to the rescue!
Characters: Violet and Eric Setting: his room, morning
Giggling at her computer screen, Violet rolled her eyes at herself and Eric, before she of course shut her computer down then scurried out of her room, going over to his. She hesitated for just a second outside the door, then did her level best to go bursting in, with no warning whatsoever. Hopefully the door wasn't locked.
As soon as Eric sent the plea for Violet to come save him, he flicked the lock on his door open, noticing with some relief and pleasure that it was past nine by now and so it was even possible for her to. He had no idea if she actually would, but he didn’t wait by the computer, he flopped on the floor and gave his best exaggerated coughing and choking fit, rewarded when she burst in not long after.
She was pleased the door was open, and she rushed in, falling to her knees beside him. Reaching out, she patted his back firmly. "Cough it out! Keep coughing!" she said, a little smile on her lips and even in her voice, as she gave the command.
Eric kept it up for a minute before rolling rather dramatically onto his back and making strangled little noises in his throat, hoping it was coming across that he couldn’t breath even if they both knew this was just an act. He had requested CPR, after all. He had to fight back a grin even as he peeked at her out of squinted eyes.
Violet laughed a little, and she moved to climb onto him, straddling his knees. She laid one hand flat against his abdomen, clasping her other hand in with it, and gave a not-quite-hard-enough thrust. Sure, it would push some breath out and all, but she was careful not to actually hurt him, what with this being utterly feigned anyhow. "Eric, Eric, are you alright?" she called loudly in a cheesy voice.
It was a bit of a relief that she wasn’t mistaking this for a real medical emergency, and he did so like the way she didn’t hesitate to straddle his knees. Eric kept making those strangled little noises, not ready to give up the act with just that not-too-hard push against his chest.
She gave another one, then reached out to take his pulse, with a practiced ease, she grabbed up his wrist. She out of habit counted the beats, even if she knew she wasn't actually taking his vitals. That part of her wouldn't ever actually shut off.
Eric couldn’t help but think that she was just trying to torture him now with actually going through the steps, and when she started timing the beats of his pulse, he couldn’t stop a little laugh from passing his lips, though he tried to cover it up with more strangled coughing.
Violet reached out and swatted his chest. "Hey. You're meant to be unconscious." she snapped in a playfully stern tone. "No breaking character." she demanded, finally leaning over to put her cheek nearly against his lips but not quite, as if she were trying to feel his breath.
At the playfully stern words, Eric went right back into character, feigning unconsciousness. And when he felt her shift over him, he held his breath, wondering what she might do next. He really was enjoying being around her and trying very hard not to do anything too over-the-top flirtatious, not wanting to run her off.
She pretended she couldn't feel his breath against her cheek, and sat up, looking down at him gravely. She mocked giving him chest compressions, putting no real weight behind the thrusts. "Don't go towards the light!"
Eric decided that he had to keep it up for just a little longer, even if he just wanted to burst out laughing. He was still hoping for a little mouth to mouth, though he had no intention of taking too much advantage if she did play it out that far.
Violet kept it up for a few minutes, then dramatically threw her head back, arm going up to swipe across her forehead. She gasped in a breath. "Why!! Oh, god, whyyyyyyy!!" she mock-sobbed. Then she completely dropped it and looked around. "Hm. Oh well! Now, what's he got in here to steal?" she said in her best machiavellian tone.
He was going to play dead, but then she dropped the act, and Eric popped up, eyes narrowing as his arm snaked around her back, keeping her in place though his grip wasn’t so tight that she wouldn’t be able to wiggle out of it if she wanted to. “You’d steal from a dead man?” he asked, tone accusatory. “I’d have thought better of you!”
"Hey, you weren't going to need it." Violet told him, impish expression on her face. "Do you expect me to let stuff go to waste? Besides! I tried! It's only practical that I now get to go through your stuff and see if there's anything cool." She fluttered her eyelashes at him and beamed innocently.
Eric mock-pouted a bit at her response, pretty distracted by her eyelash fluttering and that smile. She really was too pretty. “Huh, I don’t think you tried hard enough. You didn’t even attempt mouth to mouth,” he chided jokingly. Then he loosened his arm around her even more. “But if you insist on looking through my stuff, I won’t stop you. There’s really nothing interesting - just the standard stuff I’m guessing they put in every room.”
"They cut rescue breathing out of CPR lately." Violet told him. "You go right to chest compressions. They even suggest doing it to the beat of 'stayin alive' in your head. I mean, sure, there are some who still put the breaths in, but it changes all the time." She looked around, humming to herself, then she immediately looked under the bed, just to see what might be under there. "You don't have anything of interest?" she asked, voice muffled, even as she half crawled off of him to half bury herself under the bed.
