Stone Hawthorne (stones_throw) wrote in morningstar_mnr, @ 2008-02-19 14:18:00 |
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Entry tags: | au, lara, stone |
AU Follethorne Apartment Tuesday Night, Stone, Lara, eventual Poe
Stone had made it home before Lara. He'd ordered them some dinner since he didn't feel like trying to make something, failing and then having Lara help make someroughage for them. He was hungry. He just went with pizza though, two separate ones to assure that the meat-loving, heart clogger of toppings he'd ordered wouldn't mix in with her extra cheese and mushroom one. Then he sat down to do some channel surfing. It had been shortly after that that he'd received the phone call that Gibson was dead. That and the way Gibson had died were two very strange things to try and process. This is precisely why he was sitting on the end of the couch, head tilted, eyes a little blank and brow furrowed up a bit. Huh...at least no one could've seen that coming. He'd been so sure Gibson would die of some super mixture ofSTDs. Guess not.
When Lara came in she paused after closing the door. She slipped her headphone off and looked up at the ceiling, squinting. Then she grinned. "I smell cheese," she said as she walked out into the living room. She paused again when she got there and then held one finger up. "And mushrooms. How very excellent." She smelled meat stuff too, but she wasn't going to comment on that. She dropped her stuff by the couch and looked over at Stone. He looked a little odd.
"What's up, killer?" Lara walked over to drop herself in his lap. She leaned forward and kissed him before pulling back with raised eyebrows to see what was going on. "Henry say something more stupid than usual today?"
Stone didn’t fully snap out of his thoughts until Lara dropped into his lap and kissed him. He shifted in his spot, his hands resting lightly against her very covered hips and blinked up at Lara. It was very bizarre to realize that it was actually possible for someone to die the way Gibson died. He shook his head to her question. “No.” He said. “Well. He did. But no. That’s not.” He shook his head as he leaned back against the couch and tilted his head.
“Bearclowns killed Gibson.” He stated. How bizarre was that? No. Really.
Lara furrowed her brow and blinked. Then she rolled her eyes. "Y'know, the whole bearclown story thing works a lot better when we say the bearclowns kill people we actually like," she told him, moving foward to put her forearm on the back of the couch. She leaned in to kiss him again despite his lame joke.
Stone kissed Lara back, for a while in fact, before he finally pulled back just enough so he could shake his head and looked at Lara. “No. No,” He shook his head and moved his eyebrows up as he spoke. “I’m serious. Abearclown killed Gibson.” He told her. “Animatronic bearclowns.” He told her. "He's dead."
Lara rolled her eyes again when he interrupted the make-out to continue with the lameness. "Yes," she nodded and leaned in for another kiss. "Of course he was. And you found this out because thebearclowns left his severed head in our bed." And another kiss as she slipped her hand under his shirt. "You better go bring those sheets down to the laundry room. Dried blood's a bitch to clean."
Stone returned Lara’s kisses and didn’t get a chance to interrupt before her hand was beneath his shirt. He shifted his weight and let out a sigh. What was he trying to tell her? Oh, fuck, right. He leaned back away again, turning his head to the side as he tried to blink the cobwebs away before Lara could kiss attack again. “No. Lara.” He shook his head and looked at her. “My father,” He scrunched his face up at the word. “Is dead. His lawyer just called me.” And how ridiculous was that? Patience didn’t even bother to call him. Fuck, that meant he had to tell Poe.
Lara had leaned forward to kiss him again since the stomach-work seemed to do the trick, but then he kept going. He was either trying to annoy her or he was being (partially) serious. Both options were total possibilities. She was leaning toward the serious one, though. He had said 'father,' after all.
She furrowed her brow and pulled back. "What? Seriously? How?"
Stone dropped his head with an exaggerated sigh. “Animatronic bearclown malfunction.” He looked back up at Lara. “It impaled him. He died at the hospital. Five hours later.” Which was a little bit of sweet victory. Stone thought that maybe he shouldn’t feel so passive about his own father being dead but then he thought about the things Gibson had done to him and Poe and Lara in the past and he didn’t feel so bad being okay with Gibson’s death. About the same moment he couldn’t take it anymore and started laughing hysterically. “I…can’t…I can’t believe someone could actually…” He took a moment to calm down from the laughing a second. “Could actually die from abearclown ,” He shook his head and let out a sigh. “I shouldn’t laugh. I’m going to hell for laughing about this.” He shook his head and then leaned it back against the couch and stared up at the ceiling in disbelief. Their lives never seemed to be uneventful. At least life wasn’t boring.
