Jaina Solo (swordofjedi) wrote in thedoorway, @ 2013-03-07 21:38:00 |
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There was always that bad choice of timing during a movie. You shoved a handful of potato chips in your mouth during a key moment of suspense-building silence, so that the crunch nearly echoed, ricocheting awkwardly off the walls to remind you that you seriously sucked at picking moments to feed your face. Peter had the presence to pause his crunch midway. CAH-RUN----- Only to let it complete once the music and scene picked up again. CHHHHHHHHH. Talk about crisp chips. He looked over at Jaina, brows raised slightly. Dawn of the Dead kept rolling, but Peter never did have any reservations about being That Guy Who Talked Through the Whole Movie. “Anyway, what I was saying is that there’s a whole culture for this stuff. People legitimately prepare for the zombie apocalypse. Which -- hey, fair enough, we’ve got some people here from one of those. Also, my world is screwy enough that you can’t ever rule it out.” He shrugged. “I noticed, about the zombie craze.” Jaina shifted slightly on the sofa, legs still curled up under her but her midsection was turned a little more toward Peter so she was paying attention to both the TV and his explanations at the same time. Talking during movies didn’t bother her - and she’d already been through a good dozen with him so far to build up an immunity. He at least had the grace to wait until something you weren’t required to pay attention to was on before adding little informational tidbits. She had her own bowl of popcorn balancing on her lap, within his reach. “I’d say I’m not too worried about it if it happens, lightsaber and all.” As if on cue, a zombie took a big chunk out of a shoulder, splattering fake blood everywhere on screen. Jaina winced and ducked her head slightly. “These guys really could use a lightsaber right about now. Eugh.” Peter inclined his head to one side, giving her answer a fair thought. He struck up a finger. “Lightsabers. See, now that’s a smart weapon. Everyone’s always talking axes and crowbars, but what you really need is to find your nearest Jedi.” He reached forward to hook his glass of water, paused, and added, “I always thought I’d be okay with my webshooters. I mean, long as the zombies can’t climb, I’m golden.” He settled back again, gave her a side glance, looked as if he was about to say something, stopped, and then seemingly decided to go ahead anyway. “Permission to ask an awkward question?” “Make sure you have a cache of supplies up high, then.” Jaina pointed out and tossed a few pieces of popcorn into her mouth. “But we’ve got the perfect weapon, slices through things like butter, doesn’t ever run out of ammo... Dad would tell you a blaster is better, but they break too easily.” Her hand hovered over the popcorn again and she stopped, mid-swipe, not letting her gaze move from the movie for a few seconds while she mentally debated exactly what kind of awkward question he was planning on asking. They’d just reached the point where they weren’t sitting feet away from each other, avoiding all eye contact... But there was the very distinct possibility that she was over thinking whatever he planned on asking. She never knew what was going to come out of his mouth next. “... Sure?” Not sounding at all sure of her final answer. “Yeeeeah, but I’m not a guns guy. Actually not much of a sword guy either, which you may have noticed. I’m pretty terrible having anything resembling form with, well, weapons.” And this was stalling that question he’d set up to ask. Yeah, well, no more of that. They were adults, and adults could talk freely with each other, right? ...maybe. “Honest opinion. Does the red and blue make me look fat? I was considering some new threads, and... okay, that’s not the right line. I’m gonna rip this band-aid off.” He sucked in a breath. “Are we gonna keep doing this teenage crush shuffle? ‘Cause I’ve spent the last ten minutes telling myself that I shouldn’t reach for the popcorn because that’s a weird, indirect kinda come-on, and my brain is seriously my worst enemy about these things.” The first thing out of her mouth was an abrupt laugh, and the instant thought that yep, she’d been overthinking it again, but the laugh quickly dissipated when he “ripped off the bandaid”, and Jaina was back to awkwardly staring at the screen ahead of them again and letting the chuckle die down slightly, to a few seconds of silence. “I hear black is slimming,” Maybe a bit of a cop-out, jokingly answering his first question instead of his real one. But for kriffing sake, she was not good at talking things over. Out. Talking in general. Reading signals should not be this hard as a Jedi. Jaina cleared her throat quietly and shifted her head slightly to look over at him. Her voice was softer than usual, like she was slightly hesitant to even ask or say anything to this. “Did you want popcorn? You could just ask.” So maybe it wasn’t the most direct of answers, but she’d already jumped back from any kind of potential with him once before. Okay, that wasn’t really inspiring any further courage, but having decided himself a Gryffindor, Peter lunged ahead. “Maybe I’ll go navy blue next time, but... yeah, that was unfair of me. Ask a question, make you answer.” He hooked his leg up, swiveling around to face her. They could always rewind Dawn of the Dead if this turned out to be a bust, and the movie was a way better idea, after all. “So, I’m gonna ramble for a minute. This place? This place can really suck. You never know who’s going to get pulled away or dumped here. Sometimes -- between coasting on faith that my plans for tomorrow won’t get sat on by the Tesseract -- I look at the apartment I’ve got here and I think about putting up a picture. And it’s the craziest thing because I’ve fought myself in my head for weeks about it. What if I’m not here tomorrow? What’s the point? And then... and then I realize that this picture is the small stuff. I already have a job here. I know all my students by name. Some of ‘em even come to me just to talk. Man, and we talk about anything and everything -- because you just can’t avoid getting attached to people when you end up somewhere. Maybe it’s temporary, but roots end up getting