Dante "Inferno" Zaragoza - Death'll find you... (xolotl) wrote in repose, @ 2020-02-17 18:41:00 |
|
|||
As she had told Leena via text earlier this week Dante didn’t celebrate Valentine’s day like the ‘average’ United States citizen. Between the way her mother and father had raised her, believing and valuing all types of love, and the strong following of Mexican traditions in their household Dante had always viewed Valentine’s day as a celebration of all love in a person’s life and not just some sweaty, desperate, hyped up, over-sexualized bullshit card, flower and expensive dinner selling holiday. It was a holiday she wanted to like but half felt far too much resentment for how desperate and gross it made people act to ever be fully able to enjoy. Then there was what she’d said to Clover about how trying to date was useless in general - nevermind that gross desperation it seemed like everyone was soaked in on Valentine’s day - because she’d simply end up intimidating or outsmarting her dates which would result in them ultimately getting pissed off or her getting pissed off. That was assuming their shitty attempts at getting in her pants all night didn’t do the trick first. There’d been at least one Valentine’s date she’d agreed to get dressed up to go to one of the hottest restaurants in NYC - never fucking again - where the guy had been such a raging fuck wit between his illegal offshore accounts he kept talking about or how expensive all of his clothes were, how he kept passive-aggressively insulting any service worker they seemed to pass to try to make himself look good, and how he kept attempting to grossly fetishize her looks and brains - nevermind the blatant misogyny where he dismissed at least half of her conversational points - and that had really been the final straw. That date? That date had been where she’d completely given up. Not that Dante ever really thought or felt like anyone would ever really fit in her life. No one could keep up with her during the day or at night and anyone who seemed to have the ego to think they could try for even one facet of her life? Well. They ended up like that guy. The guy who she’d ended up dumping half a bottle of 1943 Chateau Cheval Blanc down the front of his $3,000 cashmere Kiton sport jacket that he’d bragged excessively about it thinking it’d impress her earlier in the night. The guy who - as he screamed about the psycho bitch who belonged in a gutter for fucking up his jacket that cost more than she did - she overclocked his phone, overheating the battery and causing it to explode in his pocket as she walked away. The guy who - as he was screaming in pain from acid burns from the explosion of the phone battery against his skin - she started up his Porsche 911 GT2 RS with a snap of her fingers, shifted it into drive with her technopathy and rammed the car into a wall, totaling it, as she exited the restaurant and hailed a cab. Sure, destroying nearly a million dollars of the guy’s stuff felt pretty great - and she’d lifted his offshore bank account numbers, which were instantly flipped into donations to Planned Parenthood, RAICES, the ACLU, and some community non-profits - so that was good, but fucking hell had the rest of the night been a fucking disaster. Why did anyone ever fucking bother with any of that shit at all? Why did she always go for the fuckboys? Why did she even try to date? Why did she bother with people at fucking all? Being a recluse sounded like heaven some fucking days. Either way? New York City on Valentine’s day was wild. Repose wasn’t proving any calmer. Who the fuck said small towns were boring? Fuck. This. Day. At least on the romantic front. Yet, Dante had still tried to make the best of it. Picking up gifts for friends and family, making effectively three pans of tres leches cake, paying a couple of kids to keep them out of trouble while they ran her errands for her, all of it seemed simple, felt simple. This day didn’t have to be a disaster. She just had to… Focus on any part of it that wasn’t fucking romance, oversaturated cologne/perfume, flowers, and bullshit. Which fucking Christ so much of this fucking holiday was just exactly that. She was going to have a scent related headache for days after this fucking holiday at this rate. But there were good parts in the day. A network post she put up out of curiosity seemed to be met positively and while Dante had really just wanted to provoke talks about love, about warm mushy feelings they could all coo at for a moment before going on with their days, it had turned into a pouring out of thanks that she hadn’t ever even thought of. She hadn’t sent the cake to be thanked, she’d sent it because everyone deserved to feel loved on Valentine’s day, and they deserved to feel loved in many ways, not just romantic partner love. She would have done it for anyone she called a friend. Though with the division of gift levels - several people getting cake and a note, Chris and Hugh getting cards, Leena and her father getting actual gif-- never mind that thought. It was just too bad her father wasn’t here to share the day with her. They’d missed so many holidays over the last year she’d started to forget how much it hurt when he wasn’t around but Hector had to go back to Brooklyn for a little bit to deal with the house, to get things settled. ‘Just for a little bit, Mija. I’ll be back before you know it!’ He’d cheerfully reassured her when the brief flash of distress at the idea of him leaving had shown across her face. Having him back for a couple of holiday’s had reminded her how deeply she missed him and now he was gone again and… Urgh. She was…. She was just going to need to deal with that for now. Though she did need to figure out how to get back to NYC at least once or twice this year too. An appointment with Doc was probably long overdue by now and there was only so much they could do with video calls. Those could all be thoughts for other days. Cars needed repairs, friends were swinging by the shop - Hugh with coffee, which? Win! Totally made this day easier and she’d given him a kiss on the cheek in thanks and then there was a package delivery from Leena…? The note was cute - and all in all? Aside from some weirdness when she’d grabbed a bite to eat from the dinner across the street - some small-time waitress and some big city guy or something? Ew, gross - it had been a relatively calm day and as expected, at 7:30, Leena showed up right on cue with chocolate-covered strawberries as a gift to boot. It was easy, effortless really, to meet Leena with a smile and a wave and a ‘Hey!’ as the last bits of the shop were locked up for the night. Dart would be signaled towards and climbed into before a kiss would be offered to the other woman - a tilt of head and a lean in that Leena decided if she’d take or not - and then off for the drive back to Dante’s place they’d go, the delivery from earlier had already been loaded into the back of the car. Once reaching a comfortable cruising speed Dante would reach over and take Leena’s hand, pulling both hands into her lap without much thought, Leena had seemed to like holding hands in the car and while the idea had made Dante nervous initially - she needed to shift, she needed to control the car - Leena seemed to mostly get when shifting would need to happen and they made it work and any nerves that had been a problem before died away almost instantly. Besides.. It might be possible… Maybe… Perhaps… In some potential universe… That perchance she sort of, kind of, maybe liked it as well. Questions and conversations about their respective days and how kittens were doing - a regular ask nowadays from Dante - and the weather and plans for the night and dinner. Fuck, Dante hadn’t really thought much about food for tonight but there was probably plenty to work with in the fridge at home and realistically, it wouldn’t take long to get back home either. The roads were never too crowded in a small town like this and she could ‘hear’ a police scanner from a mile away easily so speeding was never an issue if she felt like it either. The conversation was easy, felt easy, it wasn’t a breath of fresh air like talking to her father or Chris some days but… It wasn’t far. Talking with Leena had been… They… They both seemed to talk in spurts and stops and starts and rambling rolling pathways that lead down to amusing jokes or the occasional heavy share. It was strange how they seemed to ebb and flow together if it was talking, moving or fighting and… Parking Dart there was a moment where Dante wondered where the drive had gone but the answer was simple: It had disappeared due to the easy, comfortable, chatting with Leena. Weird. Into the house they’d go with the delivered box - a new code from the last one Leena knew was needed for the front door - and Leena pulled her into a kiss as the door swung shut behind them. It was leaned into, reciprocated easily, eagerly as hands moved to frame the other woman’s face. Yet, it wouldn’t last for long. Dante still needed an after work shower to remove all the grime of the garage and while an invitation would be extended for Leena to join her in the shower - it always was - Leena wanted presents sometime before the coming of the second ice age. ‘Not even to watch?’ the knowing tease as she turned earned her ass a smack before Dante would make her way upstairs to shower. The shower was fast, maybe faster than she should have been. Was she coming off too eager? Could she come off too eager with Leena? The other woman always seemed… down for things. Whatever they were. Like it was a party and she had the night free. But either way Dante washed up quickly and then set to work fetching Leena’s gifts out of her closet in the bedroom. It had all started with some simple little amazon advert for the World's Smallest Magic 8 Ball and something in her brain instantly clicked that she had to get this for Leena. Leena absolutely had to have this. It was going to be the only thing she was going to get too. Or at least it had been. But then Dante had seen a tie dye version of the Magic 8 Ball and… Maybe Leena would like one that had colors on it better? Fuck. But they were cheap and it was easy to just order both… But then she had these two items and of course Amazon had to suggest fucking mini super soakers and Dante would be damned if she didn’t think Leena would want those too.. And they were cheap… And it was small… But now she had three small things… This was how Dante ulitmately had ended up carrying downstairs a Valentine’s day themed gift bag that had two balloons filled with helium with text on them tied to the bag handles. The first balloon read ’Thanks for all the orgasms’ while the second balloon read ’Hey, you’re hot’. The bag would hold the super soakers and 8 balls along with a 3D cat puzzle thing that she’d found and had been added to Leena’s gift bag for amusement. It might get a chuckle. The whole production was brought downstairs and unceremoniously used to lead Leena into the kitchen where there was a wrapped box on the kitchen table along with the box Leena had gotten delivered to Dante as well. Time would