Mina Kulseth (sagacious) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2017-03-22 20:35:00 |
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It had been a long day, an incredibly long day. Violet had wanted to go home, crawl into bed, and not come out for the rest of the day - and that had been not long after the day had started. While she knew it wasn’t her fault, or Ryan’s fault, they had employed and trusted someone who’d ended up being one of the ones who had been setting the fires around the Greenbelt. Sure, maybe there was a chance there was an error, but it didn’t seem like it. The fires had been scary, but the worry about not knowing when the next one was coming had been worse. Knowing Leo had been one of the ones behind them, and he’d been right there so close to them the entire time, was scary too. It certainly felt like they’d dodged a bullet. Or perhaps a match. Mina’s invitation of staying with her for the night had been a welcome one, as Violet felt a sudden need to not be in the Greenbelt, at least for a bit. Living and working in a place that had been under attack, by someone right there - she needed a break. A break with Mina? Well, that sounded even better. They’d been doing much better since their discussion on Valentine’s Day, followed by a dinner date, and then this. Violet had cleared with Ryan that he was fine with being on his own for the night, dropped him at home and stopped in long enough to make up an overnight bag, and then headed for the Capitol. After parking the truck nearby, Violet slung her bag over her shoulder and made her way to the door, knocking lightly and waiting. Mina was quite nervous about Violet coming over, and a little shocked that she’d had the nerve to even initiate this whole thing. The mutual attraction was there between them, but Mina hadn’t felt she was taking advantage of the situation. She’d genuinely wanted to try and make Violet feel better, and a change of scenery could help in that department. After wandering around the kitchen idly, finding a crumb on the counter out of place every now and then, the agony of waiting for the other woman to arrive finally came to a close when Mina heard a knock on the door. She smiled easily at Violet, stepping to the side to allow her to enter. “Hi. I’m glad you decided to come over. Can I take your bag?” Violet offered Mina a smile, though it was only a flicker of one, and slipped past her to get inside. “Hi - I’m glad you asked.” She hesitated before letting her bag slide down from her shoulder, her grip on it loosening as she held it out where Mina could get it. “Sure. It’s not heavy or anything.” The last time she’d been there, things hadn’t gone great. It had been a difficult conversation, followed by months of radio silence. Violet was glad they were on the other side of that, grateful they’d come out of it both wanting to try. She was also very glad that Mina had asked her over. Even simply being out of the Greenbelt, she was feeling a bit better - safer. Until the fires, she hadn’t felt unsafe in her home district, and with the culprits caught, she was hoping that feeling would wane. Mina grabbed Violet’s bag and began leading them towards the staircase and upstairs to her bedroom. It was suddenly dawning on her that Violet was here for the night. Their relationship was still quite new and she hadn’t meant to create a situation that progressed them further than either of them was comfortable with… but at the same time, it seemed like it would be much more awkward for Violet to crash on the couch downstairs. Well. This would just be something they figured out later in the evening. “Have you had dinner? You’ve been cooking for people all day, but sometimes I worry that you don’t have time to eat anything yourself,” Mina said, smiling at the fact that she and Ryan could be surrounded by food but have any if they were too busy. “Sometimes I forget to eat,” Violet admitted, following Mina up the stairs. It was far too easy to get caught up in cooking and making sure everyone else was taken care of, and perhaps ‘sometimes’ was a bit of an understatement. That day, thankfully, it hadn't been a problem. She thought it was sweet that Mina was concerned. “I ate dinner, though. Or… not dinner, but I’ve eaten. I’ve kind of been stress eating all day, I guess.” Pausing for a moment, Violet hesitated. “Would it be okay if I took a shower? I feel like I smell like the kitchen, which probably isn't the greatest.” Maybe she should have done that before heading to Mina’s, but she'd been too focused on getting away from the Greenbelt for the night. “It would be really fast.” Unwillingly, images of Violet naked in her shower suddenly popped into Mina’s