Chase Underwood (darkwanting) wrote in the_dome, @ 2013-10-16 21:46:00 |
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Entry tags: | 04-12-2017, clementine, clementine and lance, lance |
Sneaking In and Dodging Frying Pans
Who: Clementine and Lance
Where: Clementine and Zania’s house
When: late evening
Lance waited until Kenzie was in the shower before heading out and onto the porch nextdoor. There wasn’t any immediate noise that could be heard inside from the front door so he did as he’d planned and picked the lock to let himself inside. He was quiet as he could be at least until he stepped on a creaky floorboard.
Clementine knew where Zania was, which was why the creaks in the floor concerned her so much. She didn’t expect her friend back right now and aside from the fact that if it was someone else, like Kenzie or Skylar, she figured she would have heard them announce themselves. So this concerned her enough to take a few steps to her right, from the counter she was standing at in the kitchen to the stove where she kept a small skillet always on the stovetop. Gripping it, she started toward the corner, thinking that if something was creeping in her house, she needed to be prepared.
Lance glared at the unforgiving floorboard, then started again, coming more into the ring of light coming from the kitchen. He planned on just bypassing it, but was curious if Clementine was home, so he leaned towards the corner, trying to get a glimpse of her.
And she, too, leaned around the corner to try and peek into the dark and see who or what the hell was in her house. When she caught sight of a body far too close to her, she yelped and took a step back, swinging her skillet in the direction of the face.
Lance just barely missed getting the frying pan to the face, ducking and then moving away. “Hey, hey, hey!” He held his hands up, trying to stay safe and not getting clanked over the head.
A voice. A normal voice. After a moment, Clementine just stared at the form of the stranger in her house, hands still gripped over the handle of her skillet. “Who the hell are you? And why are you in my house?”
He tilted his head, holding his hands up still. “Um Lance. I’m...here for Zania. You must be the roommate.”
“...Yeah, I’m the roommate. Lance?” She asked, not having heard the name before and definitely not remembering the face. “Zania’s not here. What the hell, you just let yourself into people’s houses whenever you want?”
“Lance,” he confirmed. “Zania and I are...friends.” What the hell else was he going to call it? It certainly wasn’t more. Zania might want a boyfriend, but she didn’t want Lance as her boyfriend. “Well...no. I know she’s not. I told her I’d wait. And...sometimes. It’s late. I wasn’t really going for bothering you.”
“Well Jesus, knock on the door first...I would have let you in.” Sighing, Clementine put her frying pan down on the table and looked back at him. Yes, she knew how ridiculous it was for her to even have almost hit him with a frying pan, but he’d spooked her and that wasn’t cool. “Why haven’t we met before?”
“Again, didn’t want to bother you.” But being accosted hadn’t been what he’d been expecting. At least she’d managed not to hit him. “Umm...first guess is Zania’s ashamed of me.”
“Why would she be ashamed of you?” Clementine asked. Normally she’d be offering him water or tea by now but her mind was still reeling. Why had she thought that this was an attack? Why had that been her first reaction? Maybe some of the apocalypse was still ingrained in her?
Lance shrugged his shoulders. “Typically reasons. No one really likes to blather about the random hook ups do they.” He looked her over, really taking her in. “So you’re Clementine. I think I was expecting something else.”
She was about to protest, to say something about it not being blathering, but he intrigued her with his next comment. “What do you mean? What were you expecting?”
“Someone...more likely to make a demand or an ultimatum. You just seem...sweet.” Which might have been why Skylar bought into the ultimatum. That the guy seemed to be interested in his sassy cousin and sweet Clementine was amusing though.
“Oh, great, so you know about it too..” Sighing, Clementine went back to her counter, bringing her pan with her to shove it back onto the stove. She looked at the half-made sandwich on her plate and hated that she didn’t want to eat t because it was so wasteful. “Do you want this thing?”