Lara furrowed her brow further as she tried to let that sink in. Clownbears? For serious? Okay yeah, none of that was sinking in. It was still right there on the surface. Being incredibly bizarre. When Stone started laughing she actually jumped in surprise. "Stone." She put her hand on the side of his neck and looked at him. "Stone. Ananimatronic bearclown ...killed your father?" Because it needed to be repeated a couple of times. Stone seemed to be taking this well. And he was randomly laughing hysterically. Both of those things probably meant he wasn't taking it well at all. At least that's what happened onDegrassi : The Next Generation when Craig's abusive father died in a car crash. But then again Craig was bipolar. Stone was just Stone. Her mind was going to weird places. Because 'death bybearclown' wasn't weird enough.
Stone's laughed died down a little. He cleared his through when Lara repeated his name. He nodded. "That's what I was told." He nodded. He leaned forward, sliding one arm around Lara to make sure she didn't fall as he leaned over to grab the remote from the table. It had to be on TV somewhere. It had to. If not, maybe online. He turned his head and kissed her shoulder as he flipped through the channels. Ah, good ol' crappy MTV news briefs. A picture of Gibson, grinning broadly, grace the screen. "Listen," He turned the volume up as the VJ announced Gibson's death and his birth and death year graced the screen. Stone just looked at it before sitting back and setting the remote next to him. "You heard it there first." He shrugged. Gibson really was dead. Stone honestly didn't know how he felt about this.
Lara frowned and turned to look at the remote and then the television. When he stopped on MTV and Gibson's smiling face, Lara's jaw dropped open. This wasn't a joke? Maybe it was a dream, then. Even so, it happened. Stone's dad was dead. And that was kind of a relief, which was a shitty thought, but Gibson was a shitty person. More than shitty. The things he did to his kids were totally disgusting. Lara blinked and turned back to Stone. She moved her hand up to his cheek and started to say something, but then lost it and had to start again. "...are you okay?"
It was a dumb question to ask someone whose dad just died under normal circumstances, but the Gibson-Stone relationship was not normal circumstances and judging by the way Stone was acting, Lara had no idea how he was feeling. Besides probably confused and relieved and maybe a little happy. She moved her thumb over his cheek and her frown deepened.
Stone furrowed his brow and turned his eyes from looking at the TV to looking at Lara. She was trying to comfort him because Gibson died and while that was nice and he was grateful that she was doing so, Stone didn't think he needed comforting for this. It was Gibson after all. He shrugged and nodded. "I'm fine." He told her. He thought he might be more relieved than anything at the moment. He did frown a little though and looked as he lifted his wrist to glance at his watch.
"I have to call Poe and see where she's at." He sighed. Poe definitely wasn't going to take this well. Maybe she already knew from the TV or something. He would've reached for his phone but it hadn't rung so she hadn't called him. She probably would've called him if she knew. He didn't want to tell her. She was going to be upset, and while he couldn't blame her much for that, he was kind of angry about it. Poe was going to be upset and she was going to cry, over their crappy father who was a horrible person. Why should she have to cry and be upset over him just because he died? He wasn't sure if he was angry at the fact that it was still going to impact Poe despite how horrible Gibson was and it was Gibson's fucking fault she was going to cry or just the fact that she was going to be upset over Gibson. He preferred to think that it was Gibson he was pissed at for the possible - probable actually - effect his stupid death was going to have on his sister.
Lara was skeptical. This had to be affecting him in some way, good, bad, or in between, but instead he was just shrugging it off. She held back on asking him if he was sure, since that was a pointless question. Maybe he just needed some time to let it sink in more. So she gave him a small nod when he answered her, and then she nodded again when he brought up Poe, Lara had no idea what her reaction was or would be. She knew Poe had a somewhat better relationship with the dude than Stone had, but everything was all really complicated.
"You should do that," Lara said, moving her arm around his neck. She leaned forward against him and turned her head to rest it on his shoulder. After frowning in the direction of his neck for a moment, she asked, "Does she know yet?"
