Sara Lance (![]() ![]() @ 2021-04-01 10:09:00 |
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Entry tags: | dctv: sara lance, roswell nm: michael guerin |
Who: Sara and Michael
What: Hook-ups and Chaos Marks
When: Mid-March
Where: Paradise Bar, then Michael's place
Ratings/Warnings: Teenish/Language, making out, FTB
Status: Complete
As usual Michael was drinking after work. He was at one of his favorite local dive bars, though the reason it was one of his favorites was partly because of the bartender. It had been a few weeks since she had last seen Sara. Since before whatever the hell happened over Valentine’s Day and before a tattoo started growing on his bicep, which was now more than just a triangle, there was a line and circle coming out of the triangle. It was strange but apparently he wasn’t the only one this was happening to. Either way, it had definitely been too long since he had last seen Sara.
“So,” MIchael said when things died down a bit for her. “How much have you missed me?” he joked, taking a sip of his whiskey.
The bar was close to empty, which suited Sara just fine. Tips were nice, of course, but sometimes it was nice just to relax and have a chance to chat with the customers. And she liked chatting with Michael.
“Oh, were you gone?” Sara asked, raising an eyebrow, feigning disinterest. “I didn’t even notice.”
“Ouch,” Michael replied, putting a hand over his heart as though he was truly wounded. After a moment he removed his hand, grinning at her. “And here I thought you just sat around pining for me whenever I’m not around.”
“Oh, you were all I thought about the first couple of days,” Sara said, flatly. “I wasn’t sure how I would ever survive. But then, you know, I got to like the quiet.” She grinned. “So, where’ve you been anyway? Find a new bar to drink at?”
“I can’t really see you enjoying quiet.” Michael replied with a smirk. “You know, this isn’t the only bar I go to on a regular basis. You might think I was a stalker instead of just a guy who needs alcohol to survive.” He finished off his drink to emphasize his point.
“That’s because you know me so well,” Sara teased. ‘Enjoying the quiet’ was about as far from Sara as possible. “Ah, so you are cheating on me with another bar,” Sara said melodramatically. “I knew it.” She grinned, pouring him another drink before he even had to ask for it. When Michael was done drinking, he’d let her know. Until then, she’d keep his glass filled.
“Whoa,” Michael replied holding up his hands. “Since when are we in a relationship?” he joked. “I’m not sure I can handle all this pressure,” he grinned at her before taking a sip of his new drink. He definitely appreciated not having to ask. Sara knew perfectly well that Michael could handle his alcohol.
“Poor Paradise,” Sara said, sighing dramatically and patting the countertop affectionately. “I don’t know how she’ll ever recover from this blow.” She grinned impishly at him. “So, what have you been up to? Other than drinking at every other bar in town?”
“I guess she’ll just have to find another asshole to spend all his time drinking here,” he joked, grinning. “Mostly work,” he said with a shrug, doing his best to refrain from looking over at his bicep where his tattoo had formed. “Stark keeps me busy.”
“He’s the one who got a manicure in his boardroom the other day, isn’t he?” Sara asked. “What’s it like working for him, anyway? He seems like a character.”
“That’s him,” Michael replied with a nod. “Pretty great. He doesn’t mind if I have a beer or two at work.” Not something that could be said for most bosses. And honestly Michael’s genius probably improved with some alcohol in his system. He had also flown Michael to New York for pizza when Michael had burned his grilled cheese. But that was kind of a lot. “So you know, I have no complaints.”
Sara raised an eyebrow. “You know, I’m not even sure if Neena would let me drink on the job,” she said, though to be fair, she’d never asked. Of course, Neena let her drink after work, so Sara couldn’t really complain. “So yeah, that kind of sounds like you’re living the dream. Good on you, Michael.”
“Don’t go spreading that around though,” Michael said with a smirk. “I don’t want to get in trouble with HR.” Which Tony had told him not to let HR know after all. He was about to say more when he suddenly got this weird feeling of being in another bar. With another bartender. That Michael had never seen before, but was strangely attracted to.