Huffing jokingly, Eric shook his head. “Well gee, if I’d known that, I wouldn’t have gone to so much trouble to have you come to my rescue,” he teased her, grinning widely. He chuckled when she looked under his bed and then proceeded to practically crawl under it. “Checking for monsters under my bed?” he asked jokingly. There was nothing under there, as far as he knew.
Violet laughed, and playfully kicked at his thigh a little. "Jerk." she accused, with absolutely no venom. "I was checking for monsters, yes. You never know when you're gonna find them." she said, crawling the rest of the way under. Then a few moments later, she peeked back out. "So far, there's nothing. But you totally need to vacuum."
“Am not! I’m an opportunist,” Eric corrected unashamedly, smiling broadly at her. He laughed more when she disappeared under his bed, snorting in amusement when she came back out and mentioned vacuuming. “I don’t know how,” he lied with a crooked grin. “I’ve been in six years, and we didn’t have carpeting in our cells. And besides, if it needs vacuumed under there, it’s their fault. I’ve only been here two days,” he pointed out.
"Well, it's not hard. Not that I've seen a vacuum around, by the way. So, I wouldn't even know where one was to teach you this rare and taxing skill." Violet said, propping her chin on her hands. "Is this the part where we talk about what we were in for, and how long?" she asked, since he'd brought up the six year thing. That was...a long time. But then, she knew some people in there were...a little terrifying. She preferred not to spend too much time thinking about it.
“Maybe we’ll take a look around, see if we can find one,” Eric suggested, thinking it might be fun to go exploring with her. At her question, he sat up, smile dimming some as he crossed his legs and rested his elbows on his knees. “We can, if you want. Not really a secret. I went down for a variety of drug and alcohol charges. Got screwed over being the middleman at a college party when I ended up selling to a minor,” he admitted, giving her more than he’d given Charlie, at least. Maybe because he liked her more. That didn’t mean he was going to admit to the rape conviction or exactly how long he was supposed to be in.
Violet wrinkled her nose. But she appreciated the honesty. And, that was better than having hurt someone. So she accepted that. "The part about my being down one kidney is true." she told him. "I was .001 over the legal limit, after a holiday staff party. I was bringing people home, and someone in the back seat kicked my arm. It was on the freeway, there was a massive accident. Lots of people got hurt, not just me. I got slapped with the biggest sentence I could be."
Eric was relieved when she didn’t question him any on what exactly had gone down at that party, and he listened to her own story with an appropriately serious expression, all joking aside for the moment. “Fuck, Vi. That really sucks,” he said, shaking his head out of sympathy for her. He could guess that something like that would cause a lot of guilt in a person. “.001, though. It’s like, fuck, even if you hadn’t drank anything at all, the accident still could’ve happened with drunks rough housing in your car.” So yeah, he was going with she’d definitely got screwed over. It made him really hope that this place was the real deal and she would get a chance to start over.
She decided in that moment that she kind of liked how he called her 'Vi'. "It took quite a while to recover, honestly. I spent a long time in the hospital. And yeah, I know. But I couldn't prove anything had happened, that it wasn't my fault." she shared. She crawled out from under the bed, then moved over to him, sitting with her back more to him. She tugged her shirt up a little, half trying to twist to see. Some of the birds tattooed there were visible, along with the faint traces of scarring from the surgery and other injuries. "See?"
Eric really couldn’t imagine how hard it must have been to go through all of that and still be as unfailingly happy and optimistic as Violet had proven to be so far. He found himself respecting her quite a bit for that, and it made him want to keep up the fun as much as he could with her, more than he already would have even without knowing any of this. He didn’t say anything as she moved toward him, but when she pulled her shirt up a bit, his eyes took in the exposed skin, his hand reaching out to brush lightly over the scarring there. “Yeah, I see. Shit. You’re alive, though, right? That counts for something,” he offered, feeling like it was a rather lame offering, but he’d never claimed to be any good at that.
She got little goosebumps when he touched her, an involuntary reaction, though she didn't actually twitch or anything. "I am alive!" she said, smiling as she looked back over her shoulder at him, dropping her shirt back down. "Which is cause for smiles. I'm unhappy that I feel like I didn't get a fair deal, but being cranky about it won't help me." she said. "So, I look forward."