Stone smiled a little when Lara leaned forward and put her head down. He moved his arms around her a little more, since she'd leaned forward and all and then he shrugged. "I don't know. She would have called if she knew already." At least he hoped so. No, he knew so. Poe would've called. She would've been crying andprolly unintelligible in speaking but she would've called to let him know where she was so he could get her. He really didn't want to have to tell her this. He sighed after a moment and then turned his head to kiss Lara's forehead. "Pizza's getting cold." He told her. "The mushroom one's on the right." He added. He wasn't really hungry but if he didn't eat or act like he was, then Lara was going to ask him if he was okay again.
Lara nodded again and after leaning forward to place a kiss to his neck, sat up. She was going to take the pizza segue to mean he wanted to talk to Poe with a little privacy, which was very understandable. "I'll go get you something to drink." She gave him a kiss, a hug, and a 143 before getting up off his lap.
Stone was kind of sad to have a lapless of Lara at the moment, but if she was going to give him privacy then okay, not that he needed it. It really depended on where Poe was if he was going to tell her in person or over the phone. He didn't really know if he could deal with telling her over the phone. "Okay," He nodded but didn't really offer any suggestions on what he wanted to drink. Anything she got would be fine. He returned the kiss and the hug and the 143 too and then thanked her and watched her go for a moment before he pulled out his phone and opened it, searched for Poe'snuber and hit send.
Lara went into the kitchen, intent on taking her sweet time to get the drinks. She looked out the window at the back of Stone's head as he put the phone up to his ear, going over some of Gibson's greatest hits in her mind. Some of those were pretty literal hits, too. The world was a much better place without him, that was for sure. But that didn't mean Stone had to be all right with all of it. Lara was even feeling weird about the news and she only knew the guy as the lecherous creep who liked to beat up her husband. She frowned and walked over to the cabinet to grab a couple of glasses.
Stone waited until Poe answered, glad he didn't have to leave one of those 'call me right away' messages on her voicemail. She made some kind of joke in her greeting but Stone wasn't exactly paying attention enough to really even pretend he'd heard it. "Hey," He replied, which caused her chuckling to cut off. Stone's face fell since he knew right away that she had no idea. Patience hadn't bothered to call either of them and Stone had told the lawyer not to call her. "Where are you?" he asked. He closed his eyes and sighed a little when she said she was in the City and just about to leave the penthouse. "Don't go anywhere. Stay inside and wait for me. I need to talk to you." Poe's reply was a natural panic and she asked repeatedly what was wrong. "I want to tell you in person - no, Poe. No Lara is not pregnant. Yes I promise I'm not lying. I just...don't want to tell you this over the phone. Will you stay in the penthouse and wait for me?" He didn't want her going out and getting swarmed by possible media people outside ready to bombard her with questions about how she feels about her father's death. Stone shuddered at the thought of how traumatizing that would be. Poe hesitated as Stone internally freaked about causing her unnecessary panic, but she agreed and they both hung up. Stone put his phone back in his pocket and dropped his head back against the couch. This was going to suck, a lot. Or maybe it already did.
Lara overheard a little bit of the conversation, and the bit where Stone assured Poe that no one was pregnant made her smirk a bit. She went back to frowning soon after, though. Once the talking stopped and she realized Stone was off the phone, Lara came back out with a glass of water for herself and iced tea for him. She put her water on the table as she passed it on her way to the couch, and then walked around it to hand it out to him. "Does she know?"
Stone opened his eyes and looked up at Lara. He reached out and took the iced tea she gave him. He took a sip from it just because he didn't want her to have poured it for nothing, but right after he wound up draining half the glass before he set it down with no idea why he's suddenly felt thirsty. He shook his head as he sat back for a minute and tried to compile his thoughts enough to start formulating ways to tell Poe in his head. "No idea," He answered before he started patting his pockets to find which one his keys were in. When none of them jingled, he looked over his shoulder and wondered if he'd tossed them on the table by the door. Yeah, he probably had. He looked back at the table and the pizzas. "I should probably go over there soon. I think I freaked her out. I shouldn't make her wait too long," He shook his head and pulled himself up off the couch. "I'll eat when I get back, so if you just leave them on the counter," He jerked his thumb out toward the pizzas, not like she didn't know what he meant though as he lifted his other hand to the back of his head, "I'll put what's left away when I'm done." He shrugged.