head, and she flushed slightly. Most of her focus that day had been on clients and work around the Sober Living Community, but in the thoughts she’d had about what would happen tonight, Violet taking a shower hadn’t even occurred as a possibility. Figuring it would be weird if she said she thought Violet smelled yummy, Mina instead said, “Yeah, of course you can. I’ll just catch up on some reading while you’re doing that. ” Once in the bedroom, she set Violet’s bag down on the end of the bed then took a few steps to the side to her attached bathroom and pulled out an extra towel, leaving it on the vanity. “There’s washcloths under the right sink if you need one. Or if you need anything else, let me know. I’ll be over here,” she gestured to her reading chair in the corner. “Thanks, Mina.” Violet offered her a soft smile before disappearing into the bathroom and letting the door shut with a quiet click. She wasted no time before getting into the shower, letting the hot water work over the stress she'd been holding in her shoulders all day, and wash the lingering scent of fried food and hamburgers down the drain. It wasn't a long shower, though Violet didn't rush, and by the time she shut off the water she was feeling slightly better. Not about everything as a whole, but at least physically. Dried off and wrapped in a towel, Violet cracked the door and poked her head out, gaze landing on where Mina was in her chair. “Could you hand me my bag? I forgot to get something to change into.” Mina only had to reread the first paragraph of her book twice before she was able to fully submerge herself in the words, that by the time Violet peaked out of the bathroom, she’d nearly forgotten the other woman was there. Eyes widening, she placed her bookmark back in the book before setting it to the side and hurrying over to grab Violet’s bag for her. “You’d better close the door quickly or you’ll let out all the warmth,” Mina said with a smile. “Wasn’t that always the worst in the winter? At least it never gets that cold here.” “Thank goodness for that,” Violet agreed, a smile spreading across her features as she let the door open more so she could get her bag. “I used to hate that moment of having to open the shower door, all the steam leaving and all the cold air rushing in to make me freeze. It's nice not to have to worry so much about that anymore.” The door was only closed for a brief couple minutes while Violet changed and made sure the bathroom was as neat and clean as she'd found it. When she came out again, it was feeling much better, cleaner, and wearing pajamas. “Thank you, I feel… much less like I smell horrible.” Mina couldn’t help but smile at how cute Violet looked in her pajamas, but it made her feel a little overdressed in her work clothes. “I’m glad you’re feeling better. Taking a shower or bath after a stressful day always helps me, too,” she said, still smiling. “It always helps me transition from work mode to… not-work mode,” Violet said, scrunching her nose a little but with a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth all the same. Placing her bookmark back into her book, she placed it on the side table and rose to stand. “So what do you want to do tonight?” It had been such a long day, and Violet had been so focused on making it to the part where she got to go to Mina’s that she hadn't thought about anything beyond getting there. She paused, and when she spoke it wasn't so much something to do as it was something she wanted - or rather, needed. “Can I have a hug?” It was such a simple request, but that didn’t mean that Mina took it lightly. Violet had gone through quite an ordeal that day and physical comfort could be incredibly powerful. “Of course,” she smiled, then stood up and moved across the room, wrapping her arms around the other woman. One of Mina’s hands rested on the small of Violet’s back while the other moved up to tuck a few wet strands of hair behind her ear. Violet slipped her arms around Mina in response, one resting over her shoulder blade and the other down curled around her hip, and closed her eyes as she let out a slow exhale. “Isn’t it funny how there is coding in our DNA to decide whether our earlobe is attached or not?” Mina said, not even fully conscious of the words coming out of her mouth. Being this close to Violet was a bit dizzying, especially when she was all warm in Mina’s arms like this. “Mhm,” Violet murmured in response, vague memories of high school biology class coming back to her as her body relaxed a bit. If they could stay there like that the rest of the night, that might be close to perfect. It was comforting, nice, being held. “And whether we can curl our tongues.” Though Mina had curled