tj greenling (nounours) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2016-09-13 19:32:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | # 2019 [09] september, mary-june greenling, theodore greenling |
who: babs & tj greenling
where: babs’ new place
when: 4 september 2019
what: definitely not a date
It hadn't sat well with TJ when he'd heard Babs had gone to the speed dating thing at the bar. Not in a possessive mine way so much as he'd felt like they'd been doing better. Ever since he'd gone over to fix her door and make sure her new house was safe and secure, it felt like they'd turned a corner. Anything was better than shouting and blaming and, well, shooting. No, he would never stop bringing that up, but these days he did it with a much better nature than might have been expected. But Babs had gone speed dating. With other people. It made him realize how much he wanted her to go on a date with him. TJ couldn't even remember the last time they'd gone on a date. It had been years, obviously, back before all the craziness with zombies started, and even before then it likely had been a while. So he did a little digging to find out when she wouldn't be at work, put on the nicest clothes he had - which still weren't great but at least they were better than normal, and rode over to her place. He didn't feel nervous until he was standing on the step outside her house, knocking on the door. All the things he’d gone through and this was making him nervous. He shook the feeling off and ran his hand back through his hair, waiting for her to answer the door. Babs was trying, she really was. Life was starting to be back to some sort of new normal, and she was ready to follow along. She’d even hung a picture in her room! A small print of a famous Van Gogh piece- white roses on a green background. She was pretty sure TJ’s mom had had a mug with that on it. But that wasn’t the reason why she’d gotten it, she’d always loved white roses. Her sparse home was slowly gaining warmth: a blanket that was bright yellow, a lamp, some clothes that weren’t scrubs. In fact, when TJ knocked at her door, she’d been in the process of playing with the idea of painting one of her walls a warm blue color to fend off the depressing gray paint from before. Slowly holding up one color chip after another, fully aware she might not even be able to find paint, she dropped them all when the door was knocked on. Her brows raised, she walked down the stairs with her gun at her side, looking at the entryway and glancing through the peephole first. An eye roll. Jesus, she could have shot him. Again. Putting the gun into the back of her jeans, Babs opened the door. Her blond hair was pulled back into a high ponytail, her shirt was messy and she was sweating from moving a dining table up the stairs that day- alone. Always alone. “You need something?” she asked. It wasn't exactly the greeting he'd been hoping for, but with Babs it rarely was. All the same, she'd opened the door and didn't have a gun aimed at him, so TJ decided to take it as a win. She so often pointed guns his way, after all. “Not need,” he started, before giving a slight shake of his head. “I was wondering if you'd like to go to dinner? With me.” God, had he always been so bad at this? How'd he get her to go out with him in the first place. He offered her a smile and shrugged a shoulder. “I'm buying.” Babs leaned her hip and elbow against the frame of her front door, tilting her head as if to examine TJ. She’d always been mystified that a man as fine and handsome as Teddy Greenling had wanted her: short and curvy, with big cheeks and messy hair. TJ looked like a damn Greek God in comparison. “Uh,” she ventured for a moment. “Well. Alright,” Babs finally pulled back enough to let her husband (Ex? Current?) into the townhouse. “I need… to change,” she finally managed, going up the stairs with an awkward glance over her shoulder at him. In the privacy of what was turning into a studio apartment situation, Babs pulled her clothes off and used a few wet wipes to clean herself off. A clean pair of jeans and a violet colored tank became her new outfit, along with a black jacket that looked a great deal like a blazer. Not exactly a date outfit. But this wasn’t a date, right? But why had she taken the time to braid her hair? To pinch her cheeks? To use some chapstick? Shit. It wasn’t a date. Babs kept telling herself that as she went back down the stairs. “You going to tell me what you’re aiming at?” TJ had set himself up on the stairs while he waited for her, sitting and waiting because he had sprung it on her so of course she needed time to get ready, as it were. So he sat, elbows resting on the tops of his legs as he leaned forward against them, waiting and being hopeful. Because she hadn't pointed a gun at him, yet, and she'd even said yes. He glanced up when he heard footsteps coming his way, rising to his feet and turning to face her as she came down. She looked pretty, that color looking nice on her, and he smiled before tilting his head at her question. “What do you mean?” “Well, you know,” Babs started, the words nonsensical as she landed on the last step and tapped him with her foot. She still had boots on, a small knife against her calf. “It isn’t often people take me out to dinner. Last time I went out to eat, I lost the dog.” It seemed almost like a sign, that going out would always bring in TJ. She’d gone out to Pickens, and found him. She’d gone out for a burger, and inadvertently set a sparkler for TJ to find her. She didn’t believe in fate. Except with Teddy. “I wanted to take you out,” TJ said