Lara was watching him carefully, and took a step back to give him room once he stood up. "Yeah, okay," she said with a little nod and a glance toward the pizzas. She looked back at him again and arched her eyebrows. "Are you," she began, feeling stupid for posing the question even as she said it, "going to be okay driving?"
Stone pressed his lips together in a small smile and nodded. "I'll be all right." He answered before he leaned over to kiss her. "I don't think I'll be long, but I'll probably bring her back with me." He paused minute and shrugged. "If that's okay?" He didn't think it wouldn't be okay but he feeling really restless and odd and he wasn't sure if he even wanted to leave the apartment himself. But he had to go tell Poe, so he had to leave. He ran his hand through his hair and then backed out of the living room to head for the hallway just to make sure his keys were there and retrieve them. "I just don't think it'd be good to leave her there alone and once Patience finds out she knows, she'll go scouring for Poe and then Poe will be stuck following Patience around and she's not going to take it well, so, I'd rather just," He paused so he could grab his wallet and his keys and put them in respective pockets. "Keep her close by so that she doesn't get stuck with Patience while Patience is pretending to mourn." And why Stone was pretending to not mourn. But that was a dumb thought. There was nothing to mourn.
"Of course it's okay," Lara said, putting her hands in her pockets and following him. "Bringing her here is good. I'll make sure the guest room's in good shape," she added with a glance toward the hall. She figured from the way he was talking that he wanted to go talk to Poe alone. She got it, but she was still worried about him. And she was worried about Poe too, especially since Stone said she wouldn't take it well. Lara took her hand out of her pocket and stepped closer to Stone so she could take his and give it a squeeze. "If you need anything, call me, okay?"
"You don't have to do any work. We can do that later once she's here. Eat some dinner. I'll be back, I won't be long." If he could help it anyway. If he hadn't been facing her, he probably would've jumped at the touch when she took his hand, but instead he'd squeezed her hand back and offered a grateful little smile. "I will," He promised with a solitary nod. He used her hand to bring her closer and leaned over to kiss her again, twice. Then he backed up a step and lifted her hand to kiss the back of it before letting it go and turning around so he could head out the door.
It was just about an hour and twenty minutes or so when he returned with Poe, it would've been an hour but it took time to get there and get back. Poe, as Stone had suspected, had not taken it very well. But by the time Stone had unlocked the apartment door and led her in by the arm around her waist, she'd managed to reduce the tears to just red puffy eyes and sniffling. Stone had told her it was all right to cry and that she didn't have to stop herself and in fact he'd let her cry on him for awhile before they'd left the apartment. His shirt was still drying. He wasn't sure if it was all in his head of if it really happened every time but when Poe cried like that - Lara too, not that Lara cried a lot or something - it physically hurt Stone, especially when he couldn't do much to help or make her feel better. So Stone looked pretty miserable as he shut the door behind him and led the way up the hall and kept his arm around Poe, who sent a last wipe across her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt.
After Stone left, Lara had gotten some pizza and taken her plate into the guest room. She could double-task. Plus getting the room ready after Poe already got there would just be more trouble. There wasn't much to do, anyway, so Lara gave herself something to do, like deciding the bed needed clean sheets.
All of it took about fifteen minutes, so once Lara was done she sat down on the edge of the bed and finished off her pizza, thinking. She definitely wasn't sad Gibson was dead. She was sad for Poe since it was going to upset her, and she was sad for Stone because he never had a real dad, but that was it. Gibson tried to drown Stone in the pool and stick his hand down the garbage disposal, so he didn't deserve any mournful feelings. Lara had always hoped that he would eventually see the light and try to seek some forgiveness for, well, everything, but the bear clowns snuffed him out before he got a chance. Oh well. Lara couldn't say it was an entirely bad thing.
She hung around in the room until she finished her food and then carried her plate out to the kitchen. Then she bided her time for a while, hanging around and suppressing the urge to call Stone to see how he was doing. When the apartment door finally opened, Lara was in the kitchen finishing off a pretty strong drink. She put the glass down in the sink and then walked out into the hall.
