brad butler ≠ alfred pennyworth (whybats) wrote in thereincarnates, @ 2010-12-17 22:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | barbara walker, brad butler |
Who: Brad Butler and Barbara Walker
What: Date number 2! Commence awkward.
Where: A fancy restaurant in downtown NYC, then Brad's apartment.
When: Backdated to Monday, December 13, 8 PMish.
Warnings: Rated G. Totally. We are paragons of purity. See our halos? See them?! (Sigh. PG-13, for language and foreplay.)
The past couple weeks had been more than a little strange for Brad, and that was entirely due to one thing. One person, even. Not a bizarre reincarnate-related phenomenon, but just one woman: his partner, Barbara Walker. His... girlfriend? He wasn’t quite sure, but he didn’t try to breach the subject anyway. Things were weird enough as it was – the two of them were venturing into uncharted territory, and there was no telling where they were going to end up. Brad didn’t really care, so long as they were together.
Surprised, he shook his head and smiled to himself at the thought. He’d never known he was such a sap before Barbara came along, which was... completely antithetical to her personality. Barbara didn’t have a girly bone in her body. In fact, he was pretty sure she was manlier than he could ever hope to be, but that didn’t erase the fact that she was gorgeous, especially when she did try to be a little girly. It was weird as hell to see her in a dress at first, but once she got used to it, he did too. It was a nice change, though thankfully a temporary one. He wasn’t big on ties.
But that didn’t stop him from asking her out on another date. He waited until they both left the station, then pulled her in for a kiss in the middle of the empty parking lot, something he’d been wanting to do all day but, for obvious reasons, couldn’t. Then he asked her, she agreed, and they went their separate ways for a few hours to get ready. He had never tried on so many ties in his life, but before he knew it, they were on their way to the restaurant... but it was only after they arrived that he realized he’d forgotten to make a reservation.
They were standing in the lobby, the silent waiters quietly judging them as Brad stared blankly at the maitre d’. “You don’t have... any open tables. Any at all?” The man shook his head snootily. “Shit,” Brad murmured, scratching his head before turning to Barbara. “What do you wanna do here?”
---
Things had calmed down a lot, at least by their standards.. Ever since Ainsley’s murder, the two weeks they’d spent without their reincarnates and then without themselves, and then the week after that they’d spent cleaning up everyone’s messes, she was actually pretty grateful for any amount of time alone with Brad. Things had... shifted between them. It had been subtle, a slow build that if she thought about it, she could pin point the start of it to be soon after they’d come back from that weird ass alternate reality jump. For months they’d ignored it, or at least she’d tried. Now she couldn’t even understand why, other then that she’d just been scared. But the night after Ainsley’s death in Barbara’s apartment, she hadn’t been able to hide her feelings for him anymore and he hadn’t been able to either.
But that didn’t mean she was at all prepared for the dating world, though. Spending any time with Brad was great, she pretty much didn’t give a fuck what they did as long as they did it together. He made her feel good in ways she’d never thought possible, so any amount of inner discomfort was worth it. Right now? She was definitely a little uncomfortable, but that was mostly due to the dress. This wasn’t the first time she’d worn one, it was actually the second, and while thanks to Leigh she’d managed to learn how to walk in a dress and heels, she still felt like she was wearing someone else’s skin. Brad seemed to like it though, so that was all that mattered.
“Hmm?” Barbara hadn’t been paying attention but the tail end of the conversation reached her ears a beat later and she shrugged, flashing Brad a crooked grin. “We could wait? Or go somewhere else. All I know is it’s really fucking cold in here.” She stopped short, realizing she’d just dropped the ‘f bomb’ in an upscale, fancy restaurant and looked sheepish. “Though now they might refuse to ever seat us ‘cos i said the word ‘fucking’...” She said to Brad under her breath, her cheeks a little rosey with cold and embarrassment as she rubbed her hands up and down her bare, goose bump filled arms.
---
“Twice,” he corrected her, teasing her with a small grin. “You said ‘fucking’ twice.” While Brad found her little slip-up adorable, all it took was one glance at the maitre d’ to know that he didn’t share Brad’s sentiments. So, this had been a mistake, coming to this restaurant, but it wasn’t the end of the world. They could find other, more welcoming places to eat.
Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, he nodded a disparaging “thanks” to the staff as he steered Barbara towards the door. “Come on,” he murmured in her ear. “Let’s go get a burger or something. Be among our own people.” Before they reached the door, he brushed her hair off of her shoulder and gave her a playful kiss on the neck – which normally would’ve been completely out of character for him, but for whatever reason, he felt strangely comfortable with this PDA. He couldn’t really help himself, she looked so beautiful, and this situation was so very... them. He liked the thought of that. Of being a them. It made him feel warm, even though it was bitterly cold outside. Speaking of...
“Here,” he said suddenly, pulling away from her and taking his jacket off. He draped it over her shoulders and gave her an affectionate smile. “Better?”
---
Barbara had never been one for PDA but then, it’s not like she’d had many opportunities in which to commit public displays of affection in the first place. She didn’t mind it. At least, she didn’t mind it with Brad. A delicious shiver ran down her spine when she felt his lips on her neck and she was actually grateful once they were outside. It was colder, but much less stuffy. She really wasn’t a fancy restaurant kind of girl, she’d at least learned that out of the whole two dates they’d been on now. Burgers sounded much better, even if that meant going to get them right now in fancy formal wear. She was pretty sure whatever burger joint they ended up at, they’d seen weirder?
She let him drape his jacket over her shoulders and smiled up at him gratefully, suddenly feeling very uncertain and... by god, girly, under his soft gaze. He had a way of making her actually feel feminine, even if she never acted like it anyway. Even in this dress she still swore and definitely didn’t walk at all delicately. She’d probably even shot gun a beer right now. Not the point. “Mmm. Much better.” She grinned up at him, taking a moment to ever so subtly sniff the lining of the collar. It smelled good. It smelled like Brad.
Barbara took the initiative to stand up on her tip toes to wrap her arms around his neck and press herself to him so she could kiss him. She didn’t let go right away, his added warmth was welcoming in the cold night air and like every other time that she was with him, she found it impossible not to kiss him. Working at the station together where they had to keep their hands off each other was pure torture. After a long moment she pulled away a fraction of an inch and breathed out a ‘thank you’, that crooked smile once again taking over her face. She had to face facts, she was happy.
---
Brad welcomed her into his arms – how could he not, when she smiled at him like that? – and took the liberty to slide his hands down her sides and around her hips underneath the jacket. She was tiny, but he didn’t mind. Just made it easier for him to hold her close, which was all he really wanted. He didn’t even care about dinner all that much, but he wouldn’t be saying that to her. There was an order to these things. They may have wasted a lot of time before, but that was no excuse to rush things now. Was it?
He pushed that thought out of his mind as she pulled away, focusing instead on that crooked smile of hers. He loved that smile. There was nothing else like it, and when she smiled at him like that it was like he was the only thing in the universe. He was okay with that, too. He didn’t really feel like sharing. With anyone. Ever. Not even the cashiers at a fast food joint. Maybe it was greedy, but he wanted her all to himself, just for a few hours. No cops, no JL, no crazy psychos on the run – just him and Barbara. His thumbs caressed her hips idly as he studied her, brow slightly furrowed. So much for order. He was quickly learning that, with Barbara, all his caution went right out the window. This was... new for him. And not entirely unwelcome.
“On second thought,” he began slowly, thoughtfully, measuring his words with care. He didn’t want to scare her away, after all. “How about take-out? Chinese, maybe? I mean, you’ve got my jacket now. I wasn’t planning on freezing to death tonight, but if that’s how you like your men, who am I to object?” Funny how he went from careful to joking in under two seconds. She had a strange effect on him, one that had him smiling and joking almost non-stop. He hadn’t been like this a few months ago, but not a single part of him wanted to go back. He just wanted to see that smile again. And he was positive that, if nothing else, that would never change.
---
Barbara had been carrying around those memories of being intimate with him in an alternate universe for over a month now, but somehow those memories just didn’t measure up to every time he’d touched her in any way since about three weeks ago. It was hard for her to concentrate on anything else when his hands were on her hips like that and her thoughts were becoming far from innocent, but she didn’t voice anything she was thinking. When he suggested getting take-out though, she was far too enthusiastic about that idea. The thought of being indoors alone with him and some cheap, greasy Chinese take-out was quite possibly the best thing she could think of to do with him at the moment.
