Lara Follet (radioinmyhead) wrote in morningstar_mnr, @ 2008-09-09 21:52:00 |
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Entry tags: | lara, stone |
Lara's roof; evening; Lara and Stone
Lara had completely forgotten. Stone must have had, too. Well. This was a slight problem. With a quick, apologetic smile, Lara held up her finger and told the two delivery guys to wait just a minute. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and walked toward the vinyl room.
"This is the right address, right?" one of the guys called after her as his partner took a confused look around the record store.
Lara stopped just inside the doorway and looked back. "Yeah," she nodded. "It is. It would be going up on the roof." She frowned slightly and continued on into the room. Once she was in relative private, she dialed Stone's number and bounced impatiently as she waited through the rings.
The bounce house weekend urban camping plan. When had they decided on doing that? Like two months earlier? No wonder they'd forgotten about it. And now she had to call Stone about it, which was kind of awkward since they were still kind of awkward.
Stone had most definitely forgotten about the urban camping. Everything was still wonky and he'd been pretty scatterbrained lately about pretty much everything. Poe, apparently, had been getting pretty freaked out and concerned about it but he kept brushing her off and telling her he was fine just busy and not to worry about it.
When his phone rang, he was actually staring off into space in front of his laptop at his desk in his office. He had no idea how long he'd been staring off blankly but whatever. He sighed and reached for his phone. He frowned a little when he spotted the caller ID and for a moment, wondered if he should answer. He felt shitty as soon as he thought it though. Flipping his phone open, he put it to his ear and greeted her with a simple, "Hey," It wasn't an unpleasant greeting or anything, just a kind of boring one. He felt a little wary too about what this call could be about considering the past stretch of weeks and all.
Lara had been biting her lip in anticipation as she waited for Stone to answer. When he did, she frowned and hesitated a few moments before she spoke. "Hey. Um. Sorry to bother you and stuff, but there are guys here. With a bounce house. Guess we forgot." She cleared her throat before continuing, "They said it's too late to cancel the order and everything." Lara realized as she spoke that calling Stone was pretty pointless. She should have just dealt with it herself and left him out of it. She was good at doing that, apparently.
Stone frowned at her tone. He frowned a little more as he listened to her. Yup, he'd forgotten about that completely. He was thinking about how he wanted to respond. He was going to tell her that was fine, since he'd paid for it so it didn't matter if they couldn't refund it and that if she wanted to, tell them he'd pay them still but that they didn't have to set up anything. But something entirely different came out. "...You're not bothering me," It took him a few seconds to catch up to what was going on. He cleared his throat after a moment. "Well...if they can't cancel it, I guess we're going camping." He said. Screw the awkwardness, right? "I'll...be over in a little bit," He said and then paused. "Unless you want to scrap the whole thing. I can just pay them and send 'em off?" He added in case that's what she wanted.
That hadn't been the response Lara was expecting, but then again maybe she was hoping for it since she'd called him and all. "No...I...you can come," she responded, oh so coherently.
Stone sat up a little straighter at her response. "Okay," He agreed. "I just have to take care of a few things first," He told her. "So...I'll be there in a little bit," He assured. He waited for her response before saying goodbye and hanging up, feeling totally awkward still but better than he had been before.
Lara hung up the phone and stared at an old record sleeve on the wall. Stone still wanted to go urban camping with her. That was good. Really good, in fact. After a few moments, she re-pocketed her phone and walked back out to the two delivery guys. She apologized for the confusion and the wait and explained that the house was going to go up on the store's roof. She pulled her keys out to take them to the back and show them the way.
Stone put his phone back in his pocket and started shutting down his computer and putting things away. He sent a message to Poe to let her know he wouldn't be home until tomorrow and then went to get food to bring with him to Lara's place since he hadn't eaten yet. Once that was done, he took his time heading to YFRS to give Lara time to...collect herself or whatever, just in case she needed to. Eventually he walked into the store, nodded to an employee on the way toward Lara's office.
"She's upstairs," Brody called over as he rang up a customer's purchase. "She said to tell you to go to the roof."
Stone threw a hand up to acknowledge he heard and to thank Brody and then headed, instead, for the stairs to start heading for the roof. He actually felt nervous. It was strange. He wasn't sure if it was good or bad yet though. Either way he knocked loudly on the door before he opened it to head out onto the roof.
The delivery guys had left about ten minutes earlier, after blowing up the bounce house. It was a different one than last time. This one had a dinosaur theme. It was very mature. Lara had brought up a stereo and whatever blanket-like things she had around the office. Then she sat on the edge of the dino house's roof and waited for Stone to show up. She was beginning to worry he wasn't going to show when there was knocking on the door. Lara leaned forward, which shook her bouncy seat a little bit, to see who was coming.
When she saw Stone, she smiled a little bit. "Hey." Then she saw the food he was holding and her face fell slightly. "Oh...I ordered food too." This was well-planned all around.
Stone smirked a little as he headed over toward her. "I come bearing a bottomless stomach..." Like she didn't know that. He set the bag down and grabbed the folded blanket, which was normally kept on the couch in his office, from where he'd tucked it under his arm to hold it out for her. "And a blanket." He gave a firm nod and a small smile.