When she dropped her shirt back down, Eric pulled his hand back, grinning a bit crookedly at her enthusiastic optimism. Instead of replying directly to what she’d said, though, he shifted around so that he was facing her more, then reached one hand out to brush a thumb over her cheek, his other hand finding one of hers. He brought her hand to his lips and brushed a light kiss over her knuckles. “You are truly one of a kind, Violet, and it would be my pleasure to call you my friend,” he told her, smiling at her as he lowered her hand back down.
She'd never seen anyone do anything like that, and it caused a bright blush to flush her cheeks. It also came with a smile, a soft yet bright expression that she couldn't have held back if she wanted to. "Well," she told him, watching his eyes. "You can definitely do that." she told him, tone just a little bit shy. She was flattered, though, clearly very affected by his behavior.
Eric had to admit, he liked that flush on her cheeks, pleased that his gesture had teased such a reaction from her. He kept his eyes on hers as he watched her react, smile warming at her almost shy tone. “Well, good. I’d hate to be disappointed,” he told her in a jokingly stern tone.
"Well, I don't usually do that with people. Make a point not to, even." Violet told him. "Disappointing people just makes them sad, and makes me unhappy, so I avoid it at all costs." she confided. "In light of that, any expectations I should know about, when it comes to your friends? Do I need to try and work out plans for a jet pack, or promise to have your back when Godzilla crashes through?"
It was just more proof that she was one of those rare gems in the world, and it just made Eric like her all the more. “Expectations, hmm? Oh, definitely need plans for a jet pack, and we can never be too prepared for a Godzilla attack. But other than that, hmm, nope, can’t think of any special considerations for it. Just be your beautiful self and things will be just fine,” he answered, his smile stretching wider as he spoke.
"I'll get right to work on the plans." Violet said, immediately hopping up. "And I'll try very hard to keep being myself, though I can't promise continued beauty? See, this face is really one of those high tech rubber masks that ignore bone structure like they have in the Mission Impossible movies. I will eventually have to take it off, and reveal myself as a medusa-esque hag."
“I call bullshit,” Eric replied with a short laugh. She was very pretty, and he wasn’t planning on being shy about telling her when the mood struck, friends or no.
Violet leaned over, putting her hands on her knees as she smiled at him from close up. "Go ahead and pull, but I warn you, you aren't going to want to face the snakes that'll go right for your eyes. Snake hair is soooo touchy." she said, grin on her face.
Though he wasn’t sure whether she would be surprised by it, Eric reached out with both hands to pinch her cheeks lightly, tugging gently on the skin. “Nope, not budging. So you either secured it real good, or I was right to call bullshit,” he said with a laugh, dropping his hands from her face.
Violet tried to keep a straight face, but then burst out laughing. She stood straight, grinning at him. "Okay fine! I'm not secretly medusa! But wouldn't it be cool if I was?" she asked, bouncing over to drop onto his computer chair, spinning in it as she did so. "Think about it. Mild mannered nurse by day, crazy snake haired medusa by night. I'd be awesome. Right up until someone showed up to lop my head off."
Eric laughed along with her, enjoying the sound quite a lot. “Oh yeah, real cool, right up until looking into your eyes turned me to stone, cause even with the snake hair, I don’t think I could chop your head off,” he replied cheekily, winking at her.
Violet reached out to stop the spin, looking at him as she did so. She arched a brow. "You would have no survival instincts when it came to me?" she asked. "Really? Even knowing you'd totally be a creepy weird statue after looking into my eyes, you'd still do it and not go for chopping off my noggin and making, like, a billion dollars cuz you were the man who saved the world from a freak medusa girl?" She drummed her short fingernails on the arm of the chair. "You'd have adoring fans everywhere, you know."
His amusement was clear as she spoke, and he grinned crookedly at her. “It’d make me a pretty shitty friend if I chopped your head off,” he pointed out, trying and failing at looking at her with a straight face. “Can’t say what I’d really do though. I’m not really the valiant, go in charging to save the day and get all the adoring fans type. Too much blood and gore,” he said, though he was still grinning a bit.
"What if I was a vampire?" Violet asked. "Would you help me survive, or stake me through the heart?" she asked, making a dramatic pretend thrust to her chest, like she had just been staked. "Or, what if I was bitten by a zombie! Would you kill me before I turned? Save me from a fate of being an undead monster and save yourself?"
“Ah, shit, are we gonna go through all the supernatural what ifs?” Eric asked with a soft chuckle and shake of his head. “Vampire, I’d help you survive, but zombie? You don’t mess with that shit. I’d have to kill you, save you from having to eat brains or guts or whatever. What about me? Would you kill me if I was a vampire or zombie or oooh, a werewolf?” he turned the questions back on her, adding in a little extra for fun.
