Bright Lights
Who: Gavin and Josie When: Sunday evening Where: The bar then Gavin's house
Gavin was excited to see Josie. He had snagged something from a neighbor’s yard and had it held behind his back as he set out in search of her. He wasn't sure where she was, but he had a lucky feeling he’d find her today sometime and no matter how long it took, he was going to find her. He was so stubborn when he had his mind set on something.
Josie had been starting to think that Gavin wasn’t interested in her anymore since their night together after his party. Unfortunately, she’d kind of gotten used to things like that happening with the guys, and girls, that she randomly hooked up with. So when she’d heard that Gavin actually wanted to see her again, she was pleasantly surprised. She’d told him to look for her in the usual hang out spots around the island, and since there were only a few he shouldn’t have too much trouble finding her at the pool hall.
When he did navigate his way to the pool hall, he smiled at the sight of her. This seemed like a nice place to meet up, actually. It was dark, which meant he could maybe be a little handsier than he would usually be in public, and he liked that idea. Coming up behind her, he held out the single rose he'd lifted from a neighbor's bush and smiled at her. "My lady."
Josie had been busy chatting with a few people she knew. It wasn’t open mic night, so she wasn’t performing and was free to mingle. She’d caught the scent of the flower before he presented it, but was surprised that he was giving it to her nonetheless. Turning to face him, she grinned. “Monsieur, so good to see you again. The rose is an excellent touch.”
Gavin grinned a little more, happy that she felt that way. He did try to be romantic, because romance was everything. The instant he saw her, though, he had trouble looking away. She was still just as gorgeous as she'd been the night of the masquerade. "It's been too long since we've seen each other. I didn't want to wait anymore."
She sniffed the rose with a slow smile, her eyes watching him. “I agree, it has been too long, let’s not make that a habit.” She left her friends with a little wave, turning to focus her entire attention on him now. “What have you been doing with yourself? I have to admit I was hoping you’d throw another party. Or wisk me away to New York.”
"What I have been doing with myself is about New York, actually," He said, grinning a little more. "And now I am prepared to whisk you away, if you are at all interested." Gavin held out an arm for her and hoped she'd take it. "It's waiting for you now."
Intrigued, she took the offered arm eagerly. “New York is waiting for me? That’s a first. Are you this charming and mysterious with everyone, or am I one of the lucky ones?”
He could tell her that he was charming with everyone because it was pretty much the truth, but that wasn't what she wanted to hear now. He knew that pretty easily. So instead he just grinned a little and started guiding her out of the bar, toward his house. "I am beginning to think that I am more lucky than you are. You're willing to trust me to take you to New York."
“You haven’t given me any reason not to trust you. Yet.” She arched a brow and looked to him playfully, letting him guide the way to where ever he wanted to go. “So what do you do with yourself here, when you are not being so mysterious and charming?”
"Hmm..should I tell you and break the mysterious spell?" He mused aloud, walking them straight to his home with a bit more pep in his step than before. "I find things to pass the time with, but right now I like to spend my time with you," He said, smiling at her.h e stood outside of his house, fumbled with the door to open it, and began leading her up the stairs to his room. "You should close your eyes, it'll help with the surprise."
She followed him willingly, her curiosity piqued. She’d noticed his eagerness to take her away and found it all a bit exciting. It was definitely better than the usual day on the island and so she wasn’t about to pass it up. She closed her eyes as instructed, holding his hand as he led her up stairs. “Alright, as long as you promise not to let me trip and fall like a fool.”