“Take out-sounds perfect,” she replied just as slowly, all too amused with how careful they were both trying to be with each other. “Who doesn’t love Chinese? I know I do.” She reached up and kissed him again, smiling into the kiss like a fool before pulling away. “Yeah, no, I’d rather you stay warm blooded and not frozen if it’s all the fucking same to you.” With a soft tug at his collar, she started a half-assed attempt at getting them to start moving. It meant separating from each other for as long as it took to get indoors, which was almost incentive enough for her to stay put. Almost. She wasn’t completely irrational. Just mostly. “Well come on then, slick.”
---
An hour later, they were safely in Brad’s sparsely-furnished apartment, lounging on his couch, still in their finery, and fussing over their respective dinners. Because of his complete ineptitude when it came to chopsticks, most of Brad’s Mongolian beef had ended up on his shirt rather than in his mouth, and finally, he had to give up. He hauled himself off the couch to go get a fork from the kitchen, but it wasn’t until he returned that he realized he’d grabbed two forks. Not one. He stared at the spare for a moment, mildly bemused, before he offered it to Barbara. “Just in case?”
Tossing his useless chopsticks on to the table, he took a quick swig of his beer before settling back in next to her and with his take-out. There was a smile on his face that, quite simply, would not go away. This was heaven. He was sure of it. Eating dinner with a beautiful woman who didn’t care if he was eating like a slob or downing beers like a champion – what could be better? Nothing. Nothing at all.
“Hey.” He peered over her shoulder and into her food, inspecting it for just a moment before reaching into it with his fork. “Gimme some of your water chestnuts. I’m all out over here.”
---
“Thanks,” Barbara smiled sheepishly, accepted the fork from him and immediately going to work with it. She wasn’t the most inept when it came to the use of chopsticks either, she’d taken to brutally stabbing her food with the sharper ends of the chop sticks so she was pretty grateful when Brad handed her that fork. She twirled it around her chow mein, fully aware that they were probably committing some kind of sin or horrible offense for eating Chinese food with forks but it couldn’t be helped, they were just too white for their own good. Besides, it was pretty cute watching Brad miss his mouth almost every single time he’d tried to maneuver food with his chop sticks towards him. She’d started mentally keeping a running tally.
She’d never felt so comfortable in someone else’s apartment before. Hanging out with Brad in here like this, it felt like they were home. Both of them. Like they shared this like a home. That was weird, but then again not, since in an alternate reality they’d been married and sharing this place together. It was getting harder and harder to distinguish her feelings now from her feelings then, but she could hardly mind. They were good feelings, and she intended to bask in them. The slimming, black dress she’d been wearing was by now probably pretty wrinkled from the way she’d been half slumped into Brad’s couch for the past hour, but she could hardly care less. It was Leigh’s dress anyway... “Get your own water chestnuts!” Her protest was very halfhearted as she let him pick around her plate anyway, grinning at him stupidly before leaning into the space between them and kissing his cheek. “You’re such a fucking thief.”
---
“Hey, at least I asked...” His superficial defense was totally nullified by the fact that his mouth was full, and he knew it, so he couldn’t help but laugh as he tried to chew. It was awkward, but he liked it. He didn’t mind making a fool out of himself in front of Barbara, which... said a lot about how he felt about her. Normally, he wasn’t such a goof. He was as serious as they came, sober and world-weary from the moment he woke up to the moment he went to sleep at night. But he was different with Barbara. At work, he had to remind himself not to smile around her. Had to remind himself that they could only touch on accident, without purpose. And here he had to remind himself that they weren’t actually married. It was harder than he thought. They were almost too comfortable around each other, but he sure as hell wasn’t complaining. He’d never been happier before in his life. Never. And he owed it all to her.
