Neena Thurman pours drinks, kicks ass. (fallsinplace) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-08-01 22:36:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, neena thurman (domino), thomas raith |
Who: Neena Thurman and Thomas Raith
What: working out their issues
When: 7/27
Where: their place
Rating: Probably R for swearing, some innuendes
Status: complete
Neena paced the house until Thomas got home. She didn’t even clean the house to vent some of her worry. Her stomach was upset, more so than her minor morning sickness could explain. She hated that she’d made Thomas upset, and also that it made her feel awkward about talking to Nate. Why couldn’t thing just be simple and easy?
Thomas had tried to put his concerns from his mind, but he couldn’t stop kicking himself for getting so worked up about something so small. He hated that he was making Neena worry. Why couldn’t he just let it go?
He walked into the house, almost on tiptoe, practically holding his breath. “Neena? I’m home.”
Neena gave him a tight smile. Dante padded along behind her as she went to greet him. Even he was aggravated, though it was probably her pacing that got him worked up. She hugged Thomas, to try to reassure him (and herself a little), that everything would be okay. “Hey. I ordered pizza.” She didn’t want to admit that she’d been too worried to cook anything.
“Hey.” He hugged her, and kissed her temple. He kept her arm around her, and gave Dante a pat on the head. “Pizza’s good.” He wasn’t quite sure how to bring up the elephant in the room.
She kissed the underside of his chin, and Dante trundled off, now that the pacing stopped. Neena pulled back just a little. “So we should talk, before we decide not to.” Because that was a very real possibility. It wasn’t far to the couch, so she led him toward it, grabbing his hand. She wanted to keep contact with him, to let him know she cared about him. “What exactly upset you about what I said? Was it protective feelings for Cora, that you don’t like being reminded Nate and I had sex, or something else?”
Thomas swallowed, lacing his fingers with hers, and settled down beside her so that the line of their bodies touched. He needed the contact, too. He hoped she didn’t think he was being clingy or overbearing. “Both,” he said finally, “I like Nate. I really do. I’d like to keep it that way.”
“I can’t control what he and Cora do, or don’t do, and I didn’t mean to rub out previous relationship in your face.” She took a deep breath. “He’s a major part of my life. The dreams make it worse, but even without those there’s a lot of history between us. We have a son together. But it’s not Nate that I’m marrying in April, and it’s not his baby I’m carrying now. When we find Chris, if we do, it’ll be us raising him together, mostly.”
Thomas rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand, and pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn’t know why it still bothered him. He knew how much it meant to Neena to find her son. He wanted her to have that. But maybe, just maybe, he was afraid that it might change the dynamics of their relationship. That Chris might reject him. That it might drive him and Neena apart, and drive her back to someone she’d known longer.
“I can’t help it, Neena. You have a child with a kid who’s Cora’s age. I don’t know what to think about it, so I’d just rather not, but it just keeps coming up.”
Neena sighed. “I can’t change my past, Thomas. I won’t stop being friends with Nate, either.” She took a deep breath, and asked the only question that mattered. “Can you deal with that?”
“Can you deal with me not wanting to think about you and Nate in the same sentence, let alone the same bed?” Thomas asked, trying to take a deep breath. His mouth felt dry, stuffed with cotton, and his hands felt numb. Tingly. He had a feeling they were feeding into each others’ tension, but he wasn’t sure how to stop.
“I’m sorry,” he said, starting over. “I think I’m just nervous. I don’t know why.”
Neena almost replied to his first question. Luckily, she started counting to ten to calm down, and he started over before she got farther than that. “Do you think we’re moving too fast? We did take on a lot of relationship stuff pretty quick. I know some of it we can’t take back, but we could push the wedding back more, or something.”
He licked his lips, taking his time to really think about her question. His voice was quiet, hoarse with emotion when he finally spoke. “I can’t bear the thought of losing you. To anything. Even my own insecurities. I just...” He took another deep breath. “If Chris has been living alone in some future, what if he doesn’t want anything to do with you or Nate, and even less to do with a stranger like me?”
“That’s possible.” Neena admitted, though the thought didn’t make her at all happy. “We could show up at just the wrong time and he’ll be a lot older, maybe even completely grown up. He could enjoy being with Rachel and Cable, or have a cause that he’s really committed to in the future. If he doesn’t want anything to do with us, then we’ll deal with that when we get there. But I can’t abandon my son without trying to find him.” She closed her eyes. “I know that’s asking a lot of you. I really get that. He could react badly to us being together, or you could rub him the wrong way. There’s a lot that could go wrong. To me the good outweighs the bad, and my children are always going to come first.”
Thomas tried to imagine if it was his child stranded in the future, how far would he go to bring him or her back. He really didn’t want to know if he had any stray children in some alternate timeline, but if it was the baby Neena was carrying now, he would fight for it. He’d fight for Neena.
“I really appreciate your asking me to go with you,” he said, stroking her knuckles with his thumb. “But when we get back, can we maybe talk about you not going into the field on rescue missions until sometime after the baby is born...and weaned, maybe? I mean, I can try to tone down this ridiculous jealous streak, but I don’t think I’m going to feel any less protective any time soon.”