"Well, I was thinking about it? But I don't know where you'd get silver bullets. Or a gun, for that matter." Violet told him, grinning. "So if you were a werewolf, I would be forced to...attempt to find a room solid enough to contain you as a huge scary murderous rage monster. I wouldn't figure putting you down would be the best option, I mean, you're fine every other night of the month, right? Seems like it would be a waste." she tsked. "And I don't actually think I'd be able to live very long here as a vampire. You either. You can only take so much blood from a person, so you'd never be able to survive from one? You'd need a bunch of donors. And then we get into people who are all like, 'waa, I wanna be a cool vampire too!' and then there'd be even less fresh blood going around, and the administration would see that we're vampires and remove us to cut us up and see what our organs look like." she rambled. Then she beamed at him. "But you're totally right about not messing with zombies!"
Eric just stared at her as she rambled, a bemused grin playing on his lips. When she finished, he chuckled, shaking his head a bit. “You’ve given that a lot of thought, haven’t you? Or did you just come up with all that now?” he asked, though he didn’t really give her time to answer before he was talking again. “But don’t you think that if we were vampires we’d be able to find a way out of here? What about the legend that they turn into bats. We could just fly out of here, and no one else needs to know what we are. We could be greedy with it,” he suggested, smiling just a little mischievously at her. He really wasn’t sure she would be okay with leaving everyone else behind, so he was curious to see how she’d respond to that. Not that it mattered since vampires were fictional, but still. It was amusing to consider.
Violet sat forward, humming as she made a show of considering. "Hmm, I think I'd feel really bad about abandoning people. It's against my nature to be greedy, really. So, I'd probably like, sign up to do something then have a huge change of heart, and waffle over things, probably cry or something silly like that. It would just be better to turn everyone, then have us all fly out in one mass exodus of ...I don't know what a group of bats are called!" She said, sitting up straighter.
It really didn’t surprise him so much that she wouldn’t be able to do it, but Eric still frowned a bit in thought. “Hmm, yeah, guess we could just turn everyone, but maybe not fly out in a mass exodus. Break off in groups and fly in all different directions to make it harder for them to track us or whatever,” he considered thoughtfully. “Wouldn’t want to get caught and dissected after all.”
Violet opened her mouth, then giggled and shut it, sitting back again. "Don't get me started." she told him. "Next thing you know, I'll be speculating on whether or not we'd start having bat instincts, and if we did, we wouldn't be able to do that." she told him, smirking. "So you're going to have to distract me from this with something else, or we'll be here all night."
Eric rather thought he really needed to stop getting so distracted by her giggle. It was too darn cute, and if he didn't want to mess up this whole friends thing, he really needed to not think of her in that way. "All night, huh? That would be a shame since it's still pretty early, and I'm gonna have to leave my room at some point to meet up with Reece, which is apparently the Administration's homework for the day. They tell you to go have a conversation with anyone?" he asked curiously, not even realizing that he'd managed to do exactly what she'd asked.
"Yes, actually." Violet said. "I have to meet someone named Matt?" she suggested, wondering if Eric had met him yet, and could give her any insight. "I have met Reece, though it was pretty brief, and not in the best circumstance." she added. "Be gentle with him, he was taking Caroline's death really hard."
The way she worded that made it clear she was asking about the guy named Matt, but Eric knew nothing about him, so he shrugged. "Haven't met him," he told her, and he was going to try not to wonder too much about what kind of people she might end up around here. He pulled a face at her advice about Reece, not pleased with it, but glad he knew before going and making a complete ass of himself. "I'll keep it in mind. I met him the day I got here. So, you'll tell me how things go with this Matt guy?" he asked, unable to help himself.
Tilting her head to the side, she smiled at him, a sort of surprised but pleased smile. "Are you worried about me?" she asked.
Eric tried to keep his smile in place, but he was well aware that it had dimmed. "I've been in six years, Vi. That's a long time to meet all different kinds of people who landed in prison, and most of the time, they're nowhere near as nice as you. So yeah, maybe I am a little worried. You know any kind of self defense or anything?" Not that he really knew much, but he'd try to help her figure some things out if he could.
She softened in response to him, and she sat forward a little. "I'm sorry, if things haven't been good for you." she told him, voice light. "As for self defense, stuff, sorry. I don't know anything like that." she admitted. "I'll be careful, though." she promised.