"I promise not to let you trip and fall, though nothing you do could be foolish," He promised, putting his hands over her eyes after opening the door to his room. Once there, he closed it again and smiled, stepping back. "Go ahead and open them." It wasn't the full, real New York City, but he'd spend the last few days lovingly crafting a scaled Big Apple out of whatever paper he could find. He'd then taped the skyscrapers to his walls in the best order he could remember, hoping to provide at least a little getaway for Josie until the day he might be able to take her back to New York for real. "I even have some New York snacks for us…"
When given the word, she opened her eyes slowly. She looked around at his handiwork with a slow smile, very impressed, She took a step closer to one of the paper skyscrapers, touching it lightly before turning to him with a grin. “C’est magnifique. This is wonderful, you did this all yourself? But why?” The talk of going off to New York seemed like a fantasy to her, but to see that he’d actually tried to re-create it here was rather touching.
Gavin loved seeing her smile like that. It brightened his day and he, in turn, smiled more as he watched her. "Why? Because I can't take you to the real New York yet, but I still wanted you to know that I want to." He stepped a little closer to her, turning to look toward the skyscrapers. "You like them? This one is my favorite, the Empire State Building."
She ran her fingers lightly along that particular building, still a bit amazed at all the work he’d done. Looking back to him, she smiled wider. “I love them. This is breathtaking. I think this is about as close to speechless I’ve ever been. Tell me more about New York.”
He loved that she was speechless…ish. It meant he'd done a good think and he loved thinking that he'd made her happy. Heading to his bed, he sat down and shrugged a little. "New York is the best city in the world. It's vibrant and fun, always moving, always going, and I wish I could show it to you now. Everything you could ever want is in New York City."
She moved to sit on the bed beside him, shaking her head with a little smile. “It sounds amazing, even if I am still a bit biased toward Paris. I’ll have to take you there sometime, I think you’d like it. Although I doubt I could even begin to recreate it here like you have done with New York. I’m not this creative.”
"I could love to go to Paris with you. You don't have to make it out of paper, just promise that we'll actually go when we can." Gavin grinned a little and pointed off toward another building, something less extravagant than the large ones. "That's where I live. Lived, I guess. I would love to show it to you someday, if…if my parents are still paying rent on the thing for me while I’m here."
She watched him with a smile, lost in thought for a moment before responding. “I absolutely promise to take you to Paris. And then we’ll go south to see my father’s vineyard, we could tour all of Europe if you like.” She looked back to the buildings he’d created, taking note of the one he spoke about. “I’d love to see it. What’s it like, how long did you live there?”
Gavin settled on his back on the bed, reclining with his hands behind his head as he watched her. "You're a wine princess, huh? I like that. It'll fit nicely with the Irish mob," He said, not explaining more but instead just looking back at the paper skyscraper. "It's nice. Safe neighborhood, nice features, penthouse suite. I'm lucky to have it." And he missed it something fierce.
She watched him curiously, laying on her side beside him. “I’m not just a ‘wine princess’. My mother is a fashion designer.” She didn’t miss his mob comment, but let it go for now, not overly concerned either way. Besides, it would take a fool not to realize that he was a bit homesick and she’d rather find out more about that. “Do your parents know why you’re here? Do you get to communicate with them?”
"They were informed," Gavin said, looking back over at Josie. "But I don't know if they believe it. They definitely don't want to believe it, that both of their heirs are stuck here as freaks of nature." Sighing, he shrugged again. "My parents prefer my brother anyway, so they would be less concerned if he was safe at home and not here with me. I'm sure they blame me for it, seeing as I essentially egged him on to take this trip with me to start with." After a moment, he glanced her way again. "We could just talk about your family instead. They should nicer."
She frowned slowly, but understood on some level. She took one of his hands, holding it in both of hers. “My family doesn’t know about me. Not entirely. They just think that I am sick and came here for treatment. If they did know, I think they’d probably shoot me. Although I don’t know if it would be by mistake or on purpose.” She’d often seen men shooting at wild foxes that tried to feed off the grapes in the vineyards, it could easily be her head mounted in the library if she’d gotten the chance to go back to France. “It’s my fault that my brother is here. He came to visit me and that’s when he got sick. He went home and tried to tell them. It must have been terrible because he can barely tell me about it. He must hate me for it.”