Neena pressed her lips together. It wasn’t an unreasonable request, and he did have a point. It would be safer for the baby if she stayed out of things. “Alright. Unless the world’s at stake I’ll hang up my kevlar until the baby’s weaned. Except for the mission to the future, which shouldn’t require too much shooting.” She just hoped she wouldn’t die of boredom.
“I suppose I could make an exception for organizing things on board Graymalkin,” Thomas conceded, “Nothing has tried to shoot at the asteroid base yet.” He crossed his fingers. “But the more pregnant you get, the harder it’s going to be to drop and roll when the bullets start to fly. You’re supposed to be the lucky one, but you’re always the one who comes away with injuries instead of me. I worry.”
“I know. You’re right.” She snuggled against him, hoping the angstiest part of the conversation was over. “But I always figure it’s lucky that I’m the one that gets hurt. I don’t want anything to happen to you, either.” The pizza guy knocked on the door, and Dante bolted to his feet to bark. Neena sighed and got up. “Can you hold back our fierce protector?”
Thomas felt himself relax, a bit, until the knock sounded at the door. He chuckled a little as Neena went to answer, and called Danta back to him. “I’ll try and keep us both in check.”
Neena laughed lightly, and handed over the money to the pizza guy, and returned with pizza. “So I don’t have to tell Logan to take back the bridesmaid’s dress, right?” She handed him a paper plate and opened the box to serve herself.
Thomas rolled his eyes, grabbing a slice of pizza and taking a large bite to keep from making commentary on Logan. Sometimes, the adamantium man seemed like more trouble than he was worth. But then, he supposed, one might have said the same thing about a certain ex-incubus. “A dress?” he quipped, “This I have to see.”
Neena laughed a little. “Actually I did promise that he didn’t have to wear a dress. But I think I can talk Alex into one.” She took a couple bites of pizza, glad that her stomach had settled down. All things considered, that conversation went pretty well.
“Good thing this is a masquerade ball,” Thomas said, smirking. “People can wear whatever they want.” He didn’t even know, for sure, what he was going to wear. “I guess I should start putting my outfit together soon.”
“Yeah, you only have most of a year.” Neena teased. “We’re still doing a steampunk thing, right?”
“Unless you’ve changed your mind,” he said, “Have you decided what you’re going to wear, or are you waiting until a little closer to the date?” He knew she was going to give him grief over how much time he spent on his appearance, that was nothing new. The fact that he actually had to work out again to maintain his physique didn’t help, but oh well. No way was he going to try out for the couch potato Olympics with people like Logan, Nate, and Thor in the family.
Neena looked a little sheepish, because she’d teased him for doing something she was also doing. “I’ve been looking at options. I figure I’ll have to get everything made, unless you’re secretly a tailor on top of being an actor, model, and porn star.” She pulled out her phone. “I put ideas I really like on here, right now I’m looking for a good tailor.”
“Nope, not a tailor, just a fabulous hairdresser,” Thomas said, “Although I could probably ask Thor where he gets his suits made. Or, uh.” He made a show of gulping. “Nate.” He grinned. “Isn’t there someone on the Valarnet who designs clothing?”
Neena snorted. “I forgot about your being a hairdresser, too.” She didn’t mind, if they had a girl one of them had to be able to show her how to do her hair. “You’re right, there is. Rarity or something like that.” She finished her piece of pizza, and went to grab another. “Do we want semi-matching costumes?”
“Hm...” Thomas stroked his chin. “Do you think that will make us look more like a bride-and-groom, or more like the steampunk Bobsey Twins?” Not that it really mattered what anyone outside of the bridal party and their guests might think, but Neena didn’t really strike him as the matchy-matchy type of woman.
Neena snorted. “We could have similar elements, or similarly themed costumes? That way we won’t look weird in our pictures, but we won’t be too matchy-matchy.” She flipped through the pictures on her phone. “I was looking at stuff like this, with the idea that I’d rather wear something corset-like instead of an actual corset, especially since the baby will still be looking at me for its food source in April.”
“Mm...” Thomas murmured, glancing from Neena to the picture, and back. “I like the plunging bodice. I bet it’ll look really great with nursing breasts.” He waggled his brows. He was allowed to say that, since she was the mother of his child, right? “I’ll wear a plunging neckline, too, if you want.”
She snickered. He was definitely allowed to say things like that. “Oooh, God yes. I mean, if you want to be caught having sex in one of the closets instead of, you know, actually getting married.”
Thomas laughed out loud. “I take it that means I should wear a vampiric collar up to my eyeballs, like a cone of shame?” he quipped, “Or is that too over the top?”
Neena laughed at that. “Hmmm, depends on whether we leak our wedding location to the paparazzi or not. It would be good publicity, especially since we’re going to look amazing.
"Maybe we should, at the last minute," Thomas said, "or hire someone from the valarnet." It would be a shame not to show off their costumage. "Sounds like you're starting to want a big, fantasy wedding after all." Not that he minded.
Neena laughed a little. “On our terms. I can’t hold my previous weddings against this one, and I want the whole world to know that we’re together, and that we’re going to have this amazing, crazy, and very long life together.”
Thomas leaned over and kissed her, his hand slipping into hers and giving an impulsive little squeeze. Somehow, her excitement seemed to amplify his own, and he was suddenly very, very happy. “I can hardly wait.”