"Cool," Lara said, smiling some more again as she took the blanket from Stone. "Thanks." She put the blanket down next to her and squinted back up at him. "I got it from the diner. It should be here in about twenty minutes."
Stone smiled a little behind his sunglasses when she mentioned the diner, unable to help the dopey thought about the mac and cheese that crossed his mind. He nodded a little. "That gives us time to chow down on hippie crap then," He nodded towards the bag he brought. "Or not," He shrugged. He wanted to kiss her but wasn't sure if they were done with the awkwardness yet so he hesitated.
Lara's eyebrows arched up a little in the middle as she looked at his bag. The fact that he'd gotten hippie food combined with the fact that he was up on her roof at all could only mean good things. "We can eat now," she said with a shake of her head. She moved aside on the floor of the bounce house to give him some room to sit if he wanted. She kicked off her shoes and pulled her legs up to cross them.
Stone kicked off his shoes and pulled off his sunglasses, shoving them into one of his shoes with his socks. He grabbed the bag and climbed in next to her, trying not to jostled the bounce house too much yet. He started pulling food out. Actually it was more like a container of dip and a big container full of vegetables of varying kinds all cut up. See, Stone was thoughtful, sorta. "I wasn't sure if you ate today or not. I haven't," He told her to explain why he'd gotten food as he settled in next to her. "We're not very prepared for urban camping today."
"No, we're not," Lara agreed with a shake of her head. "I completely forgot." Which was sad since she'd really been looking forward to all of it before the pregnancy thing happened. Or until she knew about it, at least. She looked down at the container of vegetables, which was totally thoughtful, by the way. "It's a good thing I ordered some mac and cheese for you," she commented quietly.
"I did too," Stone told her honestly so she wouldn't have to sit around thinking she was the only one that had forgotten. He still felt pretty crappy all around about everything. The difference, however, today was that he was so damn tired of feeling shitty that he'd decided he was going to attempt to make the best of this Urban Camping situation as he possibly could. He looked over at her and smiled a little at her mac and cheese comment. Then he finally leaned over, carefully not to knock anything over, and kissed her, a couple of times. "Thanks," He said before he kissed her again.
Lara was amazed that he was actually willing to kiss her after everything that had happened. Amazed, and also incredibly grateful. She closed her eyes and kissed him back, letting the moment sink in. After all, she'd thought this kind of thing would never happen again. In real life, anyway. She barely had time to get out a, "Welcome" before she had to return his last kiss. When they broke apart, she smiled. This was going way better than she thought it would.
Yeah, Stone hoped it would be better than they both hoped it'd be. He figured there was going to be an inevitable break in the night that some sentimental, deep conversation of some kind would occur. He was kind of dreading it, so when his stomach grumbled he thought it was partially the dread and partially the hunger causing the sound. Anyway, he moved around to lay on his stomach keeping the top of his body close to the food so he could start eating. That's right, Stone was digging in to veggies and dip because he was that hungry. It might snow tonight now.
Well, damn, it had better not. Not on urban camping night. Lara worked on her own vegetables, and they shared a quiet mealtime, filled with thinky thoughts. When the diner food arrived, Lara insisted on paying (she'd ordered it, after all) and went down to get it. She came back up with a large bag.
"Still hungry?" she asked, even though she knew the answer.
Stone had tried to argue that he should pay since he'd been stupid and gotten food and ruined her little mac and cheese order but she'd gone to get it before he could get out of the bounce house. He arched his eyebrow when she returned and asked that question. "...Like you have to ask," He rolled his eyes and smirked, a little.
"I know, I know," Lara smiled. She returned to the bounce house and set the bag down in front of her. She wasn't so hungry at that point, so she just ate another baby carrot and laid down on her side, letting Stone dig into the diner stuff.
Stone went to town. He made sure, however, not to over eat to the point of feeling uncomfortable. Once he was done, he set about putting the leftovers away as properly as possible while on a roof with a bounce house. Once that was all done, He flopped back into the bounce house on his back with a slightly content little sigh.
Lara was lying on her stomach at that point, her face turned toward Stone. She wondered if she should move closer or not, but ultimately ended up staying where she was. "Good?" she asked.
Stone nodded, closing his eyes as he did so. He lifted his hands and folded them behind his head with a little sigh. "Thanks," He said before he turned his head to face her and opened his eyes. He was still feeling gun shy so he didn't move too much. He did scoot over a little bit though, just not a whole lot. He was trying to think of something to say but instead wound up sending the bounce house into movement with a few wiggles of his body around cause that was fun. Sometimes he wondered why he didn't have a waterbed or something but then he'd realize that with his luck he'd wind up drowning.
"Welcome." Lara smiled when Stone started wiggling. She closed her eyes as she rode out the bounces in the floor. Once the house was still again, she moved over to get closer to him. He'd come to go camping, bought her hippie food, and kissed her multiple times, after all. Laying down with him should be all right, and it wasn't as though they hadn't done that since the baby stuff.
Stone wasn't opposed to having her closer. He sent more shocks through the floor to send it in ripply waves. He looked up at the roof of the thing and squinted. He wondered what they should talk about. Apparently he thought he might as well get the awkward stuff over with now instead of later. "...Are we, like...okay and stuff?" He asked. He paused a moment before he went on. "I mean...or can we acknowledge that we're still all...weird and I don't know..." He paused with a little sigh and looked over at her. "Get over it for today at least?" He asked. "That sounds a lot more insensitive outside my head then I meant it to."