"Hey," she said, kind of quiet, as she walked to the living room. She looked back and forth between Poe and Stone, not really sure how to handle this. Poe had been crying and so many things sucked on so many levels.
"Hey," Poe said with a small wave. She glanced at Stone and Lara as she stopped her and Stone progression to the living room to step away from Stone. "I'm...just gonna go, to the bathroom," She pointed over her shoulder in that direction as she looked between the two of them again.
Stone nodded. "Okay," He watched as she went up the hall toward the bathroom and when she shut the door behind her, he walked into the living room and around to sit down on the couch. "We had to leave out the back of the hotel." He said as he slouched down a bit in his seat and put his head back. Stupid photographers.
Lara nodded to Poe as well and after watching her head off to the bathroom, she followed Stone to the couch. She knelt down on it next to him and picked up his arm. When he spoke, she frowned and took a quick glance toward the hall. "How's she doing?" she asked, keeping her voice down.
Stone looked over his shoulder and kept his voice down too when he answered. "We would've been home sooner but she was crying. A lot." He lifted his hand and pointed to the spot on his shirt that was still pretty wet. He frowned. "This sucks."
"Man," Lara commented under her breath as she looked down at Stone's shirt. She looked back up at Stone and moved her hand up and down his arm. "How're you doing?"
Stone turned his eyes from Lara's hand on his arm up to her face. He shrugged up his shoulders. "I'm all right." He told her before he glanced toward the door of the living room again. "I just...really hate how upset she is." He turned back around and looked at Lara. He was a little disturbed at the fact that he wasn't upset at all about this. At least, he told himself he wasn't. Part of him was, he was sure of it. He put his head down against the back of the couch as he looked over at Lara again. "Seen Slate around?" He asked. Maybe that damn cat would make Poe feel a little better. And then his eyebrows picked up a little. "Did you eat?" He asked, just to make sure she hadn't skipped cause of this stupid shit.
Lara moved her hand down to his so she could lace their fingers, her frown taking even more of a downturn at Stone's words. She almost wished that Gibson had been awesome so they could all be justifiably distraught over his death, just so the whole thing wouldn't be so complicated and fucked up. She lifted herself up on her knees to look over the back of the couch when Stone asked about Slate. "I almost tripped on him when I was heading into the kitchen," she said before giving up and looking at Stone again. "I ate. Don't worry. Do you want me to heat anything up for you? Poe?" She lifted up Stone's hand and kissed the back of it quickly before getting off the couch.
Stone glanced around the couch and the entertainment center but there was no sign of Slate there. He turned to look at his hand when Lara kissed it and was just shaking his head and about to tell her that she didn't need to heat anything up, but she was already getting up off the couch. He pulled himself up right after her. "No. It's okay. If we want anything we'll get it ourselves," He said as he reached out for the sides of her shoulders to stop her and paused a moment. "But thank you," He added before he stepped closer and leaned over to kiss Lara's forehead. "I'm...gonna go make sure Poe isn't going to stay barricaded in the bathroom all night...what with their being only one..." He nodded toward the hall. "It's the highlander of bathrooms." He smirked and leaned over again to kiss her, properly this time. And then he headed around to leave the living room and head for the bathroom - and hey, spotted Slate on the way. He leaned over and scooped the cat up as he went to the bathroom door and knocked on it.
"Okay," Lara said, giving Stone a small smile at his Highlander joke. She returned his kiss and watched him go before she headed to the kitchen anyway. The pizza had been out for a while and if the Hawthorne kids were going to eat, then it probably wouldn't be until much later. So she was going to put it in the fridge. It would give her something to occupy her time while Stone was taking care of Poe.
Once Stone finally got Poe to open the door, he settled on bringing her to the guest room and then finding her a sweatshirt and a pair of pajama pants to wear. He waited outside until she was changed and then sat and talked with her for awhile before he left her alone to get some sleep. After he shut the door to the guest bedroom, Stone headed for the kitchen. He at least needed something to drink. He moved his hand through his hair a few times and then scratched the back of his head.
Lara had gotten antsy with waiting while Stone and Poe were talking, so she pulled out her laptop and sat on the couch as she looked up some articles she could find on Gibson. A few of them made her frown or roll her eyes. There was one post on Defamer that used the obituary to paint Gibson in a not-so-flattering light, but further on down the post they also said a couple shitty things about Stone. Lara had to remind herself to just ignore that stuff and not post a comment in response, because that sort of thing was only going to make it worse. It was hard to resist, though, so it was a good thing Stone came out of the guest room when he did.
