WHO: Lena and Thomas WHAT: Lena's surprising admission WHEN: Friday morning WHERE: Thomas' place WARNINGS: Discussing porn
Having a girlfriend was rather grand, even if he had gotten himself arrested and beaten up within a few days of doing so. Not only had Lena not taken that as a bad sign and changed her mind, she had come to pick him up from the station and spent the night with him. And despite both of them sporting injuries of some kind or another, it had been a rather wonderful night. The best part was still waking up with her beside him, her pink hair splayed out across her pillow.
He smiled to himself and then winced as the expression hurt his split lip. Carefully he slid out of bed and padded, naked, to the en-suite bathroom.
Upon inspection in the mirror, Thomas noted two black eyes which made him resemble a raccoon, a swollen left cheek with a cut across it where a ring had slashed the skin open, and of course, his lip. There was bruising on his chest as well, and his back ached where he had landed on it. Despite everything, he was still pretty sure he'd gotten off easy. His eyes weren't swollen shut and nothing was broken. And the man who had been pummelling him looked like, if he had wanted to, he probably could have removed Thomas' jaw from his face with very little effort.
Heaving a sigh, Thomas looked away and busied himself brushing his teeth. He wasn't aware Lena had awoken in the next room, nor that she had been having a dream with reminded her rather suddenly about something they had not yet discussed. Which was why he jumped in shock when he heard, "oh my god, I've done porn!" from the bedroom.
With a blink of confusion, Thomas stuck his head around the bathroom door, the toothbrush still sticking out of his mouth at an awkward angle. The expression on his face clearly questioning her outburst.
Lena was sitting up in bed, her expression terrified. She had the covers pulled up around her as if she had suddenly become very self-concious. Thomas knew that was not very in character. He held a finger up for her to wait, ducked back into the bathroom to finish with his teeth because it was hard to talk with a mouthful of toothpaste, and then he stepped around the door. "Okay. What?"
"Oh god, I forgot and then I had this dream- Do you know the Greek goddess of persuasion, Peitho?"
It was a little early in the morning to be quizzed about his knowledge on mythology, and he still didn't know what that had to do with porn. Was this a dream she had just had? "I...sure?" He moved over to the bed, feeling a little strange since he was standing there naked, and she was practically hugging the sheets to her neck.
"Right well...she uhm...she does fetish photography and she was asking for new models. It sounded fun and so I agreed to do it. And most of it was soft-core, I mean like Suicide Girl stuff. But I did one harder shoot. But then the woman who teaches my kick-boxing class needed me to step in and so I stopped modelling so much and I sort of forgot about it!"
Unaware of how she was expecting him to respond, Thomas just kind of stared at her. Finally he blinked a few times and said, "I- Okay? Was it fun?" It seemed like the most important question to ask, at least to him. As long as she hadn't been exploited he didn't see why he should mind.
Lena glanced at him sideways and then she nodded, "well, yeah. It was a blast. The models I worked with were all hilarious. And it's high-class stuff so you get treated well and there's no pressure. I mean...this was months ago and I've been tested since then, so that's not-"
Thomas held his hand up and he shook his head quickly, trying to think of the way to best illustrate what he wanted to say. "Lena, I- I don't- Okay I'll admit something too, I read Stoya's blog on the internet and so I know about the no condoms and testing policies for adult film stars. I am assuming it would be the same for photography?" Lena nodded, offering him a wavery smile.
"You like Stoya?"
"Oh. That would be a very yes," Thomas grinned.
"Do you watch her movies?" Thomas was pleased Lena looked a little less upset now, and instead she seemed to be relaxing.
"Until a week ago, I was a 33-year-old man who had been mostly single his entire life. Yes, yes, it's safe to say I've watched Stoya's movies. Lena, I don't think I have any right to judge anything you've done in the past, nor would I mind even if for some reason it was my right."
After a breath of what was clearly relief, she arched an eyebrow at him. "Okay. Okay, so what if Peitho called me in and asked me if I wanted to do another shoot that would involve me sleeping with someone else? Not that she has, this is hypothetical. Would you be upset?"
"Let's go about this logically," he said, crawling closer to her and leaning back against the pillows. "Say, hypothetically, I was anywhere near attractive enough to be asked the same thing. How would you react?"
Lena pushed his arm a little when he called himself unattractive and then she looked thoughtful. "Well, I would know it's just a job. That's totally different than running off to be with someone else."
"That's easy then, I would feel the same way." Thomas shrugged and then he leaned in to kiss her cheek. "I think...as long as you don't have a child and abandon us, I'm not really going to let much bother me. Were you worried I was going to kick you out or something?"
"Kind of!" she said, throwing her hands in the air. "I have never really been one to seek out a relationship before so I didn't even think about it before I modelled. And then I had this dream you found the website and freaked out at me."
"I'm sorry you dreamed that," he said, running his fingers through her hair. "That's just not me. Says the guy who got himself arrested yesterday."
Lena snorted at that. "Yeah, for defending his son's honour. You bastard." She finally stopped holding onto the sheet with a deathgrip and moved to kiss him. "Are you sure you don't care?"
"Well, I'm not going to advertise it to my mother because she'll go find the website and give me pointers on how to be better than whomever you modelled with," he said dryly.
"Oh my god," Lena covered her mouth and she laughed loudly. "Seriously?"
"Yes. Yes, that is my mother." Thomas was grateful he had been raised by a pro-sex feminist, though it just made him ever more aware how fucked up the world truly was. It boggled his mind that if Lena were with someone else, they might actually be upset about this. Though maybe that was why Lena wasn't with someone else.
Lena smiled widely at him and then she snuggled against him as he wrapped his arms around her. "You're pretty cool," she informed him.
"Oh yes, every body says so. That Thomas, he dresses in tweed and spends rather a lot of time talking about constellations, but he sure is cool." He kissed her hair and gently ran his fingers through it. He loved how bright it was.
She snorted at him and then she splayed her fingers out across his chest. "Well I think you're cool. Thank you for not freaking out."
"Well you're welcome," Thomas said, though he didn't think he deserved thanks for just being a decent person. They were silent for a moment, and then Thomas spoke up. "So. Where's this website?" he joked.
Lena laughed loudly and she sat up just so she could grab a pillow and hit him with it. In the legs where it was safe. "I'm not telling. You have to find it yourself!"
He gave her a jokingly dubious look. "That might mean spending hours on the internet, looking through porn sites. I don't know if I can handle that," he grinned. "I mean...I don't think I even know how to find porn on the internet."
"You're such a dork," she informed him before leaning in to kiss him hard. And even though his lip was quite painful, he didn't mind in the least.