There is no fulfillment that is not made sweeter... Who: Percy and Aurora What: A simple 'thank you' goes a long way. When: Feb. 19th Where: Her apartment (lovenest)
Aurora was a little relieved that Percy wasn’t coming for dinner, while she loved food and admired the preparation of it like she admired all manifestations of skill and passion her own skills were limited to a few dishes. Granted the majority of those were good for hosting, the rest were mostly ones she had learned in a few cooking classes she had taken in school.
But still, it was nice to avoid that with the amount of prep and cleaning that could go into it.
So she had simply cleaned the apartmentand baked a batch of peanut butter cookies, almost as much for the smell as for the munching factor. She had also gotten out a bottle of wine, a pitcher of lemonade, and a decent bottle of scotch. So far her picture of Percy did not depict him as much of a drinker, but it was good to be prepared. Admittedly, she had been looking forward to this, enough that she had let him distract her when she was taking someone else to her apartment. Not the whole time of course, as Aurora had never been so rude and disrespectful of a lover to think of someone else in bed.
Still, Percy was a bit of a puzzle, as was the inherent relaxation she felt in his presence and trust in him--enough to divulge personal details and act silly which she had been a bit more careful about since tabloids became a tangible presence in her life. There was an almost instant chemistry between them along with attraction, but it was a slow simmering thing beneath her skin unlike the one that roared upon first meeting Daniel so many years ago. She was barefoot as she set music from one of her playlists, an odd mix of classical, early Bob Dylan and Jack White, and waited for him to arrive.
The last two weeks had been...interesting to say the least, Daniel living in the same building again was still messing with her a bit, they hadn’t lived that close since University--partially on purpose. Though he had camped out at her place once or twice, then there was BB, a whirlwind of energy and passion who was apparently also friends with Daniel, and then her new friend. Aurora usually had a policy of not sleeping with people she worked directly with or lived next door to, not shitting where you sleep and all, but BB was hard to resist. If Aurora considered herself a bonfire you couldn’t stop being slowly drawn too BB was an unpredictable hurricane that sucked you in without warning and spat you out with your dress askew and your hair a mess.
Percy had always prided himself on timely arrivals, and today was no exception. He’d arrived exactly at 3 p.m. on the dot, as he’d promised to Aurora during their brief text exchange earlier in the week. He was well aware that the ‘books’ circumstance they were meeting under could very easily be construed as thinly-veiled innuendo, and in true Percy fashion, he could not care less.
If he let propriety guide his entire life, he would never get to actually live. This notion, of bucking the status quo, perhaps guided his actions more than anything else. Percy was, without a doubt, a man of the moment--fully existing in the here and now, thriving on the intoxication of all life’s twists and turns.
Including this particular twist and turn; when Aurora had sent him her address, he had initially been taken aback; coincidences were coincidences, but in a city as large as Newport Beach, it seemed almost too good to be true. For the past month, he’d been living just a mere eight floors beneath the enchanting Aurora’s apartment, never any wiser.
This revelation had certainly made arriving on time easier. He’d taken the elevator up, humming to himself along the way. He carried with him a small box of Valentine’s Day chocolates as an offering of thanks to his not-so-humble hostess. When the elevator doors opened, he meandered down the hallway, a much more sumptuously decorated affair than his own level three apartment hall. D3, D4, D5--there it was. Percy ran a hand through his messy curls in a last minute attempt to straighten up, and dusted away whatever miniscule wrinkles may have existed on his plain button-down shirt. There was an enduring five o’clock shadow on his face that he hadn’t bothered to shave; too late for that now, at any rate.
He knocked three precise times, the only sound in the hallway other than the faint sound of music from within Aurora’s home.
For someone who was frequently (constantly) late to social events Aurora appreciated when someone was on time to her own. So when Percy’s knock resounded through her apartment exactly when he said it would he already earned some points in her book--not that he was trying to redeem himself for anything at this point.
Her hands smoothed down her skirt needlessly, a frilly and whimsical as compared to the more meeting drive attire than he had seen on it previously. A little less tight of course, but she had always felt that such things weren’t always necessary. She had timed it so the cookies were still warm and the smell still hovering in the room, and it seemed to seep into the outside hall as she opened the door to greet him with a sincere smile and open arms as she gestured inside properly, “Right on time, ah and he comes bearing gifts.” A grin pulled at her flapper red lips, because why not be ostentatious on the weekend, when she reached for the chocolates in his hands. Classic, safe but also promising. She took in his appearance with undisguised curiosity, and it met with her approval; just the right amount of formal that still flattered him.