And then just like that it was gone. He frowned slightly before focussing on Sara once again. She was a bartender he knew he was attracted to. And just like that the smirk was back on his face. “What are you doing after you’re done here?”
“Oh, that’s too bad. Me and Stark HR are pretty tight,” Sara snorted.
She frowned when she noticed Michael staring off into space, but before she could say anything, he was focused again. “Oh, you know,” she said. “I was planning on washing my hair.”
Michael smirked. He knew perfectly well what a cliche excuse that was. And yet it was still a perfect opening for him. “Oh yeah?” he asked, brow slightly raised. “You want some help with that?”
Sara’s lips split into a smile and she leaned toward him, forearms resting on the bar. “I don’t know, I can be very particular about my hair. Think you can handle it?”
Michael leaned forward a bit himself, hand reaching out to twirl a strand of her hair between his fingers. “I definitely think I can handle it,” he replied, releasing her hair and leaning back again. He took another long sip of his drink. “How much longer you got?”
Sara checked the clock on the wall behind the bar. “I can probably start closing up in about half an hour, if no one else comes in,” she said after a moment. It was a little early, but on dead nights like this, no one really minded if she closed up early.
“You sure your hair can wait that long?” Michael teased finishing off his drink. He’d resolved to only have one more and nurse it a bit. If he had to make it last a whole half hour. But he didn’t want to be wasted when Sara was done working. Just his usual buzz.
“It’ll have to,” Sara said, though, if she had her choice, she would just shut down the bar for the night. She straightened up and poured him another drink. “Are you sure you can wait another half hour?” she asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“Not even a little,” Michael replied, smirking. Though he would if he had to.
The half hour actually went by faster than he was expecting and before he knew it Sara was closing up the bar. “Your place or mine?” he questioned once they were outside. Either way she would have to drive. He’d get his car tomorrow. Wouldn’t be the first time he left it there overnight.
“Yours,” Sara said. For one, Michael had a nicer apartment, and frankly, Sara would murder someone for his shower. She led him to her car.
“I had a feeling you’d say that,” Michael said with a smirk as he got into the passenger side of her car. They got to his apartment building soon enough. Michael led her upstairs to his place and managed to keep his hands off her until they were inside with the door shut. But once it was he wasted no time, lips crashing into hers.
Sara returned Michael’s kiss with equal ferocity, wrapping her arms around his neck. It didn’t take her long before she moved them downwards to pull up on the hem of his shirt.
Michael broke the kiss, lifting his hands so she could pull the shirt off over his head, then returned the favor reaching for the hem of her shirt.
Sara let Michael lift her shirt, raising her arms when it was time to slip it over, but nearly as soon as she did, the shirt over her face, her bicep began to burn.
“Ow, what the fuck!” she exclaimed, pushing him away from her. Logically she knew it couldn’t have been him who had caused this pain - not unless he had some sort of branding iron hidden on him or something - but it was instinctual. She finished removing her shirt by herself, tossing it on the floor at her feet, and then stared at her arm.
There was something there. Some kind of tattoo, though she couldn’t even begin to describe what it was a tattoo of.
Even without the pushing, Michael would have jumped back. He was not about hurting anyone. And although he was pretty sure he hadn’t hurt Sara when removing her shirt, the ‘ow’ indicated he had.
That was before he noticed the tattoo on her bicep. One he was pretty sure he had never seen before. He would just assume she had gotten it in the time since he had last seen her. If she hadn’t yelled like that, and if Michael hadn’t had a tattoo randomly appear himself.
“You okay,” he asked, taking a step closer to her. “Does your arm burn?” That would be a really strange question if what happened to him was not at all what was going on with Sara.
“Yeah,” Sara said through her teeth, not taking her eyes from her arm. She lifted her arm, and then let it drop again, watching how the mark moved with her skin. “But I’m less concerned with that now than whatever the hell this is supposed to be.”