Shaking his head, Eric said, "Don't be sorry for me. I made my choices, and I'm surviving the consequences just fine." His tone was almost gentle, reassuring. He didn't want her to get all sorts of twisted thoughts of what he might have done in prison. A sweet girl like her didn't need to imagine those kinds of things. "Well fuck, maybe you should see if someone can teach you a few things, just in case," he suggested, though he wasn't going to push it if the thought didn't appeal to her.
Violet considered that, though in the end wrinkled her nose cutely. "I'm kind of not actually sure I'd be able to do anything? I'm pretty tiny, I'm not exactly mrs. muscles, and I'm not sure I wouldn't just get really terrified if someone was trying to hurt me like that. Which I'm sure doesn't make you feel much better. But I've never been in a situation like that before. So, I guess I don't know how I would react."
Eric lifted a hand to scrub through his hair, her response really not helping him feel less concerned about her. "Well fuck," he muttered. "Here's to hoping you don't get in any kind of situation, then." He really hoped he wasn't coming off too pessimistic, he just really didn't like the thought of anyone hurting her. Hell, he didn't like the thought of anyone hurting anyone. He just didn't have the stomach for violence.
"Would it feel better if I promised to meet him someplace, like...I don't know, the courtyard or something? Somewhere that's kinda public, or something? Like you do for internet dating." she said, latching onto that idea. Public spaces, where it would be pretty damn hard for anything bad to happen without it being witnessed.
Chuckling at the comparison Vi latched onto, Eric just shook his head. "Nah. I mean, it's not just him that's the unknown, right? People I've met so far seem cool, but it's still prison, we're all still convicts, so I don't know. Maybe just... I don't know." He shrugged a little helplessly, really not able to pin down any kind of advice for her. "If you're not comfortable or get any kind of creepy vibe from anyone, don't be afraid to bail or whatever," he finally settled on saying.
"Okay." she said, conceding that, if it would make him feel better. But she did find it incredibly sweet that he was worried. He was already fast approaching his way to having a true soft spot in her heart for him, and that only made that more prominent. "I promise." she added, holding her pinky out towards him, to pinky swear.
This was just something Eric was not used to doing. Even before prison, he hadn't had that overprotective drive. But prison could change a person, he supposed, and being in a place where he'd seen the true colors of predators had him wanting to try to help ensure that Violet didn't have to see that. "Cool," he said when she promised, reaching out as well to hook his pinky around hers. "So what do you think you're gonna do today?" he asked as he pulled his hand back. "Other than meet up with the Matt guy," he added.
"Well, go down to the clinic for a while, um...." Violet laughed. "Is it sad that I kinda have no real plan?" she asked sheepishly. "That was sort of it. I'd been working it out then got distracted with rushing over to save your life." she admitted.
Eric chuckled at the answer. "Nope, not sad at all! You got further along than I did, anyway. But awww, yay, you put off making plans to save me, I feel so special," he said, tone teasing, and he winked at her. "I'll probably kill some time in the music room, and then who knows. Gonna need food at some point, too."
"Like goldfish." Violet said, mock serious. "I was thinking of maybe going swimming later." she offered up, just in case he was bored. She liked him. She wanted to keep getting to know him better. Plus, he was, in fact, very very cute, and that didn't hurt either.
“Oh yes, goldfish are tasty,” Eric replied with a mostly straight face. “Ahh, a swim could be fun. It’s been a long time since I went swimming.” He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d gone swimming. Hopefully it would be like riding a bike. And if it wasn’t? Well, at least he’d have a pretty nurse there to save him.
"Me neither. So, I thought it could be nice." she said. Standing, she stretched. "Maybe see you there, then?" she asked, a light little hopeful tone in her voice.
Eric watched her stretch, and it really was such a distracting thing for her to do, but he didn’t comment on it like he might have with someone else, or anyone else really. “Yeah, sure. What time?” he asked, figuring it would be best for there not to be a question of that so they wouldn’t end up missing each other.
"Ummmmm," Violet started, laughing slightly. "I don't know? Maybe...er...seven?" she suggested, throwing out an arbitrary time. After she said it, it sounded to her like a date, but she didn't correct herself. Or was it eight that was the date time? She didn’t know.
“Seven it is. I’ll pick you up,” Eric teased cheekily, winking at her.
She giggled, sort of wondering if he was serious, but in the end she figured she would just have to wait in her room and see. "See you later, Eric." she said, waving to him as she let herself out. She smiled and exhaled as she left the room, pleased with hanging out with him and happy she was planning to do so again later tonight. With a little bounce in her step, she headed out to go on with the rest of her day, mood positive.