There was that bubble of warmth in her gut again, the one she got when she saw an old friend and the relaxation that came with it that contradicted with the span of time she had known him but she tried not to let it distract her.
“But I didn’t bring sea monsters with me,” he said in jest, stepping forward across the threshold once Aurora had made it clear she consented. “Just chocolates.” Percy held the box out to Aurora, drinking in not only the sight of her but also the expanse of her decadent apartment. “Here, these are for you. They’re a ‘thank you’ of sorts. After all, you single-handedly saved my story.”
He was not surprised at the lavishness before him; Aurora’s apartment suited her in a manner that Percy could not fully put into words--a rare occurrence for him. With the smell of fresh cookies added to the lush, relaxed atmosphere, he felt exceptionally comfortable. So much, in fact, that he felt he should tell Aurora at least one truth before he gave himself over to colloquial conversation.
“I’ve never been on this floor before,” Percy began, his tone friendly. “I live downstairs. Third floor. We don’t have this kind of fancy carpet.”
Aurora laughed as the door closed, “That’s probably good, I’m a lover not a fighter, at least, not physically.” She conceded, whether he was as astute of an observer of human nature as many other talented writers she had met or not her temper was not one of her best kept secrets.
Ever the good hostess (when she tried, at least) she pulled out a stool for him at the kitchen island where the drinks and cookies were set out before she sat down herself, “I’m glad I could be petty and helpful at once, it was a win-win.” A pleased expression crossed her features as she picked through the chocolates before picking out what she was fairly sure was a chocolate covered cherry.
His bit of news though had her pausing, “Oh?” Damnit, “That’s odd, this is no small town for such a small world after all situation. One of my college friends moved in downstairs as well.” She hummed thoughtfully as she bit off the top of the chocolate shell idly, she could have referred to Daniel as an ‘ex’, but they had never really dated and he was her friend first and foremost now. This was certainly a curveball though, one coincidence was funny, more than that were eerie and disconcerting. Not to mention he was potentially (likely) going to want to break her rule, which would be the second one in as many weeks, “Oh! I’m sorry, I should have offered you a drink, I wasn’t sure what you would like so I pulled out a little of everything.”
Percy followed Aurora to the kitchen island, her pink skirt practically leading the way itself. He sat down on the offered stool, eying the small arrangement of refreshments before him. He’d never had much of a sweet tooth, but once in awhile...well, a bit of something sweet couldn’t hurt. Not to mention turning down anything Aurora offered would certainly be disrespectful; she was the hostess, and he therefore felt obliged to acquiesce.
One cookie found its way into Percy’s hand, and he took a small bite of it, blue eyes widening slightly when Aurora let slip that she had another friend residing at Pax Letale. Such an admission would otherwise not bear scrutiny, but Aurora seemed oddly surprised about it--in much the same manner as she responded to his confession. Percy studied her curiously as he chewed the cookie, mentally putting together the slowly, but surely, growing list of ‘coincidences’ which had been happening to him since moving to Newport Beach.
Aurora was, whether she was comfortable with it or not, one of those coincidences. Or rather, the way Percy felt around her was an unusually specific coincidence. He decided to assuage his inklings of familiarity by accepting Aurora’s drink offer.
“What kind of guest would I be if I said no?” He pressed his lips together and lowered his brows, studying the display of beverages with a purposely exaggerated expression of intense focus. “You make it hard for a man to choose,” Percy mused, finally settling on the scotch. “If you’ve got ice somewhere in this beautiful place, I’ll take a scotch on the rocks.” He then paused in a similar manner as Aurora had, lightly tapping the remaining ¾ of his cookie on the counter restlessly. “I haven’t had any old friends move in here--yet. But I ran into someone the other day that I did a job for once. You believe in coincidences, right?”