Lara's smile faded and she knitted her brow a bit. She shook her head to let him know she wasn't taking what he said to be insensitive. "I can be okay," she confirmed. "If you're okay." That would be the biggest impediment to her relaxing on their camping trip, anyway -- wondering if he was all right with stuff.
Stone wasn't really okay with everything yet. He still felt wary and cautious and he still wondered if there was anything else she was possibly keeping from him - anything at all - as important as what had gone on. He wasn't sure he was ever going to be totally over that part of it. Right now, anyway, it seemed like it was impossible to get past. But they were talking about one day. And he wasn't into forgiving and then backtracking and saying he hadn't forgiven because that was stupid. They could relax for one day before they let themselves get overwhelmed with the drama again. He nodded. "I can be," He echoed her sentiment with another nod before he scooted closer with as much movement as possible to rock the bounce house.
Lara returned his nod with one her own, and then had to smile at his floor-shaking. As the house rocked, she moved close enough that the two of them could move their arms around each other. She didn't reach out for him, though. Just laid next to him. She wanted to apologize again for all the stupid things she'd done, but that would mean bringing those stupid things up. Not a good idea, even though she was sure they were both thinking about them.
Stone stayed still (well...a rolling moving bounce house still) for a moment when Lara moved closer. He didn't want Urban Camping to be ruined by they issues. He wanted a vacation from the baby-related drama and he didn't want to talk about it even though internally he really wanted to talk about it. He wanted to have one of those cliche, sappy, retardedly deep drama-filled conversations about it - the kind that their dreamselves had. But he didn't want it to happen today. After awhile of just lying next to her he pulled one of his arms free from behind his head and used the material of the bounce house floor to get it easily under and around her shoulders. It wasn't a whole hug-thing but it was something, right?
It was a good thing Lara didn't know about Stone's desire to have a deep, meaningful conversation, because the idea would have been pretty terrifying. When he moved his arm around her, Lara rolled forward a little bit to lean her head on his shoulder, but nowhere else. After a minute or so of quiet time, she said, "I'm sorry this isn't as fun as we'd planned."
Stone shook his head, which provided a little movement again. "Says who?" He asked. "This is the natural post-eating chill out time. One needs to digest before bouncing all around or it could be dangerous." He nodded.
"Oh," Lara said with a small smile. "Okay, then." It still wasn't as fun as they'd planned it to be, but she didn't have to say that at this point. Anyway, she'd take unplanned lying around with Stone any day over the agony that had been the previous month.
Stone nodded. He lifted the hand of the arm that was around her, using his fingers to slide them through her hair. He started getting drowsy after awhile from the combo of eating and being rocked around when they moved at all. To combat this he lifted and dropped his feet as hard as he could a couple of times to bounce them around.
The bouncing came as a surprise and Lara turned more toward Stone (not entirely of her own volition since the floor was shaking) and laughed. "That works as a pretty good alarm clock," she said, moving her arm over Stone's middle to keep herself steady.
Stone grinned a little when she was brought closer and moved her arm around him. He nodded. And then he leaned over and kissed her before he flopped around a little to get the house bouncing again.
Lara returned the kiss before she started laughing again. It wasn't really all that funny, but she was just so relieved to be laughing around Stone again that it made her a little giddy. She turned further toward him and leaned her head against him as she laughed.
Stone smirked a little. Despite the fact that he just ate, he wrapped his arms tightly around her and then scooted around and wrapped his legs firmly around her legs and then started rolling/bouncing all around on floor. They hit a few of the walls but every time they did, he just sent them in another direction.
Lara yelped in surprise when the bouncing started. She shut her eyes tight as she kept on laughing, unable to much else aside from moving her forearms and kicking a bit. "You're heavy!" she called out with some snickers after they had hit the wall and then bounced back to the floor on her back. "Your pudge is crushing me!"
Stone let out a gasp. He was having way too much fun listening to her laugh. And then she'd called him fat! "You callin' me fat, Follet?" He asked as he sent them rolling toward the next wall. After they hit that one, he rolled back once they landed until he was on his back and then unwrapped his legs and arms and let them both flop down to the floor as he tried to catch his breath even though Lara was now on top of him. "I'm...offended." He smirked.
Lara attempted to prop herself up by putting her hands onto the floor by his shoulders, but her hands sank into the floor pretty far and she didn't end up pushed up very high. She moved down to lean on her elbows instead. "I'm calling you tall," she shook her head with a little grin. "Not fat. Learn the difference."
Stone smirked at her attempts of propping herself up. "I believe the terms, 'heavy' and 'pudge' were involved." He retorted. "That implies 'fat' not 'tall'" He added with a firm few nods as he closed his eyes, a little dizzy from all the rolling around.
"Okay, you got me there," Lara admitted. "But still, not fat. Pudgetastic, remember?" She shifted her weight to her left side so she could reach down with her right hand and give him a poke in his side.
With his eyes closed he didn't expect the poke so he jumped a little and smirked. "Oh, I know I'm Pudgetastic. I'm simply stating that you're calling me fat and I simply don't approve of that. I'm afraid I'm going to have to make you pay." He decided though he didn't move just yet.