“Well...I am Kenzie’s cousin.” He followed after her, curious what she’d said. “So you’ve heard a load about it?” He didn’t say anything about taking the sandwich just reaching for it and taking a bite. Lance wasn’t the type to turn down food. Especially not free food.
“I heard an earful about it from Kenzie, rightfully. That was really screwed up of me,” Clementine said, sighing as she leaned against the counter. “I didn’t mean to hurt her. I just...I didn’t think through anything before I said it. It was selfish of me and I tried to apologize but she didn’t take it, which is fair. She doesn’t have to. I’d...be surprised if she ever talked to me again.”
“She said she was hurt by it?” Lance caught, pushing to sit up on the counter like he lived there, still munching on the sandwich. “That lying bitch.” He shook his head. “She’s not keen on feelings. It’s how we both are. But I’m surprised you actually think that you did something wrong. Most people wouldn’t say that.”
“Well...she probably didn’t say that she was hurt by it but she wasn’t happy with it,” She said, turning around to lean against her counter and watch him. Kenzie wasn’t big on emotions, ok. Clementine could sort of see that. She pulled her knitted cardigan closer to her and looked back up at him again. “Most people wouldn’t be upset that they might have upset their friend?”
“I think she likes him. And she hates that.” Lance grinned around the sandwich and shrugged. “No, most people don’t care as much if they’re getting what they want. And I take it, you want Skylar.”
Clementine felt her cheeks flare up and she ended up glaring at Lance, not sure she liked this very direct stranger who had essentially broken into her home. “You’re very blunt for someone who just let himself into my house.”
“I’m blunt for someone who hadn’t let themselves into your house,” Lance said with a smirk. “I’m gonna take a wild ass guess and say m’right with the way you just turned hot pink.”
“What I feel isn’t really any of your business,” She said, looking back at him and crossing her arms over her chest. So what if she thought Skylar was really cute? That didn’t mean what she’d done was right. Far from it. “Aren’t you supposed to be on Kenzie’s side? I’m guessing you’re her friend…”
“Cousin,” Lance said with a nod. “I am. And I’m not. She’s all weird about this guy and I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’m still learning all the facts.”
“Well, Kenzie’s cousin Lance, I don’t really want to talk about this anymore. I already feel guilty enough about it, so let’s just move on.” She wasn’t sure she wanted to talk to Lance about much of anything, considering the mood she was in now that she had to bring up Kenzie and the ultimatum again, though.
He tilted his head and look at her. “You do feel guilty. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so nice.” Which was different and yet neat. “What would you like to talk about?”
“I don’t know, something that’s not that.” She shrugged a little. “Like am I gonna need to start seeing you around my house more often?” Because she was going to have to get herself together if that was happening. She didn’t know that she liked having Lance around, since he was so blunt and it wasn’t what she wanted to hear right now.
Lance considered that, tapping his heels against the cabinet below him. “Maybe. It depends on what Zania thinks. Maybe. Maybe she’ll be tired of me tomorrow.” He shrugged his shoulders.
“You don’t seem that concerned if she is,” Clementine said, watching Lance a little more closely. “Do you like her or is this just convenient for you? Because I’ll have you know that I’m not real fond of that idea.”
“I’m still deciding. I do like her, but I think this one’s up to her. So you’re not a fan of me?” Lance shrugged. He did like Zania, but he knew what they were and they weren’t. They weren’t a couple. Not really at least.
“I don’t know if I’m not a fan of you. I just want to make sure Zania isn’t going to get hurt. She’s a great person and she deserves to be happy. I’m protective of her,” Clementine explained, watching Lance again with slightly narrowed eyes.
“I’m not that other guy,” Lance told Clementine. “I know that she knows what I want. And I know what she needs. It works out well. There’s no stringing along, no unrequited feelings.”
“...Well, good. But I’ve got my eyes on you,” She said, hoping it would at least sound a little like something he should be concerned about. It probably didn’t, though. Sighing, she started for a glass to pour herself some water.