“An ornery one,” She replied with a grin even as she stood to get into her refrigerator for the ice, filing away his tastes for next time. There would be a next time, she felt it in her gut that Percy was the consistent sort. At least when it came to her, even though she had very little evidence to back up this intuition. Aurora preferred cocktails herself, and maybe wanting to hide the bitterness of things and only focus on the sweet said something about herself and was going to bite her in the rear one of these days, but that wasn’t a bridge she’d been forced to cross yet.
Luckily, she kept the scotch for guests like himself, so fixing him a drink while being careful not to drown it in ice didn’t take much time away from pouring her own glass of wine. A normal glass though, and she stowed the bottle away so she couldn’t tempt herself for more. Valentine's day was enough drinking for a month really, she was too old for that nonsense.
Settling back down with wine in hand she picked her chocolate back up, humming her agreement with her lips around the treat as she contemplated his answer and follow up question. Percy was right, the things she felt around him were a result of chemistry surely, instead of anything strange and the flicking image she could have sworn she saw of him at CASKET? A result of the alcohol, because she was no longer used to imbibing that much at once.
Aurora tossed the sweet into her mouth just as the creme inside started to drip down her fingers, a beaming smile on her features at his casual compliment of her home, “Thank you, I know it’s a bit much but my mother says your home should be both a refuge and a reflection of yourself. If I start to forget me, I just have to look around.” Oh man that was whimsical, great. With the wine and the apartment she had seemed so together and mature, but she had accidentally mentioned Maxim in her text to him and now she was sounding cheesy while quoting her mother. Aurora was thirty years old, but she still had trouble not getting lost in her passions sometimes.
“You’re right, just coincidences. I must spend too much time with my head buried in plays and books.” The wine was a pleasant contrast to the chocolate, he was a good--no, he made a good--choice, “Did a job for you say? That sounds almost mercenary.” She should offer him a tour, but instead she was watching him expectantly, eyes alight with curiosity and focused on him even as she drew her fingers along her lips to clean them with as much grace and casualness as one could muster while doing such an act. What? She had behaved so well since he arrived, she could tease a little.
Aurora waxing philosophically about her home decor was a little endearing, admittedly. Had Percy known she felt so uncomfortable about sharing the secret behind her not so humble abode, he may have tried to lighten the mood. As it was, he simply nodded with interest, and focused his attention on imbibing his drink, just one taste to see how well she’d measured the ice; admittedly, he wouldn’t have said a foul word about the drink even if it had been too watered down. It was nothing less than discourteous to insult someone within their own home, especially when they were so kindly sharing their hospitality.
“Well,” Percy began, watching Aurora’s teasing act of clean-up; “for one, there’s nothing wrong with a good book. And for two,” he continued, meeting her eyes, “I’ve never considered myself to be a mercenary. I’m just working to report the truth, that’s all. In fact, I’ve made it my life’s mission.” If he was being a little cheeky, it hardly couldn’t hurt. Not at this point. In Percy’s opinion, Aurora’s flirtatious gestures were more than enough incentive for him to adopt a more laissez-faire attitude--whatever happened, would happen.
Aurora gave him a look , “Now look who sounds like they’re quoting a book; truth, justice and the American Way?” But she grinned anyway, leaning forward to tap his arm in a way that would have been indecent in some shirts but was fine in this one thankfully, “You need to bulk up a little to be Clark Kent hun.” Teasing him brought the oddest feeling of deja vu that she sipped at her wine to cover up before it showed on her face.
“Let me show you around, not that it’s very big but still.” Aurora stood from her stool, barefeet stepping quietly onto the tile, she brought her glass with her when she went to stand next to him, “Do you only write articles, or have you ever tried anything else?” But she didn’t wait for his answer, instead stepping further into the apartment, pivoting smoothly to talk backwards and watch him follow her for a step or two before turning again. One day she was going to play with his hair and see how he reacted, but for now she stilled her hands, but it was certainly tempting and Aurora was never the best at resisting temptation.
She opened up the door into the second bedroom, “My couch is so comfortable I don’t have a guest bed, so I have an office/gym instead and the guest bath, ” The family pictures over her antique desk made an odd contrast but she had never let it bother her, so she let him look around before pulling his wrist gently towards the other side of the room towards her bookcases, “Books, unless you’re really not much of a reader of course.” Aurora let her fingers slide against his palm as she released him like she had done before, raising a challenging eyebrow at him as she stood in front of her floor to ceiling bookcases. It was meant to be coquettish, which she was very good at, thank you. Hell, she had taken classes on it. But, it came out some mix of that and playful teasing somehow.
