smoke out of the place. Alexander doesn't seem to mind it terribly, though. He twitches away from the foot, but there's not a lot of space to go with the tray on his lets. "Um. Thorne got kidnapped. And Lilith disappeared. And Isabella was attacked, and rendered catatonic for a bit. And everyone was wearing masks, and nothing seemed real, and I just needed...I needed to not be around people for a bit." His smile is crooked. "Although I guess my hidey-hole wasn't the best decision, but it worked out mostly okay." A pause. "So. If Easton is in distress, why are you the one hiding in my bathtub?"

It's a delicate dance, switching between sipping coffee, nibbling on brownie and smoking a joint, but Bennie seems to handle it without confusing one for the other or spilling, so that's a plus. "Isabella's okay now, though? Right? I mean, I think I would have heard if she wasn't." Small town and all, but the thought still has Bennie's forehead wrinkling. "I feel like I lost a week somewhere in there." She shakes the notion off. "Well apparently Judd told Easton I was using...you know, beyond the norm. So he confronted me. Nicely, but still. Not a hundred percent certain he believes me?"

Alexander thinks about it, then nods. "I think she's okay. Getting there, anyway. The sonofabitch who hurt her is still out there, though." His voice is deceptively mild when he says that; it's only the way his eyes go blank and black that suggests he might have some real dark feelings about that. He takes another sip of his coffee, and considers her. He listens. And then he asks, bluntly, "Are you? Using beyond the norm?"

"Nnnnope." Bennie says, as she flips the joint around between forefinger and thumb and silently offers it to Alexander as if spurred by his reaction to the dark thoughts he must be having about what happened to Isabella. "But what if we're past that? Being able to trust one another? I still need to handcuff him in order to feel comfortable enough having sex. Sooner or later he's going to catch on it's not just some sort of sexy new kink I've developed overnight. If he hasn't already and he's just playing along because he knows it's what I need."

Alexander shakes his head at the offer of the joint. Instead, he shifts on the toilet and relaxes as best he can on the hard plastic. He dunks more brownie. "When trust is broken, it needs time to rebuild. It's a process. It doesn't happen immediately. I'd be more worried about you if you were able to feel comfortable with him immediately after that." He bites wet brownie, chews, washes it down with black coffee. "If he's willing to go along with it, it's probably because he wants to rebuild that trust with you, whichever way works."

"Sounds like advice I gave you about de la Vega. How's that going, by the way?" Bennie asks, pinching the joint back to her own lips after his denial, flipping the conversation around while she chews figuratively on her own plight. With a croak of voice, she voices allowed her mental reflection. "He sicced Geoff on Greg. That's the dealer I get my Adderall from. And the coke that one time. And apparently that box of drugs I gave to you." Weed doesn't seem to mellow Bennie out, it just seems to make her even more disjointed, but perhaps that's just the strain.

"It's going...okay?" Alexander says, slowly. "I think we talked a few things out. I have concerns. But I always have concerns about Javier, and ultimately, I don't know what, exactly, I can do to change anything on that end. Some people have to drive themselves off their own cliffs." He takes a swallow of his coffee, and his eyebrows go up. "Good. Sumpter's a good-natured kid, for a drug dealer, but it's really not something good to get caught up in." A pause. "So are you not using at all, anymore?"

Bennie makes a soft noise of sympathy as she pulls her legs into the tub with her, curling up into a smaller ball. "Javier is a troubled soul. I just want to wrap him up in a big fluffy blanket, y'know?" Taking one last hit off the joint, she then licks her finger tips and pinches off the glowing end, setting the half smoked thing on top of the Altoid tin to cool off before she tucks it away. Waste not, want not. "It's not that easy, Alexander. I'm just not using anything /else/."

"If I thought that would help, I'd be up for it," Alexander says, dryly, in regards to the blanket. "But then, I could say that for most of my friends. Including the one currently in my bathtub," he points out, voice dry. Another swallow of coffee. "Okay," he says, in regards to the last. Does he like it? No. That much is pretty clear, because his face hides very little of his thinking. But he's not pressing her about it. He does say, "So, your concern is that Easton doesn't trust you about your use, and that you won't ever be able to trust him with your safety again?"

"I'd say I'm trying, but I love you too much to lie to you, friend. I always have an excuse, and Gray Harbor is just full of them." She leans back against the wall, offering him a soft smile. "It also is entirely plausible I just wanted to spend time with you, beyond any concerns I might have about Easton and I. Also you realize the whole blanket scenario would require actually touching someone. Voluntarily."