Lara moved her arm back up above his shoulder so she could lean on it again. "Oh yeah? How are you going to do that?" she asked, looking down at him and pushing away any guilt-related thoughts that went along with her having to pay for doing something wrong.
Stone grinned. "I haven't decided yet," He opened his eyes and then, with extra effort because of their moving floor, leaned up and kissed her. It was necessary. Also, how could he not and all when she was so close and stuff? Plus, he'd decided he wasn't going to dwell on the guilt stuff today. So that's what he was doing, not dwelling on it and instead getting some much needed goofy...bounce-house related macking. Or something. Anyway.
And some bounce house related macking was had, though Lara was still kind of nervous and worried, so it stayed pretty innocent. Which wasn't really a problem in her mind. The kissing was always her favorite part when it came to Stone.
Macking was macking. It was addictive, regardless of whether innocent or less than innocent. Anyway, eventually, there was need for air, so he took a moment to lean his forehead against Lara's. He thought about giving in to temptation and going for a nose bump, but considering all the awkward craziness, he held off. For now. He did give in and give her a few random quick kisses amidst the breath catching.
Lara smiled as she returned the random kisses. She reached her hand up to brush it through his hair and then moved to sit up. "We should spread out the blankets now," she suggested. She could definitely forsee them just falling asleep at some random point. Better to do it on something more comfortable than the cold, plastic inflatable floor.
Stone closed his eyes at the hand in hair moment. He opened them however when she moved, a little sad to have to break apart. Regardless, he nodded. "Yes," He said. "We should." He was glad they had a standby in case it rained even though the weather forecast said it was going to be clear skies tonight and tomorrow. The standby? A Giant tarp that could be thrown over the top of the bounces house and tired down to it to keep the rain out. Part of him hoped for rain cause that would be cool to camp out in. Anyway, he moved to start trekking for the door of the bounce house so he could help Lara with the blankets (and pillows, even though there were only a couple).
It didn't take too long to spread the blankets out, and it probably wouldn't take too long after that for them to get messed up due to movement. But that was unavoidable. Once everything was set up, Lara crawled to the middle of the spread and flopped down on her stomach. Ah, this was much better.
Stone tossed the pillows at her and then flopped down next to her, flinging an arm and leg over her to help make sure she was jostled by the movement, but y'know, without hurting her or anything crazy.
Lara was jostled, but not stirred. She lifted Stone's leg a little so she could move closer to him. Cuddling was in order now that the bounce house bed was set up.
Stone wasn't against cuddling. He held her by lifting his leg and arm weight until she was close enough and then curled his arm around her and slid his leg to hook around hers. He leaned over to kiss her shoulder too and lingered there for a little while after closing his eyes.
That was totally nice. Lara closed her eyes as well with a little smile on her face. She scooted in closer to Stone, too. He was warm and always had smelled nice. And now he was up in a bounce house with her because he didn't hate her. They still had issues, but it was nice not worrying so much about them over the past few days, with the festival and all. So, Lara was feeling pretty good at the moment. She was still worried and nervous, but also kind of good. And because of that, she started dozing off.
Stone opened his eyes after Lara scooted closer again. He smirked a tiny bit when he realized she was dozing off. He wondered when he should actually have one of those cheesy deep conversations about...everything, but he was kind of tired too after the food and the bouncing and it was kind of comfortable where they were. So he let his eyes droop as he found a stray blanket to tuck around them and then he closed his eyes the rest of the way again.
Sometime later, a car alarm went off. Lara woke up with a grumble. She turned onto her back as she opened her eyes. Lara wasn't sure how much time had passed since she fell asleep, but the sky was a lot darker. And that car alarm wasn't letting up. She sighed and picked up Stone's hand to lace her fingers in with his.
Stone wasn't really roused by the car alarm, or the movement. He simply curled his fingers around hers and pulled her closer before settling himself back down with a sigh, moving his face closer into his shoulder. Stone could sleep through a lot of loud things. Lara needed better sleep genes.
She did. But luckily she didn't normally have trouble falling back to sleep. Tonight, though, it was pretty much impossible. The car alarm was still going. Lara turned her head to look at Stone as he resettled. She smiled a little wider and gave his hand a squeeze, wondering if he would respond.
Yep, he did, by way of tightening his grip on her hand a little and squeezing his arm tighter around her. He let out a little noise too. He was close to waking up, definitely. And started faintly hearing the car alarm. He fought to keep his eyes closed. It was bound to be a losing battle.
Lara grinned when he returned her squeeze. She snickered a little at the sound he made and gave his hand a tighter squeeze back. She could tell he was starting to wake up, which was good because the alarm was still going and there was no way Lara would be able to get back to sleep with it on.
Stone let out a grunt and a sigh before his eyes popped open. He grimaced. "Got any eggs to dump on that car?" He murmured without moving from his spot even though he wanted to stretch.
The corner of Lara's mouth turned up a little and she loosened her grip on Stone's hand. "It'll probably only make the sound go on longer. Or get a pissed car owner after us. Or both."
"Pft," Stone lifted their hands to wave her comment off. "I can take 'em." he gave a confident smirk, oh and then he kissed her shoulder.