her tongue countless times before, at Violet’s words, she still pulled back slightly and stuck her tongue out. Her eyes crossed slightly as she looked down her nose and to her curled tongue, but once she’d proven her skills her eyes moved back to meet Violet’s. With a bit of a chuckle, she grinned. “Can you do it, too?” The corners of Violet’s mouth turned up in a soft smile as she watched, and then stuck out her own tongue to prove she could too. “I remember,” she added after a moment, “having to go around and survey fifty people for my biology class, asking them to do all those things to study dominant and recessive genes. Silliest experiment ever.” “That sounds better than what we had to do in biology class,” Mina said, wrinkling her nose. “We bred fruit flies and looked for differences in eye color and wing size.” Though she thought the most disturbing part about it all had been her teacher going on about how their experiment was incest but it didn’t matter. Mina could do without bringing that weirdness to their evening, though, and keep that thought to herself. “Ew.” Violet’s nose scrunched and she gave a little shudder at the thought of having to deal so much with bugs. Sure, they'd dissected things in her biology class, but that didn't bother her as much as bugs did. Maybe that was why she had no problem when it came to butchering animals - it was kind of like dissection, but with a greater purpose. “I’ll definitely take a silly survey over that.” She rest her forehead against Mina’s, eyes closing for a moment. “Thanks,” she said softly. “For inviting me over.” “I hope it’s turned your day around,” Mina replied, then in a moment of bravery, leaned in to press a quick kiss to Violet’s lips. Violet smiled softly at that, her eyes slowly opening again. With a slight blush on her cheeks, MIna continued, “We could watch a movie. I think I have some popcorn downstairs I could make. If you want.” “It has,” Violet said, leaning in to kiss Mina - letting it linger just a bit longer that Mina’s kiss had moments before. “Turned my day around, I mean.” Her arms loosened slightly in their hold around Mina as she gave a nod. “A movie sounds nice, and so does popcorn. If it's not much trouble.” “No, of course not. I wouldn’t offer if it would be a bother,” Mina said, smiling still. Reluctantly, Mina extricated herself from their embrace and took a step back. “There’s a case on the bookshelf that has all my DVDs. Why don’t you pick one out while I’m making popcorn and then when I come back I’ll get into my pajamas too and we’ll just disappear under the comforter and forget this morning happened.” Avoiding a problem wasn’t a viable long-term solution, but for that evening, Mina thought Violet deserved it. With that, she exited the room and made her way down to the kitchen. Microwaving the popcorn didn’t take long, and miraculously she didn’t burn it. Entering her bedroom again, she said, “So, which movie did you pick?” Violet had spent the whole time Mina was gone making her choice, because it was a difficult choice to make. In the end she'd gone with something mindless, in the sense that she'd seen it before and wouldn't have to focus much, but fun. It was what she needed after the day she'd had. Well, that and disappearing under the comforter with Mina and forgetting how the morning had gone. She needed that, too. “Legally Blonde,” she replied, turning toward Mina and holding up the case. “That okay?” “Sounds perfect,” Mina said, setting the bowl of popcorn on the bed before moving to her dresser and quickly changing from her clothing into a pair of sleep shorts and tshirt. She wasn’t a prude and didn’t mind Violet seeing her -- they had the same parts after all so it wasn’t like her body would be shock to the other woman -- but hoped that it didn’t make Violet uncomfortable seeing as they were still early on in their relationship. Once that was done, she joined Violet on the bed and moved under the comforter, letting out a happy sigh at the coziness of it all. Turning her head, she gave Violet a smile then used the remote to press play. “All right, here we go.” The opening credits began to play alongside the tune “Perfect Day”, a song that could bring Mina back to her early teens like no other. As the song went on about how nothing could ruin her mood and she wished she could stay that way forever, Mina glanced again at Violet before plucking up the courage to reach over and take the other woman’s hand in her own. With their fingers laced together, Mina gave a shy smile, then turned her attention back to the movie, unable to help but feeling that despite the horrible things that had happened to Violet that day, in that moment everything felt just right. |