leona (pea) wrote in fableless, @ 2017-02-20 23:12:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! log/thread, gabriel baker, leona quinn |
WHO: Leona Quinn and Gabe Baker
WHAT: Talemates starting a new tradition: watching Netflix and passing the Pea.
WHEN: Monday Evening, 2/20
WHERE: Leona’s Apartment
WARNING/RATING: N/A
“I can’t believe you agreed to watch Marmaduke.” Leona shifted on her end of the couch, tugging her blanket around her as she folded her legs underneath her. Nic’s couch had always been comfortable, and she was grateful she didn’t have to shop around for a new one; she didn’t have the money for it. Sticking a hand out of her blanket cape, she made a grabby hand at the popcorn bowl. Her counterpart passed the bowl over, agreeably. Gabe could do with a few more handfuls of popcorn before the movie really got going, but he was used to sharing. "Of course I would," he said around a few kernels of popcorn in his mouth. "It's stupid good fun. And anyway, you suggested it." Like that explained it all. Leona laughed, something unrestrained and unpolished rather than practiced and pretty. “Okay, but if I suggested you jump off a--- I mean, well, no. I guess you can’t really compare Marmaduke to jumping off a bridge.” For some reason, she thought of Charlie, and as an afterthought added, “at least I wouldn’t…” She shifted, nudging the popcorn bowl back to the center of the couch. Quick fingers nabbed the edge of the bowl, whipping it in Gabe's direction with deft movements. The fingers of his other hand reached in, capturing some more popcorn, and tossed it expertly into his mouth. He chewed noisily and then smiled at Leona, kerneled teeth and all. Leona’s mouth pulled into an exaggerated frown, lips pulled taut. "Are we ready for Marmaduke?" “Well, maybe, but like… If you’re down with something just because I suggest it,” she scrolled through her profile on Charlie’s netflix account. Romance was too… suggestive, maybe, but Indie movies… “I don’t know. What else looks good?” The trouble with Gabe was that he was game for almost anything. He didn't rock many boats — and whatever boats he rocked, it was usually unintentionally done — and he liked to make other people happy rather than himself. "Maybe… maybe some heartfelt sports drama? Like The Blindspot, or Remember the Titans or something." Leona looked askance, off towards the kitchen as she mulled over the idea of watching something like that for the next hour and change. But she, like Gabe, was ultimately a people pleaser. She she nestled herself right back into the couch, typed in ‘sports dramas,’ and… “Full Out, Invincible, 23 Blast… I haven’t seen like, any of these, so it’s totally your call, okay?” Gabe let out a pensive hmm noise as he considered. Had he ever heard of any of these movies? Being abroad, bouncing from one country to another, from one sofa to another, had left him desperately bereft of any pop culture knowledge. He could count on one hand the number of big-name films that had come out. "What's that one about?" He pointed at a movie title, one of two placards which featured a female on it. Brotherly Love, it read. Leona hit the play button before putting the remote, very delicately, next to Peter the Pea, who she had set on a silk handkerchief on the coffee table. She had imagined what having Talemates might be like for so long that now, in the moment, it seemed like the beginning to a bad joke: A Princess, her Prince, and their Pea sat down to watch some Netflix… “So, like. Is it weird?” Her pause was brief as she realized how many ways that could be taken. “Not travelling, I mean.” "Hmm?" Gabe turned to her, his eyebrows raised. "Oh. Well, a bit. I mean, no. It's not weird, it's just different. I'm still getting used to it. But you know that, like, I'm not leaving, right? I'm staying." His dark gaze matched her. "I'm here to stay." “I… know that,” her tone suggested that she knew it, at least, in theory. Leona turned her body so that she could give him her attention rather than the movie, which had started off with someone getting shot. “Is this weird?” Her arms gestured across the couch, to the Pea, to the television. She was trying. She was trying to be upfront about her feelings, but she didn’t think she would ever achieve the brutal honesty her sister managed so effortlessly. Maybe that was okay. Gabe shook his head. "No, it's not weird. I'm actually glad that you know, now. I didn't realize how much pressure I was putting on myself, just unrelenting pressure, and…" Gabe's fingers itched for Pea, strained for the corner of the silk handkerchief that posed as its current home. "And this feels right, the two of us here with our Pea." It took a lot, not to jump on the questions she had. In what ways did it feel right? What was he feeling? Would it still feel right with another person? His mother? But these questions were a lot like Pandora’s Box, and she wasn’t so sure she was ready to talk about her feelings, for once. Not in this capacity. “And Netflix. Don’t forget about Netflix.” A widespread grin answered her first. Then— "And Netflix." Gabe