Though, even as she watched it, the centre faded away, leaving only the outer ring.
Michael watched as the majority of it faded away. “I honestly have no idea,” Michael replied. “But if it makes you feel better the same thing happened to me,” he pointed to the triangle on his own bicep. “With this.”
Sara frowned, reaching up to touch Michael’s bicep where the tattoo was. “How long have you had this?” she asked. She’d never noticed it before, though it had been a while since the last time Michael was in the bar.
“A few weeks,” he replied with a shrug. “It just appeared. Kinda like yours. Mine was bigger too. With all these weird symbols.” He wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it. He had heard that it happened to others, but this was the first time he had seen it on someone else.
“That… doesn’t make any sense,” Sara said, her eyebrows furrowing together. She needed to see this for herself. She pushed passed Michael, making her way to his bathroom so she could get a look at her shoulder in his mirror.
Michael followed Sara, standing in the doorway and leaning against the frame. “None of this makes any sense,” he admitted. It still bothered him after all. “It is kinda hot on you though,” he offered with a smirk.
“Tattoos are pretty sexy,” Sara said, her eyes falling to Michael’s arm. “I guess that’s one plus.”
“Exactly,” Michael agreed, stepping closer to her. He almost reached out to run his finger over her mark, but then remembered. “Does it still hurt?”
Sara rolled her shoulder to check, and then shook her head. “No, it’s fine now,” she said. It still stung a little, but not like it had.
“Need a drink?” Michael asked already making his way over to the kitchen. Ideally he would like to get back to what they were doing, but he didn’t think that was what Sara needed right now. Random tattoo showing up was kind of a mood killer.
“Yes,” Sara said, looking at her tattoo for another couple of moments before she went to follow Michael out to his kitchen. “So you’ve got one too? Do you know of anyone else?” It had to mean something, didn’t it?
Michael grabbed a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. This whole situation called for more than just beer. He brought it all to the coffee table, setting down the glasses first and filling them before leaving the bottle out for refills. “Yeah,” he said, taking a seat on the couch. “Not personally but I’ve seen some talk about it on this network.”
“Thanks,” Sara said, grabbing the bottle and pouring it directly into her mouth. To her credit, she didn’t actually put her lips on the opening of the bottle. But this definitely required more than just a glass of whiskey.
Once that was done, sat down on the couch, pulling one of her knees up to her chest. “Gotta say, this is not how I expected tonight to go.”
“Yeah,” Michael replied, taking a drink from the glass he had poured. Not that he would have cared if Sara had put her lips on the bottle. Her lips had been plenty of other places. “Not exactly how I thought tonight would go either.” But it was no big deal. He knew there would most likely be more nights with Sara.
Sara sighed, turned on the couch a little, and then leaned back so she was leaning her back against Michael, one foot on the couch, the other still on the floor, glass of whiskey in hand. “A couple weeks, huh? And big shot engineer hasn’t figured out what it is yet?” she asked, her tone teasing.
“You know,” Michael replied, his tone matching hers. “Randomly appearing tattoos isn’t exactly the same as creating a concrete that’s better for the environment. But trust me, it’s on my list of things to figure out.”
Sara grinned, turning a little so she could face him. “Environmentally friendly concrete, huh? Is that what you’ve been working on? That sounds impressive. I mean, a little more boring than a shrink ray or something, but probably more practical.”
“I just got that much more sexy, huh?” Michael quipped, a smirk on his face. “I’ll be sure to talk to Tony about working on a shrink ray for my next project.”
“In a weird, nerdy kind of way,” Sara agreed, and downed the rest of her glass of whiskey. “What say we get back to what we were doing before?” she asked, turning her body toward him entirely. It was better than trying to figure out the weird tattoo, at least.
“That I can get behind,” Michael replied. And just like that his lips were back on hers, hands moving to finish undressing her before they were interrupted. Yeah, this was definitely more how he thought the night was going to go.