There's a long silence. Then Alexander says, "You're an adult. You can make your own decisions. But if you do ever decide to try. I may be able to help. If you want." He's looking down at his mug, not at her. "And it's kind of you to want to spend time with me. Although...are you sure you just didn't form a crush on my tub?" a hint of playfulness there. "And I can make myself touch people, if I have to. It's easier than having them touch me unexpectedly."

"It's totally the tub. Though Easton's has the big garden one we can both fit in comfortably." Bennie's still not totally confident in call it their place, even though she gave up the lease on her trailer. Even with their issues aside. "I'm not so sure I want you in my brain again, Alexander. No offense. Last time you filled me with such contentment and peace. But the second you were gone? I think I would have had an easier time with cocaine withdrawals than I did with that." Her bottom lip becomes sacrificed to a gnaw of her teeth. "Must be hard, barricading yourself off like that."

There's a flicker of hurt at that, although Alexander does his best to hide it behind the coffee mug. "I'm sorry. You were hurting so much. I just...I didn't know how else to help, from so far away. If you'd been closer, where I could make sure you wouldn't," a pause, "do anything unfortunate to yourself, then I wouldn't have imposed that on you. I was just worried." He takes a deep breath. "And, no. Not really. When I was a child, I was open to everything. That was hard."

"Nono. It was good! It helped me reach out to August and get that shit burned out of my system. I just...missed it when it was gone y'know? Easton's vulcan mind melded me before, but with you it was like really intense. Well, a different intense. Sometimes Easton is like SHOUTING accidentally in my brain, and then of course there's the time he projects images or memories and that's a whole other ball of scary but it's to understand him, y'know." Bennie's shoulders rise and fall, "Why...why go from one extreme to the other? Everything or nothing?"

Alexander gives a darkly amused sort of chuckle. "Yeah. What we do is creepy. A healer can kill you in a hundred horrible ways, a mover can bury knives in your flesh from a hundred yards, but we get inside you. It's...not pleasant for a lot of people. I know that." He gives a careless sort of shrug, but is still sort of hunched up. "I don't. I still reach out to people when I need to. But I don't like scaring people, and a lot of what I read. It's," he takes a deep breath, "bad, Bennie. Abuse. Murder. And even worse things. So, for my own sake, it pays to be a little careful. When I can be. And to enjoy silence when I can find it."

"So much for inviting you in here with me for a snuggle, hmm?" Bennie asks as she tugs the sleeves of her fuzzy sweater down so they engulf her hands. "Mind if I take a quick nap though? Sleep off this high?"

"You barely fit in there," Alexander points out with amusement. "If I tried to join you, even if I didn't have a panic attack, the tub would probably explode." He reaches over to pick up her coffee mug and put all the things back on the makeshift tray. "Sure. I'll get you a pillow and blanket." It's not an offer, and he disappears with the tray before she can turn it down. He puts the tray up in the kitchen, and swings by his bedroom to pick up a pillow and blanket, and returns to the bathroom.

Bennie reaches out enthusiastically for the pillow and blanket, flexing her hands in a gimme gimme motion, "Sorry to inform you, next to Sutton, you are officially my BFF. So you better get used to lame ideas like me dropping over for little to no reason or randomly taking naps in your tub."

Alexander hands both of them over with a crooked smile. "That's...fine. I don't really have a lot of people just drop by. Usually just if they don't have any other choices. And you're good company, Bennie. You're welcome anytime." He clears his throat. "I'll, uh, let you get some rest, then? And if you want anything from the kitchen, just let me know. There's not much, but." A shrug. "I'll be in the living room."

Bennie fluffs the pillow down into the end of the tub opposite the faucet, tugging the blanket around her shoulders and kicking it down around her feet. "Bluebell might come in here to curl up, she did while you were gone. If she does, don't shoo her away. I like the cuddles." She bleary smiles as she settles down, eyes closed. "Love you, friend."

"I don't ever shoo her away, unless she's trying to eat Luigi," Alexander assures her, softly. He reaches down, and his fingers make a little motion just above her head. Like it would be a ruffle of her hair if he were going to touch her. But all he says is, "Sleep well, Bennie." And then he slips out to go sit in his living room and pretend to play video games for a while.