Gavin looked back at her with a frown, holding her hands with is own while she spoke. “But you’re not sick. None of us are. We’re just different now. Different in a way that isn’t entirely bad.” Sighing, he scooted closer to her and placed his head in her lap. “Maybe someday they’ll figure out that we’re not sick, we’re just us with new abilities. Until then, I think we get to be the dirty little secrets of other people’s mistakes.”
“How are you different now?” She’d realized that their ‘abilities’ hadn’t really been the focus of their previous meeting. And while she was perfectly content about how things went, she was curious now and wondered if he’d share. “I’d always hoped I’d be someone’s dirty little secret for some far more exciting and scandalous reason.”
Gavin grinned a little more as he looked over at her, running his hand up her arm. "If I wanted to, right now I could drain you of your energy." And then he paused before grinning a little more. "In a different way than I showed you after the masquerade. Do you want to see?" It'd been a while since he'd had a hit and maybe it would be nice to get some from her. She seemed so vivacious anyway, surely she could spare some energy.
She arched a brow slowly, not entirely sure what he meant by what he said. But that only made her more curious. Winking, she nodded. “Of course I want to see. I’d ask you to be gentle, but we both know I wouldn’t really mean it.”
That had Gavin laughing heartily. He shifted a little, propping on his elbow to slip his hand up her arm and then to her neck. He closed his eyes and focused, very solidly centered on drawing out just a small, small amount of energy from her. IT'd be enough for her to notice what he was doing but not enough for him to drain her completely. The action came with a small white light, hidden essentially in the palm of his hand. When he pulled his hand back, his eyes were wide, pupils dilated, and he was already tapping his other fingers against her neck gently, as if to the sound of an inaudible song. “See what I mean?”
Blues scanned his face curiously, staying still as he touched her neck, doing whatever it was he was doing. At first, she didn’t realize it, but she suddenly began to feel a little tired. It was nothing terrible, but definitely noticeable. Blinking, she shook her head a little, smiling with a little laugh. “That is… crazy. No, that’s not the right word.” Her English was good, but she’d lose a word or two here or there when excited or flustered, or surprised, like now. “How did you learn you can do that? What does it feel like? That’s a remarkable ability, far more interesting than most.”
Gavin was brimming with smiles, so excited that she was excited about it. "Found out when I drained a bunch of energy from one of the girls on that yacht I was on before I got here." He spoke quickly, the words trailing into each other, before he realized he needed to try and slow down. It was hard, but he tried again. "Was on a boat before here. Touched a girl and her energy just came to me. It's incredible," He answered her other question, smiling even more. "I won't do it a lot, though. Not with you. You need your energy for other, more important things," He said, letting his hand drift down her arm again with that hint.
She watched him intently as he explained, only shifting closer to him at his touch. “So this is all still new to you? To have such power… and such magnificent control over it… it’s very sexy.” She found his smile infectious, and shared one of her own. Despite the little voice in the back of her head telling her to be careful about him, Josie could be quite good at ignoring her conscience.
Gavin loved her smile and he leaned in to kiss it to prove it. His hand threaded through her hair to keep her close and he leaned closer to Josie. "Well, I know someone else that is very sexy too," He said, trailing his other hand down her neck again. “I don't plan on taking your energy like that again just yet. I think I prefer the way we did it last time."
Grinning, she returned the kiss, not even considering moving away from him now. “Hm, good to hear, I rather enjoyed that as well. While I find your power intriguing, I think I’d be useless if you really used it on me. And neither of us wants that.” She was a little glad that he didn’t ask about her ability. While she was proud of what she could do and the control she’d mastered over it, she also knew that it didn’t always go over well with others. Besides, she wasn’t yet ready to shift the focus to her. “So, now that you’ve showed me what you can do, tell me more about this Irish mob business you mentioned earlier. I haven’t forgotten.”