Within the next few minutes, he finished eating (from his own plate) in relative silence, glancing at her now and again, smiling at her, watching her. He didn’t even notice that the dress was wrinkled, just like he’d forgotten that he’d have to take his shirt to the dry cleaner’s in the morning. He didn’t have the skills necessary to get stains of this calibre out of his laundry – honestly, he barely knew how to work his own washer. He’d only learned through a process of trial and error, but that was beside the point. He set his dishes on the table, then settled on the couch to face her, elbow resting on the back of the couch as he held his head up to get a good look at her. They were all good looks, really, but he preferred this. An unobstructed view.
“So,” he asked quietly, not even really caring what the answer was. “What now?”
---
Barbara finished her food more or less around the same time as he did and set her plate down next to his on the table in front of them. The momentary silence didn’t bother her, it was as comfortable as everything else about them seemed to be. Very odd. Usually Barbara hated silences. It didn’t matter who she was with, even if she was hanging out with Leigh she’d eventually get too fidgety to cope if there was a silence between them that lapsed for more then a few seconds. It was always awkward for her, never comfortable. With Brad, though, she found herself able to sit for at least up to ten minutes in complete silence around him without going completely crazy. This was definitely some kind of self-progress at work that she more or less hadn’t been aware of until just now.
She met his gaze evenly, quirking a smile both at him and the little more than obvious stains on his shirt. With anyone else a girl might find that kind of thing repulsive, but with him that was just one more thing to tack onto the list of ‘cute’. She really liked him. “Hmm. I dunno...” Barbara replied slowly after a moment, pretending to seriously contemplate his question as she leaned forward on the couch so she could take a hold of his shirt collar and plant another kiss on his lips now that he was facing her. She’d been dying to do that ever since they started eating, but they couldn’t very well eat and make out at the same time. That would just be disgusting. “Maybe watch some tv... hang out... maybe play a game?” Her eyes twinkled mischievously.
---
Brad happily returned her kiss, though it was somewhat shorter than he would’ve liked. That was alright, though. He was reasonably certain that wouldn’t be the last kiss of the night. The thought, paired with her dubious proposals, made him grin. “‘Hang out’?” he repeated, laughing good-naturedly. “What are we, teenagers?” His question was rhetorical, mostly because he knew the answer was yes. There wasn’t any other rational explanation for the way they were acting. They were either teenagers, or just plain crazy. Maybe some combination of the two. It was best not to dwell on it.
“A game?” Brad sat up a little straighter, raising an eyebrow at her. He was suddenly filled with a sense of foreboding – not because of her so much as the fact that he couldn’t remember the last time he’d played a game, let alone one with... implications. That glint in her eyes was unmistakable, after all. Unmistakable, yet totally mysterious. He had no idea what her intentions were beyond.... well. Naughty. “What kind of game?”
---
“Do you honestly want me to answer that?” Barbara grinned at him, knowing full well that they both knew she didn’t even have to. That’s kind of what she loved most about this. Them. Barbara and Brad were more or less full blown adults and yet with each other, when they were alone at least, they were kind of like extremely pubescent adolescents. Awkward, horny and completely involved in the other. It was pretty sweet actually. They were both just so careful with each other, when they weren’t all over each other anyway. It was starting to drive her a little crazy. Her fingers continued to play idly with his collar as she thought about his question. She really didn’t know, in all honesty. She knew what she’d like to do, but she was pretty sure that would be rushing things. Nope, better to stick to innocent shirt collar tugging. Probably.
“Hmm. Good question...” She trailed off, pretending to give the question some serious thought by poking at the corner of her mouth with her index finger. “Got any board games? Or a deck of cards? We could play Candy Land. Orrrrr strip poker, that’s always fun and completely wholesome.” She was totally kidding about that last one, unless of course it turned out he wasn’t.
---
Brad’s eyebrows went further and further up into his forehead with each new suggestion, until finally she reached the last one. It took him a moment to register exactly what it was. Her hand on his collar was very distracting. “... Strip poker?” Brad laughed, half intrigued and half surprised. Intrigued because, well, who wouldn’t be? And surprised because apparently she had forgotten one very important thing...