Lara let go of Stone's hand so she could put her arm across him instead. She pushed down on his opposite shoulder as though she was holding him back. "I'd rather you just stay up here, personally." The alarm continued to blare.
Stone let out an exaggerated sigh. "Fiiiiine, fiiiiine...twist my arm why don't you..." He smirked and took a moment to stretch and then scooted closer. "You're just too convincing in the end I guess."
Lara relaxed her arm and let out a short breath. "Guess so," she said, a little quieter than before. The car alarm stopped with a quick high-pitched beep, and Lara turned her head in its direction.
Stone turned his eyes to Lara as she looked toward the car. He leaned forward and kissed her temple. He kind of couldn't help himself once he'd gotten the urge to. That awas a good thing though, considering all the crazy stuff, right? That he still had the urge to kiss her at random and all?
Yeah, it was very good. Lara turned back to Stone with a small smile. "Back to enjoying the silence." Or as silent as a city could be at nighttime. She tightened her arm around him to give him a squeeze before she relaxed again.
Stone nodded. He could get behind that idea. He settled in to the floor after lifting a leg and dropping it to send it moving. His mind started wandering. He reminded himself that now was not the time for deep conversations, now was just time to relax and take a breather. "Should brought marshmallows and something to roast em with," He smirked.Urban camping and all that.
"Yeah," Lara nodded. She rolled onto her back some so she could look up at the sky. "I guess the fact that we forgot about this didn't help much." There were tons of things thing should have brought and did, but instead they would just have to make do with some blankets and food.
Stone nodded. "Yeah," He agreed. He let out a small sigh. "Did I tell you Poe wants to go apartment hunting?" As if he didn't have enough crap going on, he had to deal with that nice little anxiety Poe had thrown at him. It was okay to have conversations about non-abortion related things right?
Lara arched her eyebrows and turned her head toward him. "No, you didn't. That's kind of exciting." For Poe, at least. Probably the exact opposite for Stone. "How do you feel about that?"
Stone arched his eyebrows at her. "Hi, my name's Stone, overly paranoid, extremely protective older brother. Nice to meet you." He retorted. "She wants to go somewhere closer to school," He rolled his eyes. "Instead of just...moving into her own place in the Manor." He shook his head a little.
Lara smirked a bit and rolled her eyes. She moved onto her side and propped herself up by her elbow. "Yeah, imagine that. A college student wanting to live near other college students instead of an old building full of stuffy rich people." She reached out with her free hand and smoothed down Stone's shirt with a small smile as she continued, "And her overly paranoid, extremely protective older brother."
Stone rolled his eyes. "Hey, we're not stuffy." He reasoned. In fact most of the people they associated with in the building weren't stuffy and weren't that old. He shifted a little under the hand smoothing down his shirt and all. He sighed. "Anyway, that doesn't mean I have to like it." He reasoned, even if it did mean that hey, one of them would have their apartment all to themselves again finally instead of having a roommate. But it was hard to be excited about that, what with the awkwardness and all.
"You're right," Lara nodded. "You don't." And he was partly right about the stuffy, old rich people stuff, but that didn't negate the fact that they were still present. They just didn't hang out with Stone or Lara for obvious reasons. Anyway, the Manor was so not a college building. "Hopefully -- for her, anyway -- she'll be able to find a place near it now that school's already started and all. Kind of narrows down her choices."
Stone sighed and nodded. "Yeah, that'll definitely be a problem," For Stone anyway."At least I won't have to worry about her affording it." Which was convenient, but he was still not looking forward to the extra paranoia that was going to be involved in letting Poe go her own way. There had to be some expensive places that college kids couldn't afford, somewhere around Rutherford's vicinity, right? With adequate security and the like? "I wonder if she's gonna want a car too." He added. Surely she wouldn't want to rely on cabs and public transportation in order to visit the Manor or Cassidy whenever she wanted. "Lis is going to have fun with all this shopping related stuff..."
Rich kids went to college too. Lara remembered how even the most ridiculously-priced places were snatched up by spendy international students who drove shiny black, expensive cars. But hopefully Poe would be able to find something. Living with an older brother was kind of lame, as was living far off-campus. "She sure is," Lara nodded. Lis, she meant. She had no idea if Poe wanted a car or not.
It was not lame! Stone wasn't a lame roommate! Okay so maybe he was a little overbearing but considering a) their childhoods, b) her heart condition and c) having to had figured out parental things for her when he was clearly not parental material (as evidenced by the fact that Lara was in fact horrified of the idea enough to get an abortion without even mentioning it until after the fact), gave him very valid reasons to be overprotective and paranoid. Stone nodded. "It'd be nice to leave it all up to her. And convenient." He mused. "Except for the part where I doubt she'd let me get away with that."
"I think it's better that you do a little bit of supervising anyway," Lara said with a small smile. "And as if you'd really be able to just brush off and let someone else handle Poe's moving out like that. Ha." She leaned toward him a little with a smirk.
Stone let out a sigh. "I know, but it sounded like a nice idea when I first said it." He reasoned with a shake of his head. Why couldn't Poe have decided this earlier? Actually, that was probably Stone's fault too. She was probably too scared too after the way he'd acted once Lara had finally told him about the abortion stuff. Damnit. "Basically this just gives me a ton of crap to do on top of work and school work," And whatever else. He smiled a little bit when she leaned closer. "So what's next. That's my question. Also does that count as jinxing myself?" He wondered.