planted.” He begged a few more seconds with a raise of his hands. “Aaaand when you find someone you click with, it gets complicated fast because there’s always that overhead of wondering if it’s a good idea. That’s... really most of what was going through my head when I left you hanging. I think I’m actually landing on the side of go-for-it-because-why-the-heck-not, but I can roll with just sharing popcorn, too.” Several times during his speech, her mouth opened to talk and then closed again. Mid-way through, she force levitated the popcorn bowl off of her lap and it gently landed on the coffee table in front of them, but she didn’t like having a buffer of food items that could go flying at any point with animated hands. “Oookay, that’s a lot of words to process and-” Jaina cut off with a shake of her head, fully turning toward him so she wasn’t a complete lump during this conversation. Okay, she was still a pretty big lump, considering he just put it all out there and she’d been doing just fine skirting around the issue at hand. But Jaina was never much of a talker and would rather just jump right into a firefight, and opened her mouth again but instead of actually saying what she had been thinking over the last few weeks, she just swore under her breath and leaned forward to plant her mouth across his, hand catching the side of his cheek to bring him closer with the hopes that he wouldn’t start rambling again. It was a gamble, sure, stumbling through that long-winded and exposed muddle, but Peter kept quiet after that. He watched Jaina with a conscious effort to not look like he was putting his hopes into any one answer. She needed some space. Of course she did. He was waxing poetic about pictures and how they were analogies for life, and -- That was a kiss. It was upon him and happening before he could really sink a hold on why she was shifting in. Because after all of the awkward times since the first fumble, it seemed like his chances had toppled backwards, and the honesty was just him holding true to his amazing talents of making things worse. It didn’t take more than a split second this time, though, to get with the program. Jaina’s hand on his cheek was matched with a reach behind her, so he could meet her halfway this time. Offsides, a zombie was being shot at, and sprays of red on the screen cast the room in a mellow glow. He only pulled away for a second to quickly ask around a crumpled grin, “So we’re on the same page, huh?” It was particularly nice not getting the feeling through the Force of doubt or second thoughts, which had Jaina reluctant to pull away when he needed a few seconds. But it gave her time to shift her legs a little to put her closer to him. Her brainpower wasn’t wasted on paying attention to the movie anymore. It’d been two years since she’d really been around anyone other than an informat, a Jedi or a bounty, and Jaina was all for taking advantage of the fact that she clicked with someone, even if it was in another universe. And the other universe thing was another thought she had to push back. “I think your pages might have a lot of extra words on them, but..” She stopped herself from leaning in to kiss him again, right away. “I’m not much for talking, so uh. Pretty okay with it if you want to skip that part, but I’m guessing you don’t. But kissing is good, you know. Been awhile since I’ve done that.” “I...” Peter pulled a thoughtful face, ever slightly exaggerated as he was wont to do. “Actually, it’s been a really long time for me, too. Was there anything I missed in all of that? Because if you let me keep talking, I’ll keep talking, Jaina. I can motormouth through anything. Just say the word, and I’ll--” “Shut up,” Jaina cut him off with a good natured pinch to his chest, leaning in to kiss him again. This one was a little softer, a little more hesitant, offering him a chance to back out and change his mind. Or just a little more unsure than she’d been a few minutes before. She pulled away slightly on her own accord, though, but didn’t leave his grasp. “Or if you wanted to just keep talking, I’m sure I could pay attention to the movie again...” Peter winced at the pinch, although more for theatrics than because it hurt -- and he smartly didn’t try to quip back when he saw her leaning in again. If Jaina wanted some assurance that he was on board with this new direction, it was more than present in his return, as he slid a hand up to the base of her neck. “Movie? What movie?” He gave her a shrug, a whimsical grin, and leaned against his free hand, which was propped up against the sofa’s back cushion. “And I can be quiet. Just watch,” he added, before moving in again, this time closing up more of the distance between them. “Yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it.” Jaina chuckled and slid herself closer, the hand that was on his cheek now shifting to the back of his head to thread through his short hair. She leaned in to kiss him again, and only a few seconds passed before she was pulling away again, both for air and to shift to the point of being half on his lap. “No patrol or anything tonight? Mindy needing homework help? The urgent need to save someone?” “I can be less chatty. You’d be surprised the things I can do with the right incentive. Let me tell you about the one time I...” He paused, still grinning over at Jaina and hooking his arms around her waist. “Didn’t have a patrol lined up, Mindy didn’t need me for homework, and I did my share of heroics earlier in the day so I’d have an open schedule for this one Jedi I talked into movie night. Seriously, check this out.” A finger tugged at his shirt’s collar. “No costume on.” “I’m impressed.” Jaina joked fondly, grinning at him from only a few inches away. Her eyes kept flicking down to his lips, but her brain was completely turned off. No overthinking things or using the force to suss out his feelings or thoughts. Instead she just let herself have a few moments of quiet calm, mouth hovering over his. She had one last question before leaning in again, “since you put it that way, how about we shut up for good?” Peter darted his eyes to the side, narrowing them just briefly. Then he looked back to Jaina and gave a nod. “Works for me,” he replied, a split second before closing in again. |