“I’m all for Candy Land, or I would be if I had it, but,” Brad began, lowering his voice on purpose as he reached out to toy with the strap of her dress. Two could play at this game. “You do realize that I’d win at strip poker no matter what, don’t you? I’ve got a shirt, tie, pants, socks, and underwear – you’ve got this dress, and...” He grinned slyly, leaning in closer to her face, but not close enough to kiss her. “Not much else, I’m guessing. You’d just be setting yourself up for failure, Barbara. I’m not sure I can allow that.”
---
“Hmph.” Barbara huffed, though she wasn’t put out by his statement at all. It was true, she was at a serious disadvantage. … Apparently in more ways than one. Her grin only widened as he leaned in closer to her and started playing with one of her dress straps. Another thing she liked about Brad, he never failed to rise to a challenge, whatever that challenge may be. Goosebumps rose on her skin and a little shiver ran down her spine when he grinned at her like that and leaned in. The low tone of his voice wasn’t helping matters much either. “Oh yeah? I think you’re seriously underestimating my bluffing skills,” she told him matter a fact, not leaning away when he leaned in closer but not kissing him again either. It seemed they were playing a game anyway, and that game was Chicken. This could be fun too.
“Not sure you can allow that, huh?” She scooted a little closer to him so she was almost on his lap but not quite, and still not kissing him. This game was maybe even more fun than strip poker, she thought to herself as she wrapped both arms around his neck and smiled up at him innocently. “Well aren’t you just my knight in shining fucking armor. Hold me while I swoon!” A beat later she met his gaze and raised an eyebrow, a sly smile similar to his crossing her face. “You’re right about one thing, though. Definitely not much else...”
---
“You? A poker face?” He smirked, and oh so delicately slipped the strap off her shoulders as she moved a little closer to him. When he looked back into her eyes, he could see plainly that she was toying with him, but that was okay, he was toying with her too. They really were teenagers. It was mindboggling. His voice, still low, was mockingly serious now, and his fingers trailed down her side to rest on her hips, gently yet definitely there and definitely teasing her. “I’ll believe it when I see it, babe...”
Very slowly, he began to gather the material of her dress into his hand, pulling it up a half inch or so with excruciating care. It was that smile that did it. Try as he might, he couldn’t handle that smile, especially when they were barely inches apart. She did things to him, and she knew it, and with each passing second it was getting harder and harder for him not to do anything about it. But, in spite of everything, he was patient. Self-control was one of his strong suits. She made him want to be impulsive, but for the sake of the game, he would keep holding out. Just long enough to drive them both crazy. He could take it if she could.
“I thought so,” he said, glancing down at her just barely exposed thigh. It was strange. This was the first time he was seeing her like this, the first time they’d gone this far, and yet it felt like they’d been doing this forever. Maybe that was why he felt so confident. He didn’t really need to be careful. He already knew they worked together – enough to get married and have a kid together in an alternate universe. That had to count for something. “No wonder you were so cold before. No layers.”
---
“Hey, a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do,” Barbara grinned, biting down on her lower lip as he inched the material of her dress up her thigh. He was doing it so slowly and carefully that she really thought she might die. He was way better at this than even she had thought. Something was telling her he might not be the one to fold in the end, mostly due to her own very obvious impatience in her character, but she wasn’t ready to give up just yet. She definitely felt comfortable enough with him at this point to start really pushing boundaries, so after only a brief moment of hesitation she rose up on her knees and crawled forward to sit herself down on his lap, straddling it on either side of his legs.
“Cold? No shit, it was fucking freezing.” She smiled sheepishly at him at the same time as she squeezed her legs on either side of his more tightly. Luckily her dress was the kind that filled out a bit at the bottom, so it covered her enough that she wasn’t baring all by stretching the material out enough to straddle him. “Wanna do something about it?” She asked in a soft murmur, hot breath on his cheek as she leaned into his chest and curled slender fingers into the ends of his hair. It was both weird and not weird at all that this felt so familiar at the same time as it felt so strangely foreign. They’d never done this before and yet, they had. Barbara supposed she was asking too much to think that anything about their lives could ever be considered normal.