Lara lifted her head and watched him until he disappeared into the kitchen. She turned back to the laptop and closed the windows before folding it shut. Once she set the laptop down on the coffee table, she headed into the kitchen, sparing a brief glance down the hallway to the bedrooms as she passed by.
"Hey," she said in a quiet voice as she came up behind him and put her arms around his middle.
Stone jumped only a tiny bit when he heard Lara and got the hug. He rested his right arm down along hers and used the other one to shut the fridge he'd opened so he could turn around. He moved his arms around her loosely. "Hi." He replied before he kissed her forehead.
Lara looked up at him after the kiss and gave him a severely tiny smile. She leaned forward to place a kiss to his chest and then looked back up again. "How's she doing?"
Stone shrugged. "She wanted to sleep." He replied. "I told her I'd wake her up in a little while to eat." And she was going to eat damnit. He should too, but maybe he should wait to eat with Poe. "Thanks for making up the bed. We could've done it when we got back." He pressed his lips together into an equally small smile.
Lara rolled her eyes a little. "Yeah, like it was such hard work for me to do," she joked as she leaned forward to hug him tighter. "Do you want to go sit down or something?" He probably wanted something from the kitchen, since he was in there and all. "Or eat? I put the pizza in the fridge."
Stone shrugged but didn't argue, just moved his arms a little tighter around her and swayed a bit. "I dunno what I want," He answered. He was thirsty but he wasn't, hungry but not, tired but he didn't want to sleep. "And sorry. For taking so long that you had to put dinner away too."
"You don't have to apologize for that," Lara shrugged. "You're the one who'd be eating it, anyway." She moved back and forth a little bit with him for a few moments, and then she pulled back enough to look up. Should she ask? Yeah, she'd ask. "Are you really okay?"
Stone was quiet until Lara pulled back. He arched his eyebrows even though he knew what was coming. He pressed his lips into a tight line and nodded. "Yeah." He answered. "It was Gibson. Not like it's something to cry over." He shrugged a little and then leaned over and kissed her quickly before stepping back so he could turn back around and open the fridge. "I'm gonna get something to eat and I'll come sit down," He told her as he went for the pepperoni pizza.
"'Kay," Lara nodded, though she was still skeptical. She stepped away and leaned back against the counter, watching him. She didn't really feel like going into the other room and sitting down at the moment. Unless Stone needed time alone or something. Lara wasn't so sure. Was she intruding? No, Stone was just getting pizza. He wasn't having a moment while he was getting pizza.
Stone didn't know what he needed. He felt a little crazy at the moment. He opened the fridge and wrestled a piece of pepperoni pizza out and then shut the fridge and turned to grab a paper down to hold under it. He didn't bother reheating it. He could deal with cold pizza. He nodded toward the doorway before forcing himself to lift up the slice and take a big bite of it, then he turned and headed out through the doorway and toward the couch.
Lara smiled a little bit when he took the bite. At least he was eating. This was important. She followed him out to the living room and sat down on the couch next to him, pulling her legs up. She leaned over and gave him a kiss on his shoulder, but didn't say anything for the moment.
He was indeed eating, even though he felt like he was going to throw up, he kept eating at a normal pace because otherwise Lara was going to worry and he didn't want her to be overly concerned about him when it wasn't necessary. And it wasn't necessary because Stone was fine. He leaned over and lightly bumped the side of his head against the top of hers when she kissed his shoulder but didn't say anything because he was still chewing. He was tempted to turn the TV on or find his computer to find out more but decided against it for tonight. "This sucks." He said once he'd swallowed and before he took another bite.
"Yeah," Lara said quietly with a nod. She was kind of staring at Stone, but she couldn't help it. He was right there and she was worried about him. But at least he was eating. She laid her arm along the back of the couch and brushed her hand through the hair at the back of his head.
Stone was staring at his pizza. He knew Lara was looking at him and he was feeling kind of uncomfortable. Plus the forcing himself to eat it part was making it hard not to look at the pizza and wonder how long it'd be before he puked. He managed, while chewing his next mouthful, to close his eyes for a few moments when Lara started running her hand through his hair.