simply, because it was true. He did. He had even before the whole speed dating thing and hearing about it. That had apparently been the spark he'd needed to actually do something about it, though. “There's this actual restaurant now with real food, so I thought we could go there.” He paused, not sure if he should say but opting for transparency. “It doesn't have to be a date, if you don't want. I'd like it to be, unless you don't.” Okay, so there it was. It was a date, even if TJ was giving her an out, it was a date. She sucked in some air, settling onto her heels and swallowing down a thick swath of saliva. Saying ‘no’ felt cruel, and like a lie. Because Babs had realized something at speed dating: she missed Teddy. She missed him with her whole heart. The way they had still always played tame footsie, even when arguing. The way his nose buried in her hair when they slept together at night. Babs looked at Teddy and felt all those old needs coming up. Love, sex, affection. He had it all for her. She didn’t know if she had that for him, but Babs had a feeling she knew how to figure it out. “I don’t know if this should be a date or not. I need to test something out. Get on your knees.” TJ steeled him for the ‘no’ that he felt was coming, had to be coming after the way she breathed in like that. He'd told her it didn't have to be, he'd given her that choice, so it wasn't like he could complain about her taking it. He just didn't have to like it if she did. Except she didn't say no, and what she did say made him furrow his brow. Slowly, he shifted down to his knees, his eyes focused on her the whole time, looking up at her once he was settled. He wasn't sure what to say, but he'd never been that great with words. She needed to figure something out? That was okay. He was there. Approaching with the same hesitations she might have had with an unknown dog, Babs stepped forward and put her hands onto his shoulders. She felt the muscles under his shirt, and she pushed her fingers in gently to feel them better. The nurse palpated his shoulders, the sides of his neck, and then up to his chin. Her fingers became father light in some areas, just tracing the shape of his lips and the scroop that formed his cheekbones. Fixated on his features and how he felt, how he smelled, how he simply was in being, Babs lost track of time. She was a small woman, and with Teddy on his knees she was able to take control. She reached and stroked his hair, messing it up before smoothing it back down. Old memories on how to scratch Teddy’s scalp the way he liked it came back to her, and so she ran with it until her fingers became loose and tired. “Take off your shirt.” His eyes didn't move off her as she came closer, and his head tilted back to watch her as he felt her touch move over his shoulders and neck. They closed as her fingers moved across his face, and he swallowed thickly as her touch went into his hair. It was all so familiar, so much that he’d felt before. That he hadn't expected to feel ever again. She knew exactly the spots on his head that made it loll into her hands, that made him putty. He could have stayed there like that for hours, maybe days, so long as she kept going. Blinking his eyes open slowly, TJ looked up at her for a moment before his hands moved up to undo the buttons on his shirt. If he'd been wearing his normal t-shirt it would have been easier, quicker, but he’d dressed up for her. His fingers undid the buttons from top to bottom and he slipped the shirt back off his shoulders, letting it fall to the floor. It was hard not to feel a little giddy to see just how Teddy still looked: strong and bronzed, the same soldier she remembered from when they’d first starting being Babs and Teddy. Her hands moved back to his shoulders, gliding down to his arms, and lifting up his elbows so that his arms wrapped around her waist in a loose embrace. When she leaned in again, it wasn’t too touch him with her hands, but to kiss him firmly on the mouth and start the process she’d somehow always known would happen: sex. The cornerstone of their marriage. Well, one of them, had been that they were good at being together. When Teddy had wanted kids, having sex had been the least of the concerns about it. She missed him physically, and maybe she wanted that side of Teddy to matter now. If she could put him into a box where they were sexual partners and nothing more, maybe she could pretend feelings didn’t follow. Her hair fell in a veil all around Teddy’s head. Her kiss didn’t let up. TJ let Babs move him, his arms coming up around her waist and he let them stay there easily, watching her as she leaned in closer. And then she kissed him, and he'd missed that. He'd missed her but also kissing her, because they knew each other well this way. They might have their disagreements but even in the midst of all those he still knew the press of her lips against his, and she still knew those spots on his scalp that turned him to jello. His arms curled tighter around him as he deepened the kiss, keeping her close because he was afraid if this moment stopped it would be done and gone forever. He'd planned on dinner, a particular dinner, but for them to go to dinner together and have a good time - and he wasn't sure if they were going to make it out the door together. If this was why, he wasn't complaining. One of his hands slid up her spine, resting between her shoulder blades, fingertips pressing in against the fabric of her jacket. It was slow for a little while. Exploring kisses and soft touches, but then Babs felt a stab to her stomach. Not a bad one, not even one that spoke of