Darker London

Flick thought of herself as one of the least sexy girls she knew. She realised - at least now - that she was attractive, and that her body was good by girl standards for being oogled, but she's still never been good at the idea of dressing sexy. Her underwear was always sports bras and boyshorts, things more practical than sexy. She didn't own a push up bra. She didn't own underwear that was a set. Hell, she didn't even own underwear that had lace on it. Generally when she wanted Davis to think she was hot, she just got naked. Naked worked.

But this Halloween she'd decided to try something a little different, because what was Halloween if not a time to let the inner slutty dressing girl out? Flick didn't think she really had one of those, but she wanted to try it out anyway. She knew she was doing this for Davis, but she sort of liked that feeling.

"Okay," Flick said through the bathroom door, hoping he was in fact still in the bedroom on the other side like she'd asked. "I'm coming out."

She pulled open the door after flicking her newly brown hair over her shoulders. (It promised to be wash out and Flick hoped that was true, because she kept catching glimpses of herself in the mirror over the last day and thinking she was someone else.)

Stepping outside, glad she'd been practising in heels, she smiled at Davis and struck a pose. "I'm Wonder Woman," she explained.

In the backyard of the Vatican, Flick had set up her boxing bag. Some days she forgot it was there and would note it looking forlorn in the rain while she made coffee in the kitchen. Other days she could hardly be torn away, letting out all her energy and frustrations on that heavy dead weight. Some days she looked out there and found Davis. His arms were very distracting when he punched and she liked when he looked so focused.

She was running out of excuses to deny him what he wanted: to try being a hunter.

It wasn't that she disapproved of the lifestyle - obviously that wasn't the case, as Flick couldn't even make herself pull back from it when she tried. But hunting, as great as it was, was a career with a short lifespan, and while that always seemed okay for Flick - she'd never expected anything more - it wasn't what she wanted for Davis. Flick wanted Davis to live a long and happy life but... well, Flick wanted to be in it. And she wanted him to understand better her own life.

Dropping her hands in front of the punching bag, Flick leaned forward to press her forehead against it. Yep. Time to do it.

When she leaned in Davis' doorway she was still breathing hard, her ponytail sweaty and messy. "Do you still want to go hunting?"

To say that the days were hot wasn't exactly true, but it was warmer than it had been and in celebration of that (and the claims that it wasn't going to rain for a week) the Outdoor Couch of the Vatican had reclaimed its proper home Outdoors. Flick had spent most of the day hidden away with Davis in his bedroom, trying out - sometimes with great embarrassment - some things she'd read about on the internet, all of them with varying degrees of success. (A few days earlier there had been a party at the Vatican filled with lots of new people Flick still didn't really know, and Davis has spent a long time talking to one beautiful girl in particular. It had made Flick worry: what if he was getting bored with her? She really didn't want Davis thinking she was uninteresting in the bedroom and breaking up with her. Flick knew she was being paranoid on this front, but still she'd thought it.)

And so Flick felt vaguely uncomfortable when she came out to join the people on the Outdoors Couch and one of them was the beautiful girl in question. Flick ran a hand through her drying hair and then sat down with her cider, watching the girl a little as though she were a thing to be suspicious of. When the girl noticed this her response was a warm and bright smile and a leaning forward to her.

( Read more... )