settled lower into the sofa, edging closer to Leona so they could both turn their attention to Netflix. "What a great invention." “I don’t know, I kind of miss Blockbuster. Do you remember Blockbuster?” As if EVERY 25-year-old didn’t remember Blockbuster. The passé question was easier than addressing the way she was intimately aware of the fact that he had inched closer, and not in the way she normally was with boys: calculating. Making sure she was positioned just so. Instead, she froze, pointedly looking at the movie she already wasn’t into. "I remember the time I racked up $50 in late fees," Gabe offered helpfully. "Battlestar Galactica, season three, all six discs." He laughed, then, ignoring the movie as it rolled past opening credits. "I thought my mom was going to kill me." “Ohmygod, you didn’t!” Leona blanched at the thought, shaking her head. “I like-- sometimes my mom would go out of town with Charlie? And she’d leave me some money that was supposed to be for food, but like. I would always save some of it and go to Blockbuster.” Gabe lolled his head to glance up at Leona. "Be honest. You totally rented the same movie, didn't you?" Leona’s face melted into doe-eyed affront, as if she took being read so easily personally. “Why? What gives that away?” "I know you," he laughed. "That's what gives it away. And also this bambi eyes routine. Which movie was it?" “But you didn’t know me then! And we didn’t have movies in our Castle, so like--” She started to build up a defense before she melted, indignantly pouting as she muttered, “Clueless. Sleepless in Seattle. You’ve Got Mail.” There was that smile again. Gabe's gaze flickered from Leona to the tv with the movie that they were meant to be watching. Then he glanced back at his Talemate. "Are any of those on Netflix?" . Leona’s eyes dipped, suddenly feeling quite bashful. “Clueless but like, I can’t really watch that movie anymore, so.” "Why not?" “It like-- It’s basically WHY me and Nate got together, pretty much? He quoted it at me, so of course I had to make out with him, and-- It was just like, you know. Kind of our thing.” Leona couldn’t conceal the flashes of sadness that manifested in lip twitches and a suddenly red face. Sucking her lower lip into her mouth, she cleared her throat and turned her eyes to the TV, the plot already lost on her. Abashedness came over Gabriel, who realized he'd made a serious misstep with his teasing line of questioning. There was no denying that he'd had a hand, no matter how small, in the demise of Leona and Nate's relationship. He felt awfully about it, wishing that Leona had maybe spoken to him before she had done that, but also knowing that there was very little he could have done to change her mind on it. Leona was a traditionalist, and she remembered the same things he did, of their former lives together. "I'm sorry," he said, his voice quiet. "That's got to be hard, not being able to watch one of your favorite movies like that." Leona shrugged the blanket from off of her, suddenly feeling ten times warmer, her face ablaze with many things. Shame. Embarrassment. Sadness. Frustration, largely at her own inability to execute things properly. “It’s like, whatever.” It definitely was not whatever. “Or whatever.” "Hey." Not too gently, not too rough, he spoke. Then, not waiting for her to respond, not giving her opportunity to burst into tears on him, Gabe drew an arm around her shoulders and hugged her. She smelled like something soft and flowery, like something in one of his mother's hand creams, and the faint aroma of buttery popcorn wafted around them, too. It seemed only appropriate, then, that with talk of softness and melted treats that Leona, too, would melt into him, relaxing comfortably, if sadly, into his side. "It's whatever." “I know I’m like…” She wasn’t looking at him, primarily because of their current position, “I know I can be like, a lot. But-- I don’t know. I guess, like.” Not everything needed a rambly, prosely explanation. “Thank you.” He squeezed her shoulder. Just enough to give reassurance, the promise of stability and structure and resilience. Words bubbled up within him, words that he knew felt familiar, like a sense of deja vu, though he didn't think he'd ever said them. I give you this hand. Gabe swallowed them down. Those hadn't been his words, but someone else's. "You're welcome," he said. Leona sucked on the insides of her cheeks noisily, her lips, by extension, puckering out like a fish’s as she sat in the weighted moment. Her chest rose and fell with a deep, inhale and slow exhale. “I’m going to get more popcorn! You don’t have to pause, mmkay?” She grabbed the not-quite empty bowl (or prop piece, really), and skittered all the way to the kitchen, putting much-needed distance between her and him and the what she refused to acknowledge as a Moment. Face struck with a bewildered expression, Gabriel had no choice but to say "okay" and wait on her sofa as the movie continued playing. He cracked a knuckle and sighed, settling back in his own space on the sofa. And he waited, just as he'd done in lifetimes past. |