being in pain- the opposite in fact. She wanted Teddy more than she’d wanted damn near anything else in her life. She pulled back, her hands on his cheeks for a split second as she caught her breath. The jacket came off first. She didn’t give it much time before her shirt followed, like a crumpled napkin. When Babs kissed TJ again, it wasn’t slow at all, but rather a fury of touches and pulls, her arms wrapping around his shoulders as she slid to the floor as well. She straddled him, her knees on either side of his hips. Hadn’t this been what they’d built up to? They hadn’t done it in Pickens, but now they were in Austin. TJ had paid his due. Babs had shot him. They were even. It felt like a switch had flipped, once her shirt was gone and they were kissing again. It felt desperate and needing rather than exploratory, and TJ wanted. He pulled her in to him as she moved down onto his lap, his hands moving over her body like they didn't know where to land. A tugging grip on the waistband of her pants, an absent pet against her sides, moving up to cup her jaw and angle their mouths together in a way where he could kiss her so deeply it was like she was giving him breath. His mouth moved from hers just long enough to kiss along her jaw, her neck, nipping at her throat before kissing her again, one of his arms circling around her waist again to hold her in tight. Babs began to push, getting the man flat on his back below her. Time blurred around her again, and when she felt herself come up to breath she was naked, and curled up next to him. A familiar ache filled her body; not of loneliness but of using her body in a way she hadn’t in a long time. The carpet below them was rough, and without any lights in the landing they had nothing but the warm orange-purple light of sunset from a nearly boarded up window. Slowly sitting up, Babs looked over her shoulder at her -- ex? Husband? Their clothes were akimbo, she couldn't even spot her shoes. But she did find her bra and underwear, and so she started to pull them on. “Well. That was interesting.” It was like falling back into old habits, the best habits, and ones that hadn't been used in a good while. It wasn't what TJ had gone there for, but he wasn't about to complain. Not about that, or that they were both too frantic and wanting to find their way somewhere more comfortable or suiting than the floor. The floor worked, served its purpose, and in the end TJ was sprawled on it with his arm around Babs at his side. He watched her as she sat up, bringing his arm up to rest his hand behind his head. “Did you decide if it was a date or not? Or did you need to do more testing?” “No, this isn’t a date,” Babs said, though it took longer for her to say it than usual. She spoke softly, her eyes not really meeting TJ’s eyes as she put her bra back onto her. Babs was not a skilled liar, and she wasn’t doing a decent job of trying to make up for how badly she wanted to lay back down and let Teddy hold her. Make her feel safe. “We scratched an itch. We happen to be good at dealing with… itchy situations, but not much else,” Babs said, letting out what was an unmistakably forced laugh. She found her socks and pulled them on, even going so far as braiding her hair and stepping onto the first step of her stairs. “I should hit the hay.” TJ watched her for a few moments longer before he sat up to start pulling his clothes back on, but his eyes didn’t really leave her despite his hands working to get him dressed again. He knew Babs - he wouldn’t say better than himself but he knew her. They’d been married long enough that he could tell when she wasn’t telling the truth, or at least all of it. Could tell that wasn’t a real laugh. That she was working hard not to look at him. “Well no, this wasn’t a date.” He gave a shake of his head and raked his hand back through his hair. “This isn’t exactly what I had planned for our evening, not that I’m complaining.” He reached over to catch her hand before she could go more than one stair away from where he was. “Hey, I really would like to take you to dinner sometime. Date or not.” Babs didn’t pull out of her grip, instead she looked at their clasped hands and remembered what it had been like when holding hands with TJ had been as natural as breathing. Before everything had gone to hell: it wasn’t as if the zombie reality had been what had ended their marriage. There had been so much more to it than that, years of regrets and anger and hurt. She sucked in a sharp breath, and slowly wriggled her hand free. “I need to think about it, TJ. I’m not… I’m not sure I’m ready for you,” she told him as honestly as she could. “You’re a big old can of worms, Greenling.” Thinking about it was better than getting kicked out on his ass with no hope, and TJ would take it. Really, he just wanted her to know that he was there, and interested, and willing to work for it. They'd come a long way from when they'd first met, and from when they'd gotten married. They'd changed, and the world had changed around them too. They were different, but that night had shown they still knew each other pretty damn well in some regards - and ones that hadn't been tried in a good long while. “So are you, darlin,” he replied, an easy smile on his face. “You think about it.” He took a step backward toward the front door and raked his hand through his hair. “Oh, and you don't have to call me TJ - just didn't like anyone else calling me Teddy that wasn't you.” He grinned softly and turned on his heel, closing the rest of the distance to the door and glancing over his shoulder before making his way outside. “Night, Captain.” |