Lara squinted at him, still smiling a little. "Yes, it does. And don't worry. You have to remember that Poe is eighteen and isn't an idiot, and can handle a lot of this stuff by herself. So that gives you less to do, although not in the worrying department." She leaned farther toward him, which was partly the bouncy floor's fault, and her forehead ended up against his.
Stone frowned a little bit. He knew all of that, but just like he couldn't really brush off the apartment hunting, he wasn't going to be able to sit back and let her pick out her own places to look at. He was Stone after all, he was going to have to look thoroughly into buildings in the surrounding Rutherford area before he just let her find a lease to sign. "I know she's old enough and not and stupid...but she also has a medical condition, and who knows what she'll do with an endless money supply once she's by herself?" He stopped there on account of the forehead touching stuff. It was distracting, in a good way that is.
"I'm just saying, try not to push yourself so hard because you really don't have to," Lara said, nodding so it would move his head. "And I think if she was inclined to go crazy with money, she probably would have started already."
Stone nodded as well, mostly because Lara's nodding caused it. Why'd she have to be all..logical about it? He closed his eyes a second and then shrugged. "I know, I know," He let out another sigh. "Too many things are changing in too short a period of time," For the past year or so, basically. "I feel like I need to take notes to keep up." That was a little dramatic, he supposed.
Lara let out a little breath of air and looked at the close-up version of him for a few moments before she said, "Good thing you have school to help refresh your note-taking skills."
Stone let out a groan and opened his eyes again. "Why'd I let you feed me encouragement to go back? The only person older than me in any of my classes are the professors - and some of those only by a few years," he shuddered. "I'm starting to think that I shouldinto her building to further make her life hell. "For, y'know...being a total asshole." He added with another frown.
Well, she certainly hurt him right back. It hadn't been her intention, but it happened anyway. Lara frowned for a few moments before she turned her head to look at Stone. Things were so phenomenally different now. It took another couple of seconds before she leaned over and put her hand on the side of his face before she kissed him.
Stone wasn't really expecting the kiss. This may or may not be because he'd closed his eyes for a second once she'd put her hand on the side of his face. So it took him an extra few seconds before he returned the kiss. He moved his arm around her a little more to pull her closer too. He wondered if she was trying to stop him from talking and getting all sappy.
Lara just wanted him to know that she forgave him. For the most part, anyway. A few old grudges from their past had risen back up over the past few weeks, but Lara didn't want to hold them against him. Especially since he wasn't as angry with her anymore.
After the kiss, Lara pulled back enough to look at him. She brushed her thumb over his cheek and then moved back to lying down next to him.
Which old grudges, exactly, would those ones be? Y'know, it might be important to know that for the future. But then again, they had shitty communication issues so he probably wouldn't know what they were until there was a huge fight that was his fault next time. Stone watched her for a moment. "I feel like we should talk more about it," He admitted, though a little reluctantly.
Oh, you know, like the time he'd gleefully told her boyfriend that she'd bought a pregnancy test at the drug store. Amongst other things.
Lara's eyebrows hiked up and she may have looked a little bit frightened. "You do?"
Yeah well...look what karma came around and did to him for that. Anyway, he frowned at how frightened she looked. He shifted a little in his spot too before he nodded and turned just a little on his side so he could look at her better. "Yeah," He nodded again. "I do," His forehead scrunched up a little. "I wish you didn't look so scared about talking to me." He frowned. Not that he could blame her...with his tendency to scream and all, especially after she finally told him about the abortion stuff...
Lara tried not to frown and attempted to keep her face as neutral as possible. "I...would be scared about talking about stuff like this to anyone." She figured that was obvious, though. "I'm sorry."
Stone wasn't sure what to say after that. So he thought about for a moment as he watched her. "I don't want something like this to happen again, is all..." He said when he finally spoke. And that was a good thing wasn't it? A) It meant he wasn't, y'know going anywhere and B) it meant he wanted to...like, make things better. "I don't think ignoring it is going to help do that though."
Lara dropped her eyes down to look at his shoulder. "I know," she admitted. They definitely weren't avoiding it now, that was for sure. "And I...definitely would have handled things differently if I could do it again. Because I don't want it to happen either."
Yeah, they weren't, but that was a good thing. They couldn't ignore stuff forever and just cross their fingers that they'd be okay, right? Was Stone thinking about this the wrong way or something? "I'm glad you wouldn't," He told her, moving to lean his forehead against hers, hoping she'd look at him again. "I'm sorry I made you think you couldn't tell me without having me go all...crazy, breakdown-y." He added. "I'm sure it didn't help convince you that I wouldn't have, after I flipped out on you when you told me..." He frowned.
Lara turned her eyes up back up to him once he was touching her forehead. She shrugged her shoulders up a little and swallowed. "You...had some good reason to," she said. "To be upset. Even though it was my decision...I still should have at least told you."
Stone frowned as she added that part about it being her decision. He knew it was, but that didn't make him feel any less craptastic, knowing that regardless of what his opinion would have been, it meant that little to her that she was willing to completely ignore it. It was his turn to turn his eyes, just his eyes since his forehead was against hers and all, down while he tried to think or what to say to her next without causing trouble, especially since he was kind of hurt by the previously mentioned fact.
