InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I should quit while I'm ahead"

Lyra Aquilina Campbell (lyra_yes) wrote in nevermore_logs,
@ 2021-12-18 00:02:00

Entry tags:

avery duffield, lyra campbell

WHO: Lyra and Avery
WHEN: Thursday 16th, nighttime
WHERE: Avery's place
WHAT: Post Musing, and Avery's got something to ask
WARNINGS: TBD but probably amorous

Lyra hummed her way to Avery's place after leaving Erato, her headphones in her ears felt like they'd directly plugged her into the music. It was too bad Avery wasn't musical, too bad he didn't have any instruments at his place (aside from, heh, you know) because she really felt like playing. And maybe it'd impress him. She bet he'd think she looked hot with a guitar.

He'd thought she looked hot on her birthday, something she was still feeling warm and pleased about. Hot and cute. She tried to remember if he'd called her either of those things apart from when they were in the middle of getting naked and she didn't think he had. Compliments outside of sex was definitely something she could get used to.

Although they were pretty great during, too, to be fair.

But then, so were his smartass remarks.

Lyra hit the button for his floor and leaned up against the back of the elevator, smiling to herself. Post-curse, this crush was only growing, and maybe her feelings, like the hopes she had for her dad, were setting her up for disappointment or hurt but... Lyra thought about the heck yeah I do message he'd sent when she'd asked if he wanted to hook up, and found it hard to care.

She smeared on a little grapefruit chapstick, then lifted her phone to get a good angle, though it was harder to get a good cleavage shot when you'd been dressed for the outdoors in December, and sent it to him.

I'm in your elevator 😏 better open your door

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phantomtruth
2021-12-17 07:57 pm UTC (link)

When Lyra got to the door, Avery was waiting there, one arm leaning up against the door frame. He was wearing a black teeshirt with a long sleeved tee underneath, and a cartoon of a UFO beaming up a cow on the front, with jeans and bare feet. Two minutes ago he'd been wearing pyjama pants and nothing else. Only a slight ruffling to his hair betrayed the speed with which he'd got ready.

"Hey," he said with a little grin. Lyra was looking cute today, her cheeks all pinked from the chilly air, and he wanted to get her out of that puffy coat pronto.

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lyra_yes
2021-12-17 08:14 pm UTC (link)

Lyra's chest fizzed a little when she saw him waiting for her down the hall, and she grinned back at him, adorable in his nerdy t-shirt. "Hey yourself," she said, stepping forward to slide her arms around him, pressing herself against him for warmth and the exciting feeling of being so close to a body who wanted hers.

"Mm, it's warm in here. Wanna feel how cold my hands are?" She grinned up at him menacingly, threatening to tug up the back of his t-shirt in an utterly unsubtle bit of flirtation. He should yelp and laugh and hmm, maybe pin her dangerous hands against his bed? She'd be happy with any combination of those reactions.

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phantomtruth
2021-12-17 10:52 pm UTC (link)

"Ah, nope, I'm good," Avery said, arching his back to move it away from her frosty fingers. He was still smiling though, even as he shifted backwards so to get her in the door and shut it behind her. "Where've you been? Do you want a drink?" A couple of beers and then dragging her into his bedroom sounded like an excellent use of his time this evening. There was something about her today, maybe the pinkness of her nose or the brightness of her eyes or the way her body felt pressed against his, but he was very into it.

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lyra_yes
2021-12-17 11:56 pm UTC (link)

"Hell yeah, your girl's thirsty," Lyra said, tugging off her coat and boots as she stepped in, talking at pace. "I've been having coffee with a goddess. No shit. I was working, hanging outside her window and she presses her face against the glass and is all 'I know you!' Turns out she's Erato, like, the Muse of poetry and smutty novels. Who knew the Greeks had a goddess for that? How fucking nuts is my life?"

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	phantomtruth 2021-12-18 12:40 am UTC (link)
	"There's a goddess of smutty novels?" That was new to Avery. He headed to the kitchen and grabbed out two bottles of beer. Fucking nuts was a way of putting it. "How the fuck did she know you hanging off the side of a building?" He jerked his head towards the bedroom so Lyra would follow him in. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

lyra_yes
2021-12-18 12:45 am UTC (link)

Lyra opened her mouth to say she thought I was Rosario! before catching herself— Avery didn't know why Muses and that would be interested in Rosario, and didn't need to. Luckily he'd already turned, so he missed her slight hitch. Luckily too there was more than one connection. (Luckily? Weirdly? Haha-what-the-fuckedly?) "Her sister's dating my dad and the goddess gossip chain is strong. Plus she thought my Insta was cute," Lyra grinned at that, cracking open the beer and folding up one leg underneath her on the end of his bed.

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phantomtruth
2021-12-18 12:54 am UTC (link)

Avery sat down next to her, kicking some clothes under the bed as he went. He really should make more effort to tidy up when his bedroom was being seen by someone else more regularly.