---
Brad’s jaw dropped a little – involuntarily, of course – as she upped the stakes and straddled him, suddenly very aware that there were only three very thin layers of fabric separating them from each other entirely. Two, actually. His pants and his boxers. Her dress didn’t really count. He closed his mouth to swallow, hard, his concentration slipping away from him as she began teasing him more and more. For a cop who was more man than woman, she was shockingly good at this seduction thing. This must have been a side to her that hardly anybody got to see, something he was definitely glad for. Just another thing added to the list of reasons why this was right.
His hand on her hip drifted down her thigh, found the end of the dress, and slid under, then back up. He found her hip again, though he didn’t stop there. After only a moment’s hesitation, he trailed his fingers over her ass before settling just above her thigh. Then, slowly, he tightened his grip and pulled her leg toward him, drawing her closer against him. His other hand soon followed suit. The whole time, he never broke eye contact with her, and he never said a word, until finally, he murmured huskily, “Don’t think I need to. You’re pretty warm already.”
---
Tease. Tease, tease, tease. That’s what Brad Butler was, a big fat tease. Barbara tried her hardest to keep her cool but the minute both his hands found their way under her dress, she let out an involuntary whimper. It was small, partially muffled in the back of her throat but it was there, just as her hold around his neck tightened. She was only too eager to get closer to him so when he pulled her leg, she didn’t even put up a fight.
“You could say that,” she replied just as huskily, shivering a little though not from being cold. There was a moment where all they did was look at each other and then Barbara had had enough. It was all fun and games until someone got too impatient to keep up the charade. “Fuck it,” she exclaimed, and lurched forward into him, not giving him the chance to escape before her mouth was on his and she was kissing him more passionately then she’d ever kissed him or anyone in her life. Her body ached for this, for him, and she demonstrated that by pressing herself down more firmly on his lap, fingers digging lightly into the small of his back as her tongue probed as his mouth for entrance.
---
Barbara didn’t even give him a moment to be smug. Before he knew it, she cracked, and she was all over him, in more ways than one. He opened his mouth to her immediately, kissing her back with just as much passion, and his hands gripped her ass tightly, but only for a moment. Within a few seconds, his hands traveled up her back, still underneath her dress, which hiked further up her body the higher his hands climbed. He sat up straight, no longer leaning on the couch for support, and pulled their bodies closer together. But it still wasn’t close enough.
He could feel her through his pants, that was the most agonizing thing. She was practically naked on top of him, and he decidedly wasn’t. There was something very wrong about that. It just... wasn’t fair. Partners were supposed to be equal, weren’t they? On... every level? Well, there was something very wrong about that line of thinking, that was for sure, but Brad went with it anyway. Still kissing her, he pulled his arms out from under her dress and started to get to work on his shirt. It was difficult with all the buttons, but somehow he managed it, and before long it was off and tossed onto the floor where it invariably belonged. Then his hand went back to where they belonged: all over her. He grasped her hips again, always to pull her closer, and teased the area just above her groin with his thumbs. “You know,” he broke the kiss suddenly, breathing heavily and his voice gruff with lust, “if this is how our dinner was destined to end, I’m glad we didn’t stay at that restaurant. We never... never would’ve made it to the bathroom in time.”
---
Barbara groaned softly as he pulled her body flush against his, all too eager to meet him half way when he sat up to drag her closer. She was barely aware of the current state of herself, and she could hardly care less. She was much too focused on the way Brad felt against her. Around her. Under her. She helped him get his shirt off with relative ease, dropping her hands to smooth them across his bare chest once it had been tossed to the floor and she kissed him once, grinning against his mouth when he spoke. “You’re probably right. Though for the record I don’t have that much of a problem with bathroom sex. Just maybe in our own bathroom. You know, where we know who’s been in it.”
Her slip in saying ‘our’ hadn’t gone completely unnoticed by her, and it only surprised her in how little that slip actually shocked her. They already felt like an ‘our’. Like a ‘we’. That was nice. For all the time they already spent together she might as well be living here, but of course she wouldn’t. Not yet. There was no sense in rushing things anymore then they already had. If there was anything left to rush at this point. With that thought in mind, she angled her hips towards him at his teasing brushes and grazed his bottom lip with her teeth. “You’re such a tease...” She laughed in a lower, huskier tone as her arms encircled his neck again and she leaned into him, pressing her entire upper body flat against his as she kissed him again.