Since he was quiet, Lara stayed quiet too. Being uncomfortable with the whole serious talk thing, she wasn't about to continue any line of conversation on her own. At least not at this point. So she just watched Stone and wondered what he was thinking, even though she'd never ask.
Stone wasn't sure how he wanted to put into words what it was he was feeling and thinking about currently. He didn't look up when he finally spoke, mostly because he was feeling self conscious about what he was going to say. "I feel like my opinion doesn't matter to you," He told her. After a moment he turned his eyes back to hers. "If it didn't matter at all what my opinion was, why didn't you tell me in the first place?" It couldn't just be because she thought he'd have breakdown issues like last year.
Lara frowned in confusion and pulled her head back so she could look at him better. "I..." ...thought they had already gone over this? He was just talking about the breakdown stuff. "I told you, I didn't want you to get overwhelmed with everything." She let out a breath of air through her nose and decided to just come out with the rest of it. He was Stone, and he felt guilty already. "And, and...y'know, I assumed, based on stuff said in the past, and I guess dreamstuff too, that you never wanted kids, just like me. So I figured that I'd, like, save you from the guilt that would come along with you saying 'go for it' by putting the full responsibility on myself." She frowned further. "This wasn't a situation of me not thinking your opinion mattered. I, stupidly, I guess, thought we had the same opinion. And, by the way, if I had told you about it anyway, I still could have cared about what you thought while still being resolved to do what I wanted. I don't want to play the 'it's my body' card, but it is, and there's no way I'm ever going to have a kid, not with you or anyone, so..." She shut her mouth. Lara hadn't meant to start ranting, and he wasn't even sure what she had said at that point.
Stone frowned, a lot, as she went on and on. He rolled his eyes at the 'it's my body' crap. "First of all, I don't even know what my opinion would have been or if you would have even needed to pull the 'it's your body' card," he said once she's finished her mini-rant. "And secondly, if wasn't a situation of not thinking my opinion mattered, why do you have to keep reminding me that it's your body and your choice by repeatedly injecting things like 'even though it was my decision' into responses?" He asked. "It's like you think I'm going to forget that it was your decision and that because it was your decision, it doesn't matter what I would or might have thought about the situation. It's like...in the back of your mind or something you're sitting there wondering why it's such a big deal for me when it was your decision anyway." He paused there.
Lara wasn't saying that stuff consciously; it just happened. But that was Stone's point. "I guess...I guess I keep saying it because I'm not sure you really understand that. You keep saying your opinion didn't matter -- which, again, wasn't even on my mind because I'd thought we were on the same page -- which leaves me here wondering if maybe the only way you would have thought your opinion mattered would have been if I decided to keep it or something."
Stone shook his head. "I have no idea if I would have been on the same page as you." He admitted. "I only get the hindsight reaction, which is flawed and clearly not possibly the same as I would or could or whatever have thought. I don't want kids, that part's not wrong. But that doesn't mean I don't have thoughts or opinions on things that involve me and are important. I'm angry that it's like...like, I wasn't even given the chance to take responsibility at all for something - a problem or whatever - that clearly I was involved in causing because you think I'm too immature or...unstable or whatever, to deal with life situations." He frowned so more. "So maybe my opinion wouldn't have been something you wanted to hear. Big deal, we have differing opinions all the damn time. Maybe I'm angry that you did all of that by yourself. Maybe I would have liked to take responsibility on my part and actually have been there to help you regardless of my opinions. Saying it now makes it sound like 'oh well sure after the fact you're saying that Stone' but I didn't get a chance to prove it before the fact, so...yeah, it's gonna bother me, even if it was your decision anyway." He made his own little rant. It might've sounded a little irritated at parts but it wasn't like he was shouting or anything. He was just...upset.
Lara rolled onto her back and then pulled herself up into sitting position. "I didn't think you wouldn't have helped me," she said as she folded her legs under herself. She stared down at the floor and not at him. "I know you would have. That wasn't what I was worried about. At the time, I thought I was...doing you a favor. I thought it would make things better for you if I didn't tell you. I know that was wrong now. And I'm sorry that you think I think you're immature, but that wasn't what was going on in my mind. I just knew it would be a sensitive situation for you, so I just thought I was helping. I know I really wasn't," she repeated, just to make sure he knew.
"I get it, Lara," Stone moved to sit up once she did, which was difficult since it sent the floor moving and all. "I don't want to drill into you that you should have told me, we know that and whatever mistakes were made. What i want," He moved closer next to her but didn't reach out to touch her or anything since she'd moved away in the first place. "Is to make sure it doesn't happen again, regardless of how sensitive the situation might be or how you think it will affect me or how unstable you think I am." He said. "I don't know, that's what people who are...in whatever....kind of..." He cleared his throat a little. "Relationship or...whatever, we're in...anyway, that's what they do isn't it? Actually try to...rely on each other or...I don't know...trust them to be....supportive and..." His whole statement fell apart right about there because he was completely unsure of what their 'relationship' entailed, and whether or not she even thought any of this herself.
Lara didn't know what kind of relationship they were in either, and it was kind of shocking to hear Stone talking about them like that. Like they were in some kind of actual, serious relationship. Lara dragged her eyes away from the floor to look at him. "It won't happen again," she promised.