"The sister of a muse is dating your dad and she likes your Instagram," he repeated, a little incredulous. He shook his head and took a drink. "What a time to be alive." Glancing sideways at her, he raised an eyebrow, trying to judge how soon was too soon to try to kiss her.

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lyra_yes
2021-12-18 01:38 am UTC (link)

"The sister of a muse is dating my dad and she likes my Instagram," Lyra echoed back at him, fully on board on how strange it was. It was so good to be able to talk about it with him though, secrets were a pain in the ass, and saying it out loud seemed to give her more of a handle on it.

She took a swig of the beer and leaned comfortably back on her hand, wanting to try and catch him up on everything she could. It'd been a crazy-ass week. "She said she met Dali, and Warhol and Judy... someone arty from the 70s, it was so weird, just having coffee and she's casually dropping art gallery names into the conversation. No 'my immortality must remain a secret' around her, not like some dickheads."

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phantomtruth
2021-12-18 03:33 am UTC (link)

Avery pulled an impressed face as he took another swig of his bottle. This shit was almost like trying to really consider the scope of the universe or something, just the numbers were too big to truly comprehend. "I guess some of them are better at hiding their true selves than others," he said, thinking it over. "Maybe it gets to be a pain in the butt trying to pretend to be something they're not to fit in. I mean, I get that." Not that he'd tried to fake it very much, but there were times where he wished people would let him fit in more.

"What do you reckon the government would do with them if they knew? Or maybe they do know, and like, Zeus and Jesus are in the White House just casually running the world. Fuck, what if I'd outed Apollo to the government? What if the CIA came down on him and packed him off to be experimented on??" He was getting more animated with this train of thought, sitting up straighter, his face growing more intense.

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lyra_yes
2021-12-18 04:06 am UTC (link)

Lyra shook her head to the idea of Jesus in the White House. Couldn't be. No way that anyone who preached love thy neighbor was in charge of this country. She'd give him Zeus, though. Zeus seemed more likely, from what she'd read of him. But even then... Lyra took another drink as she watched Avery gear up to take off, trying to decide what she thought, and nah, nah she couldn't believe the government knew.

"I reckon he'd curse them before he let the CIA take him," she said, feeling that was a pretty reasonable (and potently terrifying) assumption. Apollo acted (infuriatingly) like he was untouchable and maybe he was. "Maybe they have their own curse-based protection racket? I dunno..." she shot him a slightly worried look. "Has he said anything else to you, since, y'know, cursegate?"

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phantomtruth
2021-12-18 05:26 am UTC (link)

"Nah, haven't heard from him," Avery said with a shrug. Lyra was probably right that maybe the immortals had ways of defending themselves. Maybe they had a mole in there, ready to throw everyone off the scent if they got too close. "He's probably got, like, god things going on."

He nudged Lyra with his arm and leaned his head closer. "Maybe there are children of the gods running things to keep everything secret," he said in a conspiratorial tone. He glanced down at her lips as he spoke, wanting to kiss her but not wanting to ask, and hoping she was just good at reading body language. "How good are you at keeping secrets?"

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lyra_yes
2021-12-18 06:00 am UTC (link)

She'd been about to say something more about Apollo, something relieved, maybe even something a little sappy like good, I don't want anything to happen to you but then Avery touched her, moving closer, lowering his voice and his eyes and changing the charge in the air. Oh, okay, yes! The corner of her mouth twisted up; it didn't take a lot to bring those hot work daydreams back to the surface of her mind. She took an audible breath, and ran her tongue over her lips, glancing at his mouth, too, before returning his conspiratorial look. "What's the secret?"

Was it a secret about kissing?!

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	phantomtruth 2021-12-18 09:17 am UTC (link)
	He didn't actually have a good secret. Plenty of bad ones, but nothing fun. It had been more a rhetorical question about how good she would be at working for the government. But now he was in the moment, and he had nothing, so he kissed her instead, the hand not holding the beer bottle crossing her back to pull her in closer. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

lyra_yes
2021-12-18 09:35 am UTC (link)

Mmm okay she didn't care what he'd been going to say (or about correcting his implication that she was a child of the gods, Patrick wasn't a god) because kissing was a better use of their mouths. This was kinda her daydreaming coming to life, and that arm around her back was really nice, even if she could barely feel it through the chunky knitted sweater she was wearing. His own clothes were thinner, she could feel the warmth of him beneath the fabric as she wrapped her own bottle-free arm around him, slowly closing her hand into a fist at the back of his shirt while they kissed.

"Been thinkin' bout kissing you since my birthday," she didn't mind admitting, flashing a grin at him. "That's not so much a secret, though."

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phantomtruth
2021-12-18 09:46 am UTC (link)

Avery had been thinking of doing a bit more than kissing her, but he just smirked and kissed her again, sinking into focusing on just her mouth and tongue against his for a good few minutes, until they had to stop because it was either drink the beer or put it down, and there was nowhere in reach to put it.

He took a big pull on the bottle, unable to wipe the self-satisfied smirk off his face. "Been thinking about those pics you sent," he said. "A lot." And then he had to cover his mouth to smother a burp from gulping his beer too fast.