And indeed he did follow Aurora, an amused smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Percy freely accepted her playful banter, his interest in the nature of peculiar coincidences assuaged for the moment. Right now, he had a set of bookshelves to properly judge.
Not that he necessarily considered himself the leading expert on bookshelves. But perhaps this afternoon he would rise to his true calling. Percy otherwise took in the sections of Aurora’s uniquely decorated apartment that she was allowing him to see, his self-possessed friend clearly delighting in her role as a tour guide. Her lingering touch on his palm was enough of an indicator, at any rate.
“Oh, I read,” Percy retorted good-naturedly, eying Aurora’s expansive collection of novels and plays. He was, truth be told, impressed--as well as intrigued. Aurora was certainly a woman full of surprises and modern contradictions, refusing to fit into a pre-made mold of femininity. Percy had always felt himself drawn to interesting individuals, regardless of how long his own interest in them lasted. “Maybe not as much as Clark Kent, but words have a certain sort of power that I’ve always enjoyed.” He stepped forward, closer to Aurora, in order to better inspect the book selection; but it was possible that he needed to inspect his lovely hostess from a closer position as well.
“You’re a dangerous woman, Aurora. Beautiful, engaging, and well read.” Percy said, trailing a finger along the spines of the books closest to his eye level, studying the titles on the well-worn spines. He cast his glance down at Aurora, blue eyes warm with mirth. “Do you have any other bookshelves to show me, or should I be content with seeing these three?”
Aurora leaned into him when he stepped closer to her, saying that she was pleased he was accepting his invitation into her personal space while at the same time pushing it just a little further. During the Valentine’s day gathering BB chased her with obvious intent, it was simple and a little raw, which was a thing she could appreciate even if it wasn’t a thing she wanted on the menu every day. Between her and Percy it was a little less clear who was leading the dance, though like so often it was definitely her encouraging him to keep up, and that was a dance she always enjoyed in the right amounts.
It made her feel younger.
Percy would learn shortly that flattery got you far with Aurora, though it wasn’t necessary to soothe any insecurities with her(though she had them, she kept them buried and hidden, thankfully), so perhaps they were just as useless as they were valuable. Still, she visibly beamed at his assessment, cheeks coloring just a bit with a clearly pleased smile, straightening her shoulders before she seemed to take a long assessing look at him again. Her expression stayed contemplating while she reached up to gently tug on a curl, fingers ghosting along the shell of his ear in the process, “Oh sugah, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” The southern Mississippi accent had been perfected for a play, and she only brought it out when she was feeling silly, though it worked for flirting when she didn’t lay it on too thick.
The illusion was broken when she laughed, “Come along, there’s always more, I can be a bit of a nostalgia hoarder.” She stepped back, not pulling his wrist this time but letting him follow her with only her grin to guide him as she walked back towards her room.
The proximity between the two of them was charged with an undercurrent of excitement...and below that, further still, the niggling sense of familiarity. Percy chose to focus on the former, rather than the latter, for the sake of the developing situation at hand. Particularly because Aurora crossed the minimal threshold between the two of them when she touched his hair; it was difficult to concern himself with the delicate nuances of sweet nostalgia when the present time was currently far more fascinating.
“Is that so…?” His inquiry was in a lower intonation of sound, amusement brightening his features at Aurora’s impromptu adopted accent. When she took the lead once more, Percy happily trailed behind her, curious as to where this road would lead him. “I’d be interested in seeing what else you’re hoarding,” he said casually. “I noticed the poetry you had back there. Dorothy Parker’s one of my favorites. Being blacklisted by Hollywood would seem almost honorable these days.”
The feeling of deja vu was back when he started following her, like they had done this dozens of times before; her laughing and teasing him while leading him wherever she wanted him to go. But that was silly. She shoved the feeling to the back of her mind and focused on the curiosity she felt towards him, the way she got goosebumps just from that casual touch to his hair, the way her heart seemed to jump when his tone changed. That would be something fun to explore later.