“Hopefully you enjoy the view,” Lance said, grinning a little more. He leaned back, his arms behind him, watching her.
Clementine’s eyes narrowed again until she rolled them and took her glass with her toward the exit of the kitchen. “There are blankets on the couch,” She said, thinking she needed to check with Zania to see how she felt about this Lance character.
“I was actually thinking I’d sleep in Zania’s room…” he smirked a little, wondering how Clementine would feel about that.
“You don’t get to just be in there. You wait for her in the living room,” She said, looking back at him seriously. “Contrary to whatever you might think, I’m not oblivious. I just don’t know you and I’m not letting you roll on into Zan’s room. If you had actually planned your break in better, maybe you’d be where you want to be right now. But I’m here and you’re on the couch until Zan comes home. Capisce?”
Lance watched her, laughing to himself a little. “How very motherly of you.” Though he figured for now at least, he could play along. “I did break in properly, but sure. You can banish me to the couch.”
“You broke into my house, so yeah, you’re banished to the couch. Or I could insist that you wait for her on the porch…” She hinted, looking back at him with a lifted eyebrow. “Blankets are on the couch.”
“But you wouldn’t do that because it would be long, cold night and you’re nicer than that,” Lance said as he got up, following her towards the couch. “Does someone usually sleep here?”
He was right. She wouldn’t kick him out for that very reason. She was going to leave, to go to her room and just try to wrap her mind around what she could do to smooth things over with Kenzie or when she would tell Skylar that her part of the rules had to be revoked, but he was still talking to her so she stopped. “No.” No one other than Skylar, and he hadn’t in a while. “Why?”
“Just the only real reason why there might still be blankets out on the couch. If it gets used,” Lance said, dropping on the couch and looking up at her.
“Sometimes people show up and I want them to be warm. I make blankets and stuff like that so there’s probably just a lot of them around because I make them.” She sighed, thinking again of Kenzie’s red scarf and how she was still going to complete it even if the girl burned it later.
“So very motherly. The random strangers off the street are lucky to have you,” he said, tilting his head. “What’s the sigh for?”
“Great, that’s me. Making blankets for random street strangers…” She said, shrugging as she turned toward her room again. She stopped at his question then shook her head. “Why does it matter?”
He watched her. “Because I’m curious. And I’m a good listener.”
She shook her head a little then closed her eyes. “Before all of this, I was making Kenzie a scarf and a pair of gloves, and looking for red dye of some sort so I could make them red for her...I still want to make her the scarf, I just don’t know if it will matter to her.”
Lance thought about that, leaning back on the couch again. “It might. People don’t...do things for us. They never have.” Which might mean that despite her issues with her friend, Kenzie might appreciate the gesture.
Clementine nodded after a moment. “Ok then. Do you know anywhere that I can get some red dye? Or...like….red dye equivalent? I was thinking roses but I hate the idea of crushing up a bunch of roses. It would take so many…”
Red dye. “I can ask around the other traders. Might be able to find you something. Though maybe go with fruit to dye. Cherries or something?”
“That’s not a bad idea, but I know if there were cherries in here, I’d want to give them to Zania to let her make a pie. I know she loves making pies.” She shrugged. “If there’s anything the traders have, hair dye, anything...that’d be great. I can make you a scarf for your troubles.”
Lance considered that then nodded. “I like that idea. I’ll see what I can find, put some feelers out. There’s a few of us still carting around things.” Someone was bound to have something and Lance might very well just take it.
“Great,” Clementine said, giving him a small smile because it was really all she could muster. He was going to try and help her, though, which was nice. “Just...let me know if you need anything, ok? I’m gonna go to my room, maybe knit something.”
“I’ll be right here, just waiting on your roommate.” And probably taking a nap at some point. “You’ll forget I’m here.”
Clementine gave him another small grin again and shook her head as she started walking toward her room. “Doubt it.”