Lara leaned her head down on her arm and continued watching Stone as she moved her hand back and forth through his hair. When she realized he had slowed down with the eating and was staring at his pizza, she frowned a little bit. She picked up her head again and leaned over to kiss the side of his.
Stone was just about to force another bite when Lara kissed the side of his head and instead he moved it down to rest his arm in his lap and hold the remainder of the slice up some to keep it from getting on him. "I'm not really feeling so hungry," He said as he looked down at the rest of the slice again with a scrunch of his nose.
Lara looked down at what was left of his pizza and nodded. "Well, you don't have to finish it. It's just pizza." And she wasn't going to force him to eat. Yet. She looked back up at him and arched her eyebrows. "Do you want to get wake up Poe to eat, or wait?"
Stone shook his head. "Nah. We can just let her sleep for awhile." He shrugged. Sleeping was okay, right? "I think I want to get changed and lay down actually," He added after a moment with a little tilt of his head. "I mean you don't have to, you can do whatever you were planning to for the rest of the evening and all," He looked over at her. "My head kinda hurts and," He shrugged. And what? He felt a little overwhelmed really.
Lara shook her head. "Hanging with you is what I wanted to do. And I think lying down's a good idea. Do you want me to get you some aspirin?" She sat up and looked over at the kitchen. "I can throw out your pizza too." She reached out for it.
Stone was going to protest but he figured that might make Lara feel worse so he handed the pizza slice over when she reached out for it and nodded. "Sure. Thanks," He offered her a super small smile and a quiet 143 too.
Lara smiled back and took the slice to throw it out in the kitchen. She also filled up a glass of water and got out a couple pills for Stone. "Want anything while I'm in here?" she asked through the window.
Stone shook his head even though she couldn't see. "No thanks. I'm good." He assured as he pulled himself up off the couch. After he stretched, he started to head for the hallway to wait for Lara.
Lara nodded and carried out the glass and aspirin. She met up with Stone in the hall and handed them out to him with a tiny smile.
"Thanks," Stone said as he accepted both before tossing the pills in his mouth and draining about half the glass in one gulp as he turned and started to head for the bedroom. He definitely needed to lay down for awhile.
"Welcome." Lara followed him into the bedroom and shut the door behind her. She kept an eye on him as she unfastened her jeans. He had better be prepared for a lot of staring, because she wasn't going to let up on it anytime soon.
Yeah the staring was actually making him feel a little uneasy but he didn't want to add to the problem by commenting on it. He set the glass of water down on the night stand and then walked over toward the hamper to start tossing his clothes into it as he took them off. He was going to stop at his boxers and wear those but then tugged them off in favor of pulling on a pair of pajama pants. Then he headed into the bathroom to pee and brush his teeth.
Lara decided to follow his lead and pulled out a long-sleeved shirt and some pajama pants of her own. She tossed her worn clothes toward the closet and once she was dressed, went to the bathroom for her own nightly stuff.
Stone wiped his face off on his towel when he was finished and kissed the back of Lara's head on his way by to head back into the bedroom. He straightened up a few things in the room on his way to the bed and then flopped down onto his stomach on it without moving the covers since he was feeling extra tired at that point.
Lara smiled a little around her toothbrush when he kissed her head. It took her a few more minutes to reemerge from the bathroom after he left. She shut the door behind her and frowned a little at flopped down Stone before she switched off the ceiling light. She made her way over to the bed and climbed up on it.
"Do you want to stay on top or get under the covers?" she asked once she was kneeling next to him with her hand on his back. She was totally free to frown all she wanted in the dark.
Stone turned his head and folded his hands under the pillow his head was on. He shook his head as best he could considering he was laying down. "I'm all right for right now," He assured. "You don't have to turn everything off, if you wanna stay awake and do whatever," He told her before he yawned a little into his pillow.
"It's okay," Lara shook her head, moving her hand along his back. "I'm pretty tired, anyway." She wasn't, really, but she was all right with lying down. She stayed on top of the covers too and kept her hand across his as she laid down next to him. Once she was settled, she turned her head down and kissed his shoulder.