Well...they kind of were, in a serious relationship thing of some kind. It had been what? Like, over a year or something right? That meant something didn't it? He decided that he should probably lay off the serious talk before he sent Lara climbing out of the bounce house and fleeing home or something. "Thank you," He figured that was a better response than 'okay'. He moved closer and wrapped his arm around her before he leaned over and kissed her.
Lara leaned into him and kissed him back, relieved that this wasn't as scary as it could be. Things weren't perfect right now, but they were better than before. She lifted her hand to put on his side and leaned over further. They must have been right on the crest of one of the ribs in the floor, because that small movement was enough to send them falling over.
Stone was glad for the little comedic moment after having broken the whole 'let's not talk about that stuff' thing. He snickered a little as they fell back and then rolled over onto his hands a knees a moment. He was about to crawl his way back over to Lara, but then he looked at the bounce house floor. A moment later, he started bouncing all around on his hands and knees.
Lara stayed on her side and watched Stone going bounce-crazy, and rode out all the waves he made. It was kind of soothing in a dizzying sort of way. She smiled a little.
Stone started bouncing in little distance hops, mostly away into another corner. He kept an eye on her and then started taking frog leaps to cause extra bouncing, heading in Lara's direction now.
Lara squinted and held her arms up in front of her face. "Don't bounce on me!" she requested, starting to laugh at Stone's ridiculous moves.
"Best defense is a good offense!" He cheered back, hopping a tight circle around Lara, trying not to hurt either of them in the process and laughing some himself. It was pretty ridiculous over all.
"You actually want me to move?" she asked, following him around the circle with her blocking arms. "On my own?"
Stone laughed, not stopping his hopping. "Yes!" He declared. "You know you want to!" He hopped away to give her a chance to actually move. "Give in to the...to the darkside!" He cheered.
"Wow, the Sith have gotten pretty lame in recent years," Lara smirked as she lowered her arms. She let out a sigh and with great effort, pushed herself up into sitting position, and then onto her knees. She eyed Stone as he bounced around, and then went after him with a carefully-timed tackle.
Stone was just lifting off when he was tackled. He even let out an 'oof!' sound as he landed, bouncing them off the floor and into a side wall as he started laughing again. "See, you couldn't resist," He said, breathlessly. He wrapped his arms and legs around her again and went rolling, which was harder this time because of all the blankets, which they were now tangled up in.
Lara started laughing again, just a little bit at first before the rolled into a wall and then started going the opposite direction. Then she started snickering harder, a little giddy from nervousness out of that previous conversation. She tried to wiggle out of his grasp, but mostly for show since she was cool with just rolling around.
Stone tightened his grip - arms and legs - around Lara when he felt her try to wiggle free. Then he started rolling them around harder so they bounced farther off the walls whenever they hit one. He wound up laughing as well because...well they were grown adults rolling around in a...Stone/Lara shaped bouncey-ball. That was hilarious, yes?
Lara thought it was pretty funny at the moment. And a huge relief, too, especially when Stone joined in on the laughing. There wasn't much she could do when trapped by bouncing Stone, but her laughter was getting hampered by her increasing lack of breath.
Yeah, eventually, Stone ran out of breath too, so they bounced off a couple more walls and then came to a slow rolling stop that ended up with Stone on his back, a little on his side and his arms and legs still tucked around her as he snickered a bit between labored inhales and exhales.
Lara leaned her head on Stone's chest, taking some long moments to catch her breath as well. She grinned, though, and moved her arm across him now that she was free to do so. "Got that out of your system?" she asked with a smirk.
"For...now," He decided between breaths, uncurling his legs and loosening his arms just a bit around her, chest/torso pudge lifting up and falling as he caught his breath even with her on top of him. He nodded, a little belated, slow reaction time while winded and all!
"Okay," Lara smiled, still catching her breath. "A break is good."
Stone nodded and let out a tired little sigh. "Yeah," He agreed. "Definitely." He nodded again. And then he moved to kiss the top of her head followed by the side of her head and then he rolled them onto their sides right before he leaned over to kissed the back of her jaw in a few specific spots.
Lara's breath caught. She couldn't help it after all their time apart. She closed her eyes and moved her arm around Stone to get closer as he kissed her. She didn't know if they were ready to move to further steps at this point, but for now the kissing was nice.
Stone smiled a little when her arms went around him and he set about some more strategically placed kisses. He wasn't going to go pushing forward though. He wasn't sure he was even ready to go at it yet after everything that had happened. That didn't mean that he didn't want to kiss her or be close to her though.
Honestly, Lara would have found that to be a major relief. She certainly wasn't ready. She would have been too worried about what he was thinking the whole time, and making it awkward by worrying about it being awkward. So she moved her hand down to his side in order to hold onto him as he kissed her, but didn't try to move it to his stomach.
Okay he might not have minded some stomach touching. Anyway, eventually he gave in to the inevitable urge to kiss her properly and then kissed her a few more times before finally settling onto his back again mostly and pulling her with him.
Lara settled in next to him and then turned onto her own back so she could look up at the sky. This was turning out a lot better than she'd expected. It was a pleasant surprise. She hadn't been getting nearly enough of those lately, so she was pretty grateful to whatever force that was behind it.