be given for Leena to go through the bag and blush or fuss or play or over whatever she might need to and Dante watched with a smile that perhaps she wouldn’t realize was coming off just a little too fond, a little too warm for her own personal good. This was… Nice. But at the same time there was her own box of items to go through that Leena had sent - the note had been tucked away in Dante’s wallet, it was cute, she liked it - and it… Earned a slightly confused yet deeply amused look on the water guns before she’d settle them off to the side, and the essential oil diffuser earned a curious look before she took a moment to read the box. Oh, that would probably be useful. The colors on it were nice but the design was a… Well, she could live with the design and the last item was… An envelope? There was a quiet and deeply curious look across her face as she read what the thing was - invitation to six laps in her car of choice at some exotic car place? - that seemed… Pretty cool. Maybe they’d have something she hadn’t seen before but that seemed unlikely. She’d have to check out their site later and see what cars they had to offer. Maybe something would catch her eye. There was a brief thought about the price of something like this but that thought was just as quickly tossed in the garbage to avoid any other panic inducing issues she might have had otherwise. Leena had… The gifts seemed like Leena had really put a lot of thought into them. Even if Dante wasn’t entirely sure what those thoughts were yet. Maybe she’d ask about the diffuser later. The rest she could pretty easily make sense of. Either way? There would be an appreciative kiss offered with a smile and a ‘Thank you’ at the end of everything having been unwrapped. It was… Sweet. Nice. Easy… That smile was maybe, possibly - she’d never admit it assuming she’d even realized it herself - starting to edge a bit on the floaty side. It was only when the wrapped box on the table was brought up did her attention fully return to the room from the floating haze it seemed to have settled in between stealing looks at Leena’s reactions to the gifts Dante had gotten her, and processing the gifts Leena had given her as well. On one hand, Dante had secretly somewhat hoped the box would be brought up. On the other hand, if it wasn’t brought up, she wouldn’t need to worry about any of the complications opening may… Right. The box. Not her thoughts. Christ this felt awkward. What was in the box was another 3D wooden puzzle but this one was a robot that doubled as a music box and had a light in its chest. Dante was happy to let Leena rip open the packaging if she so desired - it was kinda fun watching Leena open stuff, it seemed like she hadn’t really gotten to - but it was technically a gift Dante had bought for herself. However, if Leena maybe, possibly, could potentially be interested in perhaps building the robot with her? That might be cool… And if Leena wasn’t interested it wasn’t a big deal and don’t worry about it, in fact forget she ever offered. Anxiety. Why was that here now? But Leena was…. Into it…? Had she… Expected that? Dante…. Wasn’t sure anymore. So, they would work on building the little robot. With cups of hot cocoa and two slices of tres leches cake on one plate and it was…. Fun. Enjoyable. Actually… Not horrible. It was… This was nice. Hell, nice enough that she was even comfortable enough to be casually playful, joking and flirty - on a day she tried to not flirt - and smiling brightly all the way through. There was even a moment of consideration given to climbing into Leena’s lap - Dante really personally wanted to... and it would make building the robot together easier if they were coming at it from the same direction anyway or at least she’d keep telling herself that - but the fear of her own body weight being weird… And Leena had already asked her questions about the leg once…. And… It seemed about halfway through the building Leena caught something was up and invited herself into Dante’s lap, much to the mechanic’s surprise and honest delight. Wrapped around each other they’d finish the robot with delighted borderline giddy giggling emerging from Dante when the little robot played its song and lit up. It was exciting to build something new, and that enjoyment was written in bright flashing lights all across her face. Of course, that wouldn’t be where the enjoyment for the night would end as hands and lips would start to roam with a whispered request. Leena made breakfast. Banana caramel pancakes with homemade caramel sauce. Leena had cooked for her. Before she woke up. And it was fucking good. And Leena had gone through the trouble of making the caramel sauce from scratch. And….It was a good thing neither of them had anywhere to be as Dante had a very particular thank you in mind and it involved Leena getting straddled by Dante on Dante’s couch after breakfast. There was no reason to be shy about that. She made the want known before their plates were even cleared with a devilish smirk, suggestive pop of an eyebrow and a low, husky ‘I know just where I’ll be wanting you after this’ before she’d run her tongue over the fork to remove any caramel left clinging to the utensil in full display of Leena’s line of sight. Valentine’s day was weird, and she didn’t like it, but she wanted to like it. And maybe a night like last night? Followed by a morning like this? With Leena? Maybe, maybe days like that were just why maybe, possibly, perhaps, potentially, someday - even if she didn’t realize it now - Dante might like Valentine’s day yet. |