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lyra_yes
2021-12-18 10:23 am UTC (link)

Lyra tried not to grin as much as she felt like grinning, warmth spreading across her face at his words. She felt a bit ridiculously flattered (even with the burp, honestly.) "Yeah?" she asked, getting up off the bed so she could put her beer bottle down on his desk, and so she could pull off her sweater while she was up. She still had a couple of layers on underneath, but things were definitely too warm for big sweaters. "Been smirking like that the whole time too, have you?" she grinned down at him, stepping closer again and resting her hands on his shoulders.

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phantomtruth
2021-12-18 10:47 am UTC (link)

Avery couldn't help his eyes lingering on her breasts with her standing so close to him, before looking up at her face. "What's it to ya?" he asked, defensive in words if not in tone. "The Snapchat is gone but it lives on up here." He tapped his temple. Was it weird to admit to jerking off over the memory of a sexy pic? Or weirder than jerking off over an actual picture? Or not as weird?

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lyra_yes
2021-12-18 10:58 am UTC (link)

"Uh huh? Well, couple of the things you've done are livin' rent free in my head, too," Lyra bit the tip of her tongue, her fingers following his to his temples and running through his hair. "Things involving fingers and couches," she added, because it was best to be specific, so there was no doubt in his mind she wanted him to do that again. "Well," she clarified even more, leaning down to kiss him again. "Fingers more than couches."

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phantomtruth
2021-12-18 11:09 am UTC (link)

He laughed and kissed her back. Fuck, she was hot.

"Hey, uh, I have something to talk to you about," he murmured against her lips between kisses, his hands going to rest on her hips. "Nothing drastic but- I can do it now, or wait until... after." That after was said with a suggestive flick of his eyebrows and a grin that was very interested in pulling Lyra into his lap and seeing if she liked fingers and beds as much as fingers and couches.

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	lyra_yes 2021-12-18 11:17 am UTC (link)
	Lyra bit down on her lip as a rush of heat went through her— she liked the promise of that after. Like, a lot. She whined, though, pressing her forehead against his. "Dammit, Aves," she said, stroking her fingertips over the soft hair at the base of his neck. "Why'd you have to go pitting my curiosity 'gainst my horniness? That's not fair." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	phantomtruth 2021-12-18 11:30 am UTC (link)
	"I just didn't wanna forget." He touched his nose against hers. "It's only about my stupid family, it's not that important." Her fingers were giving him nice tingles down his spine, and he tugged her forward to sit across his lap. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

lyra_yes
2021-12-18 11:42 am UTC (link)

Her forehead furrowed at the mention of his family, the thought of it pulling her attention away from how good it felt to sit on him. Not all the way away, but just enough that she knew she wouldn't be able to really get lost in kissing him again till she knew.

"No, tell me, what'd they do?" she asked, sliding her arms round his neck. She kinda wanted to tell him about the nightmare awkwardness with her mom recently, and she'd been going to leave that till 'after' as well, but, she kinda liked that he wanted to talk to her. To touch his nose against hers and talk to her. She kinda liked it a lot.

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phantomtruth
2021-12-18 12:13 pm UTC (link)

Avery sighed with mild annoyance. Damn, he should've chanced forgetting to mention it after all. "My brother Xander has been flapping his gums," he said, keeping his eyes lowered. Family truths and eye contact were too much. It was one or the other. "He's told my Mom about you and now she wants you to come for Christmas. But I said you'll be with your family, so, not happening. Right?" Here he glanced up, just for a moment, to get her reaction.

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lyra_yes
2021-12-18 12:25 pm UTC (link)

It was so not what she expected that Lyra had to laugh in surprise, just once, before she leaned back to get a better look at him under her raised brows. "Okay, Imma need more than that," she said. "What's Xander been saying 'bout me? To your mom?" She bet it wasn't flattering. Not that she cared what Xander thought, since he was a cheating dirtbag who kept stringing Hailey on and was a jerk and a bully to his brother, but Lyra found she did care, a little bit, what Avery's mom thought about her.

Was that weird? That was maybe a bit weird.

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phantomtruth
2021-12-18 12:34 pm UTC (link)

Avery sucked on his top lip, worrying at the edge of his in his teeth. The answer he'd wanted was "No, I want to be with my family" and then they would've had a normal Christmas and all would've been fine. But that was never going to happen. And shit, now this was going to require backstory.

He sighed through his nose and took a drink. "So... you know I'm bi, right. I told my family I was gay cos I wanted- ugh, because they're assholes, and if I'd said bi it would've been "just a phase" or whatever. The possibility of a girl would've given them hope." He snorted and shook his head. "And, yeah, well you know Xander was at the party and we were together and so he told her. It's bullshit, but... he wanted to get back at me I guess. Anyway, now my Mom thinks she can convince me to be "normal" if she makes friends with you. She has never ever invited anyone else I've ever dated, even for dinner, but the first sign of convention, and suddenly..." He rolled his eyes. Lyra would understand, right? She'd understand, and not want a bar of it.