Aurora’s pink skirt swished when she pivoted gracefully to open up her bedroom door, the underlying, subtle smell of bergamot and clove was a bit stronger here without the cookie smell to compete but still subtle enough not to bother the senses. Her comforter this week was a deep blue with gold designs, and she let her hands trail across it as she led him to the other side where the rest of her bookcases were, one of them dominated by labelled binders of old scripts meticulously labeled. Nostalgia, or wanting to be able to relive certain time periods, or maybe a show of ego. Perhaps a combination of the three. “I wish I could have met her, although I hope to never become as cynical as her, By the time you swear you're his, Shivering and sighing. And he vows his passion is, Infinite, undying. Lady make note of this -- One of you is lying. ” She sighed, “But anyway, books!” A step back or two brought her back almost in contact with Percy’s chest, were he to reach out or even take too deep a breath, “Feel free to look, these are less kept with the excuse of them possibly helping with work, so less textbooks.” There was an overstated abundance of elegance and a nigh ostentatious air when it came to Aurora’s bedroom furniture, each piece clearly chosen to bring together an aesthetic quality of rustic decadence. Percy might have been able to write an entire article on the trappings found within Aurora’s personal chambers--but he wasn’t here on a work mission, now, was he?
“I can’t picture you having a cynical attitude,” Percy remarked nonchalantly, pleased at Aurora’s recitation of one of Parker’s most famous stanzas. “Or bittersweet, either,” he added, taking advantage of Aurora’s newest breach of his personal space by gently moving aside her hair, exposing the soft skin beneath the dark tresses. “Neither would suit you,” Percy continued, bending to punctuate his assessment of her character with a light kiss to the nape of Aurora’s neck, breathing in her scent, mixed with the room’s lingering smell of bergamot and clove. His fingers danced teasingly down her side, halting just below the smooth fabric of her striped blouse, resting against a rounded hip enshrouded beneath her cheerfully pink skirt.
“Why don’t you show me your favorite folder from this bookcase?” The casualness of his statement was easily out of place with his impulsive affectations, yet somehow necessary--he’d acted not merely because the motion seemed wanted or desired, but because it, too, felt necessary in a manner quite unlike that which he’d otherwise experienced in the past.
Quite without the intention of doing so, Aurora found her head tilting to the side when he moved her hair, and found her heart jumping once at his most forward touch yet. Which was perhaps a little surprising, considering how bold she was used to people being (she tended to have that effect on people, it seemed), but he was right in that bittersweet and cynical didn’t fit her, and acts of affection still touched her the same as they once did.
A quiet hum of pleasure at his kiss because there was a feeling of intimacy and comfort in the gesture that simply shouldn’t exist between two people of their short acquaintance. It was a wonderful feeling that gave her a bubble of warmth in her gut that she didn’t want to question, “Thank you, but what, pray tell, makes you think you know me so well?” She asked him, teasingly, resisting the temptation to tilt her hip into his touch--curious at what he would do next and enjoying the surety behind his movements.
“Hmmm.” She glanced about her room, as if the answer to his difficult question would be left out on a paper upon her nightstand. Aurora knew that her home was a bit...Ostentatious to say the least, she had always loved loud, grand and frankly flamboyant things and people. It was a mystery where she received that quality from, as her mother was low-key and her father, while a bit of a ham and lover of nice things, was not one for plush carpets and silks as much as Aurora. But somehow it had always fit her, and no judgement of others would phase her. Percy didn’t seem phased however, which she appreciated, “Oh, it’s cliche but I had so much fun during the run of Midsummer Night’s Dream, it’s romantic, it’s magical and we had such a fun time with the makeup and costumes.” She pointed towards the last shelf, where the binder was labeled with the year and the play, but she did not move to retrieve it.
Percy didn’t answer her question, smiling to himself instead and focusing on Aurora’s theater memoir, the play of choice seeming apt for a woman like herself. “Were you Titania?” His own question was followed by another kiss to her neck, before Percy released his hold on Aurora to meander over to the bookshelf she had pointed out to him. It was, truly, an act of testing the waters, teasing Aurora’s reactions out of her step by step.
Searching the bookshelf for Aurora’s preferred play of choice, Percy spotted it and pulled the beloved folder from the shelf, flipping politely through its laminated pages, littered with the witticism of Shakespeare. He turned to Aurora, eyes alight with a mix of mischief and intrigue. “Do you mind if I sit while you tell me about it?”