"Seriously," Stone added. "It won't bother me if you want to," Hey, it was important to him. He shifted around a little bit when she moved to lay down but stopped moving once she kissed his shoulder. "I'm okay, y'know," For now anyway. Nah. He was fine. If he wasn't feeling so drained even, he might be willing to go out and find a bottle of champagne but he was lazy and that would probably upset Poe too.
"I know you are," she nodded, even though she was sure he wasn't. "And this is what I want to do right now." She gave his shoulder another kiss and moved closer to him to absorb all the warmness she could. She ran her hand up and down his back slowly. That was warm too. And hopefully comforting.
It was definitely comforting but he was sure Lara wasn't warm laying on top of the covers. Stone wasn't ready to move under them just yet, but he felt bad, so after the shoulder kiss and Lara moving closer, he worked his arm free so he could moved around and wrap it around her hoping to spread some extra warmth without having to give up the comforting stuff. "Okay," He agreed. "If you're positive."
Lara snuggled herself in closer, which was a whole lot nicer. She kept her hand moving on his back as she nodded. "I'm very positive. You don't have to worry about it."
"Okay," Stone nodded even though he was going to keep worrying because he was Stone. "I love you." He felt it needed saying since she was being all concerned and comforting and what not.
She moved her hand farther across his back to give him a half-hug before she went back to the same motion she had been doing before. "I love you," she returned, and once again she was very glad that he didn't take after his father. It was such a relief that Gibson was no longer around to terrorize people. Especially his family. And in-laws.
Stone offered a small smile and was about to close his eyes when he figured he should move them under the covers so he didn't make Lara fall asleep on top of them and be leftblanketless all night. "We should probably move under the covers, I dunno how long I'm gonna stay awake." Because he really felt tired and his brain wasn't working in overdrive at the moment. Maybe it hadn't completely sunken in yet. Hm.
Lara was very okay with this idea. She nodded and leaned in to give Stone's shoulder another kiss before she took her arm off of him so they could move. She lifted up her side of the covers and pulled them back, waiting for Stone to get in too.
Stone lifted his arm away from Lara and turned onto his side so he could tug his side of the covers out from under him. He waited for Lara to get situated before he resituated himself and helped bring the covers up around them. Okay, maybe he was okay with being a little warmer too at the moment.
That was good. Lara definitely had no complaints about the warmth. She pulled everything but her head under the blankets and moved closer to Stone to put her arm over him again. She wasn't sure if she should say anything about Gibson. Keeping quiet unless Stone brought him up himself was a probably a good idea. So she just went back to the physical comforting.
Stone shifted around a little bit wrapped his arms around Lara after he moved his arms under the covers. He settled his head back against the pillows and let out a little sigh. Then he moved a bit to scoot close enough to started tangling his legs up with hers. He wasn't planning on saying anything about Gibson anytime soon. He just wanted to relax a little since by tomorrow he wouldn't be able to. Sometimes Stone really just wanted to spend a whole day in bed without answering phones just to see if maybe it gave him a recharger or something. Probably not.
Lara wrapped one of her legs around his and moved her head up so she could kiss his collarbone, which was about where her head hit on his body. She kept moving her hand along his back and hoped he really was tired so that he'd fall asleep soon.
Stone was actually trying to stay awake. He felt bad. It was early to be going to bed wasn't it? And with them all tangled up Lara would really have no choice in the matter, well, until Stone was out cold anyway. Still. He turned his head down and kissed the top of it before resting his chin down on it. He really was tired. Maybe he'd just take a nap for right now and...something else later, or something.
Lara smiled a little bit when he settled his chin down, and moved closer to him. Just a bit, though. Too much jostling would delay the whole sleeping thing, after all. And yeah, it was too early for bed, but that was all right. It wouldn't take all that much for her to fall asleep when she was all warm and wrapped up like this.
The jostling wasn't really going to keep him awake. In fact he was fast on his way to sleeptown. He murmured out a "'Night," and a 143 before a small yawn escaped him. He settled his head a little more into the pillow too and it took maybe another few minutes for him to actually fall asleep.
Lara returned a quiet 143 and continued moving her hand over his back even after he fell asleep. It took her a while to get to sleep herself, as she was thinking about everything that was going to go along with Gibson's death, but eventually her hand slowed and her eyelids drooped. The next day was going to be brutal, but for now sleep was good.