He would have asked her about it. He was about to, but she changed the subject and Gavin had been around enough women to know that it wasn't the right time to bring it up again. So he went with her segue, fingers absently running through her hair again. "Ah, the mob. Yes. Well, you see, Peter and I are sons of the Irish mob. Our father is a high-ranking member of the mob in New York, where we're from, and Peter is…or was…being groomed to take over the business. So, if you're wine royalty, then we're mafia royalty."
She studied him curiously, surprised at how freely he spoke about his family’s involvement in what seemed to be illicit business. Still, she was hardly phased by it and instead just found him even more exciting because of it. “And what about you? I’d think that with your new talents they’d realize how important you are.”
"Maybe, someday. They're not too fond of me as it is. I'm…tolerated." He said, looking back down at Josie. He had to wonder how his family would react if he brought her home. Possibly very happily, considering she was a she, but he still wasn't entirely sure. "Peter is the golden boy. I wouldn't want his job anyway." Shrugging, he smiled. "I can have more fun as the black sheep."
She shifted to lay on her back, watching him curiously. “Tolerated? The black sheep? Forgive me if this is rude, but if that is what they truly think of you, they are a pack of fools.” While admittedly Josie didn’t know very much about Gavin, she couldn’t imagine him being anything less than spectacular. “I suppose I am much the same in my family. My elder sister, Sidonie, she is so beautiful. My brother, Christien is adored because he is the only boy. Amitee is the baby, so of course she’ll always be special. But, I am just Josie. That’s why I left Paris to come to the States, I was so bored with just being… rien. Being nothing, All of the money and fashion and clothes and celebrities couldn’t hold my attention because I always felt like I didn’t matter as much. I must sound terribly spoiled.”
Gavin listened and shook his head. "Well, rude or not, you're right. They're…something else. And your family is a bunch of idiots if they've decided to make you the black sheep. They're so wrong it's not even funny," He said, watching her with a small smile that just grew. "But leave it to two black sheep to find each other, huh?" He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before speaking again. "You know you're beautiful, right?"
She smiled slowly as he complimented her. “Hearing you say it is quite nice.” Sitting up on her elbows, she kissed him gently. “So, if we were in New York right now, what would you have us do? Let’s pretend we really are there.”
"If we were in New York right now, we'd be just getting back from a trip up the Empire State Building. We'd be stopping off…" He moved a little and pointed toward a specific building. "Right about there, and we'd be grabbing the best hot dogs in the city, and we'd be taking them with us to Central Park to watch the runners and eat our dogs." He smiled a little more. "And we'd talk about what we could do in Paris when we go."
She smiled, taking a moment to daydream about what it would be like to spend time with him in New York. Inching closer to him, she got comfortable. “In Paris, I would take you to la tour Effiel where we could see the entire city. We’d go at dusk, so we could see the sunset and then all of the lights. We’d dine at one of my favorite restaurants along les Champs Elysees. Then we could go to a fabulous nightclub or two, and end the night at this lovely little patissiere near my parents’ flat that serves the most delicious gateaux.”
Gavin couldn't help it. The daydream of being in Paris with her, away from his family's prying eyes and with someone who he actually genuinely liked, was perfect. He wrapped his arms around her to keep her closer, smiling as he leaned in and pressed a kiss to her temple. "You're so sexy with that accent…" He said, grinning a lopsided grin her way.
She grinned, gladly moving closer. “Is it just my accent?” She found his grin to be absolutely adorable and found the prospect of them traveling to New York and Paris to be fun and exciting. For now, she didn’t even consider it to be somewhat impossible. It was nice to just fantasize about having a ‘normal’ life once again.
"Definitely not just the accent. You're inherently sexy," He promised, leaning in to kiss her jaw gently and work his way down her neck. "I can prove it to you," He said as he worked down further, spending a good amount of time on a soft spot on her neck. He could happily spend the rest of the day showing her how sexy she was and maybe she'd agree that it would be the best way to spend their time.