Aurora wasn’t really one for being ignored, and it felt a bit like the kiss was him mollifying her because he knew that but she let it pass, “I was.” Clever boy, though perhaps it wasn’t too much of a leap on his part. She raised a curious eyebrow and refrained from pouting--barely, and perhaps it showed--when he stepped away from her.
She watched him flip through the annotated pages with her swirling cursive written haphazardly in the margins, notes, corrections, suggestions and factoids written that all seemed very crucial at the time. With open arms she tilted her head, “Be my guest.” And sat down herself, pulling one leg into herself and tucking her skirt just so for modesty’s sake and extending one out to the side before patting the space in front of her, “Have a sit.” She patted the carpet in front of her, face lacking in guile and smile sincere. Aurora may have left the ball in his court for a spell, but this was still her game, and she was curious if he would let her sit at his back. It caused discomfort for some, and she wouldn’t push it if it did, though she would be disappointed.
There was the slightest of hesitation on Percy’s part when Aurora made herself comfy upon the floor, but if she was not paying close attention, she easily may have missed it. With less effort than was needed, he overcame his mild surprise, replacing it with the otherwise ongoing sense of interest he felt in their shared interactions. “Yes ma’am,” he jested, complying nonetheless with Aurora’s request. He sat with his long legs crossed, as if the two of them were about to share stories around a campfire. The binder was held in his lap, open to a random page littered with Aurora’s tidy scrawl. Looking back over his shoulder at her, his lips curled upwards with a private smile.
“These are your stories to tell, Aurora. I’ll listen, if you don’t mind sharing.”
Percy had the sort of happiness that was easily contagious, and not in the way that small animals made you, that you wanted to smile at them, but more like you wanted to be a part of what made them happy. Like there was a secret you wanted to be let in on because it was so obviously delightful. It was both a dangerously intriguing thing, and a familiar one, and perhaps the latter is why the former didn’t alarm her like it maybe should have. The only other people that drew her in this quickly and smoothly were Daniel and her almost-fiance.
She rewarded him with another pleased smile when he sat down in front of her,a nd she raised her hands towards his back before pausing, “May I?” Because anything more than a teasing brush required permission, at least in her mind.
People liked to stare at her more than they liked to listen to her, and usually if they had to listen it was usually someone else’s words--a prepared speech or a script. So she was maybe a little surprised at his question, and it earned him a smile that wasn’t canned or contrived, “Oh, I love to talk about myself. That’s a dangerous door to open, I’ve been a ham since I was little, I had favorite poses for polaroids as a child, in fact I took a long time to say my name just for the attention I received when everyone was trying to teach me. But I love plays because I love stories, I think that's what makes people fascinating. ”
She gestured towards the binder, where her opinions were written in indelible ink, sometimes sharp and irritated like, “I was lucky that director was flexible, I tend to have a lot of forceful Suggestions on projects.” At least she was honest about her faults, it wasn’t hard to find a list of people who weren’t particularly eager to work with her a second time, and she had tried to improve. A bit. At first. It was a bit of honesty she wouldn't usually share with a near stranger, especially a reporter type, but it was her instincts that said her and Percy were far past that sort of line contrasting with her rational mind that said otherwise.
And so he did listen, Aurora’s reminisces of days gone past--coupled with less than subtle anecdotes about herself--filling the room with their gaiety and warmth. He allowed Aurora to place her hands on his shoulders, her small but talented hands working wonders at stray muscle knots he wasn’t aware he’d accrued.
“You know, it's the oddest thing. “Her hands moved up from his shoulders, nails grazing his scalp gently as she tugged at his hair lightly, “I feel as if we've been here before and perhaps that should be unsettling but it isn't.” It didn't feel as if Percy wanted something from her or that she should put on airs around him. Maybe those were false hopes or misinterpretations but she would enjoy it - and the liberties he granted her - while she could.
They passed the afternoon in this manner, or one which was moderately akin to it; their conversation flowed as if they were simply old companions rather than newfound friends. Aurora bewitched Percy with tales of her childhood and acting career, followed by some of the more dicey events of her adult life. In turn, Percy shared stories of his own that he felt were appropriate. When he left before the sun finished burning the last of its rays, their parting was amicable, with promises made of another afternoon spent together--soon, soon.